For me, it is fascinating how creative people can be in inventing stories, entire worlds, creatures, languages and even cultures. Books allow you to immerse yourself in fantastic worlds, accompany the protagonists on their adventures and explore the various things that someone came up with while writing. But as much as I love books, especially those in the fantasy genre, I am equally fascinated by the cinematic masterpieces that some great filmmakers have created. The fantasy genre in particular requires filmmakers who bring stories with great attention to detail, creativity and pure passion to life. Only then, so I believe, you can create a satisfying result for a very demanding fan audience. That's why I chose the topic of visual aesthetics in fantasy film for my master's thesis with the title "Worlds of Imagination".
The written part of the thesis focuses on the impact that compositing tools have on the visual aesthetics of fantasy films. In particular, the techniques of 'matte painting' and 'motion capture' were analysed. For the practical part of the thesis, I made the fantasy short film 'Spirit of Nature'. I tried to adopt the outcomes from the written thesis, which is shown in costume design and a handful of visual effects.
It was made on a very low-budget level with an iPhone14+. The arthouse fantasy drama "The Green Knight" (2021) by David Lowery served as an inspiration for the whole film project.
The story is intended to be an abstract representation of today's world problems. The man's loss of memory at the beginning of the story represents the fact that he has lost sight of his own path. The information overload, the societal pressure and the constant comparison with others, which happens e.g. through social media, harbours the danger of losing sight of oneself and what really matters. In the same way, the main protagonist of the story is also searching for himself. The black stones stand for climate change and environmental pollution, the axe represents the ruthlessness of mankind and the forest symbolizes our earth. By doing a good deed, the protagonist has given something and received something very valuable in return - his life. The message is that we have to take care of nature in order to be able to live a good life ourselves. When the main character awakens at the end as a forest guardian, he has completed his transformation. He has found himself again. The large tree in the meadow that can be seen at the end of the film is intended to symbolize the Tree Of Life, which is seen as a timeless symbol of our connection to earth and the universe in a wide variety of cultures and religions.
printed version of my master's thesis