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A short (5 minute) animation, about an old bathhouse, set in a near-future city, whose waters are a portal to the realm of the dead, attracting bathing mourners. As one man enters, he reckons with the memories of his dead wife, and is confronted with the choice to join her or stay.

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When someone asks me, "what is your core concept?"

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When someone asks me, "what is your core concept?"

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It is a film about the people we lose from our lives, but ultimately in how we must save ourselves from their haunting. It is not about death, but about the ephemerality of moments in time, and the trap of images.

The bathhouse is a device to cloak characters from reality, and place them in a state of deep contemplation and dreams. The water and bathing makes some mythological reference to purification, and rebirth.

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The film opens onto a foggy, futuristic cityscape, at nighttime, where people wander, mostly alone. We see an old Japanese Sento style bathhouse wedged beneath the towering modern buildings. The film then follows one man into the bathhouse, as he receives a locker key from the owner, moves the through the screened rooms of activity, and into the changing room. We see him put away his business attire.

The scene then opens in the bathhouse space, where it is dimly lit, with strong shadows, and full of steam. The sound of splashing water is dominant, over the muffle of voices. The protagonist enters the scenes, from the far shoji screens which separate the washing area to the changing room. He passes through the other customers already washing themselves, and sits down to wash himself.

When he enters the bath, the focus turns from the space of the bathing space to the inner world of the character. The change in sound plays a big role here. We see him partially submerged, with his ears under water, as a Birds Eye shot looks down on his face. As the steam covers his face, we see his memories of his dead wife, morph from the steam, in disjointed moments.

As he sits up, he sees the reflection of his wife on the water surface. There seems to be a shadowy figure beneath the water, distorted by the ripples. As she raises a hand to him, his reaches out, and is pulled by her into the water. He is completely submerged and enters a bottomless underwater space, surrounded by shoji screens.

In the flurry, the shadowy figure has disappeared. But he sees her again, this time as a silhouette behind the shoji screens. The background behind her change, representing moments of their life spent together. He draws nearer the screen, and a close up in his face shows his emotions and longing to be with his lost lover. As he reached to open the door, the tension builds, and we cut to black.

The scene open back to the changing room, where he is drying his hair. The sound is now back to the diegetic world. He returns his key to the owner, and open the front door of the bathhouse for another customer to come in. We then see his shadow through the front door, walk out into the city again. The sound return to the streetscape, as in the beginning.

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Laser cutting

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Half-baked storyboard

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Dungeon room multiplane. Large, adjustable glass on crank. Limited side lighting, metal frame around glass, and immovable camera and top lights.

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Test-shot sheet 1 with notes

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Create key image of film - interior shot of bathhouse. Atmosphere is key to get right with technique. Essential desired effects to test are: shadows / lighting, steam, water, spatial depth. Testing various materials, lights, scale, camera settings...

Halted storyboard, as if image doesn't work, can't plan scenes of the film.

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B2 studio multiplane. Guy's DIY version. Smaller and pain to move glass, but more flexible with lighting, side, back, top all possible, moveable camera. Difficult to animate with hands from side. Probably more potential with this set-up, and Guy close at hand to help.

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Test-shot sheet 2 with notes

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Test-shot sheet 3 with notes

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Animation test with sound of water fountain, own field recording from in Kensington Gardens

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Taking influence from own life-drawings with pencil and charcoal, Egon Schiele and Polynesian sculptures.

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Character puppet - charcoal on cartridge paper, joints with blue-tac (temporary). Look into sewing joints or use metal eyes, but flexibility of blue-tac also good.

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Foley workshop with Joe Hirst, 29 Feb

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Choppy animation for first scale, and limited perspective although smooth animation for second scale. Mainly about image - atmosphere, lighting, shadows, steam (lens filter and vaseline).

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Exactly the type of image I would like to create - the lighting, the steam, the composition...

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Mark Edward Harris, The Way of the Japanese Bath

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Yasujiro Ozu, Tokyo Story (1953)

This shot - corridor foreground, out of focus, moving. Background, main characters, in focus, still. Using internal screens to block out composition.

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Dir. Špela Čadež, Nighthawk (2016)

Note repeating shots, how layered, use of atmosphere, character movement

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Attempting to remove an unresponsive badger from a dark road, a police patrol soon realizes that the animal is not dead but rather dead drunk. Things take an even stranger turn when the creature wakes up.

a short animated film by Špela Čadež  |  Slovenia / Croatia | 2016 | 8:45 min

Grand Prix Zagreb Animation Festival
Grand Prix Bucheon International Animation Festival 
Grand Prix Holland Animation Festival
Best Narrative GLAS Animation Festival 
Sundance Festival - Official Selection
Clermont Ferrand  - Official Selection

http://www.finta.si/project/nighthawk/

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Dir. Špela Čadež, Steakhouse (2021).

Observing paper-cut multiplane technique, steam effect, rendering of perspectival space in flat layers, drawing technique (oil paint and multi-purpose pencils on cel)

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Clare Kitson, Yuri Norstein and Tale of Tales: An Animator's Journey

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Dir. Yuri Norstein, Heron and Crane (1974)

Note fog, rain, camera movement, character movement, timing

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Polynesian sculptures - observing exaggerated / abstracted proportions of human body

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Egyptian art - observing the acknowledgement of 'flatness'

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Ideas for set - considering hybrid of 3D model and planes of glass. Either set in vertical as stop-motion set, or horizontal as multiplane set-up.

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Idea of bathhouse as a temple-like tower, with stacked floors. Further idea of bathhouse as dynamic and able to change shape, as space is dictated by what user experiences. Tower concept led to infinite bottomless bath for submersion scene.

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Inherent link between spatial design and storyboarding

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Submersion scene and ideas for floor plan

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Considering the stages of the film according to sound, helped to define a path for the film structure. Loosely based on Joseph Campbell's Hero's Journey.

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Original storyboard start - January

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24 March storyboard - 1min version and 5min version

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Bathhouse studies and streetscape sketch

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Bathhouse floor plan - own design, based on several references

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Planning shot list and types from floor plan

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Composition study

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designboom | architecture & design magazine

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architect honami enya quits firm to tend + intricately illustrate japanese bathhouses

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in these sento illustrations, honami enya gives us a tour of a local bathhouse in lovely cross-section illustrations that capture countless details.

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Documentary | Sento of Life: Thr Warmth of the Twilight Years | Japanese TV

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When Lucio Modesto, a spa engineer from ancient Rome, suddenly finds himself in a Japanese public bathhouse, he has the chance to grasp its innovations and take them back in time. This happens in Thermae Romae, a manga by Mari Yamazaki, who leads the reader in the amazing universe of sentō, the traditional Japanese public bathhouse used by the community for body cleansing and socialization.

Due to the growing number of baths in private homes, in many cases these meeting places have lost their visitors and have been forced to close down: it is in this scenario that Koganeyu, old sentō of Tokyo, has decided to renew itself. The project, carried out by Schemata Architects, includes more modern functions to attract a heterogeneous public, such as a sauna and a beer bar, which make use of the unused spaces in the warehouse and machine room, while the original pools are kept according to tradition.

The space housing the main pools is symmetrically divided into female and male areas by a 2.25 m high wall open at the end, just like in traditional sentō, where this feature was used to communicate from one side to the other. The area in question includes pools with different waters, from hot to medicated, while a small pool with cold water is located near the sauna and is connected to the outside.

The interiors are covered with light beige tiles and concrete, and feature Yoriko Hoshi's work along the two areas, a mural with Mount Fuji in the background. The space also includes a dressing room with wooden furnishings and dividing curtains designed by Iichiro Tanaka, as well as a reception area at the entrance, called bandai, where beige tiles and a beer bar can be found.

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The renovation of a sentō, a traditional public bathhouse in Japan

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Tokyo-based studio Schemata Architects gives new life to a sentō, maintaining its original function of socialization and inserting new areas such as a sauna and a beer bar.

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Yasujiro Ozu, Floating Weeds (1959)

This shot - using the Japanese house as a stage, as characters enter from below and the side. Beautiful framing, and balance of colours.

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The Japanese Screen Space: Yasujiro Ozu and the Architecture of Screens

Own dissertation

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Ongoing: Animatic intro with voice (but to be taken out, and re-timed)

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Script - ongoing