raphael vangelis makes loathsome loading screens undeniably worth watching

we all know what it’s like to encounter the ‘spinning pinwheel of death’ — those loathsome loading screens that signal your computer has simply had enough. windows and mac users unite under the fury of the frozen screen, and many computer-users have commiserated over the seemingly-endless spin.

london-based director raphael vangelis spends a lot of time on the computer. with the idea of making something fun out of something boring, vangelis created an incredibly-intricate short film as a sort of ‘animated autobiography’, confessing that he spends most of his life ‘swearing at the computer because it crashed or isn’t working.’ for the stop motion short titled ‘analogue loaders’, vangelis turns these universally-hated digital symbols into something analogue, playful, and undeniably worth watching.

each of the short scenes are actually based on the loading screens of various programs — like vimeo, apple, youtube, dropbox — transformed into unique visual vignettes. first, vangelis designed all of the moving parts for the film in 3D on the computer, then built them in real life using a 3D printer, clay and a range of materials. then, the collected components were playfully animated using stop motion techniques. the result is ‘analogue loaders’, a film that pays homage to all the time collectively lost in digital limbo, hoping for a sudden development on screen. ‘I wanted to start by making something fun out of something boring,’ he says, ‘but now it’s like I’ve looked at loading screens even more, so it’s quite ironic!’

see the final film above, and an in-depth look at the making-of the short movie at the bottom of the page.