SHYLA - 2023
Short Film
Role: Director

Shyla, a young girl who fell terminally ill due to heart failure, suddenly awakes in a world between life and death. Terrified and disoriented, she must overcome her fears to get to the gate of the afterlife; all the while her mother’s attempts to keep Shyla alive, risk her daughter being lost in limbo forever. This short film is a fantasy animation with themes of the struggle for acceptance and determination. It conveys the notion that no matter how desperately you try to hold onto something, sometimes the best thing to do is let go.

Shyla is my graduate film from Griffith University that I concocted and Directed.
Over the course of this project in addition to directing/ art directing I worked as a scriptwriter, primary storyboarder, concept artist, character designer, lead background/ layout artist, rough-cleanup-and-colour animation + VFX artist.

It has given me the opportunity to become very familiar with all aspects of the animation pipeline

"SHYLA" won 'Best Overal Animated Film', and 'Best Story/ Concept' at the Griffith Screening Awards.

( Poster also by me! )

INITIAL CONCEPTS - 2021

“Shyla” was developed with the intention of creating something with a slightly deeper more nuanced meaning and mature themes. A journey of acceptance and reluctant farewells; a large part of this this intended to be conveyed through the colours of the film. Each “Zone” has a largely monochromatic and distinct colour pallet to represent the range of emotions throughout Shyla’s journey, fear – sadness, and acceptance. The desaturated, almost grey-scale hospice zones in the ‘real world’ as a stark juxtaposition to Shyla’s journey and representation of the mother’s despair at the loss of a child and the unintentional harm behind or unwillingness to say goodbye.