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www.postmagazine.com 35 POST JULY 2016 EDUCATION & RECRUITMENT 'Taking the Plunge' Sometimes things just do not go as planned. Consider the animated short film "Taking the Plunge" from Thaddaeus Andreades, Marie Raoult, Nicholas Manfredi, and Elizabeth Ku-Herrero, students at the School of Visual Arts. The film is about a perfect marriage proposal that goes sideways when the engage- ment ring about to be presented slips into shark-infested waters. Not all is lost, however. During the soon-to-be-groom's journey to retrieve the ring, he learns that the value of the people in his life far out- weigh those of material objects. Similarly, the four students, all co-di- rectors on the project, learned the value of hard work and dedication on their own journey, and were rewarded with a 2015 Student Academy Award (third place) and, just recently, a 2016 Student Emmy for Animation (first place), for their efforts. The students began brainstorming and decided on the story by the end of June 2014, and began production a month later with storyboards, previs and character development. Work on the actual film occurred from September 2014 through March 2015. While some of the work was done in class, the majority was completed in the students' "free time." "We worked every day, seven days a week, from 9 or so in the morning until 10 or 11 at night," says Manfredi, who was also cinematographer, animator and story developer. Joe Burrascano, the group's thesis professor, oversaw the entire production, helped solidify the story and set challeng- ing deadlines to ensure that the film was completed on time. Eric Cunha, their aca- demic advisor, assisted with the technical side of things, helping them establish a sturdy pipeline for the film and providing guidance regarding specific production skills such as modeling, shading, rigging and so forth. The rest of the core team assumed the following roles: Andreades, lead animator, lighter, compositor; Raoult, character TD, rigger and modeler; and Ku-Herrero, creative director, story developer, designer, modeler, shading artist, lighter and compositor. A handful of other students contributed to the film as well, doing animation, modeling, compositing, matte painting, sound design and composing. Fluid Storytelling According to Manfredi, the students had all spoken about what type of environ- ment they wanted the film to take place in, since they were going to be "living in it" for a year. "So we decided on a seaside town, and thought it would be fun to explore under the water, as well," he says. "That's when Elizabeth had the idea of a marriage proposal that goes wrong. She then told us how the ring would fall into the ocean and land on a 'Shark King.' " Nevertheless, the story was fluid. "It was an organic, ever-changing process of discovery. We each had different aspects that we wanted to get in there," says Andreades. "One of us wanted some com- edy. Another wanted more drama and an emotional core. Someone else wanted more unconventional storytelling. I think having to juggle all of these helped us create something unique." Manfredi believes "Taking the Plunge" is a story that a lot of people can relate to — not necessarily the act of proposing, but the idea of planning something and having it go very wrong, or a way that wasn't anticipated. Yet for Andreades, the story was a bit more personal, having tak- en the plunge himself during the middle of making the film. "It really helped me get inside our main character's head, especial- ly during animation," he says. Attractive Aesthetic The young artists looked to personal CG heroes like Pedro Conti and Victor Hugo, along with films like Tangled and How to Train Your Dragon, when settling on the movie's aesthetic. "We tried to push for hyper-real materials and cartoony pro- portions so that the design would be wel- coming to any audience," says Ku-Herrero. "The most difficult part of creating a student film is achieving an acceptable 'look' that won't give [the project] away as a student film. And what we were able to achieve surprised even us!" According to Andreades, the young filmmakers believe that one of the strengths of animation is having full control over every aspect to help tell a person's story. "We really tried to base our aesthetic decisions around the narrative. For example, we slowly introduced green into the color palette of the film as we approach the shark," he explains. "It helps introduce him as a villain and give him a sickly presence." To create the imagery, the artists used Autodesk's Maya and Mudbox, along with Pixologic's ZBrush to move from shot to shot very quickly, whether it was anima-