Eric Power’s adorable paper-craft video for Jeremy Messersmith’s song “Tatooine” light-speeds through the first Star Wars trilogy with its interstellar heart at one with the Force.
Image courtesy Jeremy MessersmithBut there won’t be a sequel video blasting through the second trilogy.
“Eric and I are both OT (original trilogy) fanboys, so I don’t spend time watching the prequels,” Minneapolis-based indie songwriter Messersmith told Wired.com in an e-mail interview.
Power and Messersmith might want to reconsider.
Their winsome “Tatooine” reel mashes more than six hours of sci-fi legend into a few minutes of poignant paper animation, in which even the war-machine AT-ATs share tender moments.
“Eric’s take was to find the emotional core of the story and interpret it through the lens of the song,” Messersmith said. “You can only tell so much in two minutes. But I think he hit the most important parts of the original trilogy, including the relationships between Luke and Anakin and Han and Leia.”
The creative team seems capable of reanimating the second Star Wars trilogy to stand alongside The Phantom Edit or Robot Chicken’s goofy reboots.
The duo have a history of making cool paper-toons. Their last project was the Henry Selick-style horror cutie “Organ Donor” (below), a video collaboration featuring music from Messersmith’s recently released album The Reluctant Graveyard.
Another video, for the song “A Girl, a Boy and a Graveyard,” appeared in unfinished form in a recent episode of TV action-comedy show Chuck.
What’s can viewers expect in the finished product? “I think Eric is experimenting with some shadow animation,” said Messersmith. “It will most likely have robots in it. Probably no lightsabers, but definitely robots.”
Right now, the spotlight is on “Tatooine.” Messersmith’s song and a crude, iPhone-created “Tatooine” concept video arrived in 2009. Power posted his more-sophisticated papercraft video Wednesday on YouTube.
For the song itself, Messersmith found that the famed Star Wars planet’s twin suns served as a suitable metaphor for a song about friendship and intimacy. But he’s looking forward to watching films from George Lucas that don’t take place in a galaxy far, far away.
“Lucas has spent so much time overseeing the Star Wars empire that we’ve missed out on his other creative endeavors,” he said. “I’ve been waiting forever for Red Tails, the film about the Tuskegee airmen.”
See Also:
- George Lucas Makes Clone Wars Debut, Kicks Thug Ass
- Star Wars Uncut Fan Film Is Finished
- Is Sci-Fi Satire Fuels Fanboy’s Funny Star Wars Videos
Authors: Scott Thill