Previsualization and Preproduction
A young woman wakes up alone on the side of the road in the dead of winter and runs into her deceased ex-girlfriend. Cold and confused with no way to call for help, she is forced to face not only the realities of her situation, but of her future--or lack thereof.
Written, produced, and storyboarded by Naomi Green
Synopsis
When Camellia wakes up buried in snow on the side of the road, all she has is a dead cellphone, a locked car, and a chill in her bones. Things quickly take a turn for the worse when she begins hallucinating her dead ex-girlfriend, Clover. While Clover tries to be a comforting presence, Camellia remains confused and all too aware that she can only survive so long in this cold. Her salvation arrives in the form of a caravan of first responders, but when she tries to get their attention, she is forced to confront the fact that she has already died. Clover, thought to be a hallucination, is there to take her to meet her fate. The conversation that follows is fraught, but eventually after cycling through the stages of grief for her own death, Camellia is able to accept that she cannot be welcome on this plane any longer, and she allows herself to be taken.
Characters
Camellia is a smart, brash, independent 26-year-old who's just completed grad school--the first in her family to even go to college. She has a strong sense of responsibility when it comes to others, but is closed off and somewhat reckless when it comes to herself.
Sadie Sink
Clover was Camellia's girlfriend. Clover is dead. Clover spent her 20th birthday in the hospital and died shortly after.
When she was alive, she was kind, blunt, and creative. Clover and Camellia met in high school and fell in love in college, becoming each others main connections to the world.
Clover now only exists within the context of the Reaper.
Amandla Stenberg
The Reaper is both collector and realm. Each soul it collects becomes a part of it, to add to its space in the universe. Over time, they become more and more interwoven with one another, but for a time the individuals can come forth--perhaps to coax a loved one to accept their fate.
Palette
Live-Action
Schedule
Live-action schedule consists of five shooting days in the early or late winter (the only timing requirements being enough snow to maintain suspension of disbelief, and the most amount of daylight one can achieve at the time of year where there's that amount of snow). Cold weather support needed on four of five days.
Budget
Budget for small crew.
Animation
Schedule
Animation schedule is much longer and more flexible. Some things (e.g. casting and voice over) are connected and can exchange time as long as the overall time for both stays the same. Dependent events must be maintained. Financing also occurs before the rest of the timeline begins. Animation schedule is for hand-drawn 2D animation.
Budget
Budget assumes several in-kind donations (as seen). Animation budget could potentially fluctuate based on the final stylization/concept art and how time consuming it is to realize. Animation budget is for hand-drawn 2D animation.
Preliminary Art & Sundry
Preproduction (Undergraduate Research)
Preliminary Art
Casting and Vocal Recording
3D Prop Modelling
Grant Applications
Animation Testing
Character Design - The Reaper
Character design process; I used a lot of inspiration from trees, angels, bird skulls, and other personifications of death.
Animation tests for a few possible
reaper designs
Animation!
Part of the impetus of this project is to teach myself to animate. It's been a longstanding goal of mine, but time and motivation has been an issue. With this, I aim to use this self-imposed deadline to force myself to learn. To that end...
Baby's first walk cycle <3
Obviously, I started with some classic animation exercises. First one on the list is always 'ball bouncing in place'.
A very rough expression change test/practice for Camellia
3d Modeling
Yes, I followed the donut tutorial (though not quite to completion...)(yet)
I looked at quite a few tutorials, trying to figure out blender, because (and I cannot stress this enough) I had never used blender when I put "make a 3D car" on my to-do list, and therefore didn't know that it is infamously difficult to make a convincing car, and there are people whose entire sub-niches are just MODELING DIFFERENT TYPES OF CARS.
So anyways I did a passible job with that (for my purposes). All I wanted it for was reference, and so my final product is VERY low poly and pretty janky...I love her.
Ever wondered what it's like to be inside a very blocky car? Well wonder no longer, folks!
Feel free to tell me I did an amazing job <3
Thesis Presentation 2025
Presentation Slides
Peruse at your leisure :)