Poles Apart

No matter who you are, no matter where you're from, trust us when we say we're just a bench away.

#animation #polespart #arctic

At LastBench, we believe stories are a great equalizer. Can people and places, communities and regions, that are poles apart be brought together? “Poles Apart” is the first of our two-part mini-series that explores the way stories can unite people who are vastly different otherwise, and how we at LastBench hope to facilitate this.

Produced by

LastBench

Directed by

Raaj Rufaro

Art and Animation

Raaj Rufaro

Music and Sound

Niranjan Kotukkal

How it began:

‍

Poles Apart was the first of what was originally meant to be part of the five-parter series. For this film, Raaj brainstormed with Sriram and Shashank about making a short that creatively explores the characteristics of LastBench, while also being engaging content in general.

‘The Bench’ series was our attempt at trying different styles of short narratives that revolve around a bench, but explore different nuances of it.

It was some of our earlier Original work, and at this point, we wanted to experiment with short-form content between projects. Our series that took longer investments of time and effort so far (such as Blossoms or Folk Cricket) was far and few between as juggling intense, long-form productions with larger teams involved in between pre-existing commitments proved quite a challenge.

How it began:

‍

Poles Apart was the first of what was originally meant to be part of the five-parter series. For this film, Raaj brainstormed with Sriram and Shashank about making a short that creatively explores the characteristics of LastBench, while also being engaging content in general.

‘The Bench’ series was our attempt at trying different styles of short narratives that revolve around a bench, but explore different nuances of it.

It was some of our earlier Original work, and at this point, we wanted to experiment with short-form content between projects. Our series that took longer investments of time and effort so far (such as Blossoms or Folk Cricket) was far and few between as juggling intense, long-form productions with larger teams involved in between pre-existing commitments proved quite a challenge.

How it began:

‍

Poles Apart was the first of what was originally meant to be part of the five-parter series. For this film, Raaj brainstormed with Sriram and Shashank about making a short that creatively explores the characteristics of LastBench, while also being engaging content in general.

‘The Bench’ series was our attempt at trying different styles of short narratives that revolve around a bench, but explore different nuances of it.

It was some of our earlier Original work, and at this point, we wanted to experiment with short-form content between projects. Our series that took longer investments of time and effort so far (such as Blossoms or Folk Cricket) was far and few between as juggling intense, long-form productions with larger teams involved in between pre-existing commitments proved quite a challenge.

How it began:

‍

Poles Apart was the first of what was originally meant to be part of the five-parter series. For this film, Raaj brainstormed with Sriram and Shashank about making a short that creatively explores the characteristics of LastBench, while also being engaging content in general.

‘The Bench’ series was our attempt at trying different styles of short narratives that revolve around a bench, but explore different nuances of it.

It was some of our earlier Original work, and at this point, we wanted to experiment with short-form content between projects. Our series that took longer investments of time and effort so far (such as Blossoms or Folk Cricket) was far and few between as juggling intense, long-form productions with larger teams involved in between pre-existing commitments proved quite a challenge.

How it began:

‍

Poles Apart was the first of what was originally meant to be part of the five-parter series. For this film, Raaj brainstormed with Sriram and Shashank about making a short that creatively explores the characteristics of LastBench, while also being engaging content in general.

‘The Bench’ series was our attempt at trying different styles of short narratives that revolve around a bench, but explore different nuances of it.

It was some of our earlier Original work, and at this point, we wanted to experiment with short-form content between projects. Our series that took longer investments of time and effort so far (such as Blossoms or Folk Cricket) was far and few between as juggling intense, long-form productions with larger teams involved in between pre-existing commitments proved quite a challenge.

Keep it simple, silly

‍

Raaj came up with a simple thread - an interesting scenario of some sort takes place, LastBench comes into the picture and assists in a way leading to the resolution. Sounds ridiculously simple?

All good stories start out with a simple logline - what matters is how you treat it.

Next, Raaj debated where he wanted the story to be set - in space, on an Instagram feed, in a house, at a crowded market etc. Each idea was carefully mulled over and discarded until they hit upon the Arctic. It was perfect - it would have a minimal colour scheme and the juxtaposition of a bench in the snowy desert would invoke a surrealistic effect.

Once the landscape was decided, the rest was just a matter of a hop-skip-and-slide. You see, the first characters Raaj thought about were sad and lonely polar bears and energetic, friendly penguins. But they live on opposite poles, never co-existing with each other - so why not bring over the penguins for a friendly visit? Penguins can’t fly to their friends - so that’s where benches come in. At first, he planned one elongating one bench but eventually decided to line them up from pole to pole.

Keep it simple, silly

‍

Raaj came up with a simple thread - an interesting scenario of some sort takes place, LastBench comes into the picture and assists in a way leading to the resolution. Sounds ridiculously simple?

All good stories start out with a simple logline - what matters is how you treat it.

Next, Raaj debated where he wanted the story to be set - in space, on an Instagram feed, in a house, at a crowded market etc. Each idea was carefully mulled over and discarded until they hit upon the Arctic. It was perfect - it would have a minimal colour scheme and the juxtaposition of a bench in the snowy desert would invoke a surrealistic effect.

Once the landscape was decided, the rest was just a matter of a hop-skip-and-slide. You see, the first characters Raaj thought about were sad and lonely polar bears and energetic, friendly penguins. But they live on opposite poles, never co-existing with each other - so why not bring over the penguins for a friendly visit? Penguins can’t fly to their friends - so that’s where benches come in. At first, he planned one elongating one bench but eventually decided to line them up from pole to pole.

Keep it simple, silly

‍

Raaj came up with a simple thread - an interesting scenario of some sort takes place, LastBench comes into the picture and assists in a way leading to the resolution. Sounds ridiculously simple?

All good stories start out with a simple logline - what matters is how you treat it.

Next, Raaj debated where he wanted the story to be set - in space, on an Instagram feed, in a house, at a crowded market etc. Each idea was carefully mulled over and discarded until they hit upon the Arctic. It was perfect - it would have a minimal colour scheme and the juxtaposition of a bench in the snowy desert would invoke a surrealistic effect.

Once the landscape was decided, the rest was just a matter of a hop-skip-and-slide. You see, the first characters Raaj thought about were sad and lonely polar bears and energetic, friendly penguins. But they live on opposite poles, never co-existing with each other - so why not bring over the penguins for a friendly visit? Penguins can’t fly to their friends - so that’s where benches come in. At first, he planned one elongating one bench but eventually decided to line them up from pole to pole.

Keep it simple, silly

‍

Raaj came up with a simple thread - an interesting scenario of some sort takes place, LastBench comes into the picture and assists in a way leading to the resolution. Sounds ridiculously simple?

All good stories start out with a simple logline - what matters is how you treat it.

Next, Raaj debated where he wanted the story to be set - in space, on an Instagram feed, in a house, at a crowded market etc. Each idea was carefully mulled over and discarded until they hit upon the Arctic. It was perfect - it would have a minimal colour scheme and the juxtaposition of a bench in the snowy desert would invoke a surrealistic effect.

Once the landscape was decided, the rest was just a matter of a hop-skip-and-slide. You see, the first characters Raaj thought about were sad and lonely polar bears and energetic, friendly penguins. But they live on opposite poles, never co-existing with each other - so why not bring over the penguins for a friendly visit? Penguins can’t fly to their friends - so that’s where benches come in. At first, he planned one elongating one bench but eventually decided to line them up from pole to pole.

Keep it simple, silly

‍

Raaj came up with a simple thread - an interesting scenario of some sort takes place, LastBench comes into the picture and assists in a way leading to the resolution. Sounds ridiculously simple?

All good stories start out with a simple logline - what matters is how you treat it.

Next, Raaj debated where he wanted the story to be set - in space, on an Instagram feed, in a house, at a crowded market etc. Each idea was carefully mulled over and discarded until they hit upon the Arctic. It was perfect - it would have a minimal colour scheme and the juxtaposition of a bench in the snowy desert would invoke a surrealistic effect.

Once the landscape was decided, the rest was just a matter of a hop-skip-and-slide. You see, the first characters Raaj thought about were sad and lonely polar bears and energetic, friendly penguins. But they live on opposite poles, never co-existing with each other - so why not bring over the penguins for a friendly visit? Penguins can’t fly to their friends - so that’s where benches come in. At first, he planned one elongating one bench but eventually decided to line them up from pole to pole.

Visually, he wanted to bring the worlds together too - going from the minimal aesthetic of the polar bears to the bright maximalism of the penguins.

So Raaj chose layers and textures that helped achieve this - such as using textures that bring out the icy feel in the water and using smoke overlays over it to give it the oomph.For the frames with minimal visuals, he played around with the same tints and tones from a chosen palette, without changing hues while he did the opposite for the maximalist ones - expanding on the hues used.

What helped elevate this concept of contrasting the two styles was the music and sound - which was designed by Niranjan, our Lead of Sound Design and Music. He chose a piece of carnival-inspired upbeat music that helped introduce the transition to the bright colours. Raaj knew he wanted he music to hit a high as the penguins arrive - and Niranjan helped him achieve just that.

This project was an eye-opener for us in the sense that Originals can also be short - with a smaller team and shorter content, but within it, we can still experiment and achieve something impactful.

Perhaps the only regret is not doing the three pending bench series, as all five would’ve been different styles.

But who knows, that could be happening soon too! (wink, wink)

Visually, he wanted to bring the worlds together too - going from the minimal aesthetic of the polar bears to the bright maximalism of the penguins.

So Raaj chose layers and textures that helped achieve this - such as using textures that bring out the icy feel in the water and using smoke overlays over it to give it the oomph.For the frames with minimal visuals, he played around with the same tints and tones from a chosen palette, without changing hues while he did the opposite for the maximalist ones - expanding on the hues used.

What helped elevate this concept of contrasting the two styles was the music and sound - which was designed by Niranjan, our Lead of Sound Design and Music. He chose a piece of carnival-inspired upbeat music that helped introduce the transition to the bright colours. Raaj knew he wanted he music to hit a high as the penguins arrive - and Niranjan helped him achieve just that.

This project was an eye-opener for us in the sense that Originals can also be short - with a smaller team and shorter content, but within it, we can still experiment and achieve something impactful.

Perhaps the only regret is not doing the three pending bench series, as all five would’ve been different styles.

But who knows, that could be happening soon too! (wink, wink)

Visually, he wanted to bring the worlds together too - going from the minimal aesthetic of the polar bears to the bright maximalism of the penguins.

So Raaj chose layers and textures that helped achieve this - such as using textures that bring out the icy feel in the water and using smoke overlays over it to give it the oomph.For the frames with minimal visuals, he played around with the same tints and tones from a chosen palette, without changing hues while he did the opposite for the maximalist ones - expanding on the hues used.

What helped elevate this concept of contrasting the two styles was the music and sound - which was designed by Niranjan, our Lead of Sound Design and Music. He chose a piece of carnival-inspired upbeat music that helped introduce the transition to the bright colours. Raaj knew he wanted he music to hit a high as the penguins arrive - and Niranjan helped him achieve just that.

This project was an eye-opener for us in the sense that Originals can also be short - with a smaller team and shorter content, but within it, we can still experiment and achieve something impactful.

Perhaps the only regret is not doing the three pending bench series, as all five would’ve been different styles.

But who knows, that could be happening soon too! (wink, wink)

Visually, he wanted to bring the worlds together too - going from the minimal aesthetic of the polar bears to the bright maximalism of the penguins.

So Raaj chose layers and textures that helped achieve this - such as using textures that bring out the icy feel in the water and using smoke overlays over it to give it the oomph.For the frames with minimal visuals, he played around with the same tints and tones from a chosen palette, without changing hues while he did the opposite for the maximalist ones - expanding on the hues used.

What helped elevate this concept of contrasting the two styles was the music and sound - which was designed by Niranjan, our Lead of Sound Design and Music. He chose a piece of carnival-inspired upbeat music that helped introduce the transition to the bright colours. Raaj knew he wanted he music to hit a high as the penguins arrive - and Niranjan helped him achieve just that.

This project was an eye-opener for us in the sense that Originals can also be short - with a smaller team and shorter content, but within it, we can still experiment and achieve something impactful.

Perhaps the only regret is not doing the three pending bench series, as all five would’ve been different styles.

But who knows, that could be happening soon too! (wink, wink)

Visually, he wanted to bring the worlds together too - going from the minimal aesthetic of the polar bears to the bright maximalism of the penguins.

So Raaj chose layers and textures that helped achieve this - such as using textures that bring out the icy feel in the water and using smoke overlays over it to give it the oomph.For the frames with minimal visuals, he played around with the same tints and tones from a chosen palette, without changing hues while he did the opposite for the maximalist ones - expanding on the hues used.

What helped elevate this concept of contrasting the two styles was the music and sound - which was designed by Niranjan, our Lead of Sound Design and Music. He chose a piece of carnival-inspired upbeat music that helped introduce the transition to the bright colours. Raaj knew he wanted he music to hit a high as the penguins arrive - and Niranjan helped him achieve just that.

This project was an eye-opener for us in the sense that Originals can also be short - with a smaller team and shorter content, but within it, we can still experiment and achieve something impactful.

Perhaps the only regret is not doing the three pending bench series, as all five would’ve been different styles.

But who knows, that could be happening soon too! (wink, wink)

Coffee Table Book

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Folk Cricket Book

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Behind the Scenes

Behind the Scenes

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