Wildfire is a short animated graduation film. It tells the story of Ena, a passionate firefighter and wife. Her fascination with fire reveals itself as it impacts her family life.
The characters in the short are drawn with delicate outlines. Whilst the backgrounds are made up of bold lines and dark graphite rubbings. The fire is represented by crude coloured wax pastels. These visual clues help to instantly give the viewer a sense of the fragility of man enclosed in their harsh surroundings.
The slow pace is accentuate by using alomst no music. Audio is essentially made up of ambient noise and some dialog. When music is used, it is for affect. A sound cue for the inner workings of our main character, Ena. It is a wonderful touch, that brings the viewer closer to Ena, creating a connection.
The short was created by Hugues Opter, Pierre Pinon, Nicole Stafford, Valentin Stoll, Arnaud Tribout, and Shang Zhang. Those six, along with Caroline Cherrier, Hugo De Faucompret, Éva Lusbaronian, Arthus Pilorget, Johan Ravit, and Vincent Tsui, make up the animation collective, Souviens Ten-Zan. All twelve mebers are graduates from Gobelins.
You can see Wildfire making-ofs videos, as well as some visual development here. You should also check out Souviens Ten-Zan’s 2015 Show Reel, as well as another one of their marvelous shorts, Mother [expletive] Dalle.
Credits
Direction / Animation: Hugues Opter, Pierre Pinon, Nicole Stafford, Valentin Stoll, Arnaud Tribout, Shang Zhang
Music: Pablo Pico
Sound Design: Vincent Hazard