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Mittzburg: The Tragedy of the Metropolis

Set around the Great Depression, a time of severity for the oppressed monsters, Ralph Mayerfeld seeks redemption for his deception against his family and wants to see them again on Christmas Day so he won't have to suffer many years of homelessness.

  • Mannary Park Films
    Director
  • Mannary Park Films
    Writer
  • Mannary Park Films
    Producer
  • Mannary Park Films
    Animator
  • Project Type:
    Animation, Short
  • Genres:
    Drama, Period piece
  • Runtime:
    5 minutes 50 seconds
  • Completion Date:
    June 1, 2020
  • Country of Origin:
    United States
  • Language:
    English
  • Shooting Format:
    50mm
  • Aspect Ratio:
    21:9
  • Film Color:
    Black & White
  • First-time Filmmaker:
    No
  • Student Project:
    No
  • Malabar Short Film Fest
    Kerala
    India
    February 7, 2022
    Won Best Micro Short Film
  • New Creators Film Awards
    Paris
    France
    December 23, 2021
    Nominated for Best Animation Film
  • Beyond the Curve International Film Festival
    Paris
    France
    February 25, 2022
    Finalist
  • 4th Dimension Independent Film Festival
    Bali
    Indonesia
    February 25, 2022
    Won Best Animated Film
  • Swedish International Film Festival
    Arvika
    Sweden
    February 28, 2022
    Won Best Animated Film
  • V.i.Z. Film Fest

    Bulgaria
    September 5, 2022
    Winner - Best Short Animation
  • The Great Indian Film Festival
    Gurgaon, Haryana
    India
    March 7, 2022
    Official Selection
  • Onyko Films Awards
    Odesa, Ukraine
    Russian Federation
    July 23, 2022
    Official Selection
  • Hollywood Gold Awards
    Los Angeles, CA
    United States
    March 27, 2022
    Official Selection
  • Lonely Wolf International Film Festival
    London, England
    United Kingdom
    April 29, 2022
    Semi-Finalist
Director Biography - Mannary Park Films

As a aspiring filmmaker and founder of Mannary Park Films, I drive exceptional progress in being the most prominent brand for moviegoers and film buffs that can share their stories on the big screen and social media. A proud MSJC Audio Technology and Digital Media graduate, I motivate content creators into providing high-quality entertainment for those who seek my level of expertise.

Add Director Biography
Director Statement

Mittzburg's genesis began on March of 2020, in a pre-COVID era, where I thought of the notion making a 2D-animated black-and-white silent film with anthropomorphic monsters living in a contemporary setting. It would be a love letter to the silent era. My fav in motion picture history. It was influenced by Fritz Lang's Metropolis in terms of the scale and scope & Charlie Chaplin's Modern Times in terms of the storytelling and pathos particularly the Ralph Mayerfeld character. Mittzburg's 90% visuals - 10% dialogue. The reason why I wanted a all-monster world instead of humans due to the finite capabilities for my animation software and that anthropomorphism seemed more appealing & gratifying to me to the point of making it a analogy of humankind. As for the character designs, like Ralph and Randolph Welles for example, I wanted something simplistic to show off the three dimensions yet make it consistent and distinctive. Fleischer meets Disney. Mittzburg's original titles were Monsterville and 1930: A Story of a Homeless Monster before eyeing on "Mittzburg: The Tragedy of the Metropolis" as the official title. Ralph Mayerfeld's original names were Chaplin and Ralph Glint. Setting it in the 30s period, especially in the Great Depression, would give my film some emotional nuance on how greed and power overtakes humility and empathy. One of the hardest things about the screenplay was to make my main character sympathetic and personable for the audience since he was a famed oil industrialist before becoming a needy alcoholic & no one including myself can relate to the upper class "socialite" society so I included the family plot point in there since it's a common universal theme and it would rivet the audience on how he regrets being the worst family man ever to his friends and family. Another thing to make more dimensions to Ralph was adding the supporting character Randolph to this story for him to encounter so that it can make him really selfless & hopeful and show the two different worldly perspectives: optimism and pessimism. Archetypes were intrinsic to Mittzburg's creation. He was derived from wealthy businessmen of the 20s and 30s like William Randolph Hearst, John D. Rockefeller, J. Paul Getty, and Howard Hughes etc. He's the head chairman of his family business Mayerfeld Oil and is affiliated with the Stratsmen (Stratsberg's Men) Movement. The whole affinity between Ralph and Randolph derives from Charlie Chaplin's The Kid a la The Tramp & John. Since I wanted them to be more cordial not mean-spirited towards each other since Randolph's the pious type whereas Ralph's more of a atheist. Randolph's last name is Welles and his parents in the short are named Frederich and Ilsa. Besides watching a ton of silent films during my researching process, through the span of two and a half months, I read and gleaned over a whole lot of anthropology & sociology books and watched some historical documentaries so that I can make the characters humanistic and the world verisimilitude. Even looked at some original artworks from Hugh Ferriss and Norman Bel Geddes to design the overall look of Mittzburg from the glistening skyscrapers to the sordid streets providing so much meticulous detail that it would be very evident for you. The city was heavily influenced by these famous cities: Los Angeles, New York, London, and Berlin. It is the main capital of the country of Mittza. The epicenter of Mittzburg is the one and only Chancellor William St. Stratsberg statue which represents idolatry, ideology, and rulership. He's the White Knight. A "God" of a bureaucratic empire. The one to bring order & free will amongst the affluence during these difficult times by officiating his Stratsmen to decrease the homeless population escorting them to a prison camp for all eternity and diminishing the low & middle classes' homes & shops killing them one-by-one in favor of the planned New Mittzburg. To all the territories he's the most powerful and greediest dictator. Based him off on two particular historical villains: President Andrew Johnson & Adolf Hitler. Its core theme is bureaucratism. On May of 2020, Mittzburg's animation would commence on Adobe After Effects as my whole goal was to not show that I can make a competent movie but also that my brand was prominent to the industry & clientele despite the limitations and imperfections that I couldn't procure to reveal the rest of this prosperous, depraved city albeit it really challenged my filmmaking sensibilities from the character models & rigging to the monochrome style and 3D camerawork. It was extremely difficult to not overanimate my character's facial expressions and use pantomime to make them a little subtle all thanks to my Fundamentals of Acting class & of course I studied Chaplin, Keaton, and Lloyd's acting in the mix to give it that extra layer to the characters' performances. This only took me a month to culminate due to my novice experience for I was quite familiar with the 12 principles of animation so creating each and every asset was no issue for me. That's my knack. Something I learned in my MSJC Digital Media classes. Choosing both 50mm and the 21:9 aspect ratio would definitely give Mittzburg a scintillating stimulus. A avid CinemaScope fan here. Really dig how the camera makes the landscapes wide & spacious to the point of feeling its aura. Even picking the music, Sir Cubworth's Sad Minuet, where I found it on YouTube Audio Library as it had to be sentimental, subtle, and even though I originally had a famed classical piece in mind but got to avoid copyright issues and stuff you know. On June 1st, 2020, Mittzburg: The Tragedy of the Metropolis was officially finished to screen for the public. Hopefully this new year that you film festivals, moviegoers, and film buffs will be enamored with it. This would be my very-first short film to date. My ultimate masterpiece. Enjoy and thx!