animation

film

illustration

work

shop

about

In Case of Fire

As a bunch of people are protesting a forest fire, they come across an actual burning tree.

2 mins 30 seconds | India | 2019 Production: National Institute of Design/self produced Direction: Saiyam Marwah

In Case of Fire

As a bunch of people are protesting a forest fire, they come across an actual burning tree.

2 mins 30 seconds | India | 2019 Production: National Institute of Design/self produced Direction: Saiyam Marwah

The idea

It all started with the idea of making a film on a social cause. Social media activism was on the rise and this was around the time of the Amazon forest fires.

I wanted to explore paper as medium for stop motion and bring in the tactile nature of the material into film. These were some early explorations of the style.

In most of my films I jump straight into animatics, because it helps me get the timing in place along with the visuals. This was the 5th draft of the animatic.

Building the characters

The human characters took a lot of iterations. The main challenge was to figure out the joints that can hold a position and have some weight to it. I came up with the character design while Christopher, devised the joints.

I created templates for the various characters and there was a production pipeline to build all the four characters, we used
magnets for interchangeable faces and hands and mobile.

I created templates for the various characters and there was a production pipeline to build all the four characters, we used magnets for interchangeable faces and hands and mobile.

The tree took a lot of iterations, we tried actual wood, paper and finally settled on a wire joint with white Mseal. the tree was finalised and we ready for the shoot when the rig broke a day before the shoot, that made us reconsider the material and we went ahead

Test shoots

It all started with the idea of making a film on a social cause. Social media activism is on the rise and this was around the time of the amazon forest fires.

Final Shoot

It all started with the idea of making a film on a social cause. Social media activism is on the rise and this was around the time of the amazon forest fires.

Compositing

© 2024 SAIYAM MARWAH - ALL RIGHTS RESERVED