Kevin Bauer​

Love, Daddy was in development for about three years. When my son was born in 2016, I knew that I wanted to make a film for him. More than that, I wanted a film that he was involved in. This sparked the idea to write a letter and record his voice reading it back. I wanted the film to cover different aspects of being a parent. For as much joy and excitement you have in seeing your child grow and learn, there is an equal amount of stress and anxiety in questioning whether or not you are doing everything the right way.

 

Many parents, including myself, struggle to find the balance between work and being present at home. It’s easy to get distracted by outside responsibilities and miss out on important moments in your child’s life. For myself, the one thing that always erased any outside noise was sitting with my son while he slept against my chest. Feeling his heartbeat on my own would completely focus me on the moment, and I wanted that to come through with the final shot in the film.

 

The film is intended to act as a digital painting in a 3D space. All of the animation is looped, and the world is slowly exposed through camera moves. The film was animated in 3D, and then each frame was rendered out and digitally painted by hand. Since the character movement is subtle in almost every shot, I wanted the texture and backgrounds to be active. To give the film it’s final aesthetic, I had my kids crumple up and roll around on construction paper. The paper was then scanned in to act as the backgrounds in each scene.

 

Love, Daddy is a film for my kids, but also a film for any parent that is struggling to find balance. As my kids get older, I realize how quickly life moves. Looking back on the first few years of their lives, I’m amazed that some of my most treasured moments with them, are also the simplest.