The 30 Second Film medium project, led by Stefan Terlinden, focused on creating short films of no more than 30 seconds. The brief was deliberately open, allowing us to freely choose the subject, style and narrative approach, with the only requirement being that the film had to tell a story.
Together with a Amber Watts, I developed The Basquiatstrap Paradox, a short film based on the Bootstrap Paradox, a time travel concept that has been explored in numerous science fiction films and TV shows. We chose Jean Michel Basquiat as the central figure. The story follows a time traveller who travels back to meet Basquiat, only to discover that he does not exist. In an attempt to preserve his idol’s work, the traveller ultimately becomes Basquiat himself, creating a paradox of authorship and origin.
The main challenge was to condense this complex narrative into just 30 seconds while maintaining tension and clarity. We combined live action footage with four different animation styles, including pencil drawing, clay stop motion, 3D animation and graphic shape animation, to represent transitions between different timelines and realities.
I was involved in the concept development, direction, shooting, editing and animation of the film, including creating the pencil drawn animation sequence. The final result combines different visual techniques into a fast paced short film exploring time, identity and authorship.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MWrJahqlSNs
