Nov 22, 2024

2025 Academy Awards Short Film Candidates: -The Road of Oren" Director Lee Keeka

Cartoon Brew is putting the spotlight on an animated short film nominated for an Academy Award in 2025.

Today's film is Oren's way from director Keika Lee and her studio Greyscale Animation. The short story won the qualification of the Academy Award through a theatrical exhibition.

The Way of Oren tells the story of Princess Oren, whose kingdom is facing fate and ruin. The only way for Oren and her brother to prevent an unfortunate ending is to capture the mythical and magical golden fox, which neither knight nor hero achieved. Throughout her journey, skillfully woven into the movement by Keika Lee and her team, the Princess is well key to saving her kingdom, as well as the path to her own achievement

Cartoon Brewing: Oren's Way tells the story of a female princess seeking freedom despite her assigned role in a male-led society.

Keika Lee: Being an Asian-American woman in today's society is a challenge, but it doesn't define who I am. In my household I was told to be nice and quiet, so growing it was tough. I'm not saying that my family was wrong; it was just direct and didn't match the American culture of speaking. It was hard to navigate this career in the clash of cultures, and I thought I had to change to be successful. But that is not the case. Women, as well as people, need to realize that they do not need to change themselves to change the world. You have to be yourself.

Everyone, especially women, has the power to harness to create a better world. I'm an introvert and I thought I needed to be an extrovert to make it in this industry. But I actually found out that being an introvert is the strength I can rely on to move forward. I urge women to remind themselves that they are perfect and will succeed whatever they choose to pursue.

What was it about this story or concept that forced me to connect with you and direct the film-

Like any other young girl, after watching a Disney Princess movie, I wanted to be a princess. Not only any princess, but a fearless warrior who saved himself from the clutches of evil. The way Oren does it is exactly that. It's about a princess who saves her kingdom from eternal despair while finding the true meaning of happiness. I wrote stories with screenwriters and directed short stories. Princess Oren's character came first, and then the story was created around her and from my heart. I hope that when people watch this movie, they feel the love that went into making it.

What did you learn about the production side, the filmmaking side, the creative side, or the subject through the experience of making this film-

I learned a lot from making Oren's Way. On the production side, I realized that I could not produce this 17 minute short by myself and hired a great producer, Umbichang, to take over the production management. We also had to raise money for the film, so we ran a successful Kickstarter campaign. This was the second campaign I had ever done, and you learn a lot just by running one campaign. This time I put a little more strategy into the planning of the campaign. For example, I was more careful about when to run a campaign for it to succeed.

When it comes to filmmaking, the team was much bigger than my last short film, so I had to think about how to give feedback and maintain morale in an effective way. It took 3 and a half years to produce, but it took a long time for the artists to participate in the project. Creatively, I have to improve my artistic skills and learn new skills to tell what I want in each design, animation, synthesis, etc.As for the subject matter, I still think of myself as one, so I was very comfortable making a strong princess story.

Can you explain how you developed a visual approach to cinema - why did you settle for this style/technique-

Hand-drawn 2d animation It's nostalgic and great. I used a lot of references from old medieval castles in Europe, but there was also a mix of Asian folklore and style. For example, the three-tailed fox in my film is based on an ancient Asian myth about the nine-tailed fox. And when you look at the collars of the characters, they are inspired by the collars of the traditional Chinese "Cheongsam".

My artistic inspiration was the classic Disney animation style, as well as Hayao Miyazaki and Don Bruce. It brought back great childhood memories for me and I settled on this style/technology because I wanted to do the same for the audience.