Duration: 5 minutes | Genre: Comedy | Audience: PG
Format: 2.5D Animation (2D Characters, 3D Backgrounds)
Fish: slimy, slippery, not good at walking, terrible at keeping a job. Men: ideally dry, usually walk to get around, need a job to live. Fishman: the worst combination of the two.
He fails at everything he does, usually due to his fishy fins in place of hands and feet, the stench of his fishy head, or his general fishy slipperiness.
Nothing goes right for him – getting ready in the morning, walking down a street, and going to work all end in catastrophe…
Until he finds his perfect match in a river creature called Womanfish. He looks into her human eyes, holds her fishy body, and slides a shiny ring onto her dainty human hand. Maybe his life isn’t so tragic after all.
Poster by Ruby Barry
DIRECTOR’S BIOGRAPHY
Based in Brisbane, Queensland, Ash is a director, storyboard artist, and concept artist. They aim to put storytelling into everything that they do, and love to encourage representation and diversity in their works. Over the past year, they have lead a team of over 20 people in creating a silly short film around one vision - a half-man, half-fish who completely fails on both sides.
DIRECTOR’S STATEMENT
Throughout the making of “The Tragic Life of a Fishman”, I dislocated my toe, caught covid twice, commuted from over 100 km away by train, lived in a room with just a mattress on the floor for a month (drawing Fishman took priority over building the bed frame), and got harassed by eshays in McDonalds. Maybe if it was called “The Really Cool and Fun Life of a Fishman Where Nothing Bad Happens”, I would have been fine, but exploring a story where absolutely nothing goes well for the protagonist was a cathartic and greatly fun experience.
Fishman deals with themes of feeling out of place, not belonging and failure, but the humour in the film comes from subverting the happy ending that usually comes with these themes. Tragedy impacts everyone’s lives in some ways, and I believe that being able to laugh at your own shortcomings and stand back up again is incredibly admirable.
Having an entire year to bring a short film to fruition was amazing, and I am forever thankful for the team of fellow students that helped make Fishman’s life as terrible as possible.
PRODUCERS BIOGRAPHY:
Based in Brisbane, Queensland, Mia Kilgour is a producer, illustrator and clean-up artist. Passionate about helping creatives make their ideas a reality by assisting in ensuring the project is feasible and on schedule.
As an artist, she aims to create inspirational and informative works within the creative industries to assist in lifting the LGBTQIA+ community. As a member of the community she aims to help assist with creative media that represents and informs. Personally, she loves to create illustrations that draw on her nostalgia of the fantastical and heart-warming moments she has experienced thus far. Having undertaken two student films. She has discovered a passion for producing and plans to continue to work within production.
PRODUCERS STATEMENT
Throughout the making of “The Tragic Life of a Fishman”, I have cried over 7 corrupted files, 10 computer crashes and also been harassed by eshays in a McDonalds. This film was my first ever time producing and boy was I thrown into the deep end, I learnt the production line for a whole new medium. Like Fishman I felt like a fish out of water. I think that the story of “The Tragic Life of a Fishman” grew on me over the year because even though he is constantly being knocked down he still had hope. While working on this film I also picked up producing for another student film and everything I had learnt had helped me. Working alongside Ash Ryan really helped me loosen up because at the end of the day we were making a film about a Fishman.
