BLOOD BOUND | Animated Short 2023 | CALARTS

My second year film at Calarts!

This dream project would not have been realized without the support of my lovely classmates and film teachers, namely Henry Yu, Amarise DeFranco, Mina Chacko, Janelle Feng, Jaimi Qiu, Thet Chal, Veda Lee, Monica Ekabutr, Asher Borison, and my friends and family. Truly, thank you all so much aiding and guiding me through the storm this year 🥹 Thank you thank you thank you!! 🥰

I'm planning to make a behind the scenes video soon, walking through this project was a chaotic 9-months of my life. I'm so happy I made it to the other end, and I would love to ramble all about it!! 😇

🌞 Watch other films made by my classmates:

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Also feel free to ask any question in the comments! 💗

[Meppity]

I. AM. OBSESSED. 🤩

I'm so honoured to have seen this come together - this turned out beautiful in every way.

[OKslay]

She was using the other girl emotions to justify her murderous behaviour. I really want to see what will happen next.
- This channel is extremely underrated because of the cozy colors, voice acting from the animations, and it's rare to see some Vietnamese cultural animated films for both the Viet and foreigners!

[ana.]

The girl is a psychopath who waited for the right moment to say that "she cared" about the other girl, just to manipulate her into helping her out. GREAT STORY! I LOVED IT!

[itslarana]

Damnnn this is so amazing. The toxic behaviors from both of them make this so enticing and gripping to watch from start to finish. At first you think the long haired girl is the one in the wrong, she killed another girl to get the spot. Then it's revealed that Bac has basically been stalking her to a kinda creepy level. The long haired girl knows this and uses this information to manipulate her. And it's done so well too! She first says, "It was obvious" about Bac's love for her and then later says that she wasn't sure if she should tell Bac as she "wasn't sure she was right." These two statements contradict each other but it's done purposefully to manipulate Bac as at first she's essentially telling Bac that her stalking and keeping her hair is okay, and then getting her to forget about the horrendous act that the long haired just committed via confession and effectively securing her loyalty for covering up the murder. Such excellent writing and story in a short time period!

[melodystarlight]

Nothing more wholesome than hiding a body together with your crush 🥰

[Goat]

The fact that the murderer girl reluctently says "I care about you" and smiles knowingly when the girl that has a thing for her gors with it make her sound like she's only doing this so the other girl wouldn't rat her out.
I'm not sure if that the intention of this short animation but it feels like it

[MouseTheGoblin]

1:40 the fact she kept the knife close in case it didn’t work

[Azucenary]

THIS IS AMAZING! The storyline the colors the movement and all. I like the subtleties and how certain things were implied. You can really tell how manipulative one is and how the other falls for it with their obsession.

[kousse]

1:55 a little theory but adding on to someone else's, but Ai's tears here are in a way empty, there's no color as there are in becs, maybe this could be to symbolize the emotion she's showing during this part is hallow and fake? AMAZING JOB BTW!!!!

[ajstudios]

Don't let this distract you from the fact that the long-haired girl murdered an innocent girl for her own selfish desires and is using her knowledge of her friend's crush on her against her to manipulate her into going along with her plan and staying silent. I mean, honestly, if she is willing to kill the innocent for something like that, she'll go for her friend next if she ever steps out of line.

[crie_er]

AO DAI.
THE RED SCARF OF THE VIETNAMESE SECONDARY SCHOOL UNIFORM.
THE CLASIC YELLOW TINTED WALLS AND SCHOOL BUILDING STRUCTURE.
THE CLASSIC YELLOW FLOOR TILES.
GOD THIS IS SO GOOD.
THE LIGHTING AND ATMOSPHERE AND STORY AND EVERYTHING- IT’S JUST SO NICE.
I LOVE THIS.

[Kirasanban]

1:13 wow the subtle shift in Ai’s voice and in her actions! She seemed to force herself to say she cared about the other girl, and then she brought out her acting skills (her voice pitching up, her actions suddenly exaggerated as she brings her hands to her face). She was manipulating the other girl’s love for her in order to buy her silence. Or at least that’s how it came across to me.

[samstar]

"Look, I-I care about you too" I love how laborious it looks for her to say those words... as if the thought of caring for someone like her made her cringe

[nanany_art]

I could be wrong, but what if Ai is mildly allergic to flowers and only smelled one at 1:39 so she could tear up and make her performance more convincing? We see at 1:47 that her tear doesn’t have the same color at Bac’s. This could easily be an animation inconsistency, but given the attention to detail the animators have the entire film, I could be right in my assumption. Also, at the end her tears are the same color as Bac’s, meaning she actually felt emotional in that shot. I can’t wait for the creator’s commentary video to see if this is mentioned! :D

Edit: based on the responses I got, I now think the flower doesn’t really have to do with the tear, but the fact that it is not colored still comes across as that was a crocodile tear. Ai was using her acting skill to fake cry in that shot, while on the last one she was really crying.

[xkemgrh]

Amazing, amazing film!!! Has anyone noticed except for me that the characters' names each start with A, B, and C??
1. Ai (The murderer girl)
2. Bac (The short-haired girl)
3. Cam (The girl who died)

[SakuraOpalArt]

LYLY IM SO PROUD OF YOU and I"M SO GLAD TO BE ABLE TO BE A PART OF THIS EVEN THOUGH IT WAS JUST A LITTLE Seeing you get into calarts, make your first year film until now, , I'm so so happy for you and everything you have <333

[kitsuujujitsuu]

1:21 I love this part so much. Her smile when she sees that her manipulation is working on Bac as she said "I care about you too!"

[Red-Magic]

God, that manipulating was crafty. And at 1:23, you see that smug look when Short Hair outbursts...
She's like... "Haha, baited and hooked like a fish"

[sporky]

wow. it's incredible how much story and character you were able to convey while giving the audience so much information out of context. Kudos!!

[Scrofar]

So one's a stalker, and the other's manipulative. I honestly am already in love with this setup, and I am in deep agony wishing to see what happens next! Superb storytelling! I absolutely adore how it begins literally at the scene at the crime, and you get snippets of their motives and characters in these flashbacks, and how they collaborate together in flash-forwards. Argggh, it just makes me desire a show of this!