The Red Heels is a short film by Russian illustrator and animator Olesya
Shchukina that deals with the experience of a child getting lost and
finding her mother again. It was created during Olesya’s studies at
French school La Poudrière using stop motion and cut-out animation
techniques.
When I was around 4-5 years old I grabbed the hand of a man I didn’t know thinking it was my dad (…) when I looked up I realised it was a totally unknown man with a beard.
The film features one main character, a number of supporting characters,
an emphasis on offscreen space and is narrated from the point of view
of a child.
Staged in an urban location with a stylized minimalist aesthetic,the
short makes special use of colors and shapes to help identify
characters. The child’s conflict is augmented through the use of
offscreen space as well as through other external elements that actively
prevent the little girl from finding her mother (these could be
categorized as a conflict with the environment). Camera height is kept
at ground level to tell the story from the POV of the child and to help
build offscreen space.
Visual rhythm is handled through editing, motion within the frame and a
few camera moves, complemented by music. Sound helps describe the
locations as well as transmit the expressiveness of the main character.
What makes The Red Heels work so well? A feeling of authenticity
that is transmitted throughout the short, a highly expressive main
character, wonderful animation and aesthetic work, great creativity,
playfulness, economical storytelling and a subject that will appeal to a wide audience.
Director Olesya Shchukina kindly shared with us some insights on the making of The Red Heels:
Some stories behind the film:
1. The Red Heels was my student film at La Poudrière. The theme was
given by the school. The brief was to make a one minute film on the
theme of “Child’s point of view”. I decided to play it literally and to
show how the world looks like from the point of view of someone who’s
small. I had two memories from my own childhood that I used:
2. The very first design of the girl was very different. I was pretty
proud of it and used it in the animatic, too. I decided to show the
animatic to Konstantin Bronzit and ask him what he thought about it.
Bronzit was my main teacher back in St Petersburg, so I trusted his
opinion a lot (and I still do). I sent him the animatic and his first
reaction was that the design of the main character was super
unattractive and ugly. He called her something like a face with a mop
instead of the hair. He said it was important for the spectator to like
the girl from the very first sight and not to be confused by the design.
I got his point. After that I drew around at least one hundred of
different girls. I think I spent at least a week drawing them. It
brought me to the final design we see in the film. (some pictures are
here: Behance.net )
3. In the last scene of the film the cat licks its pow. And it’s not a
tongue but a little leg of the girl that I coloured differently.
I actually made a tongue specially for this scene but when I started to
animate it, I realised that it looked wrong.
4. I animated all the camera movements directly under the camera, by
using a ruler and by calculating it frame by frame. It means the scene
where the camera moves, I had not only animate the movements of the
characters, but also to move them simultaneously bit by bit to the right
or to the left. The hardest was to animate the scene where the camera
moves and the girl runs through the legs. I was so desperate that I even
went to the school restroom and cried there for a while so no one could
see me.
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