The Making of Crater
A Journey of Passion, Creativity, and Animation.
An artist is someone who’s constantly exploring new outlets of expression. There are times when the stars align, and the perfect opportunity lands at our feet.
And when it doesn’t? We have to create our own opportunities. That is what Pakhi and Raaj did with Crater - their very first animated film project.
At the studio, animation has always been something that we have loved getting our hands dirty with. There's a whole world out there that’s waiting to be explored, and we’re always hoping to land a client who shares our excitement for exploring the possibilities.
But to satisfy our drive, Raaj questioned - why wait for a project? Why not just get the ball rolling and create our own film? In hindsight, none of us could have imagined Crater becoming what it is today - a passion project born out of our desire and obsession to create something uniquely ours.
Obsession - the word that defined what Crater would be about.
As artists, Pakhi and Raaj are no strangers to the feeling of being so consumed in your craft that you can’t think about anything else. “To get to know your character the best, you have to add a little bit of yourself to them.” said Raaj, as he unfolded the process of how the protagonist of their film came to life.
Without disclosing too much about the film, Crater is a study of these obsessions and their impact on our lives through a little girl’s eyes, who’s reaching for the stars. It is a call for curiosity and exploration, asking the audience to reflect on whether they are looking up in the sky for their own guiding stars.
As much as there is to take away from the film, there is also a lot to take away from the process. It goes without saying that the 6 months that were spent on making this film weren’t short of challenges. Getting two strongly opinionated creators to see eye-to-eye is a challenging task. For two months, Raaj and Pakhi turned Thirdwave Café into their creative war room, fuelled by copious amounts of coffee and endless brainstorming sessions. Each idea, design, and style choice was carefully mulled over, and sometimes fought over too.
“When you’re working on a film, it's very easy to get lost in a lot of contradictory thoughts. Our natural instinct is to create something that stands out from the crowd.”
said Pakhi, as she reminisced about some of their early brainstorming sessions. There was enough on the table for anyone to feel lost - new software to learn, creating a whole new world and its characters, crafting an original score, to name a few. And the more time you spend sitting and contemplating what you have created, written or composed - the stronger is the urge to change it and find newer ways to make it even better. Sometimes you end up spending too much time on futile details, and sometimes not enough on important ones.
In spite of these bumps along the way, both directors agreed that they took away some profound learnings from this experience. Now that Crater is making rounds at various film festivals, Pakhi looked back on her journey and mentioned how at the end of the day, she realised that there will always be something out there that’s done bigger and better, and you cannot let any of it get in the way of your creative process. Watch films, take notes, take inspiration, and just get to it. Even if it is not the best thing in the room, it will still be yours - something that applies to most creators out there as well.
Very soon, Crater will be out there on all platforms for viewers to watch. It's an 8-minute film and believe us, you would not want to miss a single detail. Every individual who has had early access to Crater has had varying thoughts on what the film is trying to say. Leaving that interpretation open to the viewers, Pakhi & Raaj are eager to soon share their film with everyone out there. Our sincere hope is that Crater does for you what it did for us - inspire us to act on an obsession, and reach for the stars✨
Watch the teaser here👇🏻