With UK organ-donation regulations changing to an opt-out system, I was commissioned by UK-based charity Live Life Give Life to make a short animated film highlighting the urgent need for organ donors.
Let Love Live On is a cute, weird, Sci-fi fairytale with a crucial message – that it isn’t just the lives we save when we donate, but the loves, and the hundreds of connections that make up a life. This message was the brief I was given by the client, but how we told that message was open-ended; so we came up with a world where people visit their loved ones on heart-shaped jetpacks, so it’s quite literally that when the heartbreaks, that connection is lost. The film begins like a fairytale and takes an unexpected, grittier detour. I wanted to accentuate the fairytale, escapist beginning to the film to make the gritty, realistic elements more jarring.
Creatively, I was given the Live Life Give Life brand colors as a springboard right at the very beginning of the project, but they changed quite a lot during the course of the project as I wanted to emphasize the Sci-fi elements to the film. I was actually slightly worried the client wouldn’t like the finished version of the palette as they did deviate quite far, so I offered to change it back… But they loved it!
The new opt-out system sounds great, but what it really means is that the donor themselves will no longer voice an opinion on the matter of what happens to their organs, and in fact, almost 50% of family members refuse to allow their loved ones to be considered a donor after the event of their death. So this film was really about raising awareness of this issue so that you yourself have the chance to make your own choices.
INFORMATION
Directed and animated by Daniel Stankler
Sound and Music by Zing Audio
Produced by Awesonova
Creative Direction by Roydon Turner
