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“The Bridge” is inspired by a true story about a man who is struggling with his mental health after being left by his wife, and, in parallel, a story about a dog abandoned by his family and left on the streets of NYC. As these two characters experience lives filled with rejection, we see their paths cross and a quiet bond begin to grow. The film explores how this connection ultimately saves both of their lives.
Set to GRAMMY® Award-winning artist Lou Reed’s “Perfect Day”, “The Bridge” is a short film about mental and animal health inspired by a real life-saving friendship.
Art direction was pivotal in depicting the main characters’ internal mental health struggles. The overall art direction of the film was developed to create a hostile world where our characters feel cramped and unwelcomed in the world they inhabit. The New York Cityscape we created is distinctly different from a playful PIXAR-like style. Our characters’ surroundings are distorted and feature gothic-inspired angles. Our main character designs are also distinct from the light-hearted style of PIXAR animated characters. They were created with unusual proportions and edgy, scribbled textures to portray their stress and agony. The main font for the film is heavy and full of empty spaces–another art direction technique we used to help tell the mental health story. The shaky effect on all the characters, objects, and fonts creates an overall sense of instability and a need for resolution.
Because “The Bridge” is a film without dialogue, Lou Reed’s music plays a crucial role in setting up the meaning of a “perfect day.” That definition changes as the narrative progresses from the irony of a "perfect day in the beginning of the film–when both of our main characters feel hopeless and rejected–to the transition to a more literal meaning–when their bond leads to the possibility of better days ahead.
We’ve intentionally used sound effects to communicate the difficult mental space both man and dog are experiencing. The dense and inhospitable sounds of the city, including traffic, sirens, and buzzing, mimic the man's mental state, which is amplified by the loving–yet chilling–old, recorded message that plays in the very beginning of the film.
“The Bridge” is an animated short film about mental and animal health, inspired by a real life-saving friendship.
Color plays an important role in the narrative of the film. The blue and gray tones are a metaphor for the inner mental states of both characters, as they struggle with depression and loneliness. Conversely, orange is used to represent hope and the road to healing, and first appears in short flashes triggered by the positive interactions they have with each other. “The Bridge” culminates in a fully transformed, bright, orange world reflecting the characters' now positive and hopeful mental states, following their now unbreakable human-animal bond.
