When a worm finds itself nearing a fishhook, it knows its inevitable fate. That fate is illustrated in “Bad Day For The Worm,” a short directed and animated by Ron Fleischer, a Columbia associate professor in the School of Design.
Fleischer hired seven alumni and one student, all paid, who worked together on the animation that will premiere for one night on April 18 at the Chopin Theatre in Wicker Park.
The three-minute short was produced by Bad Mule Inc., which has produced the short film “Nighty Night Ken Burns” and audiobooks like “The Lonely Banjo” and “Bad Mule Rag.”
This short film follows a fisherwoman named Patsy who contemplates baiting her hook with a worm that objects to being fish food. The storyline comes from one of the recorded poem shorts by Mark Roberts. After hearing “Bad Day For The Worm,” Fleischer thought it would be fun to animate.
“I saw it visually playing out in my head, which, you know, you always have to do at the start of any project, you have to get inspired by it and see it happening,” Fleischer said. “So, I listened to it, started playing out in my head, and I figured I could do this and I could do it probably fairly quickly if I had to.”
To complete the project, Fleischer recruited seven animation alumni and one current student, noting that he had a “great talent pool” to choose from. Many of the alumni were students in his “Animation Production Studio I and II” classes, a capstone class for senior animation students.
Samantha Kuykendoll, a 2024 alum who graduated with a bachelor’s in traditional animation, worked on the film as an animator, focusing on the “rough and cleanup animation” for four clips of the film.
Kuykendoll said her process involved drawing over and cleaning up the characters’ poses from Fleischer’s storyboards and adding “in betweens” to smooth the scene transitions.
“There were a few changes I made from the poses, to add my own body language and comedy to it,” Kuykendoll said. “Mostly with the worm talking, I would make him move in ways that I thought of, that weren’t exactly posed out.”
Kuykendoll said she enjoyed the opportunity to work in animation again, after being busy with a full-time job.
Alex Suarez, a 2024 Columbia alum, worked on the film as one of the two background artists, where she adapted sketches from the storyboard into the background of the scenes.
After finishing all of her background within four days, Suarez, who graduated with a bachelor’s in animation, said she found it rewarding to see it all come together so quickly, as she learned to work on a deadline.
“I have experience with working in a production, but this was definitely faster than our capstone class,” said Suarez, the former creative director for the Chronicle. “It was really fun, luckily I had some downtime that I was able to get that stuff done, but it was really cool and it got me a little taste of the professional world.”
Hudson Tikoo, a senior animation major, also worked on the film as an animator, helping Fleischer animate the storyboards and poses for the final product. As they used a program called Harmony to create animation from puppets, Tikoo said he faced learning curves in the process, one of which helped him master the skill of making unconventional poses of the characters look seamless.
“One of the hard parts in that is making it look like it’s moving without the lines breaking,” Tikoo said, “or different parts of the body appearing behind other parts when you’re making those pivot points.”
After the previous students finished the animation, Fleischer put everything together, doing the inking, painting and final line work. Then, he looks over his work several times and makes changes.
This process was smooth, Fleischer said. The whole short, which cost $2,500 to make, was produced quickly, with no roadblocks during the creation of the short.
“We were able to jump through various stages of production and parts of the approval process that you normally have to go through,” Fleischer said.
After the alumni’s work on the short film, many of them look forward to its premier after gaining an invaluable experience. Kuykendoll said she’s excited for people to see the film, after her time working on the project encouraged her to keep looking for animation jobs.
“I’m excited to see how it plays out, and how people will react to it,” she said.
Suarez also is looking forward to seeing the audience’s reaction and feedback on the comedic style of the film.
“I hope they enjoy it,” she said. “I really enjoyed the narration of the short film. The voice, I think it pairs really well with the animation, and I hope it’ll get some good laughs.”
Copy edited by Patience Hurston
Resumen en Español:
Seis ex-alumnos y un estudiante de Columbia fueron contratados por Ron Fleischer, un profesor asociado en la Escuela de Diseño, para trabajar en el cortometraje “Bad Day For The Worm”. El proyecto de tres minutos trata de una pescadora, Patsy, que se enfrenta a un conflicto cuando su gusano no quiere ser cebo para peces. El trabajo de los estudiantes, que eran animadores y artistas del fondo, se estrenará el 18 de abril en el Chopin Theatre, en Wicker Park.
Resumen por Sofía Oyarzún
Resumen editado por Doreen Abril Albuerne Rodriguez
