Though Tiger would never admit it, sometimes he regrets cutting off his mother after their falling out. Sometimes he wishes he had the courage to return her calls. But it's too late now. She's dead. However, on the day of her funeral, Tiger's mother returns to Earth... in the body of his goldfish. Her final wish? For Tiger to attend the mother-son dance with her. Now Tiger must help his (uh... fish? Mom?) Fish/Mom, all the while finding the strength within himself to fight for the second chance he's always wanted.
FISH is about magic. The magic of love. The magic of loss. The magic that exists in the mundane. With the help of our talented art, crew, and camera teams, we aim to communicate a sense of magical realism.
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Drawing inspiration from the Daniels’ EVERYTHING EVERYWHERE ALL AT ONCE, we will utilize rich textures to create a world that feels lived-in and real. Props, sets, and costumes will suggest life and all the messy complexity that comes along with it. Furthermore, we aim to shoot in local, small business restaurants. Shooting on location will further the sense of realism we hope to achieve. Our goal is to completely immerse the audience in Tiger’s world, allowing triumph and heartbreak to be felt as a communal experience.
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Still, romanticism is conveyed through creative use of light and color similar to that found in EUPHORIA. With a mix of natural and stylized light, everyday places - the sidewalk, the bedroom, the restaurant on the corner - are made elevated and baroque. Tiger’s journey is therefore made dually mesmerizing and heroic. Moreover, bold colors - bright and glittering - pay homage to the intrinsic courage of queerness so quintessential to the story. With color and light, we hope to not only lend an otherworldly quality to Tiger’s experience, but to celebrate and uplift his struggle.
Finally, magic sparkles via the soundtrack. Leveraging the talents of our composer, we will score the film with melodramatic, femme-pop music similar to that of Japanese Breakfast and Perfume Genius.
Ultimately, our film feels like a dream. Grounded performances flirt with absurdism via a rich landscape of texture, color, light, and sound. Surrealist qualities juxtaposed with the undeniable face of humanity drives the romantic, intimate, and magical tone of the film.
With an onslaught of anti-LGBT and anti-AAPI rhetoric and actions emanating from the government and the public, it is more important than ever to amplify the stories from these communities. Film, being an agent of empathy, humanizes its subjects, thus promoting tolerance, love, and pride. In sharing this story with the world, we hope to catalyze healing and loving. We hope you will support us on this journey.