Rob Munday

Inspired by plastic surgery disasters, Frédéric Doazan’s Photoshop masterpiece Supervenus is a cutting (literally) portrayal of modern beauty standards and how they’ve evolved throughout the years. Opening with a medical illustration of a ‘Femme Adulte’, this 3-minute animation takes its viewers on a humorous and horrific journey, as we witness the female body transformed beyond all recognition by the hands of an unseen surgeon.

A film that obviously contains a strong message about how beauty is portrayed in the media, Supervenus is a short that cleverly employs one of the leading tools of the trade, when it comes to photo manipulation, to get its point across. Creating his film using Photoshop, along with After Effects and a home-made green screen (to film his hands), director Doazan explains his process in an interview with Julia Young on Skwigly:

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I started manipulating an old anatomy illustration in Photoshop and became a virtual cosmetic surgeon. I didn’t have a complete concept or a clear preconceived idea of what I wanted it to be when I started. I was just playing spontaneously in Photoshop, enjoying it, trying things. Step by step, I transformed this standard illustration into an iconic plastic beauty falling into pieces”.

We’ve added Supervenus to the ‘Experimental’ category here on Short of the Week, but Doazan’s film could have easily been just as at home in the ‘Horror’ section of our site. In just under 3-minutes the French director’s film provides a shocking, unforgettable and all-too-relevant view of how pressures have influenced body image standards – perfect viewing for Valentines Day weekend 😉