Press Kit 

 

Title: ZZZ

 

Film Page: https://orangebatzzz.wixsite.com/zzzz

Film Vimeo Link: https://vimeo.com/778485098

 

LogLine: 

 

In a lucid dream, are we closer to being awake, or falling deeper into our sleep?

 

Synopsis: 

 

‘ZZZ’ is an animated installation that shows two intertwining sides of the sleeping mind, one lucid and one abstract, around a continuously sleepwalking silhouette. As these three aspects of the installation play with and against each other, the meaning of ‘ZZZ’ becomes dependent on which one the viewer chooses to focus.

 

Credits:

 

Animators: Bingxue Xiang, Qianmiao Xu, Chenxin Shen, YinYun ‘Sophia’ Xu, Finn Woodruff

Music: Eleanor Fineston-Robertson, Tommy Abrey

Editor: Chenxin Shen

 

Biographies:

 

Qianmiao Xu is an animator and illustrator from China. She has an illustration degree from CCW and is currently completing an MA in animation at UAL. Qianmiao is enthusiastic about simple design and child-friendly themes, exploring these with a range of techniques.

 

Chenxin Shen is an animator and illustrator from Chengdu, China. She graduated from CUCN and is now studying for a Masters in animation at UAL. Shen specialises in mixed-media and experimental animation.

 

Finn Woodruff is a London-based 2D animator. Finn has done freelance work for FIFA and the BBC, while his first short, ‘Sad Film’, premiered at the London International Animation Festival.

 

Yinyun Xu studied industrial design at CAA and has worked as a game art designer. She currently studies animation at UAL, working with both narrative and experimental animation.

 

Bingxue Xiang is a 2D digital animator based in London. Originally from China, Bingxue seeks to communicate with a global audience. Her film, ‘Mouse Banquet’, was nominated for a Golden Dragon award in China.

 

Artists’ Statement: 

 

The concept for ‘ZZZ’ was born out of a collective fascination with exploring the specificity of the unconscious mind. 

 

Wanting to portray this as a multifaceted phenomenon, we decided early on to use a split-screen, with one side depicting dreams based on identifiable, physical aspects of life, and the other showing the abstract potential of the mind. It was important to use that these two sides reflected the fluidity of the dream state, so we matched much of their timing and had elements of animation play through both sides of the screen, whilst inverting the colours of the abstract side to ensure the two animations remained distinct.

 

There was also a desire to ground this relatively etherial concept in some level of reality, ultimately making use of a sleepwalking central figure. Noting that the figure would have to run on a loop to work with our split-screen animation, we created a zoetrope with each character pose made of cut-out bedding material. It was important to us that we take such a degree of consideration for our materials thematically, as we wanted our project to stand up to scrutiny in a physical space without undermining our desire to allow viewers to feel immersed. We further pursued this philosophy by first projecting our work onto bed sheets.

 

For our project’s score, we wanted to allow our musicians multiple sessions to react to our work as we developed it and vice-versa. We felt that this collaborative process was essential to achieve sound and visuals that felt intrinsically intertwined, which in turn would see the final product be more cohesive.

 

In curating our installation, we wanted to achieve a point of immersion that was reminiscent of the all-encompassing nature of dreaming. As a result, we projected our animation onto bed sheets in a dark space and played the shadow of our zoetrope figure over it, with all parts of the installation being continuous. This allowed for a project that felt unified, yet open to interpretation due to its numerous, well-defined sections.

 

Sustainability:

 

The structure of our zoetrope was created using recyclable materials, whilst the hand drawn animation was done digitally, meaning no physical resources were wasted. Each contributor to the project travelled to the London College of Communication by foot, or public transport.

 

Contact details:

 

Bingxue Xiang

Email: xiang-bx@foxmail.com

Instagram: @basia_xiang

 

Finn Woodruff: 

Email: finnjwoodruff@gmail.com

Instagram: @finn.jw

 

Chenxin Shen: 

Email: shencnx@gmail.com

Instagram: @shennehs_

 

Qianmiao Xu: 

Email: frisiaaxu@outlook.com

Instagram: @ruaruaaxu_

 

Yinyun Xu: 

Email: xusophia039@gmail.com

 

 

Technical info

Length: 00.48

Size: 1920x1080 HD 16:9

Sound: Stereo

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