Eat, Pray, Bird

"In a secluded bamboo forest among the mountains, a young apprentice monk is contemplating to cheat in his test for monkhood - endure 7 grueling days without food or rest. In the delicate balance between the master’s watchful gaze and a feathered annoyance, the monk finds enlightenment in the most unexpected way."

  • Teo Jia Ming, Jeremy
    Director
  • Teo Jia Ming, Jeremy
    Storyboard Lead
  • Huang Ji
    Technical Director
  • Derrick Fun Wei Kiat
    Art Director
  • Huang Ji
    Animation Lead
  • Teo Jia Ming, Jeremy | Derrick Fun Wei Kiat
    Character Design
  • Derrick Fun Wei Kiat | Teo Jia Ming, Jeremy
    Visual Development
  • Derrick Fun Wei Kiat
    Matte Painting
  • Huang Ji | Derrick Fun Wei Kiat | Teo Jia Ming, Jeremy
    Layouts
  • Huang Ji | Derrick Fun Wei Kiat | Teo Jia Ming, Jeremy
    3D Animation
  • Teo Jia Ming, Jeremy
    Motion Graphics, 2D Animation
  • Huang Ji | Derrick Fun Wei Kiat
    Lighting
  • Huang Ji | Derrick Fun Wei Kiat
    Rigging
  • Derrick Fun Wei Kiat
    Texturing
  • Huang Ji | Derrick Fun Wei Kiat
    Rendering
  • Huang Ji | Tan Jiayi
    Character Modelling
  • Derrick Fun Wei Kiat | Huang Ji
    Assets Models
  • Huang Ji, Derrick, Vivian, Chin Fang, Sean, Jade
    Set Dressing
  • Ole Wiedekamm, Tab Bellmann, Vincent Egerter
    Music and Sound Design
  • Project Type:
    Animation, Short, Student
  • Runtime:
    6 minutes 1 second
  • Completion Date:
    July 22, 2016
  • Country of Origin:
    Singapore
  • Country of Filming:
    Singapore
  • Language:
    Chinese, English
  • Aspect Ratio:
    16:9
  • Film Color:
    Color
  • First-time Filmmaker:
    Yes
  • Student Project:
    Yes
  • 18th Digicon6 ASIA
    Tokyo
    Japan
    November 19, 2016
    Special Mention Award (ASIA International) , Next Generation Film-maker Award (Singapore Regional)
  • Animation Nation 2016 Singapore
    Singapore
    Singapore
    August 20, 2016
    Official Selection
  • Big Eyes, Big Minds | St. Louis International Children’s Film Festival
    St. Louis
    United States
    February 4, 2017
    Official Selection: "Superhero Surprise program"
  • ANIMAC 2017 Official Selection, PETIT ANIMAC 3
    Lleida, Catalonia
    Spain
Director Biography - Teo Jia Ming, Jeremy

Hailing from the School of Art, Design and Media in NTU, Singapore, Jeremy is a fresh graduate from the Digital Animation major. He aspires to become a pre-production artist and illustrator, and is currently working as a story artist for television animation in One Animation, Singapore.

Jeremy enjoys dissecting storycraft, filmic or literary concepts and art styles. He has worn a few similar hats as a budding storyboard artist, illustrator, designer, graphic recorder and animator, all tying back to his exploration of pushing the visual storytelling medium to its limits.

Alongside teammates Huang Ji, and Derrick Fun, his maiden animated short film “Eat, Pray, Bird” has won two awards from 2016’s Digicon6 Asia, and has been showcased in a number of international film festivals.

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Director Statement

“Eat, Pray, Bird” was born of piecing together an existing puzzle.

Before my invitation to the team, the group’s first direction was towards an Asian theme, as our mentor highly suggested groups look into our existing Chinese culture. Huang Ji was delving into martial arts at the time, and Derrick favored a didactic storyline that could impart the viewer with a virtue. Buddhism and monkhood fit these two concepts like a glove.

I wanted to preserve some original ideas of the monk’s trial, the annoying bird and the lesson; and take full advantage of the team’s strengths. Derrick painted these beautiful concepts of the monk training in the isolated mountains and bamboo forests, evoking a singular but vertically dynamic location to set the stage for the monk’s test to enlightenment. Huang Ji’s animation style was a cross between Looney Tunes and Dreamworks - wacky and fun. Thus, we ditched abstract concepts with straight-up morals and focused more on the Monk and Bird’s humanity, and pointed the film towards comedy.

In Buddhist lore, a theme prevalent through most stories was the trials of temptation, and Buddhist monks aim to purge it through discipline and focus. In our film, the Bird, would be the Monk’s foil, a reminder of hedonism, his id. And what better item than a delicious Bao to tempt the most disciplined of monks? The Monk’s conscience and resistance is rewarded when a little devilish bird, more sinful than him, comes to take away the source of his temptation. In irony, the bird of debauchery saves the Monk from his sin.

I am very grateful for my team's trust in me and in each other. We now present to you the fruit of our labour, a year of bloodshed, tears wept and sweat wiped clean.

Jeremy Teo, Director, Story Lead