Bellefaire/ Value You
Directior & Art Directior
This film sensitively raises awareness about the trafficking of vulnerable young people in North America.
The initial concepts were exploring the ambivalent relationship between our main character and the online world which is both a place of comfort and a pool of danger
“…It always come with strings attached”
We tried to illustrate the subjugation and the feeling of entrapment
felt by young kids subjected to human trafficking
Our initial character design revolved around the idea that those teenagers, as victims, experience a loss of their sense of self, their personality. From a design point of view, we tried translating this into an absence of features.
“No one can put a price tag on you”
To express the depersonalization, the monetization of those teenagers, we went for a very impactful visual :
the loss of their features, being slowly torn at and ultimately transformed into bills
The use of strong colours for each scene allowed us to recreate the emotional journey of the teenagers - the middle of the film as the darkest part, skewing toward sombre reds and blues before returning to the default soothing yellow tone at the end
The feelings of entrapment and helplessness teenagers felt when falling victim to human trafficking
is shown here through the use of transparent cubes/prisons …multitudes of them
Original storyboard for the sequence
Bellefaire / Value You
Agency
Catbird Agency
Director
Manddy Wyckens
Music
David Pape
Produced by
Studio AKA
Bellefaire was recognised by the Communication Arts Annual, for this stunning work, as ‘an example of the best illustration work in the animation category.
To garner recognition at this level is outstanding. Out of 4,000+ submissions, only 128 projects were selected.