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In the summer of 1997, NASA's Mars Pathfinder mission touched down on the surface of Mars, beginning a new age of automated exploration of the red planet. During its months of successful operation, Sojourner, the first Mars rover, took thousands of photographs of Martian rocks and performed chemical analyses of several... other rocks.
Inspired by this historic time in space discovery, in 1998 Angela Rose DiMeglio and Marcus Alexander Hart collaborated on a computer animated student film entitled A Narrow Martian of Error. The short is a satirical look at robotic space exploration that asks the question, "What if there's a lot more happening on Mars than our rovers are programmed to see?"
The film stars a Martian artisan who is just finishing work on the Cydonian face, the latest in his eons long series of monuments to be shipped off to the planet Earth. Before delivery is completed, however, his project is put on permanent hiatus by the arrival of the "Earth Voyeur" mission and its rock-centric rover, the "MMMBot."
Compared to today's standards of digital animation Narrow Martian certainly shows its age, but it's still good for a chuckle. The short is currently available on DVD as part of Odyssey Productions' Computer Animation Marvels collection, or you can watch it on Google Video.
A Narrow Martian of Error - Running time: 2 minutes, 34 seconds.
If you've seen A Narrow Martian of Error somewhere that is not listed below, please let us know. We've long since given up on ever collecting any royalties from this film, but we like to at least know where the martian has been.
Awards and Honors for A Narrow Martian of Error
• 2002 - Aired in September of 2002 on Maryland Public Television's Coffee House
• 2000 - Featured in the New York Animation Festival
• 2000 - Appeared on the Odyssey Productions video Computer Animation Marvels
• 1999 - Appeared on SPLAT! tv, episode #32
• 1998 - Featured at Siggraph '98 in Orlando, Florida in three categories: Animation Theater, SigKIDS Theater, and Siggraph TV.
• 1998 - Featured at the Annual Student Media Arts Festival (SMARTFest)
• 1998 - Featured at Cyber-Media Art Festival
• 1998 - Featured in Next Frame - UFVA's Touring Festival of International Student Film
• 1998 - Featured at the 6th Annual Digital Salon - School of Visual Arts, New York, NY.
• 1998 - Featured on TVE-METROPOLIS, National Spanish Television
• 1998 - Featured at Center D' Art Santa Monica in Barcelona, Spain
• 1998 - Featured at Art Futura in Madrid, Spain
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