Space Alone Review

Space Alone is a flash short film created by Ilias Sounas, a 2D animator from Greece. The film contains a story of a wandering and forlorn astronaut in space whose mission is to find life. His ship monitor shows that he has one day left to complete the mission and at the last moment, his sensors detect a life form on a nearby planet. When the astronaut lands, he finds companionship and shares his time with the planetary creature. The plot continues and reveals a twist: the countdown timer of the astronaut’s mission is also a timer for his life. As the planetary creature sadly walks away with the astronaut’s death placard, the story exposes an ironic ending. This is not the first time an alien being has died on this creature’s planet; in fact, countless others have come here and died; coming to bring a short-lived friendship but ultimately, leaving the planetary creature alone in isolation again each time.

The intended audience of this piece is an individual who is emotionally mature and who can comprehend the intricacies of human emotions. The theme of this film develops in four major emotional stages: loneliness, happiness, sorrow, and anger. Each stage conveys a strong sentiment for the viewer as he or she experiences the feelings of the film’s characters at those moments. Further, the artist makes use of simple geometric and symmetrical shapes to form the characters’ faces and bodies. The simplicity leads audiences to sympathize with the animated characters as this appeal suggests innocence and baby-like qualities.

The film’s technique utilizes vector based drawings with flash and after effect animation. It is 2D, uses textured backgrounds and a chronological storyline which is linear in structure. The artist employs special effects such as glare (windows of the spacecraft), reflections (on the astronaut’s helmet), lens flare (scene with moons in the sky), smoke and dust (during spacecraft landing), and wind (after the astronaut dies and the planetary creature walks up the hill) to enhance the overall animation.
In addition, the video uses the following animation principles:

(1) Squash and stretch – During the beginning when the astronaut is in his spaceship, his head does a little squash and stretch, up down movement.

(2) Anticipation – When the planetary creature throws the astronaut’s death placard away, his motion creates an expectation of something important to happen.

(3) Slow in, slow out – While the death placard is in the air, the film slows down time, and then accelerates, before finally showing the placard fall into a massive pile of other placards. This unexpected scene startles the viewer.

(4) Staging – The whole setting, including the boundless space, barren planets intensifies the feeling of terrible loneliness. Moreover, the film contains no excessive details; the simple spaceship floating in the expanse, the non-vibrant, bleak coloration of the dying astronaut is offset by a brilliant yellow alien creature that fills the gap of loneliness with a newfound joy.

(5) Arcs – When the astronaut and the alien creature frolic and bound across the planetary landscape, the use of arcs in their movement is observed.

Furthermore, the film’s visual appeal is defined by the dull, earthy toned hue coloration which fits both the setting and story premise. The story’s tagline, “It’s not good to be alone” applies to both characters. One character is an astronaut who is close to death and wishes to spend his last few moments with another; the other is a living planetary alien who can never find a permanent companion and is perpetually alone. Even though there is no spoken dialog all through the film, the character’s interaction explains everything. The character development flows throughout the story which is logical and easy to understand. Although the characters are composed of simple geometric shapes, there is a level of quality in the movement with the artist’s use of arcs. Yet this movement can be enhanced with more squash and stretch or other traditional animation techniques. All in all, this art piece is a successful film which utilizes an easy to grasp theme, and accomplishes a contiguous, non-disjointed plot that is universally understood.