SYNODIC

Set against the celestial sphere, a cosmic seal’s path is followed east to west through all 88 constellations in both the hemispheres of our observable night sky. Playful and non-narratively dreamlike, the seal’s starry journey is a cycle that ends where it began, much like the moon’s lunar phases - although they’d be easier to see if she weren’t toying with it like a beach ball!

  • Rebecca Devitt
    Director
  • Edouard Morcellet
    Composer
  • Shira Avni
    Supervisor
  • Nathan Cann
    Lead Music Engineer
  • Marco Petrella
    Assistant Music Engineer
  • Vid Cousins
    Sound Engineer
  • Jason Lo
    Violin
  • Andy Bulman
    Violin
  • Sebastien Gonzalez Mora
    Viola
  • Ellamay Mantie
    Cello
  • Agathe Lavarel
    Flute
  • Project Type:
    Animation, Short, Student
  • Genres:
    Fantasy, non-narrative, fiction
  • Runtime:
    2 minutes
  • Completion Date:
    April 24, 2023
  • Country of Origin:
    Canada
  • Aspect Ratio:
    1.90:1
  • Film Color:
    Color
  • First-time Filmmaker:
    Yes
  • Student Project:
    Yes - Concordia University
Director Biography - Rebecca Devitt

Rebecca "Mint" Devitt is a queer 23-year-old Canadian animator and filmmaker who has recently completed an undergraduate animation program from Concordia University. She has a deep affection for animals and is interested in physics, and her goal in their creative work is to balance imagination with those interests grounded in material reality. The illusion of movement was conceivably the perfect medium to utilize.

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Director Statement

Conceptually, combining space and the ocean- even having them substitute for one another- felt symbolically appropriate. The moon controls earth’s tides, which is a direct connection between both, and the longer I sat with an impossible premise emerging from my interest in astronomy, the more nameable similarities surfaced. Both are vast and empty. The conditions of both aren’t survivable to us without proper, expensive equipment to make breathing and limited travel possible, which is why over 90% remains unexplored currently. Other life in one is provable where it’s uncertain in the other, but that could change one day as well. After all, manatees and seals were mistaken for mermaids by sailors centuries ago. What may alien sightings turn out to be someday? The word “synodic” describes something that happens at the same place, time, or both, usually celestial objects. The cycle of the moon’s phases could be described as synodic, going from new, to full, to new. The moon’s rotation is where I first learnt of the concept, but it stuck with me not because of the visually observed positions of reflected light, but rather the orbiting itself. Because the earth moves around the sun while the moon moves around the earth, the time it takes to travel a full 360 degrees is different than the time it takes to get back to the same relative position (phase) it started in. The former, a “sidereal month”, is 27 days, while the latter, a “synodic month”, is 29. Yet another pair.