The Invisible Truth - Jacob Ferguson

Stunning. This animation captures you both aesthetically and emotionally. The short animation starts as the boy waits outside his house. The bright colours of the sun which looks like it's about to set, as we later find out these bright colours could reflect how happy he feels away from whats inside the house, his abusive father/stepfather. The fact the sun is setting, could show how his happiness is about to set as he enters the house, complementing this is how time slows for a second, demonstrating his want for this time before he enters the house to lengthen and last forever, anything to delay the onset of abuse.

As he enters, the colour tones contrast completely.

We get darker purple hues, connoting of more of an austere and confrontational atmosphere. We are shown a childs drawing, presumably the child we are following, drawing his family with a monster in the middle reflecting his abusing father. 

The picture smashes into fragments, this goes hand in hand with the whole aesthetic of the animation which is fragmented, it flickers and distorts, showing how fragmented this child is emotionally and maybe even physically as a result of this abuse of himself and his mother. When we see the abusive parent, we see him through the eyes of the child, we see him flicker and distort into the monstrous drawing as he becomes more and more abusive, more inhumane and animalistic, reflective of his nature. Even his movements are animalistic as he physically abuses his mum and runs after him in the woods like he is a wolf, the woods is where he belongs. By this point we see the aesthetic turn even darker, so dark we have to look hard to notice shapes and movement. This then fuels the horror element, as the monstrous father flickers closer and closer, with the chilling SFX it makes you jump. This is a clever technique putting the audience in the position of the child making us feel his fear he feels towards his abusive parent, evident in the drawing.

At the very end it progresses into a chase scene as the boy runs towards the light, the light of help, the door away from the abuse, a helpline perhaps?

What I also love about the aesthetic is the oil painted effect. Being an avid painter and fine artist I would love to try some of these effects digitally.