"Initially the short was a dialogue piece but I have decided to listen to the animator inside and tell the story without words. To concentrate on the silent conversation between the characters.

The story emerged while I was working on another piece that became terribly overwhelming. While trying to gain some perspective, I attended a rehearsal dinner where I made use of the paper table cloth and scribbled with crayons till my hearts content. Jackie Pope was born.

Soon after, I started throwing around ideas and finally settled on one after visiting an occult shop in Oakland, California called Ancient Way. When I walked into Ancient Way, it had this great feeling of energy. Various occult books from the typical to esoteric adorned the shelves. I noticed this little hallway just past the register that seemed so inviting.

"There is a great deal of symbolism in the short if you care to look for it, but the story does not rely on it at all."     - Matthew Tardiff

 

Every aspect of my inner child was screaming to check it out, but the adult in me cautioned against it while another aspect of my personality tried to reason with both sides, and another part of me admired a book on symbols and still another part of me appreciated a smell and… and then the moment had passed. I purchased a book and some incense and went home. Later that night, I found myself thinking about the hallway. Then I asked myself, 'How would the story unfold through the eyes of a child?'

Enter Jackie Pope.

After that, I followed with Alex, Agnus and Jessie while ironing out the concept and script. I took the four characters, put them in their respective roles and let them tell me what was going to happen. I spent a year in the preproduction stage while I worked through concepts and pipeline issues. After modeling and texturing the assets I brought my friend Carlos Breban onboard to rework the main character. I had built all the characters from Jackie's mesh and in the end, it was hard to physically tell them apart. So Carlos helped me out with a different pair of eyes and gave Jackie what he was missing.

There is a great deal of symbolism in the short if you care to look for it, but the story does not rely on it at all. If you really wanted to, there are a great deal of things in and outside of the store that can be broken down and studied, as to why they are there.

For example, there are a couple of Rune Charms that are carved on pieces of wood leading through the entrance to the hallway. One is Odin's Illusionary Rune (for the sake of the story, describing what lies ahead for Jackie and Alex). There is also a Rune of Courage. The Scarab on the curtain symbolizes rebirth of a sort, as it is holding the yellow chakra which symbolizes Jackie's intent to satisfy his own ego (but not his power of controlling that ego) thus the rune of Illusion plays its first role, and Courage is offered as a weapon against the self.

Adolescent Charm is a simple look at the complex perception of a child, the cold reality of a disillusioned adult, and the belief in something magical. "