This is the end of our high school years, the end of school, the conclusion of a life I’ve been clinging to for as far as I can remember. I don’t know what to expect from the future, and that scares me in a way. In the very start of the Choice Project, we were given a series of prompts and themes to guide our work for the next month. One of such prompts was “imaginary friend”, and, given how imaginary friends are often seen as something childish, something that is left behind as we age, I wanted to portray my self-imposed fear of the future by creating an animation around the idea of growing up and leaving the reality we are familiar with as children behind.  

 

Unlike my previous animations, conveying meaning was one of, if not the most important aspect of this production. I wanted to emphasize the symbolism behind my production by using distinct colors (with the exception of the “opportunities”, everything was outlined and shaded in black and white) and drawing styles to represent the different ways a child and an adult understand the world around them. Additionally, I wanted to establish a connection between the animation and I. This is why I thought that showing the diary pages being discarded by my own hand would complement this idea.