Aeon Flux first appeared as part of Liquid Television back in the early 90s. In the second season, Aeon died in each episode. Anyway, it’s out on DVD, so I rented it. Found it’s been split by disc, and I have disc 3 — just the shorts, not the full-length series. Perfect.
So, in the director’s commentary on the final episode (my favourite) called Tide, Peter Chung says that he wrote this episode like a musical score, two seconds per shot. Which, coincidentally, is how I did Airport: each shot is also two seconds long. In Twelve Fives it’s five, and obviously a big part of the feel. The TLC short is also based around five seconds, though it’s less forced because of the hand-drawn style.
Why? Well, it makes structuring the audio much easier and offers a rhythmic frame onto which you can hang the images. Obviously, most traditional content doesn’t fit so rigidly, but animation often can. It’s an easy way to get started if nothing else. Oh. Peter Chung also admitted that the repetitive structure of Tide was partly so he didn’t have to draw fresh backgrounds all the time. Airport’s flat backgrounds suit the style, but also mean I didn’t need to draw them, and if it’s good enough for Peter Chung, it’s good enough for me.
