I recently made an animation for the Murakami Short Film Festival competition, which came runner-up. The idea was to make a 7 second film based on anything to do with Murakami’s books; which left a lot of room for interpretation – and it was really interesting (and cool) to see what other entrants made, and how they managed to construct snippets of narrative and portray themes from his books within such a tiny timeframe. My entry was based on a quote from Murakami’s book “Kafka on the Shore”, and I took inspiration from the ever-present surrealism and metaphors in his writing.

“Sometimes fate is like a small sandstorm that keeps changing directions. You change direction but the storm chases you. You turn again but the storm adjusts. Why? Because this storm isn’t something that has nothing to do with you. This storm is you. Something inside of you. So all you can do is give in to it, step right inside the storm, closing your eyes, and walk through it, step by step. And once the storm is over you won’t remember how you made it through. But one thing is certain. When you come out of the storm you won’t be the same person who walked in.”

Finally, here’s a short clip I made for my Instagram account showing some of my process:

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