Ivan Kander
With the announcement last month that AIM will be shutting down in December, a wave of pre-pubescent nostalgia wiped over me. Like many a millennial, my pre-teen years were spent wasting time on AOL’s legendary chat app (I had the unfortunate handle “gameplaya99”). We were all riding the crest of a new communication revolution—pre-Facebook, pre-Twitter, it was truly a new frontier of digital correspondence.
Filmmaker Jack Anderson’s the gf club may not be about instant messenger specifically (it uses google chat as the platform instead), but it still very much captures the essence of what it’s like to be an early teen pining after that guy/gal you’ve been crushing on via online messaging. It’s the adorable awkwardness of kids pretending to be adults, perfectly distilled into chat form—simultaneously innocent, sweet, and hilarious.
We had a bit of debate internally when screening this film on whether or not to feature it. After all, there isn’t a “plot” in a traditional sense and the animation itself isn’t particularly complex (even a novice After Effects user could probably pull it off). So, what makes Anderson’s film stand out? Well, many filmmakers attempt to capture this particular moment of youthful innocence, but few, ultimately, succeed. Anderson figured out how to condense all those big, messy middle-school feelings into and undeniably creative (and compelling) package. It just feels…well…true. Beyond that, it’s impeccably timed. Ostensibly, it may appear easy to pull off a film like this, but, I guarantee that it’s tougher than it looks. The timing of every click…every keystroke…every camera pan is essential to conveying both the comedy and the feelings of the characters (whose “real” faces we never get to see).
Communicating with Short of the Week via e-mail, Anderson relates the genesis of the project:
“Several years ago, I realized Gmail was saving all of my chat history. Google Chat was HUGE for me in middle school, so I was really excited to learn that I had unknowingly been making a detailed time capsule of my life back then. It was really cathartic (and cringe-y!) to see the person I was just a few years back.”
Currently, Anderson spends his days working with the production powerhouse, Psyop. And, while that experience is no doubt rewarding, short experimentations like the gf club allow him to create interesting films without the burden of navigating client notes.
Already a S/W Featured filmmaker with his previous CG hit, Wire Cutters, this film is undeniably lo-fi in comparison. But, I think, in a way, that makes it more impressive. I’ve always believed that production polish can only take you so far—I’ll take truth and heart any day. Based on that criteria, the gf club more than delivers.