The Lords of Cardboard

April 3, 2008 4:57 PM

Off Planet Films makes stuff with cardboard.

Crafted by hand on a minuscule budget, the award-winning animations of the small Tasmanian studio have titillated crowds from Hobart to Sundance. Thankfully one no longer has to attend a festival to catch their work, as most of their films are now available on video sites across the interwebs (as well as on their main site).

Some highlights:

Tortures for Flies - A series of shorts exploring the magical world of insect genocide.

Wolf Boy - A nerd-turned-werewolf rampages through the hinterland in this fluidly animated music video for Tasmanian band "The Phibes".

The Physique of the Christ - The story of Easter... on steroids. (mildly NSFW)

Dracenstein - From the creators: "A mad scientist's life turns pear-shaped after accidentally installing a vampire brain in his monster creation. Filmed mostly in real-time using our 2D cardboard puppetry technique, a couple of scenes were still shot single frame. We experimented in 'Dracenstein' to see if we could pull-off a comedic fight scene using the puppets. Nothing deep is intended in this particular film, its just popcorn entertainment. Entirely handmade in Tasmania by Off Planet Films on a shoestring budget of under $50 (fuel, food, cardboard and the occasional aspirin.)"

My One and Only - From the creators: "Made in 24 hours for the Launceston "Take That" short film festival, in which the film was required to include the following elements:

- a lollipop (provided)
- set in Launceston in the year 2058
- one specific genre selection (comedy)
- the word "quintessential"
- the Launceston City Council Town Hall steps
- G rated restriction

The competition began at 9:00 am 12th January 2008. We shot the Town Hall steps first, arriving home at 9:45am. Storyboards and script were completed by noon. Sound narration recorded by 12:30pm. Puppets drawn, coloured and cut out throughout the afternoon and night, until 2:00am. Filming commenced & was completed at 5:30am. Edited until 8:00am. Music and foley was added until 8:35am. Film was then rendered and submitted before the deadline. (phew!!) ... It was a very close call for us to finish. The first screening and awards ceremony was held at the Launceston School of Art at 2:00pm on the 13th.... and to our surprise our film was awarded first place!"

Off Planet also publishes independent comics, one of which doubles as a cartoon series called Inspector Crikey.

There's a lot more to be found on their archives page, and most of their stuff is mirrored on their official YouTube account. Like what they do? Then why not purchase a DVD? Ignoring the fact that they ship from Australia, and that most of the films are available free on their site anyway...

posted by Rhaomi (2 comments total)

I really like their stuff - it's a bit twisted, but I like their style of animation.
posted by MythMaker at 8:00 PM on April 3, 2008

oh man, physique of christ was badass
posted by [son] QUAALUDE at 9:46 PM on April 3, 2008