Paper Sculptures Encounter Otherworldly Happenings in This Uncanny Animated Short Film

A day like any other takes an unexpected turn for the paper characters of Shotaro Kitada and Hoji Tsuchiya’s new animation. The filmmakers collaborated on a music video for a track called “Prime” from Japanese saxophonist Tamoaki Baba’s 2024 album, Electric Rider.

Constructing a world of paper cutouts and sculptures, Kitada and Tsuchiya worked remotely to make the experimental short film, never meeting in person due to their geographic distance. Tsuchiya would often provide backgrounds by using stop-motion, then Kitada would bring his sculptures to life through live-action techniques. The process required some initial trial and error and eventually came together through improvisation, which the artists liken to a musical jam session.

“My three-dimensional works convey a sense of ‘reality’ that drawings or computer graphics cannot replicate,” Kitada says, “yet they evoke a sense of dissonance due to their awkward movements, unique scale, and homogeneous world.”

Relatable scenes of a gas station, a sheriff on patrol, or a duo playing chess on a bench are met with a tinge of nostalgia and stilted movements, but as the film carries on, people begin disappearing by way of inexplicable phenomena. An enigmatic, high-strung character and a mysterious beverage may have something to do with it.

Filmed digitally, the video was transferred to film to enhance the work’s “tactile quality,” Kitada says. In some scenes, we can see a piece of fishing line lifting a limb, while in others, stop-motion allows figures to move on their own.

Get carried away with more projects on Kitada’s website, and see more from Tsuchiya on his site.