"Cicadas come out of the ground for a party at the end of their lives."
Cicada Princess is a short film by Mauricio Baiocchi based on a children’s book of the same name, and these roots show through in the structure of the film. Baiocchi chose to do the adaptation by building a progression through various vignettes, which are weaved with voice-over narration (i.e. conflicts aren’t portrayed through action or performance).
Cicada Princess places an emphasis on staging and environment design, with wonderful choice of aesthetics, color and composition. Cameras are slow paced, with visual rhythm provided mostly through editing. The short is crowd-based, with just a few distinct characters being portrayed (sometimes identified through lighting – a device commonly used in theater), and none of them have readable facial expressions. Emotional content is transmitted through color, images, music and voice-over.
UK artist Mauricio Baiocchi has a career in CG and animation. He has worked on the VFX of a number of films (Terminator 3, Harry Potter, Star Trek Into Darkness, etc.) but decided to create this personal short using miniatures and puppets.
Why does Cicada Princess work so well? Wonderful aesthetic work and a script that will appeal to a wide audience, making us project our lives onto the two-day lifespan of the cicadas, showing that both last but a blink.
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