RED🔴ƎYE Pictures (PAY, PAY, The Mad TriX, Stop-and-Cop, Cow Hard,
The Cockbite) and Synesis Films (The House of Tears, Romain & Julien, Black Day)
proudly present J.K. Arsyn's BoOzy’ OS and the Cristal Gem, an award-winning film from RED🔴ƎYE Studios!
Plot
The content of this section is under a CC BY-SA 4.0 license. See attribution info here.
A world-famous festival… A sparkling treasure… A charming and sturdy hero… An enticing chick… And a lot of bad naughty blokes!
Tagline
Find the hoard, beat the bad guys… and seduce the chick!
Summary
BoOzy’ OS is seeking the Great “Cristal” of Annecy.
Synopsis
Coming from outer space, an intergalactic cow invites BoOzy’ OS to join the biggest animation film festival of the universe.
BoOzy’ imagines himself winning the competition and decides to seek the famous “Cristal” of Annecy, with the help of OSmic the Hedgeh’ OS and other cool dudes.
But the dark paunchy Mari’ OS is determined to recover the loot before him.
Description
BoOzy’ OS and the Cristal Gem, or simply The Cristal Gem (BoOzy’ OS et la Gemme de Cristal, or La Gemme de Cristal in its original French version),
is a spoof animated short film directed by J.K. Arsyn,
first released at Annecy International Animation Film Festival2013 during the “+ de courts !” international event organized by Dailymotion, Cartoon Network Studios and Annecy.
Presented as a draft, the film arrived first.
The film uses different digital 2D animation techniques (frame-by-frame, vector animation, motion graphic design, compositing...) and includes some 3D modeled and animated objects.
Orthography
BoOzy’ OS and the Cristal Gem has been translated into many languages.
Regardless of the language, the spelling of the name “BoOzy’ OS” remains unchanged:
it keeps the same case and adopts the typographic apostrophe “’” (Right Single Quotation Mark, Unicode: U+2019) following “BoOzy” without a space and preceding “OS”;
“’” and “OS” are always separated by a non-breaking space as follows: “’ OS”.
With reference to the Annecy award, it was decided to keep the spelling of “Cristal” as it is in each language.
Why make it simple when you can make it complicated?
Douglas TenNapel, David Perry, Yūzō Koshiro, Walt Disney Pictures, James Cameron, Renny Harlin, Robert Zemeckis, Edgar Rice Burroughs, Sega, Sonic Team,
Naoto Ōshima, Hirokazu Yasuhara, Yuji Naka, Masato Nakamura, Nintendo, Shigeru Miyamoto, Jan Kounen, Mac Guff, id Software, Adrian Carmack, Kevin Cloud and so many more…
Production
Genesis
On March 4, 2013, J.K. Arsyn heard about a competition organized by the Annecy International Animation Film Festival and Dailymotion. The theme was: “Feet in the lake, head in the movies”.
The aim was to present a short animated film of no more than five minutes before March 31, 2013; (Originally, the call for entries was launched on November 23, 2012)
the film also had to refer to and carry the "International Animation Film Festival" and "Annecy 2013" keywords.
The subject was thrilling but the question was: how to make an animated film from start to finish in less than four weeks, knowing that the deadline was far too short to bring in a budget and a crew?
J.K. Arsyn considered several characters he had created, such as the Pimikaks, and finally his choice fell on BoOzy’ OS,
a prehistoric man he had first designed at the age of six and who is the main protagonist of the media franchise of the same name,
from which comic books from the 1990s and the 2009 animated series The Adventures of BoOzy’ OS are based.
This seemed to be the ideal choice as BoOzy’ OS lives in an anachronistic world where he is often faced with current situations.
The idea of creating The Cristal Gem was born.
Development
Development of The Cristal Gem began within the RED🔴ƎYE studios in Roanne, near Lyon, on March 5, 2013.
On March 20, the Annecy Festival announced that Cartoon Network Studios had joined the competition as a major partner.
As a result, an additional deadline has been set until April 14, 2013, which allowed the director to add a few scenes as otherwise the film would have been around two minutes long.
The Cristal Gem will have been designed in 38 days on a low-power computer — a Dual-Core with 2 GiB of RAM that couldn't display the result in real time.
The film includes more than 1,300 different drawings quickly made in Adobe Illustrator and edited and animated in Adobe After Effects;
for lack of time, J.K. Arsyn simplified the graphics and reused some elements from his previous films,
including the grass and some 3D insects and animals from The Cockbite for instance or a few words spoken by Victor Chai (Georges Colazzo) in Cow Hard.
As in the animated series, he exclusively used oral sound effects.
The more time passed, the later J.K. Arsyn went to bed, fearing not being able to finish on time. From April 12 to the end of the contest, he did not go to bed any more.
Deeming himself late, he no longer went to eat and his partner prepared meals she placed on her desk so that he could eat while working.
The editing has been done in a hurry the night before the closing date for entries, but J.K. Arsyn realized he had overdone it: at that time the film lasted 8 minutes and 32 seconds.
It was therefore necessary to speed up the pace and delete a few scenes in order to respect the rules which imposed a maximum duration of five minutes.
Faced with material constraints, some sets that were too “heavy” to be rendered by the machine were removed just before the final export,
which occured less than an hour before the registration and submission deadline.
Thus Arsyn “discovered” his own work on the day he sent it to the festival,
without the possibility of correcting any errors. This is the reason why he never accepted this version and considered a director's cut or a remake. After he sent the film, he fainted from fatigue.
This still happened twice the next day.
Music
The music is by Synth of Rage, a parodic retrowave band leaded by Axel “XLR” Rock and J.K. Arsyn,
known for incorporating a strong 1980 and 1990s video game influence into their music and image.
J.K. Arsyn listened to hundreds of pieces while working on the graphics and selected several tracks from games running on the Sega Genesis / Mega Drive like Streets of Rage,
Sonic the Hedgehog and The Lost World: Jurassic Park as well as Donkey Kong Country for the Super Nintendo, which he all used as a basis.
In order to optimize working time, the music was written during the image rendering phases.
However he didn't want the musical rendering to be like at that time,
since the graphics of the film were more modern and did not include pixel art, as he would have liked for the “Cristal Gem Zone” part
(that parodies a Sonic level) if he had more time.
Inspiration and nods
Warning: this section contains spoilers
One of the themes of the BoOzy’ OS series is to blend the era of storytelling with the one we live in, incorporating elements of popular culture.
The Cristal Gem is no exception to the rule and makes many winks, even parodies of well-known works.
More specifically for this episode, this sometimes allowed the director to compensate for the lack of time allotted, especially when it came to developing some characters' animation.
Below is a list of the main winks, more can be found.
Video games
Earthworm Jim and DooM
BoOzy’ OS runningRob’ OSmic loosing his pants
Some movements and mimics of Earthworm Jim, a video game character created in 1994 by Douglas TenNapel and programmed by David Perry, have influenced those of BoOzy’ OS(especially when the latter runs to his beloved or when he escapes from the bush by clinging to L’ OS t’SoOl's horns) and Rob’ OSmic (when he loses his pants).
BoOzy’ OS going to new lands with L’ OS t’SoOl
The flaming skull chasing BoOzy’ OS before being used as a means of locomotion (see illustration above) is a nod to DooM's “lost souls”.
Here it is called “L’ OS t’SoOl”.
Mario and Sonic
Mari’ OS, the mustachioed and paunchy villain of the story, wears a cap bearing the hammer and sickle symbol and is a wink to Nintendo's mascot Mario
designed by Shigeru Miyamoto.
Mari’ OS runningMari’ OS turning into…… Rob’ OSmic!
When BoOzy’ OS chases Mari’ OS, he turns into OSmic the Hedgeh’ OS, referring to the Sega mascot Sonic the Hedgehog created by Naoto Ōshima,
Yuji Naka and Hirokazu Yasuhara; then when Mari’ OS finds the “Cristal”, he reveals his true identity turning into Rob’ OSmic,
the equivalent of Sonic's nemesis Robotnik.
Besides, this scene refers to Sega versus Nintendo console war and offers an alternative story where Sega emerges victorious from this duel.
OSmic the Hedgeh’ OS title screen“Cristal Gem Zone” start screenOSmic running
Video game musics
The main music theme, "Keep the BoOzin’", is inspired by Yuzo Koshiro's Keep the Groovin' (from the original Streets of Rage video game).
Both musics of the OSmic intro and the “Cristal Gem Zone” are inspired by those of Sonic the Hedgehog.
The jungle sequence music was influenced by a piece from Donkey Kong Country, released in November 1994 on the Super Nintendo.
The music of the final battle opposing BoOzy’ OS and Rob’ OSmic is a wink to The Lost World: Jurassic Park
released on the Sega Genesis/Mega Drive in 1997.
Cinema
Fake posters
Many fake movie posters are included and feature the hero in situations borrowed from great classics of animation like Disney's Aladdin
(becoming Aladdingue or Aladding in another editing), The Lion King (becoming Le Roi Fion) and Disney's Beauty and the Beast
(becoming La Belle et la BoOz), as well as films like James Cameron's Avatar (becoming Avataré), Renny Harlin's Cliffhanger
(becoming Cristal and Girls) and Robert Zemeckis' Back to the Future (becoming BoOz to the Future).
AladdingueAvataréBoOz to the FutureLe Roi FionThe Beauty and the BoOz
The Mass d’ OS jumping over Lake Annecy
Other films
When Victor Chai's car jumps over Lake Annecy, it is a wink to the animated part of Jan Kounen's 99 Francs.
JK's films
Most of Arsyn's previous films are cited through various winks.
The jungle sequence features characters and elements from The Cockbite:
snakes, butterflies and some leaves and grass twigs come from The Cockbitanga, while the tyrannosaurus is a nod to The Cockbitosaurus.
The old lady and her quince liqueur should have appeared but this part was removed at the last moment so that the duration of the film does not exceed five minutes.
Victor Chai, played by Georges Colazzo, is the main character of Cow Hard;
he drives the same vehicle as before (a Mazda RX-7), except that the car body is made of bones (the car model becomes the “Mazd’ OS RX-7”).
During the ride, the lady crossing the road with her buggy is from the 2010 feature film Melting Cop, and the cop is from the Stop-and-Cop series of films;
instead of the baton, he brandishes a bone. Just before the Mass d’ OS is hit by the projectile fired by the cop, the symbolic tree from SynCop can be seen.
BoOzy’ OS's dulcinea wears a necklace whose pendant is the icon of the 2010 experimental series K. Arsyn’s Synaude.
Tarz’ OS
Literature
The jungle sequence, featuring Tarz’ OS, refers to Edgar Rice Burroughs' Tarzan.
Tarz’ OS moves from tree to tree, clinging to his tongue which he takes for a liana.
The content of this section is under a CC BY-SA 4.0 license. See attribution info here.
Track #01 — Synth of Rage | "Keep the BoOzin’" —
SoundCloud |
ReverbNation |
Bandcamp BoOzy’ OS and the Cristal Gem’ OSt — 23 March 2013
Track #02 — Synth of Rage | "OSmic the Hedgeh’ OS title theme" —
SoundCloud |
ReverbNation |
Bandcamp BoOzy’ OS and the Cristal Gem’ OSt — 26 March 2013
Track #03 — Synth of Rage | "Cristal Gem Zone" —
SoundCloud |
ReverbNation |
Bandcamp BoOzy’ OS and the Cristal Gem’ OSt — 27 March 2013
Track #04 — Synth of Rage | "Fat and Vicious" —
SoundCloud |
ReverbNation |
Bandcamp BoOzy’ OS and the Cristal Gem’ OSt — 28 March 2013
Track #05 — Synth of Rage | "Cristal Escape" —
SoundCloud |
ReverbNation |
Bandcamp BoOzy’ OS and the Cristal Gem’ OSt — 29 March 2013
Track #06 — Synth of Rage | "oOh ah Swing" —
SoundCloud |
ReverbNation |
Bandcamp BoOzy’ OS and the Cristal Gem’ OSt — 13 April 2013
Bonus track — Synth of Rage | "Tarz’ OS Swing" —
SoundCloud |
ReverbNation BoOzy’ OS and the Cristal Gem’ OSt — 5 April 2013
Additional track #01 — Synth of Rage | "Level Clear" —
SoundCloud |
ReverbNation BoOzy’ OS and the Cristal Gem’ OSt X·tended — 13 April 2023
Additional track #02 — Synth of Rage | "On the Way!" —
SoundCloud |
ReverbNation BoOzy’ OS and the Cristal Gem’ OSt X·tended — 13 April 2023
Screenshots
FILM
The content of this section is under a CC BY-SA 4.0 license. See attribution info here.
OTHERS
The content of this section is under a CC BY-SA 4.0 license. See attribution info here.
Visual identity
Artworks
POSTERS
The content of this section is under a CC BY-SA 4.0 license. See attribution info here.
English + རྫོང་ཁཀི་རིསི་ཊཱལ་རིན་གོང་English + 日本語クリスタル・ジェムEnglish + ภาษาไทยอัญมณีคริสตัล
Parody posters
BANNERS
The content of this section is under a CC BY-SA 4.0 license. See attribution info here.
ILLUSTRATIONS
The content of this section is under a CC BY-SA 4.0 license. See attribution info here.
PROMOTIONAL IMAGES
The content of this section is under a CC BY-SA 4.0 license. See attribution info here.
About J.K. Arsyn
Presentation
J.K. Arsyn
is a French film and art director, screenwriter, composer and visual effects supervisor (PAY, Arbite Macht Frei, The Mad TriX, Stop-and-Cop,
Cow Hard). He shoots, animates, edits, and scores many of his films, which are characterized by references to popular culture and a wide variety of other films
as well as alternate history.
More information
More information about J.K. Arsyn is available
here.
RED ƎYE
is a French animation studio, creative agency and independent media production company specialized in genre movies, retro video games and synthwave music.
RED ƎYE also delivers professional services and training to their enterprise, mid-market, and small business clients in all types of industries.
Founded by film director J.K. Arsyn, RED ƎYE is based in Roanne, near Lyon.
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More information about RED ƎYE, their logo & relevant media is available
here.
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