Filmmaker Rui Huang is new to the scene, but you wouldn’t have thought it by looking at her work in her HollyShorts Film Festival entry There You Are. With this film, the digital designer-turned-director has created an intimate portrait of unresolved grief and the way it obstructs the main characters’ father-daughter relationship. Narratively speaking, the film is almost a whisper of feelings. Indeed, it’s There You Are’s visual design that speaks loudest: from knitted textures to vintage patterns, the film is maximalism at its finest.
In our email interview below, Huang talks about balancing the “severe and intimate” themes of love and grief with making it feel “as realistic and immersive as possible.” Moreover, she touches upon the real-life inspiration behind her film, and her team’s personal connection to the story.
There You Are is sure to be unlike any other animated film you’ve seen before. Minor spoiler: one sequence in particular is a visual explosion of technique and artistry, a testament to Huang’s directorial vision.
Before we get into the film, however, I wanted to ask about your own filmmaking journey? Where did it start for you, and what drew you to animation in particular?
I am an animation director and digital designer. There You Are is my first 3D animation film. Before I started to make films, I mainly focused on creating all kinds of digital design, including concept design, illustrations, motion graphics, projection mapping, etc. I come from a background in the game industry. In my early career, I started as a concept designer. In 2018, I moved to Los Angeles to pursue my master’s degree in animation and digital arts at the University of Southern California. There, I was obsessed with filmmaking. I always had a huge passion for visual design. But now, I am falling in love with storytelling as well. And animation is the best art form for me to show both my interests and strength. It provides me a chance to bring my imagination to life. I love designing unique characters, innovative creatures, or fantasy environments. There are way more possibilities using digital techniques to achieve that. Designers can build a fantasy world in their minds as they want. Another reason I chose animation is that I enjoy the moment of diving into each working stage deeply and having everything in control. It was a hard time to do the film shooting last year. But making animation makes things much more manageable. I can complete many things in front of a computer, from storyboard, pre-vis, animation, rendering, visual effects to comping. That provides me more convenience.
There You Are tells a really touching and intimate story that also has universal appeal. What inspired you to tell this story? Where did the idea come from?
I decided to make a film about unresolved grief in the spring of 2020. My teammate and I all experienced family members who passed away in the past five years. But in our families, adults usually avoid talking about grieving in front of young people. They did it out of kindness. I knew they wanted to protect us from the bitter grieving process. But I felt like I missed a lot in my life. Grief is inevitable in our life circle. I wonder why we could not teach young people to face it properly instead of skipping it? That drove me to make There You Are. The story is about a teenager, Su, who is forced to deal with her unresolved grief after her mother dies. And she feels estranged from her father, who seems to have already moved on. Also, the story is inspired by the experience of my friend. She lost her father at a young age. And I witnessed how her bereavement influenced her mentally and behaviorally. So I decided to tell a story about this theme. Because I hope to address the importance of the grief process for young people, especially children and teens. They are an especially vulnerable group, and how adults lead them to deal with grief influences their whole lives. In the beginning, my teammate and I did all kinds of research about the topic. Three key questions guided us: What is unresolved grief? What helps people move from the grieving process? And how does childhood bereavement change the child mentally and behaviorally? With those questions, we started to make the story.
I absolutely loved the overall production design of the film! The story between Su, her father, and their collective grief is quiet, but, at the same time, it’s set against this maximalist world (the prints, the artwork, the fullness of the house, etc.). Would you take us through your design process? How did you come to settle on the film’s overall look?
Sure. The visual design is one of the essential parts of my film. Considering my theme is severe and intimate, I want to make the film feel as realistic and immersive as possible. So I deliberately mimicked the style of stop motion. With this rough idea, I drew concept designs of the characters, props, and environments. After the visual development settled down, I started to do the modeling and shading. The film was filled with knitted textures, vintage patterns. That is because I want to convey a sweet and nostalgic tone through the fabric and textures. Apart from this, lighting is another vital element that decides the overall look. I painted the color palette first when it came to the lighting. The color palette was designed according to the emotional arc of the story as well as the time change. During that process, I collected many cinematography works from my favorite cinematographers like Bradford Young, Dan Lausten, Edward Lachman, and Laurence Sher. And I assembled relatable references to get ideas for my CG lighting. I thought carefully about how to make it look beautiful, reasonable, and convincing. I really enjoyed tweaking the lighting in CG. It was very satisfying when you saw the world you created to look like a real place step by step.
One of the most moving sequences to me was the flashback/memory montage when Su opens her wardrobe and we’re taken through key moments of her life when her mother was alive. I think, for me, what was poignant was the shift in animation style. Where did the idea of incorporating different animation/art forms into one film come from? More generally, what inspires your own animation style?
When I designed the memory part of the story, I thought I needed to bring something visually different into it. I hope it will not only catch eyes but also bring a surprise to the audience. To be honest, I did not have a good idea of what kind of form I would use until I noticed an old work of mine. It was a paper cut short animation I did two years ago. I made the cutouts and shot them under the camera. I was really into that craft-making process and was satisfied with the final result. That work inspired me to make the cutout animation again, but this time all CG. I wanted to challenge myself and make something better than before. Then I watched some top cutout and silhouette animation directors’ work, including Jamie Caliri, Lotte Reiniger. Their work inspired me a lot. And I combined all my collections, finally to get its artistic direction.
HollyShorts is nothing short of a huge accomplishment for indie filmmakers. What does it mean to you to be able to showcase your work at this festival (and, for that matter, other festivals)? How will you be celebrating this moment?
Being a part of HollyShorts means recognition of my work. I am very honored and excited about the screening. I believe more and more people will see my work. So far, There You Are has won some awards, including Best Animation, Best Short, Best Picture at other festivals worldwide. It is very encouraging for me. Because it brought me more confidence and courage, and I will put all my heart into the next project. I think this is my way to celebrate it.
What’s next for you? And where can viewers follow you and your work?
My teammate and I are working on our game project, There You Are, which has won awards and selections in the game conferences and festivals. It is based on the same story, but it is an exploratory narrative game. In the game experience, the player will role-play the girl, Su, to deal with her father’s relationship to move away from the past and accept the loss of her mom. While many games already touch on this type of topic to a certain extent, There You Are uses both storytelling methods and game design principles to exquisitely craft each story beat and depict an emotional bittersweet story. The game was released on itch.io. But we are still polishing it and hope to have a better version released soon.
Instagram @ruihuang1126, @thereyouareanimation | Twitter @ruihuangdesign | Game
