Animation Guild | We are 839 Digital Magazine
Issue link: https://digital.copcomm.com/i/1546404
F E AT U R E It was important that the film be set in the 1990s, a time before technology allowed people to easily record. Forgotten Island is the first original DreamWorks' Animation feature film to be written and directed by the creatives that conceived the idea. Along with steeping the story in Filipino culture and folklore, it was important to Crawford and Mercado that the film be set in the 1990s, a time before technology allowed people to easily record digital memories and loved ones could stay connected with the touch of a button when they moved far away. "When cameras had room for just 13 pictures, you were very purposeful with each photo," says Mercado. "Now we have phones that can take thousands of pictures that you'll never look at again." Because so many of Jo and Raissa's memories are captured in photographs, Crawford and Mercado wanted to make sure their cinematic techniques felt real. "When you're looking at old photos and videos, you've got light leaks and lens flare, sometimes humidity fogging the edge of the frame," says Mercado. The team worked closely with VFX Supervisor Betsy Nofsinger to achieve these effects. Used by the team on 2022's Puss in Boots: The Last Wish, one tool created a lens effect called chromatic aberration. With a physical camera, the lens can fail to capture color boundaries accurately, resulting in a multicolored outline surrounding all the high-contrast objects in the image. The result in Forgotten Island was a sense of disorientation and unreality that made sequences feel like memories. "We did a lot of testing of how far we could push the effect and keep everything legible, but still feel dreamlike," says Art Director Christopher Gun. The opening scenes in the film emphasize the use of this effect as Jo and Raissa build their friendship from childhood, indicating these early sequences are memories. "It's our way of showing the audience what's to come and giving them the memory first," says Crawford. "You're experiencing the past, present, and future at the same time. You're moving backwards and forwards. It's like the memories are alive." F E AT U R E 22 KEYFRAME