The Brief But Passionate Life of Green Tea and Cherry
By Jenny Zheng
I originally planned to create snippets of various Valentine’s Day scenarios. I think I gravitated towards that idea because that day for me was pretty dull. On a random walk, I decided to make my animation more cartoony and less serious. I made my characters personified food instead of people. By the way, green tea is my favorite flavor of ice cream, and I hate cherry-flavored everything.
Process
I made up my mind to do stop-motion animation for the multimedia submission a few weeks after a Girls Write Now workshop. I originally dug up some old drawings to build a story around, but that took a very long time. I focused too much on making the art pretty. I also quickly realized that the lighting was terrible in my room. Instead, I started working on a plot-oriented animation where the art was much simpler, so the lighting would not shift much while I was trying to draw everything out.
Meet the Pair
MENTEE JENNY ZHENG & MENTOR SAIRA KHAN
Jenny’s Anecdote: I’m addicted to tea now. And those thin Whole Foods meat strips. I love your giant neon jacket. My brother stalked your LinkedIn for me. I loved our visit to the International Center of Photography. I don’t think I would’ve visited a museum for photos. And I can’t believe it’s a five-minute walk from my house! I do appreciate New York City a little more now. That might also be because I plan to leave for college. Thanks for putting up with all my college questions. I hope over the summer we do get to go see Shakespeare in the Park together.
Saira’s Anecdote: Jenny and I went to see the Tyler Mitchell exhibit at the International Center of Photography, where one of the artworks is a multimedia piece that you experience by lying on the ground on a bean bag to watch a short film being projected on the ceiling. I watched one loop and then got up to leave. Jenny wanted to stay, so we both lay on the floor for five minutes watching the film. The experience of watching that film on loop was beautiful and I’m so glad I stayed. Sometimes you need someone to remind you to slow down, and I’m glad Jenny was that person for me that day.
Jenny Zheng
Jenny Zheng is a college freshman planning to major in creative writing. This year, she is trying to incorporate more fantastical elements into her work.
