Mars

Mars is a transgender artist from Florida. Laundry Service interviewed them and gathered their artwork, photos, and clippings, including pieces they had discarded. Those materials became the visual world of the film. The challenge was to bring them to life while keeping the sense that they belonged to one person.

Drew and I worked from the interview edit and layered compositions, shaping transitions and finding ways for the images to respond to Mars’s voice. We had a lot of creative freedom within a simple constraint: everything on screen had to come from the materials they gave us.

Everything is a flat card, but the cards live in light. Shadows fall across them, edges catch, and paper folds into new scenes. We animated on twos to give the movement a handmade pulse. A little rough around the edges, on purpose.

In a portrait this personal, the animation had to make room for the person telling the story. The rhythm of Mars’s voice and the character of their materials gave us somewhere to start with every scene.

It’s rare to get paid to make something that feels this personal. Mars gave us their voice, their artwork, and room to explore. The finished film keeps all of that close to the surface. It remains one of my proudest pieces, and I think the motion still holds up.