A Story of Love, Loss, and Grief...

A little girl waves good-bye to her parents as she goes to school. Later that day, there is a report of an Active Shooter at the school. The parents receive a text message from their daughter:

If anything happens i love you

 

It is the last message they would ever receive.

 

This animated short film is Recommended Viewing. It runs 12 minutes long but delivers a powerful message about love and loss. At the 93rd Academy Awards, it received the Academy Award for Best Animated Short Film. It is currently streaming on NETFLIX.

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Two parents begin to grow separated from one another following the death of their preteen daughter. Though they refuse to speak to one another in person, both parents are watched over by shadows expressing their true emotions. While the father goes outside, the mother thinks about entering her daughter's old bedroom, though she stops herself due to overpowering grief and sadness.

While doing laundry, the mother begins to cry after realizing she has washed her daughter's shirt. She sits near the washing machine, causing a soccer ball to fall down and open her daughter's bedroom, which also rolls onto a record player, playing the song "1950". The mother decides to enter the room, where she later reunites with her husband. While "1950" continues to play in the background, a shadow representing their daughter pops out of the record player, and the parents begin to remember events in their daughter's life.

In a series of flashbacks, the parents see their daughter grow up: developing a love for soccer, celebrating her 10th birthday, and experiencing her first kiss. In the final flashback, the daughter leaves her parents to attend school. Knowing what is about to happen, the shadows of the parents attempt to stop her from entering the premises, but, this being a memory, they fail. Inside the school, the daughter is shot and killed during a school shooting, with her final text to her parents being "If anything happens I love you".

As the shadows of the parents grow apart, the shadow of the daughter brings them together, forcing the real parents to see the good memories they were able to experience with their daughter when she was alive. In the present, the parents hug, and the daughter's shadow becomes a bright light in between the shadows of her grieving parents. 

PRODUCTION:
According to writers Will McCormack and Michael Govier, who became friends at an acting school, the initial idea for the film came from a meeting between the two at Griffith Park, where Govier thought about making a film where shadows represented emotions people couldn't reach. McCormack agreed, opining it is a "powerful" premise. The goal of the film was to show "the grief that still lingers on in the community, even though maybe the news cycle has left them, and what that grief looks like." To direct the film, the pair met with several parents who had lost their children to school shootings and gun violence in the United States, aware of the sensitive subject matter. The pair also worked closely with Everytown for Gun Safety and Moms Demand Action, allowing the organizations to share their own feedback on the film's script and amplify its overall theme.

From the very beginning it was always going to be an animated film. We just thought a live-action version of this would be way too intense. We thought animation was the perfect gateway to have these deep conversations about loss and grief.

— Govier on deciding to expand the project into an animated film

To bring out their self-funded idea as an animated film, the pair first met with producer Maryann Garger. Soon after, If Anything Happens I Love You began production in late 2018, with animation taking place from April 2019 to the December of that same year. In total, twenty-eight people worked on the short film, including Youngran Nho, Haein Michelle Heo, and Julia Gomes Rodrigues, who used TVPaint Animation to animate the project. Production concluded in February 2020. To address the importance of diversity and representation in animation, the short was animated, composed, and lead-produced by an all-female crew.

The film was produced by Govier, who wrote the 12-page script for the short film with McCormack in a year. Shortly after, Nho was hired while she was attending the California Institute of the Arts to work as an animator and artistic director on the short, having been recommended by professor Maija Burnett, using the black-and-white palette from the Academy Award-winning short film Father and Daughter as inspiration. According to Nho, the film's background consisted of watercolor on paper to make the story feel "raw" and "unfinished," mentioning that the film attempted to have minimum color in its background to match the "emptiness that fills [the] grieving parents."

According to McCormack and Govier, the pair wanted to tell a story through anthropomorphic shadows, and as a result, multiple sequences were not drawn with "full technicolor" as they wanted to "illustrate and explore grief" in the short film. To keep in touch with Nho and the rest of the crew, McCormack and Govier used the software Slack to communicate, "critiquing and confirming each other's work in real-time."

Most of the film's score was composed by Lindsay Marcus, with the "Beautiful Dreamer" sequence of the film being arranged and performed by the Inner-City Youth Orchestra of LA run by Charles Dickerson. In an interview for Animation Scoop, McCormack revealed that the song "1950" was chosen for the film because the pair were listening to it while searching for music for the short. Also produced by Gary Gilbert and Gerald Chamales, the film was edited by Peter Ettinger on Adobe Premiere Pro.

Neil Gaiman's ‘The Sandman’ now on Netflix

THE  SANDMAN

The Lord of Dreams has been summoned, and captured, by mortal men. Once free from his captivity, this eternal ruler of Dreams will realize that his troubles are only just beginning. The Sandman is a Netflix series based on the groundbreaking comic book series created for DC by Neil Gaiman. The series is Executive Produced by Neil Gaiman, Allan Heinberg, & David S. Goyer.

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[Source: Variety] Thirty-two years after DC Comics published the first issue of “The Sandman,” Neil Gaiman’s phantasmagoric dive into the world of dreams, Netflix unveiled the first look at its highly anticipated live-action adaptation on Saturday.

Stars Tom Sturridge — who plays Morpheus, a.k.a. Dream, the titular ruler of Dreaming — and Kirby Howell-Baptiste — who plays Death, Dream’s chic and easygoing sister — revealed the first look during Tudum, Netflix’s global virtual fan event.

Executive produced by Gaiman, David S. Goyer, and showrunner Allan Heinberg (“The Catch,” “Scandal”), “The Sandman” is updating Gaiman’s graphic novel by setting it in the present day, rather than in the late 1980s (as Audible’s ongoing audiobook adaptation of “The Sandman” is doing). The story follows Morpheus after he’s escaped 105 years of imprisonment on Earth by occultist Roderick Burgess (Charles Dance) who, when attempting to capture Death in 1912, captured Dream instead. Upon his escape, Dream must reclaim the three totems of his power — his pouch of sand, his helm (which looks like an elaborate gas mask), and a ruby — before he can reconstitute and rebuild the dilapidated Dreaming world.

Given the vast, intricate narrative and visual complexities of “The Sandman,” the title has vexed would be filmmakers from adapting it as feature film. Most recently, Joseph Gordon-Levitt was attached to star and direct, but left over creative differences. Ultimately, Netflix picked up “The Sandman” as a TV series, which Warner Bros. Television and DC Entertainment are producing.

When introducing the first look at the series, Gaiman said the “decades-long gestation” for the series was “a bit of a blessing,” allowing him to ensure the series was “true to the comics.”

“What astounded me through this process was how often it felt like I was walking around inside the comics,” Gaiman said. “Everything from the sense to the costumes to the effects felt it had been plucked from my imagination.”

Gaiman then turned things over to Sturridge, who introduced himself as “beyond anything else as a supreme fun of Sandman.” The actor then debuted a first look at one of the opening sequences from the show, when Burgess captures Dream. You can watch it below.

Along with the first look video, Howell-Baptiste pointed fans to character posters for Dream, Death and their third sibling, Desire (Mason Alexander Park). You can see them below.

Other characters on “Sandman” will include:

Lucifer (Gwendoline Christie), the androgynous ruler of Hell, who attempts to keep Dream from reclaiming one of his totems. A version of the same character headlined the popular series “Lucifer,” starring Tom Ellis, which just premiered its final season on Netflix.

John Dee, a.k.a. Doctor Destiny (David Thewlis), an Arkham Asylum inmate who comes into possession of Dream’s ruby.

The Corinthian (Boyd Holbrook), one of Dream’s nightmares who has two small mouths where his eyes should be, usually covered with sunglasses.

Lucienne (Vivienne Acheampong), the librarian of the world of Dreaming (and has been gender swapped from Lucien in the comics).

Cain (Sanjeev Bhaskar) and Abel (Asim Chaudhry), the sons of Adam and Eve and, respectively, the first murderer and the first murder victim, who now live in Dreaming and are locked into an unending loop recreating Cain’s murder of Abel.

LOVE DEATH + ROBOTS VOLUME 2

LOVE DEATH + ROBOTS

Returns with VOLUME 2 on May 14th

The animated series consists of stand-alone episodes, all under 17 minutes long, and produced by different casts and crews, though some episodes may share certain crew members. The series title refers to each episode's thematic connection to the three aforementioned subjects, though not every episode contains all three elements. Love Death & Robots is a blast of the future with its roots deep in the past. Show creator Tim Miller teamed up with director David Fincher after years of wanting to make adult animated features and short films at his animation house Blur Studio. When his directorial debut Deadpool hit big, they saw their opportunity and the anthology series found a natural home at Netflix.

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Death Stranding - Game Movie All Cutscenes

D  E  A  T  H     S  T  R  A  N  D  I  N  G

The game is set in an apocalyptic United States, where a cataclysmic event known as the "Death Stranding" caused "BTs"—invisible creatures originating from the "Beach", a land said to be the link to the afterlife—to begin roaming the Earth. BTs cause explosions known as "voidouts" when they consume the dead by necrosis, and produce rains known as "Timefall"—which rapidly age and deteriorate whatever it hits. These events damaged the country's infrastructure, leading its remaining population to confine themselves to remote colonies known as "KNOTs", which form the remaining "United Cities of America".

 

These colonies have since relied on the services of a company known as Bridges, whose porters brave the BTs, bandits, and terrorists to deliver supplies to the cities. Bridges also performs various governmental functions on behalf of the UCA. If they achieve a mental connection to a "Bridge Baby"—a premature child reflecting a state between life and death—it is possible for a person to sense the presence of a BT. Porters carry a bridge baby with them, which is stored in a pod simulating a mother's womb. A condition known as "DOOMs", depending on its severity, also allows a person to naturally sense, see, or even control a BT. There are also individuals designated as "Repatriates", people who can travel back from the Beach upon death, effectively coming back to life, though their deaths will still cause voidouts. 

Sam Porter Bridges (Norman Reedus) is transporting cargo when his progress is interrupted by Timefall and receives assistance from Fragile (Léa Seydoux) in evading a BT. When she leaves, Sam continues his delivery. He arrives at his destination Central Knot City, only to be warned that one of the citizens has committed suicide and their corpse is on the verge of necrosis. Due to being both a Repatriate and having DOOMs, Sam is assigned to transport the corpse to an incinerator to safely dispose of it, but an attack from BTs prevents him from stopping it from becoming a BT and causing a voidout, destroying Central Knot City. He awakes in Capital Knot City and meets Deadman (Guillermo del Toro/Jesse Corti), a doctor from Bridges. Sam is then tasked to deliver morphine for the dying president of the UCA, his mother Bridget Strand (Lindsay Wagner/Emily O'Brien). He also meets Die-Hardman (Tommie Earl Jenkins), the director of Bridges and Sam's former boss before he left the organization. Bridget pleads with Sam to rejoin Bridges and help rebuild America before succumbing to her illness. Sam transports Bridget's body to be incinerated but refuses to incinerate BB-28, a Bridge Baby that has been marked for retirement. With BB-28's assistance, Sam is able to evade a horde of BTs and return to Capitol Knot City. Sam decides to take BB-28 as his own Bridge Baby, nicknaming him Lou. 

Upon his return, Sam is reunited with his sister Amelie Strand (also Wagner/O'Brien). She tells him that over the past three years, she has led an expedition across what is left of the continental United States, making contact with the remaining cities and survivor settlements and setting up terminals that would allow them to connect to the Chiral Network, a system that would allow instantaneous communication across vast distances. However, upon reaching the last city on the West Coast, Edge Knot City, Amelie was captured and is being held hostage by an anti-UCA terrorist group called the Homo Demens to guarantee Edge Knot City's independence. Even though she is a hostage, she is still allowed to freely communicate with Bridges via the Network. She tells Sam that he must follow the path of her expedition and use a special Q-pid key to activate the terminals she left behind. Then he must rescue Amelie and bring her back so she can take Bridget's place as the President of the UCA. Sam reluctantly accepts the mission since it is his only opportunity to find and rescue Amelie. 

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Sam then embarks on his mission to connect all of the remaining cities to the Network. Along the way, he delivers valuable cargo, assists other Bridges staff like Mama (Margaret Qualley), Heartman (Nicolas Winding Refn/Darren Jacobs), and Mama's twin sister Lockne (also Qualley) in researching the Death Stranding, and thwarts plots by the Homo Demens and their leader, Higgs Monaghan (Troy Baker). He also views Lou's memories, which show Lou's apparent father, Clifford Unger (Mads Mikkelsen). Clifford himself, now a spectral entity, occasionally attacks Sam in an effort to recover Lou. Sam's journey finally culminates in a direct confrontation against Higgs in Amelie's Beach. Higgs reveals that Amelie is actually an Extinction Entity, a godlike being that can use the Death Stranding to trigger mass extinction events. However, Higgs seeks to trigger more than a mass extinction, but a Last Stranding, which is the complete annihilation of all life on Earth. Sam defeats Higgs, who commits suicide to avoid being trapped on the Beach. Sam is forcefully ejected from the Beach by Amelie. He later discovers that as the Extinction Entity, Amelie and Bridget were both the same being, with Bridget existing in the world of the living while Amelie could only manifest on the Beach. In addition, Amelie was the true leader of the Homo Demens, seeking to trigger the Last Stranding to end the cycle of extinction. Sam confronts Amelie one final time and convinces her to stop, though the only way for her to avert the Last Stranding and delay humanity's extinction is to permanently separate herself and her Beach from the world of the living. 

In the aftermath, Die-Hardman takes Amelie's place as the President of the UCA, with the rest of the Bridges staff dedicated to keeping the UCA safe. Fragile resolves to rebuild her trading company. Sam is told that Lou has died, and is assigned to transport the corpse to the incinerator. He connects with Lou one last time and discovers the memories he has been viewing aren't Lou's, but his own, making him Clifford's son. Clifford died trying to smuggle the infant Sam out of a Bridges lab. Sam was also killed in the incident but was revived by Amelie, establishing their connection and turning him into a Repatriate. Since Sam was no longer suitable to be a Bridge Baby, Bridget instead decided to adopt him and raise him as her own son. Back in the present, Sam decides not to incinerate Lou and manages to resuscitate them. 

In the final scene, Sam refers to Lou as "Louise", revealing that she is, in fact, a girl.

Countdown - Trailer

o C c O t U o N b T e D r O  W 2 N 5

In COUNTDOWN, when a young nurse (Elizabeth Lail) downloads an app that claims to predict exactly when a person is going to die, it tells her she only has three days to live. With time ticking away and death closing in, she must find a way to save her life before time runs out. 

In Theaters October 25, 2019

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