1992
The Glass Ball
Synopsis
"The Glass Ball" is a poetic animated short film that explores the fragility of our planet through powerful visual metaphors. The story unfolds within the timeframe of a baseball's journey after being hit with tremendous force into outer space.
As the baseball soars upward, it undergoes a transformation, becoming Earth itself—a delicate glass ball falling back toward an uncertain fate. Meanwhile, a bird watches the ball's descent with growing concern. In a desperate act of protection, the bird frantically plucks feathers from its own breast to construct a nest, sacrificing parts of itself to create a safe landing place for the vulnerable planet.
The glass ball gently lands in the carefully crafted nest, and the bird wraps itself protectively around it. In the film's final sequence, the glass ball transitions back into a baseball, and the nest transforms into a baseball mitt as a crowd cheers this apparent victory. However, this celebratory moment is short-lived as the ball suddenly changes into a fragile soap bubble. A deadly silence falls over the scene just before the bubble bursts, leaving the audience with a powerful visual reminder of Earth's precarious existence.
Through its distinctive multiplan cutout animation style, inspired by Eastern European animation rather than American traditions, "The Glass Ball" delivers a moving environmental message about humanity's responsibility to protect our planet before it's too late.
Festivals
Credits
ANITA KILLI'S EXAMINATION FILM FROM VOLDA UNIVERSITY COLLEGE:
DIRECTOR, WRITER AND DESIGN: Anita Killi & Hege Krogvig Bergstrand
ANIMATION: Anita Killi
MUSIC: Øyvind Lied
PRODUCER: Volda University CollegeA collaboration between Volda University College and Oslo National Academy of the Arts
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Mission
# Mission: The Glass Ball
"The Glass Ball" aims to awaken viewers to the urgent reality of our planet's fragility through poetic visual storytelling rather than didactic messaging. The film's mission is to create an emotional connection between audience and Earth by personifying our planet as something delicate and precious—a glass ball—that requires protection and care.
By framing the narrative within the brief arc of a baseball's flight, the film creates a sense of suspended time where reflection becomes possible. The visual transformation of the baseball into Earth itself, and later into an even more fragile soap bubble, serves as a powerful metaphor for environmental vulnerability.
Through the bird's self-sacrificing actions—plucking its own feathers to create a protective nest—the film challenges viewers to consider what personal sacrifices they might make to safeguard our planet. This gesture embodies the core philosophical question at the heart of the film: what are we willing to give of ourselves to protect something greater?
The film deliberately eschews the conventional animation style of Western commercial studios, instead drawing inspiration from Eastern European animation traditions to create a distinctive aesthetic experience that demands thoughtful engagement rather than passive consumption. By employing multiplan cutout animation techniques, the film creates layered, textured imagery that mirrors the complex interrelationships within our ecosystem.
The final moments—where apparent triumph turns to tragedy as the bubble bursts—seek to disrupt complacency and confront viewers with the consequences of inaction. Through this emotional journey, "The Glass Ball" aspires to transform environmental awareness from an intellectual exercise into a deeply felt imperative.
About the film
# About the Film: The Glass Ball
"The Glass Ball" is a 4-minute animated short film created using multiplan cutout animation techniques. The film was originally conceived in response to an MTV competition calling for 30-second animations about environmental care, though it ultimately expanded beyond this time constraint and never entered the competition.
The animation was created using a handmade multiplan stand constructed with three glass plates (50 x 40 cm) positioned with toilet paper rolls at each corner to maintain proper spacing for hand animation between the layers. The lighting setup included main lights positioned at 45-degree angles to illuminate the glass plates, with additional torch lighting used for specific effects, such as following the ball's descent into the nest.
The film's visual aesthetic draws significant inspiration from Eastern European animation rather than American styles, particularly the work of Russian filmmaker Jurij Norstein, whose film "Hedgehog in the Fog" was a major influence. The creators employed a distinctive artistic approach, making small drawings that were enlarged onto cells, which were then scraped and colorized to create unique graphical textures and structures.
The production received guidance from Triin Sarapik from Nukufilm in Estonia, who served as a guest teacher and helped initiate the animation process. The film represents a collaboration between two artists who have worked together on several subsequent projects, including "The King that Wanted More than a Crown," "The Hedge of Thorns," and "Angry Man."
This environmentally themed work explores the fragility of Earth through the metaphor of a baseball that transforms into the planet itself, and later into a soap bubble that ultimately bursts, delivering a visual message about planetary vulnerability and the need for protection.