Best commissioned film at KLIK!* 2018
Nomination for best commissioned film at the Emile Awards 2018
Vimeo Staff Pick
Screened internationally at SICAF, CutOut, Pictoplasma, LIAF, Grafixx, Reanimania, Anim’est. LIFF, Animaze, Supertoon, CAF and more.
Directed and Designed
Jennifer Zheng
Production Studio
Moth Studio
Produced
Moth Studio
Animation
Maria Morris, Keziah Philipps, Knifeson Yu, Jennifer Zheng and Moth Studio
Compositing
Daniele Baiardini, Keziah Philipps, Ross Plaskow, Moth Studio
Music and Sound Design
Skillbard
Commissioner
Massive Science
Co-Production
Massive and Plympton
Producer
Harriet Bailey
Producer
Nadja Oertelt
Executive Producer
Ed Finn, Bob Beard
Production year
2018
*Now known as Kaboom.
Massive Science
Better Humans
Sexy yetis, scientists and neon colours collide in Better Humans: a kaleidoscopic romp through the possibilities of gene editing and body augmentation.
One of a seven-part series on the lasting impact of Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein.
I had just been to Japan when this project came in and became hypnotised by the flashing displays, colours and toys there. The monster figurines (Kaiju) in particular were inspiring. The script was about gene editing so I combined that with Kaiju to imagine a future where people could and wanted to look like monsters.
Now, this concept was already quite ungrounded, so I decided to lean in and make the visual style campy to compliment it.
In Japan I found these POSCA paint markers, they’re really neon and blobby. It was hard to be accurate and detailed so I embraced the medium and the visual style naturally became more loose, fun and bright.
We drew all the backgrounds with POSCAs on animation cels before scanning them in and treated the character animation to match.
The process gave the film a handmade low-fi feel which gave a more playful vibe to complement the speculative nature of the interview.
