LIZ&EVIE is a stop-motion short film about friendship and hair donation. The project is realized by students of the Stuttgart Media University in Germany.
Liz is a 17-year-old girl. Her appearance, especially her long hair, is very important to her. After sports, she always waits at a bus stop to catch her bus home. Evie is a 7-year-old girl, who lives with her parents in an apartment nearby the bus stop. When they meet there for the first time, Evie gives Liz a self-made paper windmill. Liz is delighted about the unexpected gift and returns the favor by giving Evie the origami book she used to love as a child. As the weeks pass, the two girls spend Liz’ waiting time at the bus stop together making origami flowers and animals. Evie is always wearing a nice hat. But one day, when the wind blows away her hat, Liz notices that Evie has no hair. Evie runs away and from that day on, she doesn’t come back to the bus stop anymore. Liz is concerned and eventually, she has to make a decision…
LIZ&EVIE is written and directed by Mareika Greiss, a Bachelor student at the Stuttgart Media University. „The first time I heard about hair donation was when I saw a Buzzfeed Video on my Facebook feed. The video was about a little girl who suffered from hair loss and received a wig, which was donated to her. I asked myself why I had never heard of this before. Most people seem to be oblivious to this issue and don’t know how many people are in need of help. Touched by the video, I decided to make a film about the topic in order to increase people’s awareness of hair donation in Europe. Since I did an internship in a stop-motion company, it was obvious to me that the film was going to be a stop motion animation.“
Mareika now has the possibility to realize her idea as a student-run project. After telling fellow students about her project and her motivation, she was quickly able to recruit a lot of team members. Each of them brings individual talents and skills to the team and is very eager to bring the story of LIZ&EVIE to life. One of our main challenges is the time frame: We only have a four-month time slot for finishing the project. This includes the development of our story, the construction of the sets and puppets, the animation and the post-production process.
The film takes place in two different sets: the bus stop, where Liz and Evie meet, and Liz’s room.
Both sets were built within 4 weeks. For the bus stop, we built brick facades, trees, front yards, fences, and little flower arrangements. For Liz’s room, we built innumerable tiny props like furniture made from foam plates, books and houseplants. Everything about the two sets was built with enthusiasm and love down to the tiniest detail, in order to create Liz’ and Evie’s little world.
For the construction of the puppets, the film crew was supported by Ida Asferg Jakobsen, a professional puppet builder from Denmark. Based on Mareika’s early drafts, she designed the characters, carefully sculpted their faces and fabricated their wigs. The bodies and costumes of the puppets were crafted by our team in Stuttgart.
At the moment, our team is working on the animation of the film. As an experienced animator, Mareika is doing most of the animation.
This project is very important to us. We are not simply making a short film because we want to explore stop motion animation and filmmaking – there is another reason behind it.
With LIZ&EVIE we want to raise awareness for the topic of hair donation. Whether consciously or not, our hair makes a major contribution to our self-esteem. Therefore, hair loss due to illness or accidents is often a burden, especially for children and women. With our film, we don’t want to compel people to donate their hair. Instead, we want to tell a touching story about two lovable characters that remain in our memories.
And there’s more to the project: while we are working on the film itself, we are also running a creative and informative blog. It provides people with further information about hair loss and hair donation.
The production is now slowly coming to an end. LIZ&EVIE premiers on the 5th of July 2018 at the Stuttgart Media University. Until then, it still has to undergo the process of musical scoring and postproduction, where it eventually gets its finishing touch.
Our committed team gave their everything to finish the movie on time and to realize it according to our expectations. We hope that the project doesn’t end with its premiere, though. We hope that our social campaign will continue to reach and inspire people and continue to raise awareness for hair donation.
Please support LIZ&EVIE by spreading the word and by sharing this campaign on social media!
Visit our Kickstarter page and follow us on Instagram (@lizandevie) and Facebook for more information about hair donation and some behind-the-scenes action! Thank you for your valuable help!
– The LIZ&EVIE Team
Website: www.liz-evie.de
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