Water on Mars
Water on Mars is Stellar Door’s second film entry created for the 72 Film Fest, a contest that asks teams to create a short film in 72 hours, with a contest-provided prompt. Water on Mars is a loving tribute to team-favorite David Bowie, telling a story of a water-scarce future in space, and the freaky space journey that would spark a glimmer of hope in a space bandit.
Tasked with meaningfully incorporating an image from a previous year’s film, Stellar Door was provided with an image of a cowboy drinking at a bar, with a gun to his head. Our team transformed this prompt image into a space-western, complete with hand-fabricated stop-motion puppets of Bowie and the Bandit, a 3D-modeled stylized space bar setting, and 2D illustrations and animated assets including establishing scenery, psychedelic animation sequences, and timelapse illustrations of Bowie and his iconic imagery.
The film includes an original song, also created in the 72-hour contest, crafted with love to invoke the Ziggy Stardust-era 70s Bowie sound, including original lyrics and vocals.
Water on Mars runs approximately 5 minutes, and includes a brief behind-the-scenes glimpse of the production process. The film was a contest finalist, including nominations for Best Amateur Film, Best Music/Sound, and Most Hopeful Film, a secondary theme goal of the contest. It was also included in the “Friday Night Favorites” block from the night of the contest screening.
