Short film: Suitcase
What do you need to do to get some help with your suitcase?
Michael Soluyanov writes:I want to share with you my last blender-movie “Suitcase”! The animation is about a girl, who came from a trip with suitcase so large and heavy, that she can’t pick it up on the stairs in front of the bridge. Its was selected to IN.S.A.N.E. animation film festival 2015 (Malmö, Sweden), Kinoostrov 2015 (st. Peterburg, Russia) and outers.
Oh my god, this is really bad :(
I’m not saying this because I want to offend someone nor because I think the 3D craftmanship is bad.
The thing that makes this short suck is its story and the message behind it. I’m neither female nor do I consider myself a feminist, but you really can’t dispute that the message behind this pretty much is:
“Girl, don’t be unruly or stubborn when you try to achieve a goal. You’re just not strong enough. Just yield to the mass of all other girls and give that random stranger a smile, show him your sexy body and you’ll succeed.
Midway through the short I hoped she’d figure out a plot-twisting, clever way of solving her misery on her own. But instead she just adapts to this previous century woman role. What a missed opportunity.
well said, i agree
I totally disagree. This has nothing to do with a sexy body or succeed with flirting as she first tries to do exactly this and fails at 2:03. But when she is just humble and smiles she wins in no time… It’s beautiful when girls smile today. But this modern society has just trained girls not to smile anymore to get help. Look around in a modern city – all girls stare straight ahead because they don’t want to look in mens faces anymore and smile as they assume a bad reaction and no kind and helpful one…
And back to the topic: Great short, absolutely well done and worth being mentioned as outstanding in this dark world… I personally love the message and totally agree. It’s so well told. (Actually after the first two girls getting help I thought, she might try to dress her suitcase like an instrument as those other girls got their instruments carried ;-) – so I totally don’t see anything feministic or wrong in it…)
You’re right when you say she first fails at 2:08, where she just twinkles towards the men who then turns around and disappears. But I think she then goes 100% at 2:17, where she clearly gets into a more curvy (I’d say sexy) pose.
Though I have to admit, there is room for (mis)interpretation.
So let’s say the request for help (the smile) is totally honest, humble and foremost: non-sexual. In the end she still depends on men for help and smarms over them. That’s not a tragedy per se, but I personally would have prefered a more witty ending that positioned her as clever and independent.
Hmmm, saying modern society is training girls not to smile is a bit too melodramatic to me :)
Hmmm. I see your point and I don’t disagree with you. I would just say that showing or stating something doesn’t mean you endorse it. Comedy can make you aware of how things are, then you choose to judge them as you please.
Yup. I agree. Hear hear. Perhaps a pretty accurate depiction of a kind of crappy reality. At least that’s what I got out of it.
There’s basically three possibilities:
1. The author supports a conservative female image.
2. The author doesn’t endorse the protagonist’s behaviour, but want’s to kick of a controversial thinking in the audience.
3. The author didn’t pay much attention on the possible deeper meaning behind the story at all. There’s no awareness whatsoever.
My personal reaction then would be:
1. Very sad to hear. I hope there’s a change of mind someday.
2. I think that’s what todor suggests could’ve happend. Imho very unlikely. I can’t see any sign of contradiction. Plus it’s always easy to escape the responibility of your works perception by saying you don’t endorse it.
3. This can happen of course. But my point is: You have to spend days and weeks in creating such a short. Spend just a fraction of that time thinking about what the story really tells, if it (unintentionally) offends someone or what it may mean to different audiences before hitting the production.
Nice credits. I like the “reverse snow” effect.