Yibvlidj Apocalypse!

It was January 2, 2012 when the humanoid refugees from the destroyed planet Yibvlidj arrived on earth. While they had enjoyed long life on their home planet, they soon discovered that earth's atmosphere came with some undesirable side effects. The landscape proved to be blurry to their eyes that saw so clearly back home. In addition, the air was more difficult to breathe, and consequently, their lifespan was drastically cut short to an average of one week of earth's time. As time passed, they adapted somewhat. The growth process sped up to allow for descendants. However, whatever they tried, they lived a maximum of ten days.

It was in the third week of January when they made two important discoveries: a solution to the problem with their vision, and the wall calendar. By this time, the sixth generation since their arrival on earth was beginning to be born. One of their number, in his tenth day, explored the calendar and foresaw the coming end on December 31, 2012. With his final breath, he warned his offspring to ever be watchful and remember their time on earth was short.

And so days passed, and weeks passed. One generation passed the warning to the next. Once every nine generations, their most esteemed member had the honor of advancing the calendar to a new month. And so, as time went on, the final week of December arrived. In fact, it was the evening of the 31st of that month. Two young Yibvlidjians of the 104th generation, Cchhär and Dröuh, anxiously awaited their fate.

Find out what happened in the video below!

Inspiration and back story:
As the end of 2012 approached, many of the more superstitious among us observed that the ancient Mayan calendar went through 2012. As I'm sure any Mayan could have told you, that just meant one era ended and the next would begin, seeing as that's how calendars work. However, some people got it in their heads that this impending end of the calendar meant the Maya had foreseen the end of the world as 2012 ended. As those of us who were less superstitious expected, no apocalypse happened. That year, I made this short movie inspired by the hysteria.
In 2012, I was studying graphic design, and I took a video editing class. As my final project, I wrote the screenplay, produced, directed, filmed and edited the video. I am grateful to everyone who helped out in this project, to the talented actors, to my aunt and uncle who graciously allowed us to use their living room and porch for filming, to those I consulted, and to my professor and classmates.
Cast:Cchhär: Charlie OstlieDröuh: Andrew YoderNarrator: Zach McCueCommentators: Jim Brinkman and Sandy Brinkman
Trivia: Cchhär's and Dröuh's names were inspired by the names of the actors portraying them, adapted to sound Yibvlidjian. The ancient Yibvlijian Aalb the Seer was named after my chosen brother Aaron, who had some excellent suggestions to improve the story. The character Maya, who the movie only mentions, was named after the ancient civilization. We will meet her in the sequel! Stay tuned!

Creation

Nothing. There was nothing there. Just empty nothingness. So God decided to do something about it. He made outer space and the earth, but the earth was very different than it is today. It was empty and watery and very dark. Darkness is OK sometimes, but this was too dark. So God said, “LET THERE BE LIGHT!” Ah, that was better! God separated the light and the darkness, and He loved it! He called the light day and the darkness night. A lot of important stuff happened that first day.

The next day, God continued His big project. He decided to separate the water. Some of the water stayed below, and some of it went up. He called the space between the waters sky.

The third day, things got really interesting. God decided to gather the water below together, and pretty soon, stuff came out of the water. It dried up, and He called it land. He called the water sea. Now that was cool! Then God said, “OK, now let’s grow some plants!” So grass and trees grew. New bushes sprouted up. Pine trees climbed into the sky and grew cones. Flowers bloomed. Apple trees came up. Palm trees spread out their long and feathery branches and grew fruits like coconuts and dates. Every kind of plant and tree you can think of grew out of the ground. Many of them had fruits. This was super cool!

Next day, God said, “OK, time to separate the lights in the sky.” So He separated the day from the night. He made the stars. One star in particular, the sun, would shine on the earth during the day, and its light would shine on a smaller ball in the sky, the moon, to provide light during the night. God was really excited about this new development.

So the fifth day dawned. Now that the land, the sea, the light and the plants were ready, it was time for God to create more life. Fish swam in the sea. Birds flew through the air and perched in the trees. Eagles soared above it all, while sea anemone and coral grew underwater, and the clownfish swam in and out of them. Jellyfish floated in the water. Octopi walked across the ocean floor on all eight legs. Pterodactyls flew overhead. Doves and blackbirds excitedly got to know their new lives and habitats.

Then came the sixth day. God wasn’t done making animals. He had made animals to fill the sea and the sky the day before, but now it was time to make animals on land. Dogs and cats chased each other while elephants trumpeted, bears and lions roared, insects scurried around, horses neighed and cows mooed. T-rexes chased their prey, and giraffes and brontosauruses reached high into the trees to find the most delicious leaves. Snakes slithered, and worms burrowed in the ground. This was awesome!

But there was still something missing. God said, “OK, time to make people! They’ll look like Me!” So God made a man and a woman. He told them to take care of the land and the animals, the sea and the sky. They were allowed to eat the fruit and leaves from the plants and the meat from the animals.

God looked at this whole big work of art He had made those first six days, and it was great!

So the sun set, and when it rose the next day, God rested. The past week had been a lot of work, and He needed to take a break.