MAKE LOVE, NOT FOOTBALL
Senior thesis short film, 2024-2025
Senior thesis short film, 2024-2025
SYNOPSIS
An intense game of good old-fashioned American football lights a flame of sexual and romantic tension for two opposing players. They wrestle for domination of their match over their love in a colosseum of ferocity.
An intense game of good old-fashioned American football lights a flame of sexual and romantic tension for two opposing players. They wrestle for domination of their match over their love in a colosseum of ferocity.
CONCEPT DEVELOPEMENT
I started this project with a simple story I had in mind of 2 football players who fell in love. I was then encouraged to make around 100 drawings based around that.
I started this project with a simple story I had in mind of 2 football players who fell in love. I was then encouraged to make around 100 drawings based around that.
These pages are just some of the sketches that I did.
My next step was an intuitive process of frankensteining together visual aesthetics to start the foundations of a visual environment that will compliment my story and its themes. After seeing all the elements together, I then begin to brainstorm why I associate certain visuals with certain themes.
The hyper pixelization of the film is to embody this feeling of something out of reach. The digital world is, in its own way, a reality that comes with consequence. We often forget that because it’s so intangible to us. It feels like a simulation instead of a reality, something that ‘isn’t that deep’ or ‘doesn’t really matter.’ It is also a nod to the parallels of military and video game aesthetics, where military technology is mimicked by fake shooter simulations where the objective is to kill for fun. This same applies to American football, where the objective is to conquer and maim.
In choosing to make the group action of the film in this style, it creates a wild contrast when the film shifts to the traditional medium of pencil on paper. It’s a surface that is as tactile as skin to me.
The traditional medium is a direct shift from the more humorous violence to a soft intimacy. The paper retains small folds, markings, and stains from the unprotected physical history that it’s created by. The style invites the audience into the private world of attraction and yearning. I also wanted the frames to be more gestural compared to the digital style and I felt that a pencil drawing was the way to go about achieving that. It carves out a surreal space in this ultra structured digital world that I have created for my story.
The traditional medium is a direct shift from the more humorous violence to a soft intimacy. The paper retains small folds, markings, and stains from the unprotected physical history that it’s created by. The style invites the audience into the private world of attraction and yearning. I also wanted the frames to be more gestural compared to the digital style and I felt that a pencil drawing was the way to go about achieving that. It carves out a surreal space in this ultra structured digital world that I have created for my story.