For the past seven months, I’ve been developing a short film focused on the idea of loss and remembrance. The term “Non Dimenticar” (or non dimenticare) means Do not forget, a fitting name for the project.
The story itself was inspired by a restaurant outing and an elderly man sitting by himself. My girlfriend and I fantasized about the life this sad looking man may have lived, and imagined that as he sat by himself, he was recalling dinners and nights out with his wife who may have passed. While we were eating, we overheard the old man tell his waitress that his wife was out with her friends, and he was in the mood for this restaurant, so he just came by himself. We were immediately relieved that our made-up story was just that, but I couldn’t shake the idea.
After returning home, I sketched out the characters, and further began to develop the story. There were to be three characters: Harold, his wife Bianca, and their daughter Alexandra.
Swept away by the idea of this project, I drafted an animated story board and a shot list. After my previous failed short film, I tried for a narrower scope, shorter length, and a more realistic production schedule (since I still work full time at an advertising agency). The goal I set for myself was to push my character models to have more charm and higher attention to detail than previous attempts, and to make a more inviting environment with plenty of personality.
I’m still working on the film, but I’m making good progress. Below, you can find a series of photo references, blocking, progress shots, and color grading example as I modeled the restaurant interior and additional assets. The restaurant itself is based on Villa Francesco’s in Pennington,NJ. The same place where my girlfriend and I saw the old man sitting by himself that inspired Non Dimenticar.
