둥지 / "Nest" Trailer (2023)

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Short Film

Dir/Editor/Animator: Ben Kim

DP: Yongze Wang

Featuring: James Lontayao, Courtney Brooks, Christine Eunji Kim

Music: "Winter Sun" composed by Gordon Chan and Corey Zhengyang Tian

This film is currently running festivals.

This project was originally a 22 page, sci-fi drama titled Chimera for my BFA thesis from Emerson College. Evoking themes of grief and loss from films such as Spike Jonze's Her (2013) and Leigh Whannell's The Invisible Man (2020), this was my most ambitious project yet. With a team of 4 producers, I spent the fall of 2021 undergoing pre-production for the film. Rewrites, fundraising, location scouting... it was a busy but promising journey and by the end of the year, we were ready to begin production.

Then, a COVID uptick shut down Emerson College's EDC (Equipment Distribution Center)- 2 weeks before production for Chimera began. As students, we relied on the EDC for equipment needed for various productions- oftentimes reserving orders months in advance. Ultimately after several frantic emails, the EDC fell through and I was forced to rent from a local rental house. Emerson denied all reimbursement requests and have since never returned my emails. Thankfully, our funraising sponsors made the rental possible and we officially began production on January 5, 2021.

On the morning of the next day, a crew member tested positive for COVID and production was shut down immediately. The next day, an 8-inch deep snowstorm hit Boston- preventing cast and crew from traveling to set. Some had traveled across the country or out-of-state to work on this production, so this was the cherry on top of our disaster sundae. Ultimately, we were unable to resume production.

I wanted so desperately to save my film. So much time, money, and passion had been invested into it and it broke my heart to sit with what remained. What should've been a 2-week shoot had lasted 1 day and I was left with footage equating to 1/10th of the original script. I watched as my peers in the program completed their respective productions with little to no issues. I couldn't bear to face such a disappointing end to my project, so I rewrote the story to be an 8 minute short titled Nest where 1/2 the film was salvaged footage and the other would be completely animated. When suggesting this to professors and colleagues however, they advised against it due to the time-consuming nature of animation. Fueled by spite and determination, I taught myself Procreate and drawing digitally for the first 2 months of the year. But towards the end of February, I had to face the hard truth that if I wanted to execute this story well, I would not be able to do it via hand-drawn 2D animation. With the due date looming and my peers being practically done with post-production, it was tough to be optimistic.

When March rolled around, I realized that instead of complicating things, I should instead lean into what I already knew. I was taking a Motion Graphics class at the time and I began to thread After Effects concepts I had learned in class with the skills I had picked up in Procreate. Slowly, I began to craft together my film. During this process, my compouter stopped working unexpectedly, so that was fun. I spent countless weeks immersed in work until exhaustion but miraculously, I completed my film days before the due date.

As much as this experience haunts me, it changed the trajectory of my life forever and I am grateful for it. I learned an encyclopedia's worth of After Effects knowledge and motion graphic design/animation in those few months that I still use to this day. Post-production was already my field of expertise, but now it has become my comfort zone. Thank you for reading this far and I hope you enjoy this happy little accident!