LUNATIC an Improvisation Animation
Logline
The improvisation animation film, an environmental comedy, tackles urgent earthly issues in a surrealistic and sometimes hilarious way, as seen by a lonely astronaut on the moon.
Synopsis
The film tackles urgent earthly issues, as seen by a lonely astronaut, called Antonio, who was left behind on the moon after his coming out. The Moon Guard, a statue of a skinned warrior rising from the moon's surface, symbolizes defense against the danger of space debris from above. In addition to the climate crisis, human waste, even in space, determines our fate. Ultimately, collisions between space debris and satellites will cause a cascade of collisions that will destroy all communications. It's called Kessler syndrome. The earth ends up with a Saturn like dust ring of metal and silicon. The lunar tardigrades witness the developments. Antonio is aware of these problems and as he put's it: “It is one small scrap by man, one giant heap by mankind.” He tries to do some terra forming on the moon and finally he meets the all knowing 'I am AI' who also happens to be the voice over.
Lunatic is an improvisation animation film by Robin Noorda, based on his poem about the human behaviour of leaving waste everywhere, even in outer space and his juvenile drawing of a skinned warrior, trying to defend itself against a lunar lander.
Themes and genre
Themes: human behaviour, earthly issues as climate catastrophe, global heating, the big burn, drought and floods, waste, space debris (Kessler Syndrome), danger of AI, danger of tech-totalitarianism, call to diminish digital dependence, death and extinction, pandemics, panspermia, terraforming, inclusiveness and awareness.
Genre: improvisation animation, hybrid, experimental and absurd environmental comedy.
Director's statement
The array of urgent crisis the world is facing is of an absurd magnitude. The people who really can do something about it, do too little or are looking the other way. Since we are aware of man's lunacy, perhaps it is best to laugh about it.
It is an improvisational animation because the workflow was not based on a fixed script, storyboard or plan. The only way to be truly independent meant making the film without a budget. So, I didn't even bother applying for funding.
I started with only some ideas and images in my head. Improvisation animation is an approach I promote in order to maintain creativity during production instead of being merely a slave of the pre-production script and storyboard.
The film is based on my poem and my lost and recently re-emerged juvenile drawing (made in 1975) of a skinned warrior, trying to defend itself against a lunar lander. It also features a 40 years lost model spaceship I made during my internship at Toonder Studio's that also recently came back to me.
Critics
"Great choice of score and whimsical editing! Intriguing from start to end with the visual experimentation and self-aware voice over. Fantastic film!" - Conor Norrington, Big Fridge International Film Festival (initial reaction upon submission, even before selection).
"It’s an extraordinary film, and I have no idea how you made it on no budget. And it’s very very funny". - Greg Hackett, LMFF.
"Lunatic is a highly poetic film that the jury found sensitive to the colossal effort put into creating a version lasting over 15 minutes. The voiceover works exceptionally well and is well-written. The music is original and captivating, perfectly complementing the universe presented. There are some occasional lulls, but overall, it's filled with philosophy, and the underlying idea is quite potent. Congratulations on this work, which is of high quality and enjoyable to watch." - feedback of the jury of Paris in the Dark Film Festival where it received a Special Mention.
"In the Video Art Zone, attendees were captivated by exceptional art projects such as 'Lunatic' by Robin Noorda from the Netherlands." - Video Poetry Festival in the Institute for Experimental Arts, Athens.
Logline
The improvisation animation film, an environmental comedy, tackles urgent earthly issues in a surrealistic and sometimes hilarious way, as seen by a lonely astronaut on the moon.
Synopsis
The film tackles urgent earthly issues, as seen by a lonely astronaut, called Antonio, who was left behind on the moon after his coming out. The Moon Guard, a statue of a skinned warrior rising from the moon's surface, symbolizes defense against the danger of space debris from above. In addition to the climate crisis, human waste, even in space, determines our fate. Ultimately, collisions between space debris and satellites will cause a cascade of collisions that will destroy all communications. It's called Kessler syndrome. The earth ends up with a Saturn like dust ring of metal and silicon. The lunar tardigrades witness the developments. Antonio is aware of these problems and as he put's it: “It is one small scrap by man, one giant heap by mankind.” He tries to do some terra forming on the moon and finally he meets the all knowing 'I am AI' who also happens to be the voice over.
Lunatic is an improvisation animation film by Robin Noorda, based on his poem about the human behaviour of leaving waste everywhere, even in outer space and his juvenile drawing of a skinned warrior, trying to defend itself against a lunar lander.
Themes and genre
Themes: human behaviour, earthly issues as climate catastrophe, global heating, the big burn, drought and floods, waste, space debris (Kessler Syndrome), danger of AI, danger of tech-totalitarianism, call to diminish digital dependence, death and extinction, pandemics, panspermia, terraforming, inclusiveness and awareness.
Genre: improvisation animation, hybrid, experimental and absurd environmental comedy.
Director's statement
The array of urgent crisis the world is facing is of an absurd magnitude. The people who really can do something about it, do too little or are looking the other way. Since we are aware of man's lunacy, perhaps it is best to laugh about it.
It is an improvisational animation because the workflow was not based on a fixed script, storyboard or plan. The only way to be truly independent meant making the film without a budget. So, I didn't even bother applying for funding.
I started with only some ideas and images in my head. Improvisation animation is an approach I promote in order to maintain creativity during production instead of being merely a slave of the pre-production script and storyboard.
The film is based on my poem and my lost and recently re-emerged juvenile drawing (made in 1975) of a skinned warrior, trying to defend itself against a lunar lander. It also features a 40 years lost model spaceship I made during my internship at Toonder Studio's that also recently came back to me.
Critics
"Great choice of score and whimsical editing! Intriguing from start to end with the visual experimentation and self-aware voice over. Fantastic film!" - Conor Norrington, Big Fridge International Film Festival (initial reaction upon submission, even before selection).
"It’s an extraordinary film, and I have no idea how you made it on no budget. And it’s very very funny". - Greg Hackett, LMFF.
"Lunatic is a highly poetic film that the jury found sensitive to the colossal effort put into creating a version lasting over 15 minutes. The voiceover works exceptionally well and is well-written. The music is original and captivating, perfectly complementing the universe presented. There are some occasional lulls, but overall, it's filled with philosophy, and the underlying idea is quite potent. Congratulations on this work, which is of high quality and enjoyable to watch." - feedback of the jury of Paris in the Dark Film Festival where it received a Special Mention.
"In the Video Art Zone, attendees were captivated by exceptional art projects such as 'Lunatic' by Robin Noorda from the Netherlands." - Video Poetry Festival in the Institute for Experimental Arts, Athens.
Awards, Nominations, Honorable Mentions, Finalists and the like.
The awards so far are a nice array indicating what the film is about:
London, New Arts International Film Festival - Poetry Award | Milano, Absurd Film Festival - Absurd (Back to the Future) Award | Istanbul, Anatolia International Film Festival - World Building Award | Cleveland Ohio, Short Sweet Film Fest - Environmental Award | Kookai International Film Festival - Current Issue Award
Official Selections
The film is pasword protected
Trailer
the music for Lunatic
a selection of film stills
a selection of film stills
A range of lunar news papers elaborate on matters.
Credits
script, art, direction, camera, animation, edit, vfx, sfx - Robin Noorda
Astronaut Puppet - Jeroen Zijlstra, 5 A.M. Studios
Music - Alfred Marseille
Technique - Paul Godschalk
Soundeditor - Camiel Muiser
Re-recording mixer - Jos van Galen, Posta
Graphic Design - Margot van de Stolpe
Producers - Tropism Art & Science Collective, Morphosis
Executive Producer - Marc Thelosen, seriousFilm
Distribution - Ursula van den Heuvel, Kaboom Distribution
Facts and figures
The 'LUNATIC' film:• is an iconoclastic improvisation animation,
• is an experimental and absurd environmental comedy,
• is based on the directors poem about urgent earthly matters and our capability to produce waist everywhere, even in outer space,
• is also based on his juvenile drawing of a skinned warrior, trying to defend itself against a lunar lander.
• features a large model starship he made 40 years ago, which was lost and only recently returned.
• is a zero budget, 16', 4K, one-year-one-man-production, indie, art-house, stop-motion-animation film of over 24.000 photographs.
• was made with a little help from AI: the voices were AI generated, a few shots had some AI inbetweening, and the newspaper article about "Total AI Takeover" in the AI scene was written by AI.
script, art, direction, camera, animation, edit, vfx, sfx - Robin Noorda
Astronaut Puppet - Jeroen Zijlstra, 5 A.M. Studios
Music - Alfred Marseille
Technique - Paul Godschalk
Soundeditor - Camiel Muiser
Re-recording mixer - Jos van Galen, Posta
Graphic Design - Margot van de Stolpe
Producers - Tropism Art & Science Collective, Morphosis
Executive Producer - Marc Thelosen, seriousFilm
Distribution - Ursula van den Heuvel, Kaboom Distribution
Facts and figures
The 'LUNATIC' film:• is an iconoclastic improvisation animation,
• is an experimental and absurd environmental comedy,
• is based on the directors poem about urgent earthly matters and our capability to produce waist everywhere, even in outer space,
• is also based on his juvenile drawing of a skinned warrior, trying to defend itself against a lunar lander.
• features a large model starship he made 40 years ago, which was lost and only recently returned.
• is a zero budget, 16', 4K, one-year-one-man-production, indie, art-house, stop-motion-animation film of over 24.000 photographs.
• was made with a little help from AI: the voices were AI generated, a few shots had some AI inbetweening, and the newspaper article about "Total AI Takeover" in the AI scene was written by AI.