‘We do not ever truly conquer our problems, we simply learn to live above them,’

‘Everything Up in the Air’, is an animated short exploring the narrative that minor setbacks we encounter as young adults are not the end of the world, even though there are times they may feel like just that.

Mental health is something that is extremely important to me, and looking around at my peers, we all need that helping hand or talk to settle our nerves from time to time, that is why I felt it was important to tell this story.

The main protagonist is Guy, a young adult who is still trying to find his place in the world. Suddenly the rug is pulled from underneath him and he is unexpectedly put in a situation where he is both physically and mentally lost. Up in the air and feeling hopeless, he is met with a rational voice of reason, Babbles. Babbles helps Guy separate his emotions from the situation – to rationalise events, and brings him to his feet again.

Stylistically drawing inspiration from Seth McFarlane and Tyler the Creator I attempted to fuse the slacker skater scene and pallets with the feel of early Family Guy and Hanna Barbera. Richard Linklater’s ‘Everybody Wants Some’, also played as a massive inspiration to my piece. Due to its ‘Coming of Age’ themes and Character driven narrative. I feel this can always be explored in different ways and felt it was necessary to look at it from the angle of freaking out over life’s hick ups – and how we learn to keep moving forward.