The Making of… “A polluted fairy tale”

Are you ready? Ok, take a breath and let’s start at the beginning…

Elena, your video has already had more than 23,000 views on Instagram and more than 3,500 on Youtube, in just over a month from its release. Did you expect this?
“No, I didn’t expect it, however, I was hoping for it! I am happy to have reached so many people and I hope to be able to reach more and more. The effectiveness of this video only comes when it reaches a lot of people.”

When did the story of the making of “A polluted fairy tale” begin?
“Approximately one year ago. Although the stage when I began documenting on climate change dates back to three years ago. If we look at the period from when I started writing the storyboard to the time of publication, it’s been exactly one year!”

Please Elena, tell us something concerning how the idea was born!
“Actually, just looking at the short you can guess. It was born in a moment when I had a kind of “Epiphany”, in which I realized that although I dreamed of a bright future, the world around me may not afford it. This is due to the climatic and environmental crisis that looms over our and future generations. I am a 22 years old girl and I started working recently, so I thought that my contribution to solving the crisis could be to communicate it.”

Please describe us the context we have to step into at the beginning of the video, with the phone call and the deep breath before the story begins.
“The scenario is informal, spontaneous. It’s that of a phone call with a friend of mine, in which I was venting, setting off on what then becomes a sort of endless monologue. Kind of like you do at the psychologist! After a deep breath, I started telling her about my journey since kindergarten, telling where my need to communicate the climate emergency comes from. I explained to her what I was feeling, and I expressed all my frustration, which I think so many other people my age and older are experiencing, in coming to discover that there is a problem so bigger than themselves and that they don’t know where to start to try to solve it.”

Let me ask you a layman’s question: how many frames have you physically made, drawing them specifically
“Hundreds. Although not all scenes are made up of single frames, many are. Some are digitally animated, so the computer generates the transitions. While others I really drew frame-by-frame. For 10 seconds of video, it takes about 300-400 frames! It never goes below 12 frames per second!”

As for the idea and storyboard I think I can give you 100% of the credit! But can we say the same for animations and transitions, or do you give the computer / tech support part of the credit? We saw in one of your YouTube videos that you are super-equipped!
“Let’s say that actually a good computer is a good brush! On its own it does nothing, it is a tool that calculates little on its own. It needs to be “told” what to do, how to do it, through a long and tedious work. Therefore, at least 99% of the credit can be attributed to me, even for the graphic animations.”

Assembling the final version, did you discard some parts that you had already prepared, in order not to go over a maximum time you had planned?
“I wanted to say many things, initially I had estimated the duration to be 15 minutes! However, I decided to skim a lot of my speech, so that I could condense the contents in a period that the audience could enjoy, so that they wouldn’t get bored!”

The musical part, edited by Natalia Polvani, plays a role of fundamental importance for the emotional load that the video carries. Do you agree?
“Yes, absolutely. When I included her music, at a time when I hadn’t yet finished the final version, I re-arranged some animations in order to synchronize them and in my opinion it was the “X” factor that gave the short film an extra boost. I think she is a wonderful composer, as well as a great friend in everyday life.”

According to your intentions, “A polluted fairy tale” is aimed mainly at an audience of a defined age group?
“In my opinion it is aimed at both Generation Z, of which I am a member, and the Millennial generation, because of the subject matter. This issue for previous generations is more difficult to understand. However, I must say that I have received hundreds of messages and phone calls from people who are no longer very young, who have children, grandchildren or who are interested in the environmental message, and who have been very impressed.”

Have you already thought of a dubbed version in English, in order to reach more and more people around the world?
“Currently, subtitles in 8 different languages are already available, so almost all over the world there is the possibility of being able to understand it. In my opinion, since the video is extremely autobiographical, I prefer that the emotions that transpire and that are perceived from my story, can continue to come directly from my voice.”

The object that is picked up on the ground in minute 2.24 and the next one that you see just after, what are they and what do they represent?
“Both objects are of my own making, and acted as a conduict to express the concept of the “discovery” of the problem. The first object, which I pick up off the ground and looks like a bracelet, does not represent anything specific. It actually acts as a portal to my vision of the world. It is a sweetened, fairy world, the world I dream of and which I hoped could be the future of our generations. The second object, which is a concrete sculpture that I made in parallel with the video, is as if it represented and contained all my fears. This huge “beast” that somehow has to be faced and that affects us all.”

Was there a moment when you thought: that’s enough, I’ll never be able to finish this project. If so, how did you get overcome it and found the motivation to go on?
“Of course! (Elena laughs) I would say dozens of times! A year is a long time and the amount of work is really huge! Even some of my teachers had discouraged me a bit, telling me that I probably wouldn’t have been able to finish it in time for the graduation session I had chosen. However, thanks also to those with whom I had talked about the project and who had a great desire to see it finished, I thought that I could not disappoint the expectation that was created! I myself was looking forward to seeing it finished and I think that was the thing that pushed me most to keep working. So, just three days before its release, I watched the short for the first time from beginning to end without interruption!”

Personally, are you satisfied with the result?
“Yes, a lot. Especially because I started animating digitally just over a year ago, and therefore I consider myself a beginner. I had a lot of fun, I was able to use a lot of techniques, in complete freedom. I feel very satisfied!”

After you completed and posted the video, did you get the feeling that your friends and direct acquaintances had a push to want to know more about the climate crisis?
“Since I had already been talking to my family and friends about this topic for at least three years, I think that this kind of effect had already materialized before I finished the video. What I noticed was that many people didn’t think I was feeling the problem of the climate crisis so strongly, and that until that moment they hadn’t seen this critical issue in a different light. Many people have written to me that they are feeling a little guilty, that they are not doing anything concrete in their everyday lives. I hope that I have prompted at least some people to change something in their lives.”

We have come to the end of this very pleasant chat! In conclusion, do you think you managed to say everything you wanted to say? If you want, you can add something here!
“I think I managed to say everything I had in mind. The text has been written and rewritten dozens of times over the course of this year of making it. I did this with the very purpose of being able to include everything I wanted to say, in a time frame of a few minutes. On a personal level, I reiterate that I am pleased with the result. Clearly, the climate crisis is a decidedly broad issue. I think that for every single sentence extracted from the video, ten books could be written.”

Thanks Elena. For the chat and for the masterpiece you made.

TORNA AL BLOG DI MARCO FERRARI & CO

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On average every 3 weeks (depending on the period of the year, in which they can become 2 or 4) we will tell stories, events, initiatives created to make a contribution to the solution of the climate crisis.

There is no more time, do not continue to be part of the problem, be a solution!

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