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Stop motion meets Zoom in a world-first by The Panics for Playgrounds Festival

When your client is an Eidenhoven creative festival that has been forced to move its event online, how do you still produce its opening titles and get people excited about the programme? You mix stop-motion with Zoom, that's how.

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That was the virtual solution dreamt up by Dutch director Erwin van den IJssel at the film production company, The Panics who created a 40 second short for Playgrounds, featuring himself and the rest of the team in the comfort of their own homes.

He got the idea from the agency's entire team working remotely and communicating all day via Zoom, Slack, Skype and other similar platforms. "I wanted to create something that highlights this process rather than hides it," Erwin tells us. "An ode to working from home, together. The result is something that I hope adds a bit of light to these confusing times we're in."

With 962 pages, 3,848 edges cut, 22 participants, eight ink cartridges, and three paper cuts, this project was undoubtedly a mix of concept, craft and technology, setting the tone for Playgrounds' first online festival. He adds: "Creating the titles this way not only felt fitting for the times but was also vital in following lockdown guidelines. It proved a lot of fun for all of us at The Panics to work on!"

Six wooden-framed paper collages featuring various geometric patterns and colours, including jagged yellow and black shapes, pink and purple stripes, green wavy lines, and black dots on light blue
Grid of twelve stop-motion animation frames showing hands holding colourful geometric paper shapes with text overlaid spelling out "PLAY GROU[PS]
Four panels showing hands manipulating cut-out geometric cube shapes on a light blue background for the stop-motion animation sequence
Collage of video call screenshots showing The Panics team members at home, each holding up light blue paper with black dots and geometric shapes drawn on them
Hands holding concentric green and black curved paper shapes against a dark background, with "Jama Jurabaev" and "Warden Light Studio" text overlaid
A grid of video call participants and close-up shots of hands holding yellow and black striped paper spirals with the Wouter Tulp logo in the centre
Grid of stop-motion frames showing hands manipulating paper cut-outs with black dots against light blue backgrounds, interspersed with text reading "Salon Alpin" and "Be
Grid of nine panels showing hands holding black and yellow zigzag-patterned paper sheets arranged around central text reading "EVEN MEHIL AMUNDSEN
Grid of stop-motion frames showing hands holding black and white geometric paper constructions with coloured circles, featuring names Cécile Carré, Pablo Carpio and Loish
Grid of video call screenshots featuring The Panics team members and colourful geometric paper cut designs in their home offices
A grid of 20 video call participants from The Panics team appearing on screen during a Zoom meeting from their home offices
Grid of yellow paper squares with black text reading "The Panics" created by cutting and moving pages for stop-motion animation
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