Fallin’ Floyd

Fallin’ Floyd is a short film directed by Dutch artists Paco Vink and Albert ‘t Hooft that deals with the subject of failed love relationships and successfully mixes some strong dark tones with a humorous approach. It focuses on character development and uses a heightened level of subjective narration, transposing an internal conflict into an external character.

Fallin’ Floyd makes use of camera moves to signal the deteriorating psychology of the main character (thus the name of the short) and places an emphasis on scene transitions, avoiding straight cutting. The visual rhythm is quite high, employing camera moves as well as movement within the frame, both carefully synchronized with the pace of the music.

Highlights of the short include its playful staging (the psychoanalyst’s scene deserves a special mention), fluid animation, the great work done on environment design (which mixes and integrates 3D with 2D elements, as well as more freely painted 2D backgrounds), the use of music and how it influences people’s feelings, the subjective narration (and how it changes at times, producing funny moments such as the more objective POV in the restaurant scene at 3m50), the use of objects and the value placed on them, and most importantly, how it successfully manages to tell the story balancing serious issues with humor.