REWFOE

Animated Short Film

Photo by Matt-Smith-Johnson

Photo by Matt-Smith-Johnson

Photo by Matt-Smith-Johnson

Artist Statement/Story

Becca Greenfield with Andrew Foerster

Rolling in the dirt playing with toys

Sketches

Trailer for Tin Canyon: Live Music, Storytelling, and Art event at the Trane Studio, 2011.

Original Music by Jaron Freeman-Fox, Tim Posgate, and Charles James

Storytelling by Armando Espana

Concept Art

A gif of the creation of the space station day by day.

Maintence manager, Chip McKinney is on his way to Vonandalous Alchneminan: The Space Station of the Seven Stars.

Chief scientist and engineer, Doug Hare makes his way to Vonandalous Alchneminan to oversee construction and repairs.

The crooked pirates Rockwell Gibbons and Sophra Anboric slowly fly around space aimlessly.

Tokka Aik the exterior maintenance robot goes to clock in for his shift at Vonandalous Alchneminan: The Space Station of the Seven Stars

Tibell Alchneminan, daughter of Kettathog Alchneminan, director of The Space Station of the Seven Stars, plots her course.

Artist and designer, Beekos is adding new paintings to her hand crafted shuttle.

Robot interns ride the space bus to Vonandalous Alchneminan: The Space Station of the Seven Stars.

Kettathog Alchneminan, director of The Space Station of the Seven Stars flies himself to personally inspect and oversee projects.

Chip McKinney finally arrives at Vonandalous Alchneminan: The Space Station of the Seven Stars. He carefully removes his space suit and mentally prepares to get to work. He often spends up to three months at a time on Vonandalous Alchneminan.

Just an Airlock and corridor.

Engineer Doug Hare adjusts his work station. No major changes are required since his previous shift. Doug spends 10 months a year at Vonandalous Alchneminan. He only goes back to Earth recalibrate his bones. He has no family.

Tibell Alchneminan relaxes in her quarters while awaiting her father's arrival.

Robot interns prepare food for the crew of Vonandalous Alchneminan: The Space Station of the Seven Stars.

Tibell Alchneminan examines the galaxy map to track the location of her father's space craft. He is late, which is uncharacteristic of him. His ship is not on the map.

An overview of Vonandalous Alchneminan: The Space Station of the Seven Stars in it's 15th day.

Chip McKinney and Tokka Aik retire to their chambers for the evening. In the morning they will strategize the best approach to begin exterior maintenance of Vonandalous Alchneminan.

After 9 years of diligence, Doug Hare has located a planet similar to Earth He sets an order to create a probe to test the planet's attributes. He feels fulfilled at this moment.

Following Doug Hare's orders, the robot interns begin scrounging up parts for a probe to investigate the possibly habitable planet. There is only a small window of time to create the probe as they will soon be out of range.

Chip McKinney and Tokka Aik clumsily repair signal receptors while inadvertently damaging radar systems.

Artist/ designer Beekos presents the final design of the exploration probe to Doug. This is an unmanned probe. In just over 3 days, the habitable planet will be out of range for another 2 years. Time is of the essence.

Tibell Alchneminan attempts to reach her father again. There is still no answer. He is several days late and his whereabouts are unknown. She is growing very concerned.

Tibell orders Doug to use his newly made exploration probe to search for her father instead of exploring the potentially habitable planet. He is not keen on this idea, but he must obey orders or he may lose his job.

As the rest of the crew sleeps Doug Hare locks the destination of the probe. He believes the exploration of a potentially habitable planet is a more worthy cause than searching for just one person. He'll be damned if he has to wait another 2 years to send a probe. It may cost him his job, but he believes this is the right thing to do.

Chip McKinney feeds the livestock, the Ghuaingorians, an endangered species known for their stupidity, barbaric culture and delicious taste.

Beekos spends the evening working on her personal art projects.

Tokka Aik sneaks into Tibell's private bathroom and goes for a dip. Sometimes a robot just wants to feel his cleanest.

Doug Hare goes to the science lab to print the probe's first findings. His discovery is like none other. He would surely go down in history for this.

Tibell demands an update on the probe's findings from Doug. He informs her there is no information on the whereabouts of her father yet, but the probe is still searching. He tells her he forgot something in his ship then leaves through the airlock.

The robot interns conveniently share a room with the laundry facilities.

Vonandalous Alchneminan: The Space Station of the Seven Stars in it's 30th day.

Chip and Tokka relax in the sauna on their day off. Tibell abruptly enters to inquire if they know the whereabouts of Doug. They curtly tell her they do not.

The crooked pirates Rockwell Gibbons and his Ghuaingorian partner, Sophra Anboric burn a hole into Vonandalous Alchneminan and begin searching for loot and swag. They are careful to not alarm the crew.

Tibell chases Beekos up the stairs asking if she knows what happened to Doug. She says she has no knowledge of where he could be and that she needs to tend to her projects.

Tokka, Chip, and Beekos play video games while gossiping about recent happenings on the ship. Chip expresses that he is quite sick of Tibell, while Beekos mentions that she does not miss Doug. Tokka quietly listens as he does not wish to participate in petty gossip.

Rockwell Gibbons and Sophra Anboric discover a shackled and wounded Ghuaingorian named Oiulok. In his native tongue he tells Sophra how the crew of this vessel has been hunting and eating Ghuaingorians. All the others have been eaten. Oiulok tells Sophra that they ate his hand and some of his arm. Sophra tells Rockwell what's been going on. He's shocked and horrified.

Tibell and the robot interns attempt to use the radar system to search for Doug's ship, only to discover it has been damaged.

The robot interns search for the damaged radar system and discover the unwanted visitors. The robot interns disable the pirate ship's engines, then they report their findings to Tibell.

Tibell calls the crew together for an urgent meeting in the armory. She informs them that there are pirates aboard. She sends Tokka out to repair the radar. She orders the robot interns to investigate the lower levels and she will investigate the higher levels with Chip and Beekos. Although she is scared at this moment she feels satisfied that she can step up to fill her father's shoes, and take charge of the situation.

The robot interns carefully search the lower corridors. Meanwhile Rockwell, Sophra and Oiulok hide out of sight.

Beekos, Chip, and Tibell peer around every corridor searching the ship extremely carefully. Tibell insists that she searches down the corridor to the right while Chip and Beekos continue on forward. Chip does not agree, he firmly believes splitting up is a poor idea, Beekos agrees with Chip. Tibell reminds them that she is their boss and orders them to do as they're told.

Tokka Aik installs the new radar and heads back to the ship to regroup with the others.

Rockwell and Sophra are frightened. They returned to their ship only to find out the engine wiring was destroyed. Sophra is concerned about Oiulok who is showing signs of malnourishment and exhaustion. Their only goal now is to get off Vonandalous Alchneminan. They found their way to the reactor room to lie low and devise a plan.

Tibell goes to a hidden surveillance room on Vonandalous Alchneminan. From here she is able to see and hear everything that is going on in the space station. She locates the pirates and the stolen livestock in the reactor room and locks the doors remotely. Tibell is surprised to find out that one of the pirates aboard is a Ghuaingorian.

Upon returning from installing the new radar satellite, Tokka startles the robot interns. Thank goodness they are terrible shots.

An overview of Vonandalous Alchneminan: The Space Station of the Seven Stars in it's 45th day.

Chip and Beekos are sitting together in a storage closet. They've been speaking for hours. They had no idea how much they had in common. Tibell announces the capture of the pirates and calls a crew meeting in the large meeting room on the middle level.

Tibell informs the crew of the notorious pirates that are aboard the ship. She tells them she was able to identify them as she held them at gunpoint and locked them in the reactor room. She orders the crew to go there and handcuff the pirates, then she tells Chip to use his ship to transport the prisoners to Earth.

The crew bursts into the reactor room. Even though Rockwell and Sophra are armed they know they are severely outnumbered. They have been in enough fights to know they won't come out on top, especially if they want to save Oiulok. The crew marches the pirates up to Chip's vessel. Oiulok and Sophra cry and shout to each other in Ghuaingorian. The crew continues to follow their orders, but nobody feels like what they're doing is right.

Chip heads to Earth with the pirates. Tokka goes to report to Tibell. Beekos and the robot interns bring Oiulok to a solitary cell. Beekos stays with this creature for a while. She can't get the image of Oiulok and Sophra communicating out of her head. It was caring and gentle... perhaps people have it all wrong about the Ghuaingorians...

Beekos and Tokka message Chip. They express that they don't feel right about Tibell's leadership. They all decide that when Chip returns they will take action to change the situation.

Tibell pours over old documents in her father's office looking for some vague clue of where he might be. She orders the robot interns to cook dinner from the remaining Ghuaingorian.

The robot interns head to a small closet space. They avoid Tibell's dinner request to put the final touches on their top secret project.

Beekos and Tokka attempt to grab some guns from the armory, only to realize someone has locked the door.

The robot interns had been working on a robotic hand, a large size space suit, and a small vessel for Oiulok. They release him from his cell and send him on his way. He is extraordinary grateful.

Beekos is hanging out in her quarters while chatting with Chip. He's about to drop the pirates off on Earth, he's aiming to be back in a couple of days.

When Tibell inquires what happened to her Ghuaingorian dinner the robot interns admit to sending Oiulok home. She is enraged that they would not only waste food, but use valuable resources to build a ship for the mindless creature. She locks the robot interns in the brig.

Chip arrives at Vonandalous Alchneminan. Before reaching Earth, the space pirates broke free from their cell and stole Chip's ship. However, they at least had the decency to send Chip back in his detachable pod.

Chip doesn't wait a moment after arriving to start planning a mutiny with Beekos and Tokka. But after only a few minutes Tibell enters the room with a gun targeting the three of them. She instructs them to walk to the brig.

Beekos, Chip, and Tokka are locked in the brig just above the robot interns.

An overview of Vonandalous Alchneminan: Space Station of the Seven Stars in it's 60th day.

Tibell goes to her father's library. She is filled with depression and self pity. She feels like she's done everything wrong. She longs for her father's guidance. She feels betrayed by her entire crew. She doesn't know where to go from here. If action isn't taken soon she and her captive crew will all starve to death. She thinks of the old expression "The captain goes down with the ship."

Tibell steps out of Vonandalous Alchneminan. She gazes at the stars. From the space station, the seven stars that make up the constellation Maerriaro Sphedualte were always crystal clear. It is said that this is the most enchanting group of stars in the entire universe. She takes it all in one last time.

Just as Tibell is about to remove her helmet, she notices the peak of the constellation growing brighter than before. She strains her eyes to focus on it, and she realizes it's coming closer to her, and it's not a star. She is able to define the shape. It is her father's ship. He has finally returned to Vonandalous Alchneminan: The Space Station of the Seven Stars. Her father, Kettathog steps out to greet her.

Kettathog asks Tibell to bring him up to date with what's been going on. Tibell tells him about Doug's disappearance, the space pirates, the robot interns waste of food, the planning of a mutiny, and how the whole crew is currently locked in the brig. He laughs enthusiastically and congratulates her for holding the fort while he was gone. Every time Tibell tries to inquire about where he was he brushes it off with a laugh and a vague answer. Kettathog wolfs half a Ghuaingorian from the food reserve on his ship then decides to hit the hay. Tibell still has many unanswered questions, but Kettathog tells her they can talk about everything else in the morning.

Tokka uses his built-in welding tools to cut a hole through the prison wall. However the tool was not designed to cut through such a strong material so it took several days. Tokka and the robot interns are ok, but Beekos and Chip and malnourished and dehydrated. Tokka worries for their safety. They all travel through the vents to escape. The robots carry Chip and Beekos as they're incapable of moving on their own.

The robots take Beekos and Chip to the small medical room on the second level. Tokka hooks them up in healing chairs. They will take a couple days to recover fully. He hopes Tibell doesn't find them in that time. The robot interns go to the docking bay to see if there's a ship big enough for the five of them.

Kettathog has remained in his room for more than 3 days. Tibell does not want to intrude but she goes to check up on her father. He is not answering when she is knocking. Tibell is still unaware that the crew has escaped.

The robot interns find three short range bikes in the docking bay. They could use them to venture out but they might not get very far. Plus only there's not enough for everyone. They decide to keep looking.

Tibell enters Kettathog's room. She does not find her father, only a dark yellow gelatinous blob covering his bed and walls, and a massive hole in the ceiling.

Beekos and Chip eat some rations from the medical room and make their way to the robot interns in the docking bay. Tokka diligently dismantles every camera he can find. He feels bad to destroy any part of the ship as he and Chip worked so hard to maintain it.

The robot interns discover a strange ship in the docking bay. It's made of a squishy shining blue material, and has no landing gear. It appears to be free-floating, and it's tethered to the ceiling with little grabbers. It definitely looks large enough to carry the whole crew but they can't even figure out how to enter it, let alone fly it. They are truly puzzled, they've never seen anything like this.

When Tibell goes to inspect the damage in the area above her father's room, she finds another hole in the ceiling and the room is completely torn apart. The same dark yellow gunk covers the floor, ceiling and walls. She goes to the next floor up to search for the cause.

The robot interns regroup with Chip, Beekos, and Tokka. They explain that the only ship they could find that was big enough, was some kind of foreign model that they didn't know how to enter. They head to the other side of the ship, perhaps they could find something more useful there.

Tibell follows the holes throughout the ship. Considerable damage appears to be done, but there's no reasonable explanation of what the cause could be.

An overview of Vonandalous Alchneminan in it's 75th day.

The crew burst into a small storage room on the lower level. They startle two strange looking creatures. One has a long face with sharp teeth and pointy ears. The other is Doug! The crew is shocked to see him, especially wearing such bizarre armour. He greets them warmly and tells them he has no time to explain, but they are all in grave danger...

The crew follows Doug into the next room. Here, they see another creature like the one Doug is with, and the entire room looks destroyed. There's dark yellow gunk everywhere and a gaping hole in the ceiling. Doug explains that the habitable planet he found called B'Zphedus was home to the Zoidamphs, a peaceful being that lived in harmony with the last few Ghuaingorians. Their society welcomed and accepted Doug. The Zoidamphs and the Guaingorians have a sickness on the planet. This disease causes the infected creature's skin to bubble up and turn to mush while the muscles and bone structure grew uncontrollably and the host was driven insane with a need to destroy anything in sight. Doug is working with a team of researchers to find a cure, and they're very close. Doug says he came back to Vonandalous Alchneminan to save the remaining Ghuaingorians to see if there were any healthy ones to help repopulate their species, as there are so few left on B'Zphedus, but upon his return to the space station, he realized the problem was much more severe than he could have expected.

Sophra and Rockwell return with the boys from back home and they're back with a vengeance. They tear open the door controls and barge intro Vonandalous Alchneminan.

Doug and Zpherus locate the nest of the of the infected creature. They are surprised to find the walls lined with eggs. They destroy the eggs but they know the creature will not be far..

The pirates find Tibell attempting to flee Vonandalous Alchneminan. Vyndl the birdman holds Tibell still while Sophra points a gun in Tibell's face demanding to bring them to Oiulok the Ghuaingorian. Tibell knows if she says that Oiulok was given a ship and sent home that the pirates will kill her, so in order to buy herself time she tells them to follow her to the lower level.

Above the warmth of the reactor a group of eggs begins to hatch.

The monster crashes through the ceiling splattering two of the pirates. Sophra, Rockwell and Vyndl go flying in all directions. Tibell grabs a ledge and pulls herself up to safety. The pirates quickly lose sight of her. The ceiling collapses above Doug and the crew. The crew huddles in the corner while Doug and the Zoidamphs fire away at the creature.

Everyone runs in different directions to get away from the insane destructive monster. Chip, Beekos, and one of the robot interns wind up in a room with Sophra and Vyndl. Sophra thanks Chip again for the use of his ship. Chip thanks Sophra for coming back, looks like they needed that backup plan after all. The robot intern explains that he sent Oiulok home. Vyndl expresses great remorse for his two friends that were eaten. He suggests that they try to find Rockwell and leave Vonandalous Alchneminan for good.

Tokka and the other robot intern run for their lives.

Tibell flees to the higher areas of the ship. Rockwell is close behind but can't get a decent shot.

Doug and the Zoidamphs chase the monster through the ship. The monster rips through the ship's walls to get away from them.

Sophra and Vyndl briefly go to their ship to fetch more weapons. They don't know what they're going to find but they want to be prepared for anything.

When Tokka and the robot intern look for a place to lie low they come across a room crawling with the baby monsters gnawing through the wall of Vonandalous Alchneminan. Once the hull is breached they fly off into the void of space. Tokka and the robot intern quickly jump into action to repair the wall as quickly as possible.

Rockwell finally catches up with Tibell. He holds her at gunpoint, he won't let her get away this time. Just then the monster smashes through the wall followed by Doug and the Zoidamphs. The monster devours Rockwell and makes short work of the Zoidamphs. Tibell sneaks away once again. Doug fires at the monster blowing off one of it's arms. Doug watches as Tibell leaves but can do nothing about it.

Tokka and the robot intern find an infestation of eggs and baby monsters covering many exterior surfaces. They do their best to remove as many as they can. They wonder how many are covering Vonandalous Alchneminan.

Doug stumbles into an empty room with a view of space. He is exhausted and covered in the blood of the monster. He defeated the horrible creature but lost his friends in the process. He did not save the Ghuaingorians, nor does he know anything more about this strange disease. He feels coming back was a complete waste. Vonandalous Alchneminan was always a place of frustration and anger for Doug, perhaps it still is. He looks out into the void of space wondering what to do next. Just then he sees Tibell in a small spacecraft flying away from the space station. Their eyes lock for just a moment, then she disappears into the darkness.

Tokka and the robot intern find more and more eggs coating the exterior. They realize the degree of infestation to the space station. They feel Vonandalous Alchneminan is a lost cause. They head back in to regroup with the others and share the news.

Chip, Beekos, Sophra, Vyndl and the robot intern find themselves in the same room as Doug. The exhausted, blood covered Doug tells the group that he finished off the monster. He tells them in a very matter-of-fact tone that the monster killed his friends, and ate Rockwell. He expresses that it was pointless to come back to Vonandalous Alchneminan. Sophra and Vyndl break down stricken with grief. Beekos asks Doug if he knows what happened to Tibell. Doug points at the window and says he saw her fly off just a few moments ago. Just then Tokka and the other robot intern enter the room. They inform the others about the degree of infestation in and on the space station. Doug shrugs and walks away. Chip gathers the emotionally destroyed pirates, and suggests gently that "Now...it's time to leave."

Years later, Chip and Beekos had a daughter. They named her Dhiil. She went on to become a top pilot in the Priydeeros Academy.

Sophra searched 31 systems over 6 years, and finally found Oiulok. As it turns out, the whole time she was looking for him, Oiulok was looking for her as well. They joined in the Ghuaingorian lifetime commitment ceremony and had 9 Ghuaingorian children all whom became excellent pirates.

Beekos eventually left Chip to pursue her adventurous side. She joined up with Sophra, Oiulok and Vyndl to travel the universe.

Chip, Tokka and the robot interns opened up their own business doing ship maintenance and repairs. The robot interns finally got paid full-time positions but everyone still calls them interns.

Doug returned to B'Zphedus. He never left behind the haunting memories of Vonandalous Alchneminan. He worked tirelessly to find a cure for the monster disease. It took him 5 years but he finally did it. After donating his results to a widespread medicine company he disappeared, no one has seen him since. Doug is regarded as a hero among the Zoidamphs and Ghuaingorians.

Shortly after jettisoning from Vonandalous Alchneminan Tibell found that her ship's engine was infested with eggs. The engine exploded leaving her stranded. She put out a distress call, but the only ship in range at the time was Sophra's. Tibell's ship was never recovered.

Vonandalous Alchneminan: The Space Station of the Seven Stars grew more and more infested with the monsters until they completely took over. With no reliable food source the creatures soon died off one by one. Strange and aggressive as they were, they exhibited absolutely no cannibalistic tendencies. It was a long, long time before Vonandalous had any visitors, but years later a small creature named Pobolo cracked open the door. The walls of Vonandalous were destroyed, the entire ship was devoid of oxygen or electricity. Pobolo wasn't looking for loot, nor was she looking for what caused the destruction of this space station. No, Pobolo was looking for a friend.

THE END.

Dancin' Boba Fett was created as a birthday gift for my brother.

For the 2015 election I wanted to encourage young voters to get out there using a different kind of approach.

For Valentines Day.

 When I first began animating, I did many little tests pairing characters to music and sound. My favourite of these was this short video I did for the Gorillaz song "Happy Landfill".

When I'm not animating I like to make sculptures. This first series is a group of four lone characters, each with a different story of how they came to stowed away below the deck of a pirate boat.

Photo credit: Ian Bethune

The Deserter

Skud left behind the army with his friend and organ donor, Opit, to pursue a life of crime.

Cowboy Jim

The boy from hell strives to put his life back together, one piece at a time.

The Junkie

He's been here as long as he can remember, doing the only thing he knows anymore.

AWOL

Born from the sadistic science experiments of a crazy man, Opit joined the army in a move to find purpose. He later left with the only creature who understood him, Skud.

Cowboy Jim and The Robot

Photo Credit: Ian Bethune

Quagelle

A discarded idea who came to life through his own determination and clawed his way from the mind of a person, to true existence.

These photos were for the Contact Photography Festival in Toronto.

Photo Credit: Ian Bethune

This robot was created from cardboard and found objects.

Photo Credit: Ian Bethune