Just like the food inside our fridge, we all have a use-by-date.
That’s the scenario posed by Elana Berton as part of her school project Life: The Milky Way, a short film in which an animated milk carton, egg and a tub of yoghurt come to life.
The Werribee South resident has had her work selected to be part of Top Designs, a showcase of the best media, design, food and technology and engineering works from VCE students across the state, which opens at Melbourne Museum in Carlton on March 21.
Ms Berton said the message behind her film was simple. “We all have a use-by date and we have to use our shelf life wisely.”
The film begins with a shot of a fridge before we peer inside and see a milk carton, depicted like a tired, wrinkled old man with a walking stick, joined by an egg with stubble and a walking tub of yoghurt.
A closer look at the milk carton reveals a use-by date of “yesterday”. The next scene shows a man opening the fridge, smelling the carton and throwing it in the bin.
“There’s a film called In Time where the characters have countdown clocks on their arms and they have to work to get enough minutes to make it through the day,” Ms Berton said, explaining her concept.
As part of her VET media studies last year, the year 12 Geelong College student drew all of the sketches of the characters before using a computer program to give them movement.
“We’re studying animation and it was probably my weakest skill going into this, but because of that, I think I put more effort in,” she said.
