UNREAL VISCERAL MOTION

James Clarke speaks to director Miguel Ortega about the making of The Voice in the Hollow

- James Clarke

There's a rich, longstanding connection between animation and fable, and that dynamic is vital to the sensibility of the animated short film The Voice in the Hollow from Miguel Ortega and Tran Ma. Both have notable backgrounds in visual effects work, with credits that include work on Transformers, Thor, Alice in Wonderland and Avatar to name just a few. The Voice in the Hollow marks a major moment in their filmmaking evolution. For Ortega, the short film is a fable and, in keeping with that tradition, he and Ma found themselves embarking on a creative journey into unknown territory where discoveries and creative revelations were made.

Guillermo del Toro has recently reminded audiences that animation can be more than only a medium for the family entertainment space with his adaptation of Pinocchio. Certainly, Ortega and Ma’s new short film attests to the power of animation to strike a number of raw emotional and psychological nerve endings. It’s a story that ventures into horror and the supernatural; suffused as it is with images that vividly express the inner lives of characters, and all done within a scenario that fuses the mysterious with the visceral.

Ortega begins by sketching out the genesis for the film, explaining that it was initially sparked by a northern Californian story about a Paleo-Indian girl who fell into a cave and the numerous people who endeavoured to rescue her, but only ever with tragic ends.