The animation by Zohar Dvir takes us on a trippy journey by means of the unconscious
Zohar Dvir's animation, Mercury & # 39; s Retrograde, is about a millennium of searching for answers and what happens when the protagonist lets her intuitive magical 8-ball replace her intuition. "When she loses her 8-ball in her unconsciousness, she sets out to find answers – in the shape of her ball and in herself," explains Dvir. "Mercury & # 39; s Retrograde is a satire about an endless search for self-actualization, self-improvement and life's answers."
Dvir says she was originally inspired by the theory of the famous Swiss psychiatrist Carl Jung about the archetypes of the collective unconscious. The animator wanted to take these universal symbols and turn the main archetype (The Self, The Shadow, Animus, The Mother, The Child, and the Wise Old Woman) into characters that her protagonist would encounter along the way. As an extension of this, Dvir also took Jung's idea that society loses its spirituality as scientific understanding grows, leading to disorientation and dissociation.
“His statement is still relevant half a century later. In an overwhelming and chaotic world, it seems like the only way to emotionally separate them, ”explains Dvir. “We are lost, detached and have replaced our intuition and inner truth with external sources that give us meaning and order: Do you have an anxiety attack? This is likely because mercury is in decline. Afraid of leaving your home and contracting coronavirus? That's because your moon has cancer. Tarot readings, clairvoyants, acupuncture, rituals – there are so many places we can go when looking for answers. We have reached the point where we can no longer make decisions and no longer trust ourselves. "
While this topic can seem hard and complex, Dvir makes these big questions easier to digest by approaching them in a funny and lighthearted way. "For me, a film is like being behind the scenes of life, observing and analyzing everything objectively, like a kind of big therapy session," she says. Stylistically, her animations tend to mix two- and three-dimensional elements, which gives the work a warm, playful and slightly surreal look. “I like using low saturated pastels to add color to my work, but not in a cheerful way, like something is wrong, like a minor chord,” she adds.
Animation has been Dvir's medium of choice for some time, and she began experimenting with making films and editing sequences together as a teenager. “At RCA, I had the unique opportunity to think about innovative storytelling, create installations with animation and make short films,” says Dvir. “I had to exhibit interactive work and show my films. I think there are more places for animation in art galleries these days and I hope I can continue to do both – films and installations or films that are installations. "
The animator started the project by finding references to the archetypes Jung describes in articles, films, religion and tarot cards, and then recording them herself. "For example, the mother archetype is sometimes described as 'Mother Nature' or the moon, and Jung described the mother as 'loving and terrible,'" says Dvir. "So I decided to make the mother archetype as a terrible and devouring moon that rocks the protagonist in a maternal way."
Dvir was keen to create a protagonist that people would love to get involved with, or at least keep enough, to see the whole short film. So she built up all of the character's backstory before working on the animation herself. "You wouldn't necessarily see it in the movie, but it exists and it helped me get to know her and better anticipate her decisions," explains Dvir. “I did the same with the other characters. I also gave the protagonist a beauty mark on her face that she taps when she is stressed. It's something special and since all the other characters are part of her, I drew it on her too. Even the soldier fish has one. The moon is not in the same place, but she has the same gap between her front teeth as my mother. "
One of the biggest challenges for Dvir was the UK's initial lockdown and the need to do most of the animation from home. "I think it definitely affected the bottom line, maybe for the best," says Dvir. “In March, when everything shut down, my voice actress Amy Toledano had to go to Australia before we could record and I wasn't sure I would have some dialogue in my film for a while. Thankfully, she had one over there Recording device! "
Another concern for Dvir was that the audience maintained an emotional connection with both the story and the characters she created. To overcome this, she focused on small nuances and details like the way a character moves, a facial expression, the way the camera moves. "That's why I decided to add dialogue to my film," she says. “To speak the right voice, you really have to understand who your character is. The lip sync process was a lot of work, but eventually there was their life giving my character a voice. "
Dvir plays with our sense of self and purpose in Mercury's retrograde, and for this reason hopes that the audience can relate to the animation in some way. "The whole point in using collective archetypes was to make a movie that would appeal to as many people as possible," she says. "Maybe even raise some questions or self-reflection."
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