IRL - In Real Life | Thesis Film 2021

Ronnie is a teenage girl who’s struggling to find her place in the world. But that’s okay because she has a best friend, Emi, whom she never met. Together they do everything, talk about everything and Ronnie even asks for advice for an upcoming date. Ronnie learns about herself from the farthest person she ever met.
My thesis film I've been carrying along for way too long! It was made possible by all the wonderful people who kept pushing and inspiring me.
Credits:
Direction, Writing, Art, Animation: Me,
Producer: Tsach Nachmias
Cast:
Leigh Lahav as Ronnie,
Marybelle Sagard as Emi,
Guy Marraton as the guy
and Ella Avraham as the friend
Original Music: Liav Bitan
Sound: Yaniv Sela, Rom Hecht, Liav Bitan
Produced under Sapir Academic College ✨

[@randydickison2304]

When I was a teenage boy, I wanted another teenage boy I knew to feel that way about me. I couldn't tell him. I was afraid he'd hate me if he knew I was a queer. I was lucky. One day he told me he liked me as a lot more than just a friend. Neither of us were effeminate at all. We just both happened to like boys. He gave me my first kiss. It was completely unexpected, and I loved it. Being a homosexual was totally unacceptable back then where we lived. We only broke up as secret boyfriends because his family moved far away. We understood that just happens to kids sometimes. Friends (boyfriends) move away, and you never see them again. That's just a part of life. It was still hard, and I was depressed about it for a long time. My mom never understood why I was so upset that one of my friends moved away. I never got that upset when other friends moved away before. I never told her that he was my boyfriend. I got over our forced break-up in time. It doesn't bother me now. It was over fifty years ago. I just hope he found another guy he likes and that he's happy.

[@shourterthan]

That's such a sweet and sad story 🥺 I'm very flattered my thesis film would evoke such feelings and memories from you, thank you so much for sharing!!

[@randydickison2304]

@@shourterthan Thank You for the reply. What you made is a good piece of art. An artist that is good puts a piece of themselves in their art and that is what brings out emotions and memories from others that appreciate their art. This piece of art you made is story telling with good visuals and writing at its finest that anyone who went through or are going through discovering themselves can relate to. I'm glad I found this in my recommendations from KZbin. It should have had many more views. This story can help many young people understand themselves.

[@Shensuko]

hello im not much of a commenter online, but i found your comment really heart felt and that you too were able to find love after those years. i'm curious if you ever reached out to him or if he ever did? i'm sure he thinks of you as fondly as you think of him. :)

[@randydickison2304]

@@ShensukoThank you for the kind reply. I never even tried to contact the boy I loved as a teenager again. That is because it was impossible for a kid to even try to find him for decades. By then, I didn't think about him other than frequent good memories that always made me feel good, and hoping he was happy with someone else. This was long before the internet. It was barely beginning of the time when computers were just becoming available to people, and they were not very useful. They were more like super expensive toys than anything else, far too expensive for anyone I knew to own one. I never knew where my teenage boyfriend moved to. I never had a phone number, or address. I only knew he was far away, out of California. Over fifty years has passed sense then. At this point, I just hope he found someone else that loves him, and that he's happy. When the boy who was my first love was with me, we were very young, thirteen and fourteen years old. He was the older boy, but only by six months. I was fourteen when he moved away. We did talk about sex and what we wanted to do when we got older. We also both knew we were both too young to be doing those adult things. We never went much further than passionate kissing, hugging, and holding hands. That was fine for a boy, and a girl, but those things were basically forbidden for two boys, so it had to be hidden. It was still more than enough to make us happier, and closer. Of course, as I grew up and became an adult, I did have other relationships. I'm sure he did to. Somehow most of those relationships never felt as real, or as strong and my relationship with a nice boy when we were thirteen, and fourteen. Teenage love doesn't always last forever, but if it was real, the memories do. Being gay isn't about sex. It's about who you are capable of loving. The feelings are no different than anyone else.

[@Jojo-xg2kr]

Wow I like how there a bio language barrier in the first half and the second half really nice touch might rewatch it again

[@BugsNcakes]

okay this was really relatable to me cuz i just went through a struggle of online friends, and not having many or feeling like myself in the real world. like online i could be me, and in real life i had to hide who i felt like and the shows i liked watching, and me being closeted bi. im better now but sometimes its nice to have a person online who you can just talk to and catch up on

[@shourterthan]

exactly! that's my experience as well, and I tried to express simplistically in this. I'm happy you enjoyed it!

[@STARFOXiswatchingYOU]

YOOOOOOO:0 Your style, character design, idea, voicing…everything’s just amazing!

[@shourterthan]

thank you so much! 💓

[@LOLProdutionStudios]

This is such a beautiful short! Really relate to it as someone who really is only able to unmask and be myself with the friends I've met online, though unfortuately they all live very far away. It's funny because so many people (usually those who are older) will say stuff like "meeting people online is ricky and scary becuase it's so easy for people to hide their intentions or true selves" when a lot of people instead use the internet to be their true selves, the version of them that they feel they can't be IRL without having to mask or hide anything.

[@shourterthan]

@@LOLProdutionStudios that's how I felt growing up as well! Though I think the internet today is a lot less forgiving and very different from what we might've experienced. Thank you very much for your comment!

[@gracegarcia7335]

Oh my god, I absolutely loved this!!! The ending made me tear up!! Thank you for making this!!!

[@shourterthan]

thank you so much, I'm happy to hear! 🥺

[@talcohen8136]

זה כל כך מקסים זה נכון לצערי אנחנו לא באמת בוחרים את המקום שאנחנו נמצאים בו מה שיפה בסיפור שהיא מצאה משהיא שמבינה אותה אפילו דרך האינטרנט וממש שימח אותי שהן נפגשו בסוף זה ריגש אותי נורא תודה לך🌸✨

[@luise6072]

DUDE. DUDE IS THIS GOOD. big Applause and pat on the back i can tell how much work has been put into this. ... Holy hell, genuinely amazing!!

[@shourterthan]

thank you so much!! 🥺🥺💖💖

[@krewl3708]

i love this so mych… sob..

[@shourterthan]

thank you so much!! 🥺💕

[@roachdogjr_985]

this is amazing!!!! wow i cannot express how wonderful this is

[@shourterthan]

Thank you so much 🥺🥺

[@Green_SUS596]

This video is so beautiful and very relatable. I can’t describe how amazed I am with this. It’s really good. I wish I was better at story telling so… I could do it you did.

[@bella_daze3092]

This is me with my online friends. They make me feel the most comfortable with WHO I am. I’m the most of myself with them😭

[@shourterthan]

Exactly ❤️

[@KyleInTrouble]

זה מדהים בטירוף, וואו. כל הכבוד!!

[@shourterthan]

תודה רבה!! 🤗

[@Gabriel_idk_aka_catlover]

I LOVE IT SO MUCH. ❤️

[@willow4313]

Simply AMAZING!

[@shourterthan]

thank you so much!

[@rosa97509]

this is beautiful and so underrated ❤️

[@shourterthan]

thank you ♥

[@R0RRY679]

I love this so muchhhh❤❤❤

[@shourterthan]

Thank you 💖

[@ProdigalSunlite]

This is amazing!

[@shourterthan]

thank you!!

[@harveychan312]

Awesome

[@mendelovitch]

Treasure the tomboys in your life.

[@buggywithsoup]

i know im VERY, VERY late, but what did the main character seeing herself online as a boy represent? i just cant wrap my head around it. maybe shes an egg that hasnt hatched yet? or maybe she just likes dressing in a more boyish style and she was depicted as a boy online to signify that.

[@mendelovitch]

@@buggywithsoup Yes. A person trying to find themselves and their niche in the world.

[@vsfcarai]

so cute🥺

[@shourterthan]

thank you!

[@Lexxi.AzXh.]

Woah, great video ‼️ 💕

[@Lexxi.AzXh.]

Awwhh

[@shourterthan]

thank you!!

[@camilallatas8800]

AWWWW♡♡♡♡

[@BlazeIsaquilla]

WHY IS THE SMUG DUDE WEARING CROCS OH MY GOD

[@mehmeh9791]

Man how do you even make online friends 😢

[@shourterthan]

haha it was a different time.. it's considerably different these days

[@StreetcatAlex]

I'm kinda getting transmasc vibes from ronnie, honestly-

[@shourterthan]

it's vague so it could be left for interpretation 🤗

[@ultimatocheez]

This got me lookin like this: ( ͡° ͜ʖ ͡°) homoseshas JUST KIDDING this film is very underrated w 11k views only i cant believe it

[@RandomSaucepan6477]

How exactly could someone be a voice actor for these?

[@shourterthan]

Do you mean practically? Most characters are voiced by friends who agreed to help me. For Emi's character I opened short term auditions until I found her current actress

[@RandomSaucepan6477]

@@shourterthan I just mean in any way, I want to be a voice actor but I don’t have any acting experience or equipment. I also don’t know anyone in animation or anything like that so I’m just not sure of exactly how I would get to do that

[@shourterthan]

@@RandomSaucepan6477 I suggest look up "casting call" on Twitter etc and see if anyone's looking, iirc that's the tag I used when I put out auditions

[@RandomSaucepan6477]

@@shourterthan thank you so much

[@donjohnston7384]

You have to make more. Want likes? -> Promo SM!!!

[@crocodiles-jaws-can-apply-5000]

:0 hebrew!