Gray Area (2021)

A Collection of 4 Animated Shorts

Directed by Eliza Gelinas

GRAY AREA (noun)

an ill-defined situation or field not readily conforming to a category or to an existing set of rules.

Panda Chef, Apothekitty and Magical Manatee live in a fictional, post- revolutionary society. Principles such as cost of living, gender, speciesism, and daylight savings hold no power over the well-being and motivations of our characters. Liberation from factors that used to cause citizens stress on a daily basis has made it possible for them to freely pursue their passions, or just exist, without the pressure to monetize content for survival. Everyone is assumed to have acclimated peacefully into this utopian lifestyle, but even though their basic needs are being met, individuals experience a lack of support while struggling with mental illness.

Lacking a conventionally linear story or dialogue, GRAY AREA, depicts snapshots of our main characters in conceptual situations through detailed moving imagery and sound. The animations rely heavily on scenery and music as tone indicators, while the sound design helps direct the audience’s attention to what is physically appearing in the scene. During this short series we witness Panda Chef and Apothekitty’s isolated struggles with dissociation and mania. We also see them tending to plants, enjoying the sunset, listening to music and investigating a mysterious object that washed up on the beach. Simple pleasures and the complexity of mental illness can/ must coexist, and we must destigmatize disability care in order to consider any system a utopia. A journey through these four videos can be taken in order according to the table of contents, but each scene has a unique musical atmosphere to reflect it and the instrumentation varies for each track.

Panda Chef vs. the sinking suspicion that none of this is actually real

Panda Chef is watering the tulips, Apothekitty is sipping on an ice cold glass of milk, and Magical Manatee is skating down the bike path. The color palette is highly saturated, with texture and details given to municipalities that are meant to spark joy. Diegetic sound design mostly draws attention to the character’s actions, while the music is reflecting on the feeling of being outside at sunset.

eliza gelinas · Rooftop Garden

Opening over the shadowy side of Panda’s Patisserie at sunset, this scene is the most carefree and calming of the collection. All of our characters are present and seem to be enjoying themselves.

Panda chef finds a mysterious sparkling egg washed up on the shore of the ocean and gets Apothekitty to help identify it. The pair have no idea what, or who, could be inside. While this scene includes a linear plot line, the choice of setting the frame rate to one (1) frame per second, and keeping the perspective stationary gives the illusion of a camera rapidly taking pictures to document the story. For this reason I pushed the boundaries of dynamic poses and facial expression in the animation style, and utilized mostly non-diegetic sound design. Meta-diegetic ocean sounds heard in this scene are made by my voice, clearly a photographer’s reimagining of the soundscape in the pictures. The soundtrack was created using a 16 beat melodic step sequencer patch built in Max/ MSP, which can toggle between sin, square and triangle waves. On step sequencers, musical notes are rounded into steps of equal time-intervals, and users can add or take away notes to the repeating grid pattern in real time to create subtle harmonic/ rhythmic shifts. After recording a session in Max/MSP, I imported the audio files into Logic Pro to manipulate the frequencies further with filters and effects. The pulsing, quantized nature of the music achieved by the step-sequencer lines up aesthetically with the one frame per second flow of this video.

eliza gelinas · Accidentally Up All Night

Apothekitty has a groundbreaking idea, and they can’t stop thinking about it. They won’t sleep until they work out every detail of the plan.

While looking at a board of old polaroid photos, Panda Chef begins to dissociate and lose grip on reality. They feel as though they are perpetually falling, spiraling, floating, in an endless abyss, even when surrounded by the things they love. The scene cuts abruptly to a shot of them peppering a pot of soup in slow motion, an out of body experience. Questions of identity swirl and haunt as the only text repeated by my disembodied voice are “Panda Chef”; unedited, time stretched and reversed. The beat samples kitchen utensils and appliances to juxtapose lucidity with the disorienting liminal space.

eliza gelinas · Panda Chef vs. the sinking suspicion that none of this is actually real

While looking at a board of old polaroid photos, Panda Chef begins to dissociate and lose grip on reality.

Hyperactivity and obsession leave them feeling euphoric, but it is unstable. The clock on the wall and light from outside show time passing at an unrealistic rate, and Apothekitty has accidentally stayed up all night. Sound design, featuring my star role as the pet bird thank you very much, pulls the listener’s ears around the room to everything that might make noise and distract Apothekitty. The music is exaggeratedly enjoyable, characterized by smooth guitar tones, vibraphone and bells; yet it becomes distorted, relentless, and grating over time.