For the first time ever, you can have a fully 3D animated Short Film (3 minutes 24 seconds) in your collection. A film 11 months in the making and on which 8 talented artists worked. The concept of this short film revolves around surrealistic art and fantasy.

You can read the full documentation about the film at https://cryptofilm.tumblr.com

CONCEPT: The story begins with the character, emerging from the darkness and reaching a platform, from which she can observe her surroundings, seemingly filled with dragon eggs. The dragon egg symbolises a beginning. An empty mind searches, as it needs information, direction, and knowledge so it may begin its journey. As the egg starts hatching, it now sits on the platform where the character was. A dark dragon tracks her and she is surrounded by others like her. This represents the pressure of our society and the need to be accepted. However, she continuously resists, attempting to escape the grip of darkness while the dragon follows her. She sees glimpses of light and tries to look at the world from the point of view of the stars. Still, the darkness inside her pulls her back. As peer pressure intensifies, she feels increasingly uncomfortable, but she is not alone burdened with this feeling. Many in the community feel the same. As the video progresses, she finds her strength to get out of the darkness. She can feel it in her heart, which is filled with energy to spare. Her heart is pumping, and the darkness slowly lifts. Still, she finds herself surrounded by three dragons. Afraid, in pain and exposed, she shares the pure energy in her heart, the light spreading to everything that surrounds her. Their heartbeats synchronise, and the character transforms into the brightest being there. This pivotal point of the story conveys a moment of change for the better. As bright ideas and joyful thoughts destroy the darkness, she is lifted up, finally free from the burdens of negativity. At the end however, the choice is hers as doubt can send her spiralling back down to the darkness once again.

The concept of the film originated from a desire to take the viewer on a journey of transformation, beginning in darkness and reaching for the light. However, it also serves as a metaphor for the recent events that have touched us all. Before the pandemic, we were living life without a care for the little things that seem so precious today. It has shown us how fragile our community is, and the subsequent chain reaction that will occur if one single aspect of our society falls. Unfortunately, given our innate habit to downplay more traumatic events, as life gets back to normal, we will most likely forget just how much the pandemic affected us personally, and we will eventually ignore the things which we learned. As human beings, we are motivated to see the bright side and do our best to forget the bad.

This story also demonstrates how people around us play an important role in changing who we are and vice versa. The healthiest option for anyone, is to be surrounded by people with rational thinking, who have the ability to consider the relevant variables of a situation and to access, organize, and analyze relevant information (e.g., facts, opinions, judgments, and data). This is not a skill one can just master. Unfortunately, any rational person can fall into the darkness, through mistakes and harmful influence. It is by definition what it means to be human. For example, at the peak of the Covid-19’s first wave, death and the ever-present threat of an unseen enemy pushed many people to find an escape. While some moved towards a more positive way of dealing with the issue, many fell prey to irrational thinking, tumbling deeper down the rabbit hole of conspiracy theories, thus wiping out the rational thought process of what is to be believed.

Finally, regarding the name of the character Astrape, it was taken from Greek mythology. Astrape is a girl’s name meaning “lightning”. The twin sisters Astrape and Bronte were goddesses representing lightning and thunder. They would carry Zeus’s thunderbolts. Thus derived the name “Bolt from the Dark”.