Josh Funk’s The Spaceman can be looked upon in two ways. One: it’s a well made representation of the imagined adventures kids go on when they climb into their cardboard spaceships. Two: it’s actually an ultra-low-budget sci-fi flick with ships and costumes made from cardboard. Either interpretation works in this fun space adventure that features Tim Burton-esque stop-motion animation. It’s a nostalgic piece for those who have actually built cardboard spaceships in their basements when they were kids. This film critic built a light-cycle from TRON.
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Stop-motion monsters come to life in ‘The Spaceman’
A short film titled “The Spaceman”, which has part stop-motion animation and part live-action, along with animatronics and a miniature set design, is fit for any sci-fi or action movie fan.
The film will have showings at the Pageant Theatre on East Sixth Street on Feb. 21 and 22 and is directed by local Chico State alumnus Josh Funk.
The epic story of “The Spaceman” deals with a man who builds a cardboard spaceship and travels to another planet to end up battling with an alien monster.
The monster is a stop-motion puppet, which the filmmakers for the movie had to animate frame by frame.
“You take a picture of it, then you move it a little bit and then take another picture,” said Funk, the director. “It took two years for us to do this.”
The people involved with the movie also made a gigantic spaceship. The cockpit took up almost all of a garage studio Funk has in the backyard of his house.
Other styles and elements that were used in the movie were green screens and actual live-action filming in areas of Forest Ranch and in Fern Canyon in Humboldt County.
Funk told his brother Jordan, the star of the movie, to “Pretend that you are Bruce Willis, but all they could afford is cardboard.”
At the movie premiere for “The Spaceman,” the puppets that were used in the movie will be displayed and the audience will get to see a behind-the-scenes video of how the film was made.
At the end of the event there will be a Q&A; with the filmmakers and others who contributed to the movie.
Premiere Details
- Date: Feb. 21 and 22
- Time: 1 p.m. on Feb. 21, 6 p.m. on Feb. 22
- Location: Pageant Theatre
- Price: $5
Tom Sundgren can be reached at artseditor@theorion.com or @tomsundgren on Twitter.
Dragonframe Review of Wormholes →
Cinematic smorgasbord! Multi talented artist Josh Funk spent a year putting together this almost painfully fun and quite beautiful film. It is a very impressive first-time run at animation. If Tim Burton, Mr. Bill, David Lynch, Freddy Mercury and the Phantom of the Opera all got together…. this would be their love child. Read on to hear from Josh about the production.
“Wormholes started out as an experiment in Stop Motion and storytelling. I had always wanted to create a stop motion film but never knew how to start. I stumbled upon Dragonframe software, saw the online videos and realized all my crazy visions could actually come to life with Dragonframe. If you watch Wormholes you will see that the animation gets better as I go along because I was animating each shot in chronological order as I learned how to animate. It took me about a year to complete and I would only come up with two scenes at a time; the scene I was animating and the scene it would run into. I used a Nikon D5100, a tripod, borrowed a dolly from a friend, and spent a lot of money on discounted Halloween and party lights. For certain shots I even put my camera on a skateboard and slowly moved it along.”
-Josh Funk