More than a year after the formation of the classes of Nuova Animazione Sardegna’s laboratory, the first results begin to show with a new interesting short film related to the legends of Sardinia.
“S’Ammutadori” is an animated short film of around 10 minutes produced by Flora’s Room, a small animation studio in Oristano. The project was born from the idea by the studio’s founder Francesca Floris, initially developed during her period of formation at the Centro Sperimentale di Cinematografia in Rome, during which she worked in different Italian film productions. Then, during her master in Visual Anthropology at the University of Siena she worked in the field of animation and special effects: Mission Impossible 7 by Paramount Pictures, 44 Cats by Rainbow and My Brilliant Friend 2 and The New Pope by HBO). A short trailer is currently available in the YouTube channel of Flora’s Room that with its skillful editing gives a preview of the short film’s aesthetic and atmosphere.
On May 11th the Facebook page of Flora’s Room announced the conclusion of the short film’s production, with a lovely picture featuring Francesca Floris and the figure of S’Ammutadori posing for the occasion. It really seems the ideal moment to talk about this project!
The short film’s protagonists are two girls that are attacked in their sleep by S’Ammutadori, the sleep demon, and they have to face the origin of their deepest fears in order to overcome the creature and win the fight.
S’Ammutadori is a character present in Sardinian legends since ancient times; it's speculated that it’s first appearance goes back to 241 b.C. after the descent of the Romans in Sardinia following the defeat of the Carthaginians, and as a result the character would be a derivative of the Roman figure of Incubo. However, testimonies of a creature that acts while you sleep burdening people, usually by sitting on the chest, already existed before this date, thus the origin is not certain.
S’Ammutadori acts on sleeping people, taking your breath away with its weight, leading the victim to wake up. Several witnesses report having terrifying visions once awake, describing the creature in the most varied ways, therefore it doesn’t have a specific appearance because it seems to take the form of what terrorizes you specifically. This legend could have originated to make sense of the phenomenon of sleep paralysis: the mind is awake but the body is already in a sleeping state, you are conscious but cannot move, causing occasional hallucinations due to the lack of oxygen.
In the short film, the two protagonists have to face S’Ammutadori in this limbo between sleep and wakefulness. The story is based on a chapter of the novel “L’ultimo amore di Las” (The World of Las) written by Francesca Floris in 2018. “L’ultimo amore di Las” was born as an exhibition that uses as common thread a ten chapter novel about the love between two young women in a universe with fantasy characteristics. Each chapter has an illustration dedicated, accompanied by a quote from the chapter, followed by a paired photography. In 2019 Officina Libraria published a book about the experimental exhibition, featuring observations and considerations, but especially all the illustrations, pictures and complete novel. This is the brief plot taken from the book:
L’ultimo amore di Las tells in first person the story of a girl and her two wishes: to live her own passion freely and to conquer the woman of her dreams. Las lives in an alternative world, on a planet called Earth of the Truth, where the soul is defined with the name of Holy Body and has its own anatomy that is cured with the same criteria with which you cure the physical body. Las would love to become an artisan of Golden Scars (the equivalent of the prosthesis for the Physical Body) but she can’t go all the way through with this passion because she is affected by a trauma lived in her childhood, that doesn’t let her have the right psychological predisposition to practice such a job. This event had a strong impact on her love life as well, and on the way Las approaches the people she wants to know.
Flora’s Room is currently working on the production of a feature film that adapts the whole novel with the support of Sardegna Film Commission! The studio experiments putting together the aesthetic of 2D animation with the versatility of 3D animation.
The animator Fabrizio di Palma explains the procedure talking about the animated short film “Q”, set during the lockdown:
3D animation also gives access to the ability to move the camera in real time in space, easily change the angle of the frame and the focal length of the virtual lens. It also gives you the ability to play with the lights in real time and change lighting very quickly. It therefore unlocks a much more cinematic approach with new potential. However, the 2D animation approach leaves much more room for creativity, design and style, thus making it possible to adopt new, distinct and characteristic aesthetics. In “Q” we therefore combined the two worlds to exploit the maximum potential of both. We have created a work pipeline and implemented some techniques in order to obtain the flexibility of 3D, the expressiveness of 2D and combine them in a new visual language.
From the short film’s Press Kit we can briefly know the whole team of artists working on the production:
Oristano, 1995
Laura Leitermann - EDITOR
Pisa, 1989
Laura Leitermann works as an assistant editor and editor. After completing her high school studies in Lucca, where she grew up, she attended the Photography course at the LABA in Florence. Once graduated, she moved to Rome, where she specialized in video editing, first attending the NUCT and then the CSC. After completing her studies, she began working as an assistant editor on Italian films and TV series, music videos and continued to work as an editor on short films and documentaries.
Beatrice Mele - SOUND DESIGNER
Nuoro, 1993
Beatrice Mele works as a sound editor for cinema. Once she finished her high school studies, she moved to Pisa to attend university, in the course of Discipline of Entertainment and Communication, graduating in 2017. Once she finished her university course she specialized in Sound for Cinema and Television at the Centro Sperimentale di Cinematografia in Rome, choosing to focus on sound editing.
Lorenzo Consoli - ANIMATOR
Rome, 1995
Lorenzo Consoli is a 2D animator and clean-up artist. After completing his high school studies, he attended the animation course at the International School of Comics, in Rome, from 2015 to 2018. He specialized in cut-out animation at the same school in 2019. Since then he's been working on independent animation projects and infographic projects, and alongside Simone Filia, professor of animation at the International School of Comics, as an assistant professor.
Cyril Glerum - ANIMATOR
La Garenne-Colombes, 1996
Cyril Glerum works as a 2D animator and storyboard artist. He also occasionally works as an illustrator and cartoonist, with particular attention to the Japanese style. After obtaining the double Italian-French high school diploma in Rome, he moved first to Saint-Etienne, then to Eindhoven, and then to Padua, where he began to attend the International School of Comics. He finished his studies in September 2018 at the branch of the school situated in Rome, where he is now based and works.
Alessandra Valle - BACKGROUND ARTIST
Imperia, 1997
Alessandra Valle works as a background artist and 2D animator. Once she finished her high school studies, she moved to Rome to attend the International School of Comics and specialize in the field of drawing. At the end of the traditional animation and cut-out animation course, she starts working as a freelancer. She also works as a teacher at the Rome branch of the International School of Comics, in the animation course for children and teenagers.
I’m absolutely fascinated by this short film and the bigger story it’s part of, I can’t wait to know more and talk about it here!
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