Group Tumult's animation offers with loneliness and our belief in know-how
In The Lonely Orbit, a man leaves home for his dream job as a satellite technician. He feels isolated and constantly texting old friends, but with his thoughts elsewhere, his work suffers and things start to go wrong with the satellites he oversees.
The short film was created by the Zurich-based animation studio Team Tumult. A team of six long-term friends and employees who all got to know each other through studies and freelance work in Zurich and Lucerne. For The Lonely Orbit, Frederic Siegel and Benjamin Morard worked as co-directors on the project.
The original idea for the film was the image of a satellite in space being burned into a giant ball of fire and a man walking through a bar and being burned in the same way. "I was intrigued by the metaphor of someone who lived their life to mirror the life of a satellite, ”he says Seal.
"After that, me and my co-director Benjamin Morard began to find narrative clues that connect satellites and people to build a story. After all, the topic of loneliness and connecting to your friends via a smartphone resonated with both of us. “Based on topics of virtual connection as opposed to lack of physical contact, the story feels particularly topical as much of the world has gone through a kind of quarantine and lockdown in the last year, away from family and friends.
The animation is in 2D with a flat color palette and was digitally created frame by frame. "The concept of limited colors is based initially on my previous film Ruben Leaves, in which I used a bold blue and yellow color scheme," says Siegel. “I developed this style while studying at the Lucerne University of Applied Sciences, where I tried to combine a relaxed drawing style, inspired by my love of sketchy illustration, with a more graphic and simple look that was inspired by print. make and work by contemporary animators from the mid-2010s such as Nicolas Menard or Alex Grigg. "
In preproduction, only Siegel and Morard developed the story together, as the original idea was just a picture and the broad theme of loneliness. “It was a huge help to work with Beni and create a narrative about the pictures. It was very liberating and enlightening just to talk about the topics, ”says Siegel. “We also worked on the storyboard together. Each of us drew different sequences, exchanged and combined them during the process. "
After that, the couple began splitting work with Siegel, who was responsible for design and overall management, and Morard, who was responsible for editing and production management. "In the production phase, we had a great team of three additional animators, a layouter, two sound designers and a musician working on the film at the same time," explains Siegel. "Everything was orchestrated by our producer and teammate Marwan Abdalla Eissa, who did an excellent job managing the project."
Editing the film was the team's greatest challenge. “Since we really wanted to make a slow film with amazing images of the earth and the technology, it was very difficult to get the timing right,” explains Siegel. “In certain space shots you only see a few satellites flying by and the world slowly rotates below. It's nice to look at, but how long can you show it before it gets boring? It's hard to judge the length of a scene when nothing is really happening at all. Especially if you've seen it a few hundred times while editing. "
While such decisions are difficult, working with a team to brainstorm ideas is one of the perks of not being the only animator. It is also an opportunity for Siegel to share and learn. "The best thing about working in a collective is that you can share your personal knowledge and skills with the other members and, in return, benefit from their expertise, ”he says. "It's great to work in a group where everyone brings another strength to the table that benefits the entire team."
With The Lonely Orbit, Siegel hopes to meet his own feelings of loneliness and his relationship with digital communication. "It seems that most of the ideas for my personal projects are based on basic feelings and problems that I sometimes struggle with, such as fear or envy," he notes. "Most of the time, they're related to my relationship with technology or social interactions."
One of the goals of the film is to make other people aware of the use of modern technology to communicate and its effects over time. Siegel believes it has become too easy to pretend we're still connected in the same way while ignoring the importance of real connections. “I think the global pandemic is accelerating this development, bringing people closer together virtually, but separating them even more physically. On the one hand, I think it's great that everyone I know is currently in the palm of my hand and I can reach them at any time when I feel lonely, ”says Siegel. "On the other hand, I've never had the feeling that a digital conversation is a substitute for a real exchange of ideas over a few beers in a smoky pub."
Siegel hopes the film will highlight the need to view phones, computers, and other intelligent technologies as just a method of communication, rather than the only one. “They are just meant to be useful tools to help us keep in touch with a real person on the other end. You are not the connections themselves, ”says Siegel. "They don't stop us from feeling less lonely and we should never forget that no matter how long this situation lasts."
teamtumult.ch