World Science Festival: We Will Be Martians
2019
I was honoured to be approached by The World Science Festival in New York to direct, illustrate and animate a show opener about Mars as an introduction to a panel discussing the technological, physical and psychological challenges of sending the first humans to the red planet. Together with my colleagues at TRY Motion, Frode Alver Nilsen as an advisor and Kim M. Jensen on sound design, and a script written by John Plummer at World Science Festival, we created a film that combines the scientific with the poetic. We were given a lot of creative freedom in how we wanted to interpret the script.
The film explores how humanity continuously have evolved our understanding of Mars, from the ancient Mesopotamians first looking up at the sky to what the potential future of our journey to Mars might be.
In addition to being part of the festival, it was also released as a stand-alone film on the World Science Festival YouTube-channel.
Research was an important part of the process in order to get the science right. It was also nice to add some easter eggs and references to scientific concepts, as the audience is familiar with the subject. For instance, the typography is inspired by the look of the images that NASAs first crafts to Mars sent back to Earth in the 1970s. The dandelion seeds floating through space is a reference to the renown astronomer Carl Sagan.
A keyword for the visuals is signals. Everything we know about Mars is only from observations made at a distance through a medium, i.e. images and readings from orbiters and rovers on the planet or from looking through a telescope. Therefore, glitches, noise, static and technical graphical elements are used to substantiate this feeling of observation throughout the film.
In a similar manner, the illustrations are inherently simple and graphical to intentionally create a vague impression of what Mars could be like, as this is yet unknown. The soundtrack is both informative and poetic to honour the scientific work that's been done in order to understand Mars.
Credits
Direction, design, illustration & animation: Rebecka Taule
Sound Design: Kim M. Jensen
Advisor: Frode Alver Nilsen
Script: John Plummer (World Science Festival)
Producer: Christopher Young (World Science Festival)
Voice Actor: Jessica Frey
Awards
• Gold (Moving Image, Open Class) @ Visuelt 2020
• Gold (Digital Design, Use of Animation) @ Cresta Awards 2020
• Bronse (Craft, Outstanding Animation (film/video)) @ Cresta Awards 2020
• Silver (Motion Graphics) @ European Design Awards 2020
• Diploma (Illustration, Open Class) @ Visuelt 2020
• Shortlist (Animation) @ Epica Awards 2020
• Gold (Digital Design, Use of Animation) @ Cresta Awards 2020
• Bronse (Craft, Outstanding Animation (film/video)) @ Cresta Awards 2020
• Silver (Motion Graphics) @ European Design Awards 2020
• Diploma (Illustration, Open Class) @ Visuelt 2020
• Shortlist (Animation) @ Epica Awards 2020
