A Shelter from the Storm
Stratostorm Studio’s award-winning new short Umbrella promotes a message of hope and empathy.
An animated short about kindness and helping those in need in times of adversity seems to be the perfect antidote to our troubled times. Brazilian studio Stratostorm’s new project Umbrella has arrived at the right moment. Directed and written by co-founder and exec producer Helena Hilario, along with Mario Pece, the short tells the story of a young orphan who dreams of owning a yellow umbrella, and the chance encounter with a kind girl who makes a big difference in his life. “Filled with messages of hope and empathy, this short was inspired by a situation experienced by my sister,” says Hilario in a recent interview. “It makes us reflect on the importance of observing, listening, and understanding that we cannot judge people without knowing what is behind their experience. Everyone goes through situations that we can’t even imagine, so we must be kind to each other. That’s why we thought about bringing empathy and hope to this narrative. Something we need more and more.” It took the Hilario and her team at Stratostorm about eight years to realize this dream. “We had to gather experience in animation, plan financially to produce it independently, and put together the right talent artists to bring the project to life. Once we were ready, it took us 20 months of full-time production,” says the director. “Umbrella is the first-ever full character-and-story-driven animated short that was rendered using Corona Render, and it was created and produced in Brazil with a small team of talented artists at our studio, who put all their love and dedication into the execution of all stages of production and brought to life exactly what Mario and I envisioned.” All About Teamwork Hilario says she is very pleased with the result of an incredible collaborative process between everyone on her team. “We had three full-time CGI artists, and we reached up to a total of nine CGI artists during a few months into the production and a total of five animators. The main characters were beautifully crafted and designed by Victor Hugo, a talented Brazilian 3D artist who worked previously on Moana and Marvel projects.” Of course, producing this ambitious short had its share of challenges. “Back in 2016, our resources back in were limited, and we had to figure out solutions for the problems we were encountering on the way, from concept to storyboard, to animation and rendering,” recalls the director. “Still, successfully we figured everything out and had fun during the making of Umbrella while keeping the production on schedule and within our budget. The challenge in terms of storytelling was to fit an entire emotional story in eight minutes without dialogue and using the animation and music as the keys to evoke complex emotions.” After the short was completed, the team had to prepare Umbrella for its global festival debut. “It was our first time at film festivals, so it required much planning and research around the submissions and deadlines,” explains Hilario. “Gladly, our short had a wonderful reception with festival programmers, juries, and audiences, and we are thankful for every opportunity given to our beloved short film during this year.” She adds, “I think the reception has been positive because Umbrella has a timeless message of empathy and everyone can relate to it. The story offers a message of hope and kindness that makes us think that we shouldn’t judge other people’s actions without knowing what they are personally going through.” This year, Hilario and her talented team at the studio (which has offices in São Paulo and Los Angeles) will be working on their second animated short. Founded in 2016, Stratostorm specializes in CGI, 3D animation, and content creation based on storytelling for entertainment and advertising projects. “We are currently developing Stratostorm´s new animated projects and producing content for several clients that add up to thousands of hours of original content for online platforms and advertising projects,” says the studio co-founder. “During these difficult times, we were fortunate to keep working from home by having a strong pipeline that allows all the artists to connect to our remote workflow while keeping everyone safe until we return to work at the studio.” As a wider audience discovers Umbrella this year, Hilario says she hopes people will take its message to heart. “As storytellers, we want to say work hard, and be disciplined towards achieving your dreams,” she says. “Find a unique story within your own experiences, be truthful, and turn it into art! A story that you really believe and it is made with all your heart will find its way to come to life. Be passionate and patient because an independent animated project might take a long time to come to life: Enjoy the journey and people you will meet along the way, and in the end, it will be worth it!”
For more information visit stratostorm.com