Yucatan

Yucatan is a short film created by six students at French school LISAA about a thief who faces a giant serpent when he tries to steal a treasure from an ancient temple. The film was created as a graduation project at Paris-based LISAA’s Bachelor Animation 2D/3D program and it stars Quetzalcoatl, the Aztec deity, in a most unusual role.

Two characters (one of them a giant feathered serpent), a simulated external conflict, a surprise shift from the action/adventure to the comedy genre, an intense chase sequence and a focus on play and the interaction between humans and animals are key elements of the short.

Staged in an ancient temple in Mexico (in the middle of a jungle), good effort has been dedicated to environment design and characters. The expressiveness of the young thief, as well as that of the feathered serpent help greatly in transmitting conflict and transitioning it into a fetch game later in the film. The idea of portraying the Aztec deity Quetzalcoatl as an animal that plays a fetch game as if it was a dog is notably creative.

The short employs a stylized aesthetic with varying color palettes, predominantly with warm colors. Special attention has been dedicated to lighting. 3D elements are used too (for modeling the temple in the action sequences), shaded in a way as to integrate them with the stylized 2D aesthetic.

The aesthetic of the short changes from 0.35s-0.47s, using simplified 2D flat shapes, in a sequence that implements codes from video games. There’s also interesting use of a self-reflexive element, an animation within an animation (the feathered serpent in the background wall), as well as use of partial discontinuities in editing (they affect everything but the thief character, while making the animation of the serpent progress forward).

Visual rhythm varies from standard to high (as conflict increases) and is handled through editing, changes in lighting, motion within the frame and camera moves (pans, tilts, zooms, crane, handheld), camera shakes, etc.

Extreme long shots and long shots are used to situate the temple and describe its interior, as well as the thief’s interaction with its traps and the guardian serpent. Tighter shots are employed to help transmit the thief’s emotions and increase the subjectivity in narration (a few POV shots are employed, too), as well as to highlight the moment he stumbles upon a branch and falls to the floor.

What makes Yucatan work so well? Unusual staging, effective directing, creative script, expressive characters and a great plot twist that shifts the film towards comedy and makes it especially appealing to anyone who is fond of pets.