Alma (2009)
Saturday, June 25, 2016 - 03:50
This short film was created by Rodrigo Blaas,The story Alma is about a young girl who, whilst walking down a quiet road in France on a snowy winter's day, spots a doll in a shop window who appears to be a look-a-like of herself. Intrigued by this, Alma enters the strange shop to discover a number of other dolls. She tries to reach for the one doll which caught her attention in the first place however ends up getting more than what she had bargained for... Where she discovers only too late that the shop is nefarious intent on adding her to its permanent collection. Alma has been the 2009 winner of Best Animated Short at the Los Angeles film festival, Grand Prix Winner at the Bradford Film Festival, Fantastic Fest Special Mention, and Best Opera Prima winner at I Castelli Animati.
In only 5 minutes, animator Rodrigo Blaas Here he shows us how an interesting idea can be made into a convincing movie creates a misleadingly cheery moment, It starts as a something completely innocent and cute, and then, there is a very, very dark twist that at first seems as something borrowed from a supernatural thriller or a horror story. rises to a somber crescendo and leaves viewers dangling in disturbance. At first, this combination of cute and dark elements seems a bit strange, but it also makes me remember several fairy tales and cautionary stories that I used to hear when I was a kid, having plenty of macabre and sinister elements. evident that there is only one character throughout the entire film, Alma, whom the short story revolves around. This supports the notion that in a short film, there is normally only one protagonist. Furthermore, the employment of sound has been used very effectively in the sense that it is used not only as background music but also to show and convey the emotion and reactions of the little girl Alma. For example, when Alma sees the doll which reflects herself in the shop window, the music becomes a bit alarming and eerie to convey a sense of shock towards the audience. Furthermore, the use of camera techniques has a great impact in the short film as it helps reinforce feelings and tension in the animation through the use of close-ups. Keeping on the subject of the visuals, this has played a key role throughout the whole film as we learn a number of things through this means. For example, at the beginning of the short film "Alma", we learn of the protagonists name when the young girl writes her name on the window due to the absence of dialogue and any side characters to state it for us. The use of the brief focus on the small boy doll on the bike is also of great importance too as the doll repeatedly trying to get out of the shop but continuously bumping into the closed door symbolizes the idea that Alma is actually in danger and needs to get out of the shop herself. The composition of her when she is in the doll on the shelf surrounded by other dolls also conveys the idea that she is also stuck within this self-representing doll. Lastly, we learn at the end of the short film through visuals that there is in fact a twist to the whole story as another doll portraying a young child magically appears in the same place that Alma's doll appeared and we also see the wall in which Alma wrote her name. Here, as the camera zooms out, the audience realises that all the other names which can be seen actually belong to children who had followed the exact same steps as Alma and are trapped inside doll version of themselves as well.
little girl, toy shop, snow
Rodrigo Blaas
Best Animated Short at the Los Angeles film festival
Grand Prix Winner at the Bradford Film Festival
Best Opera Prima winner at I Castelli Animati
2009 Seattle Children's Film Festival
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