Imagine a world where people have instant outfits and disposable faces in plastic packages. They can can whip out a new look and toss an old one in an instant.
That’s the consumerism-focused future created in Superflous, a 30-second animation created by five 18-year-olds from Sisler High School in Winnipeg.
The team, who call themselves Team Clam, took top prize for best high school in the recent 24 Hours Animation Contest for Students. They also were seventh overall out of 300 films from about 80 schools in 20 countries.
“We work really well together because we’re so used to the [communication] pipeline and so used to each other,” said Sam Balanial, a concept artist and animator on Team Clam (which is a mash-up of two previous team names).
That communication stream included a 24-hour-long video call. The cameras stayed on as team members took turns napping and snacking while others worked.
That is a big deal- Aubry Mintz, contest founder
Their work won not only the contest, but recognition from a world-class animator.
“There’s a high school [Sisler] that can be just as strong as a college, and that is a big deal,” said contest founder Aubry Mintz, a renowned animator who has worked for George Lucas’s Industrial Light and Magic.
In the real world, 30 seconds of animation would take three to five months to create, said Mintz, who is based in California.
The winning team — Xierra Cansino, Kimberley Chau, Gian Abad, Francesca Musni and Balanial — are now at the heart of a new short video by fellow Sisler filmmaking students.
Filmmaking students Kaitlyn Caballero, Shaina Maralit and Min Hecky Tresoor, all 18-year-olds in Sisler’s Create program, produced a short video about the team as part of CBC Manitoba’s Project POV.
CBC Manitoba started collaborating with Sisler Create in September during a series of storytelling and journalism workshops for student filmmakers. The collaboration is culminating in nine short videos by students that will be published on CBC platforms, including this one.