Produced in the Animation Production Studio course at Columbia College Chicago, "Frankie" is the result of a two-semester capstone experience where two dozen seniors collaborated to produce an animated short from conception to premiere.
In September 2023, I was elected to direct this film, and I am beyond grateful to have had the opportunity to do so. As the director of "Frankie", I was responsible for all creative decisions and played a large part in weaving the story together. What started out as a story about a reckless kid and their pet goldfish turned into a story about a dad who would do anything for his (still reckless) little girl.
"Frankie" debuted May 10th, 2024, at the 19th annual Manifest Animation Showcase hosted by Columbia, and was met with much love and even more laughter. "Frankie" has been submitted to several film festivals, and we are eager to share our film with the world!
Scroll down to watch "Frankie" on Vimeo!
(Hey! I made this poster too)
@frankie_thefilm
Watch Frankie Here!
PASSWORD: APS24
Concept Art + Pre-Production
What initially started out as a pitch about a man trying to hide a dead body from his landlord spiraled into a parent trying to hide a dead fish from their child.
Designing these kiddos was so much fun, and a huge milestone for me finding my footing as a character designer! Still some of my favorite work that I did for "Frankie".
After narrowing down my favorite kid designs, I drew concepts for their parents. The. dad and daughter design was an immediate favorite, and the inspiration for our final characters, Franklin and Emmy!
This bug-eyed guy served as inspiration for our final fish design, the Frankie himself!
I played around with the idea of this story taking place in Hawaii for a little bit, but we ended up going for a Chicago suburb for the location since it's what we knew best.
Title card concepts for the days of the week, drawn in Procreate:
Storyboarding
One of the most challenging parts of directing this was coming up with the story from scratch in so little time. I'm lucky to have boarded two sequences that made it in the final edit!
Character Designs
Alongside our lead character designer, Xander Chatman, I helped develop the final looks for Franklin and Emmy. Over time, all reference pertaining to Emmy became my responsibility. My goal was to create as many resources as possible for my team to reference!
See the entire Emmy Model Pack here!
Backgrounds + Assets
I worked with our Art Director, Alex Suarez, to come up with a style that felt akin to a children's book, but with a little but of a painterly flair to it. I'm so glad we went in this direction because it really lends well to juxtapose what happens in the film.
 |  |  |  Parking lot background by Alex Suarez |  |
|---|---|---|---|---|
 |  |  |  Layout by Laura Moore |