Motion Capture VFX Short Film around a Boy with Big Dreams... and a Bigger Exam.
My Capstone is a VFX-based short film centered on a high-school boy struggling to study for his final exam. He often imagines what his life will be like when he passes with flying colours, envisioning the success he will have when he becomes a businessman like Society tells him to.
What actually occurs is a trip to a simulation that depicts a mundane and draining life if he did pass the exam, and it’s not what he expects. The main psychological concern at play here is the generational issue of Conformity, with intrinsic ties to the Herd Mentality condition.
I’ve always been someone who wanted to impact the lives of others, and in “Class Act” the goal was to convey the message that viewers should do something that interests them rather than exhaust. I wanted audiences to relate to the Protagonist through academic pressures they had as teenagers and the large-scale choices they had to make for their futures. The project was partly a means of relating to and influencing audiences and partly a personal piece that represents the moral dilemmas I had choosing a creative career over one that’s financially secure.
The main topics I wanted to symbolise were the academic pressures on youth and Conformity, as in the act of matching attitudes, beliefs, and behaviours to group norms, politics or being like minded. I recreated this scenario as the basis of my narrative: The Protagonist of my film feels obligated to become a businessman to support his family and make his father proud, though he changes his decision after the nightmare he experiences after giving up studying for the afternoon.
I’d like to think my short film could be utilised to show teenage audiences the career choices they make now doesn’t affect their future and how they live their lives. Personally I’ve witnessed many stories in which family and friends pressure youth to commit to draining jobs for the sake of status and wealth, among other reasons. I wanted “Class Act” to be a positive message for students looking at options for their future careers and decide that living their lives are more important than grades and being a cog in a machine.
