A Love Story
A powerful tale about love faced with darkness. Using Stop motion, multi-plane and rigged puppets.
A Love Story Poster (2016) by Anushka Kishani NaanayakkaraNational Film and Television School
Synopsis
Told through the medium of stop-motion. A Love Story follows two characters who cocooned in their love who go on a heart-breaking journey of self discovery believing they live in a world without sharp edges.
They find hardship in a sudden sickness that infects one of them. As the journey from lover to carer and back again grows from unlikely to seemingly impossible, they must make some hard decisions about how much of themselves they can give without compromising their identity.
A LOVE STORY_STILL 4 (2016) by Adeyinka Edward & Alvilde Horjen NaterstadNational Film and Television School
FILM FACTS
YEAR OF PRODUCTION: 2016
LENGTH: 6 Mins
ANIMATION TECHNIQUE: Stop motion, multi-plane and rigged puppets.
COLOUR OR B&W: Colour
SOUND: Dolby Digital
Keep exploring below to see Director Anushka Kishani Naanayakkara's comments about the making of A Love Story.
A Love Story - a still from the film, 5 of 8 (2016) by Anushka NaanayakkaraNational Film and Television School
A Love Story is heavily inspired by a personal experience. I felt it would appear quite self-indulgent. Then I came across Amy, the documentary about Amy Winehouse by Asif Kapadia. Watching her talk about why she chose to write such personal songs was inspiring.
A Love Story - Behind the Scenes (2016) by Anushka NaanayakkaraNational Film and Television School
To bring out the 3-d space of the world, we needed to use 3-d puppets, which changed the world dramatically. We then had to figure out how to rig the puppets onto the multiplane and move them between layers of glass. We were lucky the NFTS was very supportive of the technique.
A Love Story - a still from the film, 6 of 8 (2016) by Anushka NaanayakkaraNational Film and Television School
During the scene where the white puppet is abandoned the background uses a 'washed-out' colour palette with the net material molded into a large spiral shape to convey a sense of emptiness. This piece was inspired by the sea.
A Love Story - a still from the film, 8 of 8 (2016) by Anushka NaanayakkaraNational Film and Television School
In the scene where the puppets dance around each other not only did I have to try moving the threads towards the camera, while the camera was moving away, but slow-motion of the puppet moving across the screen and rotating the puppets whilst they burst through a cloud. It took me 6 weeks to complete it.
A Love Story - Behind the Scenes 2 (2016) by Anushka NaanayakkaraNational Film and Television School
We came to the agreement that the soundtrack should be a conversation between the characters. With the main character having vocals and the blue character an instrument, to reflect its personality. Keep exploring below to see a storyboard, making of video, and the actual film, A Love Story.
A Love Story Storyboard (2016) by Anushka NaanayakkaraNational Film and Television School
The Making of A Love Story (2016) by Anushka Kishani NaanayakkaraNational Film and Television School
A Love Story (2016) by Anushka Kishani NaanayakkaraNational Film and Television School
A LOVE STORY_STILL 3 (2016) by Adeyinka Edward & Alvilde Horjen NaterstadNational Film and Television School
Nominations and Awards
Nominations;
Royal Television Society Student Television Awards, 2017 - Nominated for the Best Postgraduate Animation Award, Postgraduate Camerawork Award and Postgraduate Production Design Award
Royal Television Society Craft Skills Awards, 2017 - Nominated for the Best Cinematography Award (Adeyinka Edward Daniyan and Alvilde Horjen Naterstad), and the Best Production Design Award (Solrun Osk Jonsdottir)
Wins;
Rhode Island International Film Festival 2016 - Winner of the Grand Prize for Best Experimental Film
British Academy Film Awards 2017 - Winner of the Best British Short Animation award
Monstra Animation Film Festival 2017 - Winner of the Junior Jury Honourable Mention for Best Student Film
CILECT Prize 2017 - Joint Winner of the First Prize in Animation
British Animation Awards, 2018 - Winner of the Student Achievement Award
Short Film Festival Berlin (Interfilm), 2017 - Winner of the Best Animation Award
A LOVE STORY_STILL 1 (2016) by Adeyinka Edward & Alvilde Horjen NaterstadNational Film and Television School
Selected Crew
Director
Anushka Naanayakkara
Producer
Khaled Gad
Writer
Elena Ruscombe-King
Cinematographers
Yinka Edward
Alvilde Horjen Naterstad
Production Designer
Solrun Ósk
Editor
Joseph Comar
Sound Editor & Re-recording Mixer
Marcin Szumilas
Composer
Victor Hugo Fumagalli
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