Following multiple successes on the festival circuit over the past year and much critical acclaim, we're delighted that our experimental, animated short ‘Mamoon’ is now available to watch! We hope you love it as much as we enjoyed making it. 

Mamoon follows the story of a mother and her child whose lives descend into darkness when the moon mysteriously loses its light. As their own light begins to fade, the mother must work out how to save her child using a mysterious red glow.

Mamoon is the brainchild of Blue Zoo’s Senior Animation Director Ben Steer, who’s response to the company’s shorts programme won the heart of Blue Zooers who voted his idea into production. The brief was to create an emotional, human story, with the proviso that the characters be animated in Maya and then projected and filmed. Ben took a truly experimental path to produce the film, projecting animated characters onto 3D sets crafted from polystyrene blocks. 

“I found the brief really intriguing and felt strongly that light should represent life, just as lack of light should represent death. If a character is dependent on the light then shadows, objects and glass could hinder and distort them. Projectors also only project from one angle, what if multiple projectors were used for multiple characters? This presented a fascinating if challenging set of parameters in which to devise a story.’’ 
Ben Steer, Director

The Blue Zoo shorts programme is an excellent opportunity for experimentation and creative diversity, without the usual commercial expectations of a live project. Since its inception, Mamoon has gone on to receive multiple awards and was nominated for the 2018 BAFTA for Best Short Animation.

“The idea behind this was to benefit from the beautiful optical properties created in the process, elements we usually spend a lot of time and money trying to recreate - refractions, reflections, light bounce and depth of field. The only thing that would be done in post-production would be grading, everything else would be captured in camera.” 
Tom Box, Co-Producer

Check out the making-of here:

Credits:

Director: Ben Steer

Original Music: Matthew Wilcock for Zelig Sound

Animation: Phil Brooks, Ben Steer

Additional Animation: Ricky Honmong, Sarah Caisley, Simon Taylor, Steve Kimbrey

Compositing: Negar Bagheri, Elaine Thomas

Character Design: Marylou Mao

Rigging: Leo Blackmur

Modelling: Leo Blackmur, Lee Bowditch

Production Manager: Lizzie Hicks

Producer: Tom Box