Frog Seeking Frog

“You need to kiss a lot of frogs to meet your prince.”

 “Frog Seeking Frog” is an animated short based on the real experiences of Mart Smooth’s time living in Japan. Specifically, what it was like to participate in the casual sex scene of Tokyo, and how that compared to dating. “Frogs” come from the consistent dating advice that “you need to kiss a lot of frogs to find your prince,” which, if heard enough times, makes one start to feel like the frog. This film is a deep dive into a period of Mart’s life filled with uncertainty in the realm of love. It’s animated in a colorful and surreal 2D style that adds levity to the heavier subject matter.

“Dating is really hard! As the world gets smaller, the dating pool gets bigger, and somehow that is making things more difficult for everyone. When you are single, it’s so easy to feel like your life won’t start until you are in a relationship. That’s no good! I hope single people watching my film can feel a little less alone on their journey. I hope anyone can feel less alone.”

– Mart 

The conception of “Frog Seeking Frog” truly began with sharing funny dating/hookup stories from my time in Japan with friends over drinks. I have a few favorites that I could whip out when appropriate. Over my time at SVA, I dabbled a lot with memoir, adapting personal stories into work or abstracting my feelings about love into other animated works. Knowing that the process was rewarding (and sustainable) over a year, I felt ready to render my extremely raw and vulnerable experiences into the hyper consumable format of animation.

Sometimes I feel like I experience my relationships like I am watching a TV show about my own life. I tune in, hoping that eventually there will be a point to it all, but I know there is never going to be one.

I realized that autobiography was an outlet for this feeling. I can turn the chaos of my life into a satisfying narrative for others. That being entertaining is the point of it all, that is the meaning.

I held these stories close to my heart, wondering what I had to show for my time there. The experiences I present in my short film “Frog Seeking Frog” are memories I am ready to let go of. I don’t want the burden of finding meaning anymore. I want to give them to others for safekeeping. So I can move on with my life.”

Credits

Music
Julie Kang

Additional Voices
Mason Dayot
Melissa Lino
Kelsey Borch
Alex Hiroshi Shei
Rachael Richman

Voicelines Recorded at
Defiant Audio
Engineered by
Christian Billard & Raphael Carleton

Special Thanks to
Aminder Dhaliwal
Sarah Mae Schmidt
Angel Stampel
Mama & Papa Smooth
Kevin O’Leary
The MFA VN community
The Penington Friends House

Mart Smooth was born in England but has lived in nine different countries and seven US states. Her love of storytelling and art has found its way through illustration, animation, and writing. Mart graduated from the Rhode Island School of Design in 2017 with a BFA in film/animation/video and has just finished an MFA in Visual Narrative at the School of Visual Arts. She has additionally studied at Brown University and Kyoto Seika University in Japan. She is a former intern at Nickelodeon on SpongeBob SquarePants. Post undergrad, she traveled around Europe as a commercial artist and assistant art director for the company Stoke Travel, and more recently concluded four years in Tokyo as an English teacher and freelance animator. She is currently continuing teaching at a special needs high school as a head art teacher specializing in digital art, animation, and printmaking.

To find out more, visit martsmooth.com

Contact mail to: martsmoothanimation@gmail.com