Tethered
An Animated Short Film by Mahir Shafi Saeed & Urwah Arshad
“Tethered” is a story about a neglectful father who is forced to confront the deep rooted transgenerational trauma of his forefathers that exists throughout his inherited legacy. The three-generation span explored underscores the enduring legacy of transgenerational trauma, contributing to a deeper understanding of trauma dynamics and advocating for further investigations and more importantly, healing strategies.
A completely hand drawn animated short film, "Tethered" garnered international acclaim and awards. It won the award for "Best Animated Short Film" in The Film Tuition International Festival, "Runner Up Best Animation" at FILUMS, "Runner Up Best Animation" at LUMS Filmistani, "Best 2D Animated Film" in FUSST Open House, and is an official selection at five international film festivals.
The Pre-Production phase of "Tethered" took the longest time of all three phases, around 4 months.
The initial main character was going to be the 4th generation character i.e the child, but tracing the lineage all the way back to the great grandparent was proving to be a bit repetitive within the pacing.
The visuals of the dastarkhwan, rope and the goat came before there was any semblance of a story.
Having a distinct and consistent artstyle was a priority early on, so finding a direction for that was a crucial step during our pre production.
During this phase we also figured out which aspects to animate on one's and which to animate on two's
This phase saw the creation of assets, background paintings, finalized character sheets and a colour palette that adhered to the fixed art-style.
The duration of animation production was approximately 2 months.
Inspiration for the world building & architecture came from the androon gali's of Rawalpindi
The
Creators
