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Floaters is a Cute Animated Film About Two Bickering Spaceships

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Floaters is a Cute Animated Film About Two Bickering Spaceships

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Published on September 21, 2020

Image: Karl Poyzer
Image: Karl Poyzer

In the distant future, two spaceships encounter one another floating over a futuristic, dystopian city, in this cute animated short film (via Boing Boing). They’ve got a problem: They both have the same identifying number, and one of them isn’t legit.

Pedantic bickering ensues.

The film is brilliant in its simplicity—all of the action comes down to dialog. The professional crew of one RC5-01 is adamant that the immature crew of the other RC5-01 is in the wrong. It’s not a trivial matter for them: as we find out, someone’s been racking up parking and airspace violations.

Over on Directors Notes, directors Joe Roberts and Karl Poyzer provide a bit of an overview for how the short film came together while they were in lockdown. Poyzer explains that the two of them had wanted to do more live-action comedy, and that he had recently picked up the hobby of creating 2D sci-fi art.

Roberts wrote up a short script about two spaceships having an argument, and decided to try their hand at animating it. “I had the idea in the shower for two ships having a confused conversation over ship-to-ship intercom,” he explained. He brought the idea to Poyzer and the two of them spent the next five months learning animation. After animating it, they brought together some friends whom they’d worked with before to produce the sound design for the film.

Looking back on the project, Poyzer noted that it was a fun learning experience for the two of them. “I hope these new creative paths remain open and this just becomes another tool for specific kinds of projects.”

For his part, Roberts noted that without the work on the film, “the lockdown would have felt a lot more aimless, to be honest, it’s been a saving grace for me mentally.”

Hopefully, more will be on the way—Roberts says that “during the process, we’ve written four more scripts in this world of Kitchen Sink Sci-Fi and Karl and I are looking to make more down the road.”

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Andrew Liptak

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