The Second-Shortest Movie I Ever Made
An alternate post because my original plan went too well…
Let’s talk about the joys (and occasional horrors) of creativity and making stuff.
This is a previously unreleased experiment I made a while back. It’s called “Space Jerks.” It is a test bed for a possible “Spy vs. Spy” series of micro shorts, and an experiment in animation techniques (more on that in a bit).
This isn’t the video I planned to show you
I was supposed to post the first episode of [1] New Message, Season 2. I had an eight-episode season planned, consisting of two story arcs that would intersect in the finale. I actually recorded, animated, and edited a 4-minute rough cut of the first episode. But as Burns himself (Robert, not Mr.) once said, “The best-laid schemes o' mice an' men / Gang aft agley.”
(But in this case, it was a really cool agley. I’ll tell you all about the agley in a later post. The post will be all about the agley. It will be agley-specific.)
Space Jerks was animated in PowerPoint
Yes, PowerPoint. Well, mostly in Keynote, Apple‘s version of presentation software, but still, its all made in a bog-standard, everyday office app.
All the [1] New Message videos are made this way. The whole thing started as a study in restrictions, a way of getting myself to just get things finished because perfect wasn’t possible, and it had to be done by Tuesday.
The restrictions paid off (sometime we should talk about restrictions as a huge help to creativity). Videos from the resulting series have appeared in over 20 film festivals in the USA, Australia, and Europe, won a couple of awards, and got tens of thousands of downloads. Again, all using Keynote and PowerPoint.
There are three animation tools in Keynote & PowerPoint
Transitions - how you get from slide to slide. Dissolve, Push, swooshes, that kind of thing.
Animations - moving or modifying individual pieces of a slide after you have revealed it with a Transition.
Magic Move (Keynote) / Morph (PowerPoint) - A combination of Transition and Animation that lets you combine the effects of both.
Each is powerful, each has restrictions. Almost all of [1] New Message uses a combination of all three.
Space Jerks is an experiment in using only Animations
Space Jerks is just 1 slide with 12 Animations. Here’s a picture of the guts of the slide. On the right, you can see a list of the Animation Actions, including what each Action is, what onscreen element performs the Action, and in what order the Action is taken.
Here’s what happens:
The star field is set to slowly Rotate behind the action. You can see the heavenly bodies are all on a disc bigger than the slide itself. That lets them slide by on a curve.
The Wulvs (the bad guys in the big rocket ship) wait off stage until they follow a Motion Path down to the planet. When they land, their red rocket plume ends up hidden “behind” the planet, making it look like they turned it off. Layers and “masks” are a big part of PowerPoint/Keynote animation effects.
Cube is a fun little entrance animation that makes the flag look “planted.”
The Wulvs head out on a Motion Path.
Petra (our hero in the little saucer) enters on her own Motion Path, tipped at an angle to imply momentum.
Petra Rotates to see the flag.
Petra Motion Paths up to cover the flag.
While she’s there, the first flag Disappears…
…and the new flag Appears. Since both actions take place at the same time, both the flags are the same size, and Petra is in front of the most of it, we don’t see the replacement.
Petra Motion Paths up to reveal the heart. Since we didn’t see the flag replacement, it looks like only the symbol has changed.
Petra Rotates back into “go” mode.
Petra follows her Motion Path out.
Can you recognize the music?
The little snippets that play in the background are actually deconstructions of a couple of themes from a beloved classical standard. Can you recognize where they come from? Hint: take another look at the names of the characters in the animation.
Let me know what you come up with in the comments!
Post Script: The Nifty Fifty
“We few, we happy few…”
You are definitely the bee’s knees for trying out this newsletter / sometimes podcast / media thing. Don’t you think more people should have the chance to share in the bee’s kneesy-ness? I’d be super grateful if you could share this post.
I have an initial goal of fifty subscribers. Let’s call them The Nifty Fifty. If you’re in the group already, you discerning Substacker, you have my gratitude. If you haven’t subscribed yet, come on in. The water’s fine.
I have more experiments and examples to share, and am still working on the future of [1] New Message, along with all the other projects at (required field) Productions. As always, whatever I come up with, I will tell you, first, here.
Until then, I remain,
Your pal,
Jamie