About The Project

Short Synopsis

Tell Me When You Get Home is an animated short about Honest, a 15 year-old girl who, over the course of a single evening, encounters the spirit of her late mother at a family party. We are seeking funds to support the animation of this magical short film about a Caribbean family.

Mission Statement

We all have an ancestry, or a lineage, and we are influenced by people who came before us whether or not we acknowledge it. Honest hasn’t seen her mother since she was four, but at a crowded family party, she begins to feel her presence in ways she can’t explain. Set in the space between Honest and her Uncle O, Tell Me When You Get Home unfolds as a long conversation between two people who have both lost a loved one. The film is a meditation on love, family, connection, and the afterlife. 

Film Synopsis

Honest opens the door of her bedroom. Still from Tell Me When You Get Home. 

A jubilant and raucous party roars to life in the living room, but 15 year-old Honest Cardamom would rather be in bed. In this surreal celebration, Honest is swept through a dizzying whirlwind of eccentric relatives, overstuffed platters, and awkward encounters. 

As the night winds on, the atmosphere in the room changes. Honest is somewhere else entirely–in this state between dream and reality she encounters Song, her late mother.

Honest and her late mother, Song. Rough animation from Tell Me When You Get Home. 

When Honest senses the presence of her mother, she finds the courage to ask her uncle about the woman she barely remembers—and, in doing so, begins to uncover pieces of herself.

Director’s Statement

Director, Tshay, 2023. Photographed by Naomieh Jovin

Tell Me When You Get Home is a 10 min animated short film that is a testament to love and a testament to family. I want this film to reach young people who are living with loss and grief and trying to find a way through. In my experience of losing someone close to me, there’s a strange feeling where sometimes people are physically gone but otherwise very present. I realized that even people who are gone physically are still with us in spirit. My hope is that whoever watches this film can feel how important it is to be loved, and how love stays with us no matter the conditions.

I knew that in order to address loss, grief, and the spiritual nature of our connections I needed to build this world through animation. In animation we create images by adding more and more detail over time. Each shot is a world onto itself with its own shapes, movements, sounds, and colors. We begin with a sketch which is translated to a storyboard, an animatic, rough animation, and, finally, color.

Shot progression from storyboards to rough animation to color.

Over the past year our team has been working diligently to bring Tell Me When You Get Home to life. We completed rough animation, created an original reggae soundtrack, and now we are finishing color! The amount of considerations that go into color design, the sheer amount of possibilities, is staggering.

For the past three months our Animation Director, Alexa Lim Haas, has been designing the world of the film using the rough animation as a jumping point. With the help of two animators, Alexa has made incredible progress toward coloring our lead characters, background characters, props, and the environment. We are now one step closer to realizing the complete version of this project.

Shot progression from storyboard to color. 

This is not a quick process. Every detail of the film is made from the blank page as separate elements until the very end when we put those pieces together. Because the film is set in a family party, there are a lot of characters to consider. The process requires illustration, color design, acting (how else could we replicate human movement?), and motion design. We have an amazing team of animators working to create the dynamic look we’re going for –shoutout to Pilar Garcia-Fernandezsesma and Ana Sofía Navia López. Each animator finishes one or two shots per day. There are just over 100 shots in the movie, so we have our hands full.

Images in the film are made in collaboration with an amazing team of animators.

Campaign Goals

We’re so close to finishing this film, we can taste it! Our project has been generously supported by Independence Public Media Foundation, who have championed our film since 2021. We are also grateful to have received awards from Creative Capital and Scribe Video Center. However, due to the labor-intensive costs of animation, there is still a gap in our production budget. 

Our ask of $5,000 will support our animation department, who are working around the clock to color our film. 

This includes:

• An animation director who oversees the design and execution of the project and  also manages the animation team and animation assets
• A supporting animator to support the backgrounds of each scene

A contribution to our campaign goes directly toward the fees for our animators. Once color is complete, our project is in the homestretch! 

With your support, we are one step closer to realizing the color in our movie. Help us tell a heartwarming, original story about family, love, and connection. 

Honest and her Uncle embrace. Still from Tell Me When You Get Home.