“Renewal” was the result of a collaborative project dealing with the importance of preserving the experiment. The short stop-frame sequence explored metaphorically the grandeur that can arise from salvaging the potential that is ruined each day by producing waste. Scripted by me and shot by Jacob A. Harer (with music synthesized by Matt S. Lyons), the minute-long film dealt with three major components: the revival of some trashed material, its transformation to something much greater than its meager beginnings, and its creation of new potential for others. 

 

The opening segment relies upon extensive use of stop-motion photography and reversing of camera frames to illustrate recovery. Depicting a crumpled paper ball leaping out of a trash can and unfurling to a previous state of perfection, the scene proposes what could have been had the resource not been discarded. The camera zooms in to see the unfurling of a new idea.

 

The second segment uses frame by frame updates to assemble the painting of a tree, stacked upon by hundreds of individual pieces. Set to coordinated music inspired by the Postal Service, this scene took the most resources to complete, a few hundred photoshopped slides in all. As the tree develops, the first color used in the entire short form saturates, to ponder that the future could be greater than the patience required to reach it.

 

The final segment zooms back to the table as the tree “bearing fruit”, blossoming digitally before bursting into the form of another paper ball. If given a chance to thrive and develop, the possibilities untapped by reusing resources is bounteous and unlimited. The newly created paper bears the intended message of the entire scene, that Renewal grants Potential.