ink
an emerging journey
ink is a short film that I created, encompassing all aspects from the original drawings and animation to composing and performing the music. The film delves into the theme of transformation in the face of adversity, using books and words as central motifs. Despite the absence of spoken dialogue, "ink" communicates its story through a rich interplay of music and visuals, creating innovative forms of dialogue that enhance the narrative's depth and impact.
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This is the story of a character who feels isolated from the outside world. He struggles with a reading challenge, dyslexia, and he has given up hope. Through the narrative structure of a monomyth, a hero's journey, the character is transformed as he travels from an ordinary world into an extraordinary world through an unexpected journey through layers of motivic and thematic elements.
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His character develops through various tests along his adventure, ultimately leading him through phases of introspection: fear of change, letting go, acceptance, and reflection. On the surface, the battle he faces may seem to be finding coping mechanisms to allow him to read, but the focus of "ink" is actually on the transformation of the character's self-confidence and struggle with resilience.
The art inspiration emerges from an Estonian graphic designer's paper art style. Eiko Ojala's art includes a mixture of digital illustration, paper textures, and shadows to create captivating illustrations that appear to have been intricately cut out of paper. Visually, the animation of "ink" refers to pages of a book by using layered paper textures within a two-dimensional world.​​
One of the most impressionable moments in my life was experiencing the Parkersburg tornado in May 2008. My family and I were visiting relatives near the small town in northeast Iowa when a powerful storm struck. I remember the sky being split—one side bright and serene, the other dark and ominous. When we spotted the tornado, we turned back to wait out the storm. After it passed, we saw that Parkersburg had been devastated, with homes destroyed and seven lives lost. Months later, the town still bore the scars of that day, and the eerie calm left a deep impression on me. At the time, I had just begun learning the cello, and inspired by my professor Dr. Ashley Sidon’s performance of Arvo Pärt’s "Spiegel im Spiegel," I composed my first piece to process the emotions I couldn't quite express.
​Years later, as I developed the score for "ink," I drew from that early minimalist composition. The subtle, internal battles faced by the character in "Ink" mirrored my own experience, and I used the repetitive, evocative nature of minimalism to capture that emotional journey. The melody and chords for the score were rooted in that first composition, bringing everything full circle.