in this poetic underwater film, sea life becomes the very pollution + plastic that threatens it

this animated short film takes viewers on an underwater journey ‘where concerns and fears dissolve into the mysterious depth of the polluted blue sea’. in making ‘the beauty’, director pascal schelbli wanted to convey the important message of environmental awareness and activism, without exercising the visuals that traditionally illustrate the cause. rather than showing sea life with stomachs full of plastic bags, schelbli thought ‘what if plastic could be integrated into sea life?’. the poetic film navigates the ocean to find the sea and its inhabitants unnaturally consumed by pollution and harmful earthly elements.

in this dystopian underwater landscape, animals become the very pollution and plastic that threatens them. schools of discarded filp flops take the place of fish, plastic forks and straws become embedded elements of plant life, a blowfish expands in its bubble wrap body and an eel slithers through the sea with a skin made of rubber tires. meanwhile, a pod of whales emerges from the abyss in the form of a group of enormous plastic bottles — their translucent bodies making their way through a swarm of plastic bag jellyfish. ‘the beauty is a poetic journey through the oceans, which are simultaneously stunning and filthy,’ says schelbli. ‘in the end, we wake up and realize that we need to change something.’ see the making process of the short film in the behind the scenes footage below.

project info:

director: pascal schelbli
VFX supervisor: marc angele
producers: aleksandra todorovic, tina vest
underwater cinematography: david iskender dinçer
creature TD: noel winzen
lead TD: lukas gotkowski
animation: noel winzen, pascal schelbli
lead rigging: noel winzen
rigging: lukas gotkowski · seyed ahmad hosseini
modeling: pascal schelbli, fynn große-bley, noel winzen
additional modeling: paul golter, mitja öhm
lead sculpting: fynn große-bley
sculpting: noel winzen, pascal schelbli
texturing: marc angele, pascal schelbli
lighting/shading: marc angele
FX/simulation: lukas gotkowski, noel winzen, tim markgraf
compositing: marc angele, pascal schelbli
pipeline: marc angele
storyboard/animatic/previs/character design: pascal schelbli
editing: pascal schelbli
additional editing: daniela schramm moura
music: alexander wolf david, petteri sainio
orchestration & additional composer: meike katrin stein
orchestra: deutsches filmorchester babelsberg
sound design & mixing: robin harff
poem: pascal schelbli
creative translator: zornitsa dimitrova
color grading: peter hacker (fatrat color grading GmbH)
voiceover: charlie h gardner
created at: filmakademie baden-württemberg and animationsinstitut
supported by: diving.de