Long Story Short: Tall Tales of a Headless Chicken, an Unlikely Boxing Hero and More
Demonstrating how truth can be stranger than fiction, Long Story Short by Kong Studio is an animated series inspired by true stories, all told within the space of just one minute. The very first instalment, featuring real-life boxing hero Tony Galento racked up over 5.8k views on YouTube and ‘Mike the Headless Chicken’ was selected for the One Reeler short film competition.
Here, co-founder Bill Elliott shares how the idea for the series formed, his favourite projects to date and how one short almost got them sued!
LBB> Tell us about Long Story Short and what first inspired you to start the series.
Billy> We always have the tendency to chip away at personal projects. They can come out of anywhere, but more often than not are inspired by an anecdote, or something we’ve read. Ridiculous true stories really seem to appeal to us.
We have been guilty of bloating our own ideas to the point where they don’t ever get finished. Then I think it was Emma’s suggestion that we create a structure for our small IP work. Something that could ultimately become a series, and while they might all be very different in style and tone, would still work collectively. The ground rules quickly fell into place. By making the films no longer than one minute, it made the projects achievable. In fact, the real challenge was making each film as lean as possible while retaining the story and tone. Scripts tend to feel right at about two and a half minutes, then you need to get out the cleaver!
LSS also offered up the chance for us to collaborate and commission a mixture of our freelance friends, and new and exciting talent we come across. Although extended periods can pass when we are busy on commercial projects (the last year for example), when we have down time, or a bit of cash in the bank, there is always room for a new Long Story Short.
LBB> The first Long Story Short about boxing hero, ‘Two Ton’ Tony Galento has had over 5.7k views on YouTube. And Mike the Headless Chicken was selected for the One Reeler short film competition. What do you think makes for a successful short?
Billy> I think there is a long list of insights as to what makes a successful short, and there is a wealth of wonderful animation out there. For me, if you make someone smile within the first few seconds you will catch their attention. Lean, succinct, and funny!
Also, the ability to tap into other people’s interests. ‘Two Ton’ was clearly getting picked up by boxing fans. Hopefully the armchair enthusiast learnt a boxing story that they'd not heard before. And hopefully it made them giggle too. Informative and entertaining!
And who’s not a headless chicken fan? AND we got threatened with legal action over it, which is always a bonus.
LBB> And what are some of the challenges associated with working on shorts?
Billy> Finding the time to make them.
LBB> How does this project help hone your skills as a team?
Billy> Twofold. One, we have a real love and fascination for creating animation for the documentary sector. Informative and entertaining are two words we keep coming back to regarding our work and ambition, and we’ve recently been lucky enough to work on the likes of Lucky! (about the incredible life of Bernie Ecclestone) for Discovery Plus and Billy Connolly for Channel Five. Long Story Short is all about stories with a kernel of truth to them, so these short films really act as a calling card for our desire to continue to work in the documentary medium.
Two, we are also always conscious of whether we can tell a story in a more concise, economic way. If you can make the point with fewer words and less shots, I do believe nine times out of ten it will make for a better story. With that in mind, our ground rule of Long Story Short films running no longer than a minute is fantastic practice to hone our lean storytelling skills.
LBB> What have been your personal favourite episodes to work on?
Billy> My favourite episode is Mike the Headless Chicken. The song was written and performed by our very own Tom Baker. Not only did Tom get Mike’s story down to 60 seconds but he managed to do it in song form. What a show off. My boys became slightly obsessed with it. It’s such a catchy tune, we should release it on vinyl.
Personally, I enjoyed working on ‘Did I miss Anything?’ The aim was to create an animation with as little animation in it as possible, and work through the match cuts. As we like to say at Kong HQ, let’s take the animation out of animation! Strangely, this one seems to resonate with quite a few graduates, so maybe taking the animation out of animation is in fashion these days…
That’s not to say it wasn't a lot of work. The basic concept was match cutting between all the inventions/pop culture references that got invented whilst Shoichi Yokoi was lost in the jungle (watch it, hopefully it will make a bit more sense!) However, what was lacking in actual animation was made up in sheer volume of shots that needed to be designed.
And of course Brummie Kong. That was our first foray in using Blender.
LBB> What feedback have you received about the series so far?
Billy> “Take it down or we will sue you”.
The feedback we really want to hear is, “This is a great idea; can I make one?”
LBB> Any other creative insight to add?
Billy> Once we have a few more under our belt we’d love to have a film show. There is nothing like an actual event to galvanise enthusiasm and kickstart another round of films.
Rules are there to be broken. I’ve one or two stories that lost their magic when stripped down to one minute. But two minutes….
