- English Presskit -

INFORMATION

Synopsis

A married cat-dog couple of cupcake bakers dream of opening their own bakery. One day their oven breaks and they have to postpone their dream in order to earn money and replace it. Somewhere down the line, they drift apart from their dream and from themselves.

Technical DataTitle ....................................................................Here’s The Plan

Production Type ................................................Short Film

Length ................................................................18’29”

Country of Origin ...............................................Chile

Genre .................................................................3D Animation/Romance/Drama

Year of Production ............................................2016

Budget ...............................................................$50,000 USD / $30.000.000 CLP

Available Formats .............................................DCP, digital formats, Bluray

Ratio ...................................................................2.35:1 (Anamorphic)

Audio ..................................................................5.1 / Stereo

Language ...........................................................English

Specification SheetProduction Company ........................................None / Independent

Director/Producer .............................................Fernanda Frick

Production Manager/Producer ........................María José Barros

Script..................................................................Fernanda Frick

Original Score ....................................................Joel P West

Sound .................................................................Daniel Ferrreira

Editor .................................................................Cristián Toledo

Animation ..........................................................Maikoe Alaniz, Francisco Anabalón,

Diego Oliva, María José Venegas,

Fernanda Frick

Logline A 3D animated short film about a cat & dog couple that loves baking and loves each other.

LinksOfficial Page: http://herestheplanfilm.com

Official Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/herestheplanfilm

Instagram: http://instagram.com/fernandafrick

Hashtag: #herestheplanfilm

Contact:Fernanda Frick Hassenberg

Hola@fernandafrick.com

About the FilmFernanda Frick presents her work as director in “Here’s The Plan”, an animated CG short film made with an outstanding group of chilean artists and financed by the National Council of Culture and the Arts to create a story about loving what you do and loving each other.

“Here’s The Plan” shines on it’s acting and cinematographic depth that goes with the story’s narration. The protagonists, Kat & Doug, a young couple of newlyweds, were represented as animals with the objective of communicating the universality and empathy these provoke, avoiding certain gender and physical stereotypes that are so common on TV and other media.

Without the need of using photorealistic CG techniques, “Here’s The Plan” concentrates it’s strengths in it’s narration and particular visual style

to talk about love and personal goals.

About the Production Fernanda started working on the short film around the second half of 2014, to apply for national funding, but actual production didn’t began until January 2015. For it’s realization, a versatile working methodology was used. It involved different physical spaces, as well as virtual ones, for the team coordination and file deliveries.

The project counted with the support of Punk Robot Studio during it’s initial nine months of CG pre-production, and Studio Pintamonos that provided a physical space during the last stages of the project.

“Here’s the plan” also had the collaboration of international artists like Joel P. West, established indie film composer for films such as “Short Term 12” and “I’m not a hipster”, and also Alex & Lindsay Small-Butera, a marriage of animators and voice actors known for their work in “Baman Piderman”, “Adventure Time” and “Clarence”.

Director’s StatementI made “Here’s the plan” because I felt the need to see on screen a couple depicted as a team. Partners and not rivals. Equals and with value, not one superior to the other. Helping each other to be the best persons they can be.

Even if this can sound obvious, this type of couple is rarely represented by the media, since they focus on the initial conquest stage or the difficult and tormented coexistance of the protagonists, which usually ends up in perpetuating gender role stereotypes.

Since I’m in a happy relationship, I wanted to share this vision with others in a short film where the couple isn’t constantly fighting and depreciating each other. To show a realistic romantic relationship that, I hope, makes someone feel identified or at least be the starting point for a conversation.

- Fernanda Frick. Santiago, 2016.

The idea for the short film came up while Fer-nanda was designing a t-shirt, where she drew a couple with opposite personalities, but happy in their relationship: A structured cat hugging a messy dog. From this image, a love story start-ed to unveil in the director’s mind.We invite you to know more about Fernanda in the following interview.

How was your first experience directing such a diverse group of professionals?

It was great and painfully hard! Fortunately, I was able to take out a lot of lessons from it, but it was a complicated process, very emotionally and mentally draining. One of the most import-ant things I learned was to trust my decisions. Many of the problems during the production of the film were related to my self-doubt. For example, I would agreed to external ideas that were not always the best for the short or wasn’t what I wanted to achieve, so, after we would realize that they didn’t work, we wasted even more time trying to implement the origi-nal idea.

However, in spite of every complication, the film came out exactly as I wanted it, both in story and visual style. I’m a perfectionist, so I took care of fixing every single thing that I could later no-tice on the big screen. Also, the support of the team who worked with me was crucial. I worked with some very good animators, with a great skill level, who committed to the project, which was a big gamble in every sense. Such a team is hard to find, so I am very grateful that they supported me during this whole production.

“In spite of every complica-tion, the film came out ex-actly as I wanted it, both in story and visual style”What has been the difficulties that you faced during the production?

If I had to sum it up, I’ll say that the budget was one of the most difficult aspects to deal with.

Interview with “Here’s the Plan” director

Fernanda Frick

Even though we stated a detailed budget before starting, we couldn’t help to extend the duration of the short and that affected our avail-able funds. To make up for it, I had fund the difference through exter-nal jobs, such as commissions and classes.

On the other hand, as a team, we had to strengthen our skills in visu-al storytelling and character acting. In Chile, the animation market is fo-cused on advertising and television series, so there aren’t many oppor-tunities to practice those aspects in the jobs that we’re used to do here, limiting our chances to develop skills in subtle and emotional acting at a cinematic level that, thankfully, we achieved in our short film.

Considering these difficulties, why did you choose to specialize in an-imation?

Good question, because making animation is crazy, in every sense. It’s an extremely expensive, slow and grueling art, and because of that the medium demands that you backup the choice to invest all that time and money.

In that regard, and since what it inter-ests me is telling daily-life stories, it would seem that my desire to choose animation doesn’t make sense.

When we talk about movies with huge visual effects or fantasy char-acters, animation seems a totally reasonable choice, but that doesn’t apply to works like “Here’s the plan” where we see daily situations that could be easily expressed through live-action. However, animation has been my means of expression since I was 14 years old and I think it’s the way I can communicate most effec-tively with people. Honestly, I think each person should use the medium they feel most confortable with.

What is your advice for those who want to get into animation?

That they have to be conscious that animation, even if it’s very entertain-ing and pretty, it’s an art that requires a lot of patience, hard work and a great capacity of observation and analysis to achieve great work.

Also, there’s a lot of people who chooses this career because of it’s technological aspect, but whatev-er technique you may choose, the animation student should always know that an understanding of ar-tistic fundamentals is needed to reach an advanced level. The com-puter or softwares are never going to do the work for you. Considering that, it’s important to be constantly learning, since no university is go-ing to give you all the knowledge and resources you’ll need.

Finally, and even if it seems ob-vious, I think it’s important to mention that animation is a team effort. Even if you’re very indepen-dent, it’s impossible to control or execute every stage of a big ani-mation project, so it’s important to learn how to work in coordination with other artists so the project can succeed.

Fernanda Frick - Director/Writer/ProducerAnimator and illustrator specialized in character design and animation in 2D & 3D, mostly self-taught. In 2013, she got her specialization through the Animation Mentor program and in 2014, she participated in the Gobelins Summer School in France, thanks to a scholarship given by the chilean government’s audiovisual fund. Fernanda also has a diploma in figure drawing from the Pontificia Universidad Católica de Chile, and another one in Maya FX from the MAC Academy.

Among her previous work, you can find “When I’m Scared” (2013), “Rabbit Stew” (2010) and “Animation is…” (2010), winning an award in the Samsung’s Clic Art contest. In adi-tion to her independent work, Fernanda is also a teacher in the specialties of Character Design in the Universidad Gabriela Mistral, Art Direction in the Universidad Mayor and Character Animation in UNIACC.

http://FernandaFrick.com

María José Barros - Production Manager/ProducerHistorian by profession, she works professionally in comics and visual development. Maria José is the author of the graphic novel “Corazón de Obsidiana” and co-author in the web-comic “The Order of Belfry” . She’s currently working as an artist in the titles “Campaigners” and “Amanda Green SIA”, also working as a teacher in the Digital Ani-mation School in IPST. “Here’s the Plan” is her first work as a producer and she’s sure it isn’t the last one. She lives in Santiago with her husband, son and two cats.

http://mjbarros.carbonmade.com

Joel P West - Music ComposerJoel P. West, composer and musical author based in California, has participated in a large number of documentaries, short films and artistic projects. He also has three albums as a solo artist and one with his band “The Tree Ring”. Joel is known by his work in the films “I’m Not a Hipster” (2012), “Short Term 12” (2013) and “Grandma” (2015), among others. He did an amazing job in “Here’s The Plan” developing and recording it’s original score.

http://joelpwest.com

Alex y Lindsay Small-Butera - Voice ActorsLindsay & Alex are north-american animators, writers and voice actors. Together, they are have their own home animation studio, popular in social media with their original animated series “Baman Piderman”. They’ve also worked as animators in famous TV series such as “The Dick Figures”, “Adventure Time” and “Clarence”, among others. For the short film “Here’s the Plan”, they did a wonderful job in playing Kat & Doug.

http://smallbu.com

http://FernandaFrick.com

http://joelpwest.com

Carlos AhumadaCG Supervisor

cpjam.tumblr.coM

Rosario LasoLead Lighter

rosariolaso.tumblr.com

Cristián ToledoPost Supervisor

and Editorvimeo.com/chrisreiben

Daniel FerreiraSound Supervisor

and Sound Mixmerced.cl

Glenn LazoDigital Composer

iguanabee.com

Mauricio CastañedaFoley Artist

thefoleycrew.com

Francisco AnabalónCharacter Animator

vimeo.com/panchonauta

Diego OlivaCharacter Animator

dgoanimationportfolio.blogspot.cl

Maikoe AlanizCharacter Animator

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María José VengasCharacter Animator

mjspad.com

José Sebastián Rebolledo2D FX Animator

pandandwolfproductions.tumblr.com

The team is composed by 32 people, mostly from Chile. They’re young artists with various spe-cialties in the animation field, and made huge contributions with their skillset.

The Team

FULL CREDITS

KATLindsay Small-Butera

DOUGAlex Butera

WRITTEN, DIRECTED &

PRODUCED BYFernanda Frick H.

PRODUCTION MANAGER &

PRODUCERMaría José Barros

ORIGINAL SCOREJoel P West

3D SUPERVISORCarlos Ahumada

PUNKROBOT STUDIO

PRODUCERPato Escala

PUNK ROBOT STUDIO

CG SUPERVISORGabriel Osorio

POST-PRODUCTION

SUPERVISOR & EDITORCristián Toledo

SOUND SUPERVISOR & SOUND

DESIGNERDaniel Ferreira

PRE-PRODUCTIONSTORYBOARDFernanda Frick

STORYBOARD LIGHTNINGNatalia Valenzuela

ANIMATIC EDITFernanda FrickGlenn Lazo

ART DIRECTIONFernanda Frick

ADDITIONAL CONCEPT ARTMeli YensenSebastián Aburto

GRAPHIC DESIGNMaría Elisa Soto-Aguilar

SCRIPT CONSULTANTJoaquín PinedaAlfredo Rodríguez

CAMERADIRECTOR OF PHOTOGRAPHYFernanda Frick

LAYOUT ARTISTSFrancisco AnabalónYibril Kahel

CAMERA ANIMATOR &

CONSULTANTMartin Bartsch

ANIMATIONFrancisco AnabalónMaikoe AlanizDiego OlivaMaría José VenegasFernanda Frick

ADDITIONAL ANIMATIONLuciano A. Muñoz SessaregoMartin Bartsch

2D FX ANIMATIONJosé Sebastián Rebolledo

CG PRE-PRODUCTIONCHARACTER RIGSGabriel Osorio

LEAD SET & CHARACTER

MODELERSebastián Aburto

LEAD PROP MODELER & RIGSEduardo Bravo

ADDITIONAL SET

MODELERSYamal KahelYibril Kahel

ADDITIONAL PROP

MODELERSValentina FernándezYamal KahelMeli Yensen

CHARACTER AND SET

TEXTURESFernanda Frick

ADITIONAL SET TEXTURESLucy Alarcón

PROPS TEXTURESValentina FernándezMeli YensenYamal Kahel

MATTE PAINTINGChristian PincheiraSebastián Aburto

FINAL HOUSE WALL ARTIgnacio Barceló

CG PRODUCTION

LEAD LIGHTERRosario Laso

ADITIONAL LIGHTERCarlos Ahumada

RENDER SETUP Carlos AhumadaRosario Laso

POST-PRODUCTION

COMPOSITINGGlenn LazoFernanda Frick

IMAGE POST-PRODUCTIONCristián Toledo

FOLEYFoley Artist - Mauricio CastañedaFoley Recorder - Patricia Sanchez

SOUND MIXDaniel FerreiraMade in Zoo Films

MUSICIANSRecording & Mix - Chris HobsonCello - Erica ErenyiViola & Violin - Travis MarilGuitars & Piano - Joel P West

Presskit made by Daniela Vivianihttp://cabralesa.comhola@cabralesa.com

Herestheplanfilm.comfacebook.com/herestheplanfilm

Contact:Fernanda Frick Hassenberg

Hola@fernandafrick.com

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