Ghetto Gymnastica

The future of ninjuitsu lies in the hands of highly trained pop stars undercover at the 2004 Olympics.

This video was an experiment in frame by frame cut outs and layering with filmstrips, using premier 2.0, photoshop and after fx. You can see the scenes where everything is odd and pointy in the beginning, and the scenes where things become more seamless... Special thanks to the polygonal lasso, heartbreak, and coffee.


Gymnastics is a sport involving the performance of sequences of movements requiring physical strength, flexibility, balance, endurance, gracefulness, and kinesthetic awareness, such as handsprings, handstands, split leaps, aerials and cartwheels. It developed from beauty practices and fitness used by the ancient Greeks, including skills for mounting and dismounting a horse, and circus performance skills. Artistic Gymnastics is usually divided into Men's and Women's Gymnastics, each group doing different events; Men compete on Floor Exercise, Pommel Horse, Still Rings, Vault, Parallel Bars, and High Bar, while women compete on Vault, Uneven Bars, Beam, and Floor Exercise. In some countries, women at one time competed on the rings, high bar, and parallel bars (for example, in the 1950s in the USSR). Though routines performed on each event may be short, they are physically exhausting and push the gymnast's strength, flexibility, endurance and awareness to the limit. Traditionally, at the international level, competitions on the various apparatus consisted of two different performance categories: compulsory and optional. For the compulsory event, each gymnast performing on a specific apparatus executed the same required routine. At the optional level, the gymnast performed routines that he or she choreographed. Nowadays, each country may use compulsory and optional routines at their discretion in the training of young gymnasts. Roundoff, back hand spring, whip back, full twisting step out, onodi, front handspring, bounder, fly spring, double front pike barani out, punch front full step out, roundoff, flip flop, arabian front tuck step out, aerial roundoff, whip, layout one and a half step out, roundoff, one armed back handspring, pike straddle side one and three quarter roll out, back handspring step out half out, roundoff, handspring layout step out, back walk over, back handspring stepout, layout full, double full, tripple full, back layout half step out, aerial front walk over, side aerial, rulfolva, back extension, handspring, handspring, full in, whip, double layout full out, whip, double twisting double layout, whip, full twisting triple back, headspring, side somi, cartwheel, gainer switch leg back handspring step out, full twisting layout step out, straddle leap, wolf jump full, straight jump double turn, punch spontaneous combustion.