COSMICOMICS - DISTANCE TO THE MOON

Short Animated Film
Duration: 5 min 8 sec
Format: Mov HD 1920 x 1080

Synopsis:
Distance of the Moon, is the first and probably the best known story of Cosmicomics by Italo Calvino, a book of fantastic short stories published in 1965. Calvino takes
the fact that the Moon used to be much closer to the Earth, and builds a story about a love triangle among people who used to jump between the Earth and the Moon,
in which lovers drift apart as the Moon recedes.

Old Qfwfq recalls past times when he and his companions rowed out on the sea every month and climbed up to the moon. This was an enchanted time. Only for a short while,
somewhere near the beginning of time as humans know it, did the moon orbit close enough to the earth for the group to climb up ladders from their rowboats and reach it.
Old Qfwfq recalls past times when he and his companions rowed out on the sea every month and climbed up to the moon. This was an enchanted time. The Deaf One,
Qfwfq's cousin, loved the moon. Qfwfq fell in love with captain's wife. But it was clearly noticeable that the lady found the deaf cousin's natural interaction with the moon
very arousing. So much so that she became jealous of the Moon, Qfwfq became jealous of his cousin, where as the captain and the deaf man had other things in mind.

Artist Statement:
As an animation artist, I use humor and poetry as primary languages, creating absurd and unreal scenarios to convey emotions and laughter. I like to mix hand-drawn
frame by frame animations with actual footage of nature and of the urban, combining micro and macro to form layered textured animated scenes. The stories I tell
through animation and my artwork vary from tales to socially engaged narratives.

Credits:
Animation by Isabelle Duverger
Text by Italo Calvino "Cosmicomics - Distance to the Moon"
Music by Isabelle Duverger

I filmed parts of the elements on Canon 7D, such as the water and the splash. I crafted other parts in Photoshop.
Some of my illustrations were initially hand drawn and scanned, then animated in Photoshop. Once all the elements for each scene were created,
I further animated them in Final Cut Pro, with added motion, layout and effects. Finally I added the text to the timeline,
and I composed the music digitally, specifically for the piece.