When we started on this shot we all gravitated to the idea of a calendar turning pages. How else do you show all “the years that have passed in time”? Slowly the idea morphed into a timeline – like the ones in the history books with the dots on the important dates. Finally the timeline became a train track with cars that were constantly bringing new events to the end of the line. (Maybe it’s not the clearest story idea but who can resist playing with toy trains?) For this shot, Devin and Jeff had to build physical props to represent all of human history in about 2 and a half seconds then figure out how the heck to film it!
They started by just blocking it in with placeholder shapes and experimenting with different ways to push the camera down the line. Once the camera move was locked down then fun of finding images to represent different time periods began. If you step through the video frame by frame you might just find a few gems. Here’s some pics and video of the shots evolution…
The JibJab Blog 
5 responses to “2009 – Scene 1: The Train”
terrific took me a while to get straightened out but glad to be mhere HAMBONE
this is soooooooooo cool ;D!
!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
wowwwwwwwwwwww
u really work hard man seems so easy but i c now
good blesss u
4 your dedication
to bring laugh smilies to .. just thhat
u r great as all the amigos you have created his
dammm i wanna you people live domain 4 ever
jib jab
everything i saidnothing is
if gazillion incoming
but n u sell
this
called jib job
u never do that i m sure u r realllll
god bleesss u
n allah
n jeovah
buddahh
u know
the gasng is 1 is jib jab
that look like it took a loooooooong time!
On the video “Never a Year like 09” Pause at exactly 8 seconds. The computer says Steve Jobs rules.