Visualzone

I had a burst of creativity at around 4am, I didn’t know it was possible for me to make art like this lol

A little over a year ago a friend of mine @supervisualbuddhist showed me and some other writers a script he was working on for a short film that he called "Moon Day". Shortly after that he announced (on here, I think?) that he produced that film, and I was baffled to find it was brought to life through CineBlox - which is, from my understanding, an indie production team that directs entirely through the Roblox platform.

Moon Day is the first Roblox based film I've ever seen. A lot of my takeaway as a viewer is biased by my lack of familiarity with Roblox as a medium. But this still made for a surreal viewing experience, managing to both unnerve me, fill me with a sad warmth, and make me laugh out loud in less than 20 minutes.

Something that I loved about Moon Day back when it was just a script is that it felt like a made-for-tv holiday special from another reality. It centers around a crew working in a snow cruiser around Moon Day, a holiday with clear connections to New Years and Christmas, and maybe hints of the Equinox. It's entirely new to us here on Earth, but in the universe of the film it is fully ingrained to the culture at large. So much so that the workers of the cruiser each have to consider their relationship with Moon Day, and the way their colleagues connect to this massive holiday.

In that sense, having the story play out through Roblox adds a really fascinating extra layer to the surrealism. All the characters are different iterations of the faceless Roblox avatar. They move in a way that's fluid, but also with the slight stutter of stop motion animation. The captain's beloved dog is played by a motionless asset (which makes him being included in the gift exchange very funny to me). There is no spoken dialogue, but some pretty expansive sound design and great music. The lines are displayed like the speech bubbles of a comic strip - it's like a silent film in that way.

For an overall plot structure that feel pretty simple, there is an unavoidable atmosphere about this all happening somewhere else. It feels like I temporarily picked up a cable station from another planet, where this would be something that airs every season and people either find endearing or grating in its saccharine nature. Think those Rankin and Bass Christmas movies. Moon Day is like getting a peek of one small sliver of an entirely different world from my own, and it really blows my mind to see it.

CineBlox is a game on Roblox that shows animated and stop-motion movies similar to Moon Day, which is the most recent of 3 that I’ve produced for them over the years. After this movie was released, they offered me a job as the head of their film department, so now I have the privilege of reviewing and uploading movies submitted by talented and passionate young movie makers, much to the chagrin of my own schedule lol. Without much free time to work on my own stuff, this will probably be one of the last movies that I make using Roblox.

I remember when you first read the script you said that the dialogue was “vaudevillian” and that I would be a good choice to write something for the Muppets. I overthink about that description more often than I should lmao. I guess the best way to get two characters to argue about the true meaning of the holidays is by putting them into a made-for-TV animated special that was taped on another world.

A little over a year ago a friend of mine @supervisualbuddhist showed me and some other writers a script he was working on for a short film that he called "Moon Day". Shortly after that he announced (on here, I think?) that he produced that film, and I was baffled to find it was brought to life through CineBlox - which is, from my understanding, an indie production team that directs entirely through the Roblox platform.

Moon Day is the first Roblox based film I've ever seen. A lot of my takeaway as a viewer is biased by my lack of familiarity with Roblox as a medium. But this still made for a surreal viewing experience, managing to both unnerve me, fill me with a sad warmth, and make me laugh out loud in less than 20 minutes.

Something that I loved about Moon Day back when it was just a script is that it felt like a made-for-tv holiday special from another reality. It centers around a crew working in a snow cruiser around Moon Day, a holiday with clear connections to New Years and Christmas, and maybe hints of the Equinox. It's entirely new to us here on Earth, but in the universe of the film it is fully ingrained to the culture at large. So much so that the workers of the cruiser each have to consider their relationship with Moon Day, and the way their colleagues connect to this massive holiday.

In that sense, having the story play out through Roblox adds a really fascinating extra layer to the surrealism. All the characters are different iterations of the faceless Roblox avatar. They move in a way that's fluid, but also with the slight stutter of stop motion animation. The captain's beloved dog is played by a motionless asset (which makes him being included in the gift exchange very funny to me). There is no spoken dialogue, but some pretty expansive sound design and great music. The lines are displayed like the speech bubbles of a comic strip - it's like a silent film in that way.

For an overall plot structure that feel pretty simple, there is an unavoidable atmosphere about this all happening somewhere else. It feels like I temporarily picked up a cable station from another planet, where this would be something that airs every season and people either find endearing or grating in its saccharine nature. Think those Rankin and Bass Christmas movies. Moon Day is like getting a peek of one small sliver of an entirely different world from my own, and it really blows my mind to see it.

1 1/4 preroll and this monster I’ve been working to fill 😁

We live in a single room apartment for $1250 a month and we've only got $800 at the moment. We fortunately have assistance with food so all our money is solely going towards rent right now.

If I thought I had the following to post asking for help, I'd make it a lot more elaborate.. but I don't think I do.. and I don't think it'll matter.

Fancy Ramen

(Speciality of an old friend from the college dorms)

Ingredients:

Two blocks of ramen (no flavor powder needed)

Soy sauce

Black vinegar (or rice vinegar)

Butter (1tbsp per block of ramen)

Minced garlic

Brown sugar

Spam

Onions

Eggs

Steps:

Microwave ramen for about 3-4 minutes

While microwave is going prepare soy sauce, black vinegar, butter, garlic, and brown sugar in a pan on the stove. There should be enough sauce to just cover the bottom of the pan. Keep the heat low

While sauce is getting warm dice up half an onion and cut the half a block of spam into small cubes. Throw this into the sauce

Hopefully by this point the microwave is done, strain the water and put the ramen into the pan, crank up the heat of the stove.

Mix ramen and sauce until the noodles are brown. Crack an egg (or two if you please it) and mix until the eggs are thoroughly cooked through

Once served, it’s optional to sprinkle chili flakes on top for added spice and flavor

The movie was released in a Roblox game called CineBlox Cinemas on December 21st, and has since been sent to multiple real life film festivals, consideration still pending.

I got some help with the script for this movie from @goodluckclove and @writingwithfolklore so id like to thank them both for helping getting the writing to a good spot.

Further thanks to @colasap for co-animating and editing, and thanks to @muffinsbs for drawing some artwork featured in the movie

Enjoy, and have a happy Moon Day :)

The acceptance at the two festivals really surprised me, but what really got my attention was the email I got back from one of the festivals that denied it

I’ve never really been interested in trying to over explain my movie, I just wanted people to view it and have the movie stand on its own merits. That being said this is really insightful. There’s some choices I made that were deliberate and others not so much, and having someone go through my movie and get some of those assumptions of what was a choice or not completely wrong is weirdly fascinating to me. Like I’ve spent months with these characters and this world, and now I get to read from someone who’s never even experienced it before.

When Moon Day got accepted to a festival that actually screened it before a live audience I made sure to go and attend it. The movie was somewhere in the middle of that evenings roster so by the time it started about half the audience had already left. Sitting in the back corner of the theater, I listened to how people reacted. I got a few chuckles out of the remaining crowd but not in the parts I was expecting. Just knowing that everyone in that audience brought their own baggage and each experienced a completely different movie is something I’m very proud of.

There’s a theater organization nearby doing a screenplay contest and I’m thinking of submitting the script for Moon Day. I’ll have to rework it a bit so it’s better for the stage, and I hope they’d be interested in it.

council of megatrons (aka tfo megs getting advice from a bunch of divorced mechs and 1 (one) married ex-warlord)