MetaFilter posts tagged with film and animation

Oceansize

brundlefly — Thu, 10 Dec 2009 17:42:57 -0800

Oceansize is a short monster movie created by four animation students. Here's a version with English subtitles (although it's hardly necessary). [via]

Early Animated Films, Lost and Found

filthy light thief — Tue, 27 Oct 2009 13:02:23 -0800

While some might believe that Walt Disney had the first feature-length animated film with Snow White and the Seven Dwarves in 1937, the Disney film is the fourth animated feature-length film, and was two decades late for first place. The first two animated feature-length films were directed by an Italian in Argentia in 1917 and 1918, though all prints of those films are presumed lost or destroyed. The third animated full-length feature, Die Abenteuer des Prinzen Achmed (The Adventures of Prince Achmed), came out the same year that the first two were lost to fire. This third animated film was a silhouette animation made by a German artist named Lotte Reiniger. The original negatives are considered lost, but a supposedly first-generation positive (from the camera negative) remains and the film has been restored from this stock (full film with limited subtitles, 5 minute preview with English subtitles and the full film viewable with Veoh plug-in). More information and videos inside. The first animated feature film was El Apóstol, followed by Sin dejar rastros, both written and directed by Quirino Cristiani. His career in film was limited to 27 years in film (1916-1943), but rather notable for early animation firsts. Cristiani's last major film, Peludópolis, was the first full-length animated motion picture with sound, presented with sound-on-disc. The only known prints of his first films were destroyed in a fire in 1926, and his final work was also lost to fire, this time in 1961, giving Cristiani two films on a list of Top 50 Lost Films of All Time. Lotte Reiniger was born in 1899, and she was fascinated by Chinese silhouette puppets from an early age (shadow puppetry previously). She created her first shadow theater at the age of six, and ultimately had a career that spanned 60 years (1919-1979, not counting her early credits going back to 1916) and some 70 film credits to her name. Her most recalled accomplishment was creating the first German animated film, Die Abenteuer des Prinzen Achmed. The animation was made with cardboard and thin sheets of lead, and color tinting. Reiniger wrote about the process of creating and restoring the film (PDF, Google html cache), and she noted that the complete original Wolfgang Zeller accompanying score was preserved in the Library of Congress in Washington, D.C. Silhouette puppetry of a sort lives on in a new mini-series, The Mysterious Geographic Explorations of Jasper Morello. The series currently consists of four episodes (called "voyages") that are set in a the world of steampunk aeronautics, utilizing a silhouette animation style that has been likened to The Adventures of Prince Achmed. The first voyage, Jasper Morello and the Lost Airship is on YouTube in full (previously). Unlike Anthony Lucas' earlier stop-motion animation, the Mysterious Geographic Explorations are a mix of 3D computer graphics, photographic composition and miniatures. The Gothia Gazette has more information on the series. This rambling journey through early animation and silhouette work was set off by Tor Books, who have laid claim to October as Steampunk Month on their website. The Jasper Morello video was one of three animations, the other two being shorts (#2: The Aeronaut {also on mtvU with sharper sound, but also watermarks} by Nicholas Lombardo; #3: Komedi - A Gentelan's Duel, by Blur Studios, who were mentioned previously twice). Selections from the List of Lotte Reinger works 1920 - Das Geheimnis der Marquise (MP4) (The Marquise's Secret) for Nivea skin cream 1954 - Cinderella (10:29), The Little Chimneysweep (9:53), The Frog Prince (10:24) 1955 - Hansel and Gretel (10:32), Jack and the Beanstock (from the beginning, missing the first minute, and a bit of the end) 1971 - The Art of Lotte Reiniger (17:02), featuring Ms. Reiniger herself, creating silhouette puppets and describing the process Extra links Previously: steampunkery, Czech animator Karel Zeman, German animator Hans Fischerkoesen Etcetera: Bullet Bill and Bob-Omb as Victorian gentlemen Bonus video: Grand Drive "Firefly" (4:05), music video with shadow-puppet animation inspired by Lotte Reiniger, produced by Trunk Animation

It all started with Alice...

Ambrosia Voyeur — Wed, 23 Sep 2009 15:04:32 -0800

Last month, Virginia Davis passed away at 90 years of age. She was the real life (warning: lousy formatting) little girl (warning: teh kyoot) whom Walt Disney sent into the land of cartoons, responding to the popularity of Max Fleisher's Out of the Inkwell series, which used his "rotoscope" and brought cartoon figures into filmed space. Walt reversed the formula, and found his first star.
1923: Alice's Wonderland 1924: Alice's Day at Sea 1 2 Alice's Spooky Adventure Alice's Wild West Show Alice's Fishy Story 1 2 Alice and the Dog Catcher 1 2 Alice Gets in Dutch Alice and the Three Bears 1925: Alice Cans the Cannibals Alice the Toreador Alice Gets Stung Alice Solves the Puzzle Alice Loses Out Alice is Stage Struck Alice Picks the Champ Alice the Jail Bird Alice's Tin Pony Alice Chops the Suey Alice Rattled By Rats Alice in the Jungle

Animation by Daniel Greaves

Paragon — Thu, 10 Sep 2009 14:30:27 -0800

2D characters in a 3D world: Flatworld (part 1, part 2, part 3). One of the many funny, clever, and innovative animations by Daniel Greaves of Tandem Films. Other short films by Greaves: Manipulation (1991) Rockin' & Rollin' (2001) Beginning, Middle, and End (2004)

In no way related to the playing off of

fatllama — Mon, 07 Sep 2009 01:01:03 -0800

The Cat Piano: an animated short by The People's Republic of Animation.

How The West Was Monkey And Where It Got Us

Len — Sun, 23 Aug 2009 12:09:30 -0800

The Lonesome Stranger: An All-Monkey Western!

Bonsoir, Monsieur COK!

boo_radley — Mon, 15 Jun 2009 14:06:57 -0800

Bonsoir, Monsieur COK!
Dans un formidable élan de générosité notre patron adoré nous offre enfin la possibilité de voir son FILM sur la toile!
A short film about efficiencies in bomb manufacturing.

SQUIRREL!

Artw — Tue, 02 Jun 2009 09:26:02 -0800

The real world location behind “Up’s” Paradise Falls. But could that house really fly?

The Creative Mind of Tomas Mankovsky

jeanmari — Mon, 25 May 2009 19:32:35 -0800

Lonely, lovelorn robots (film). Tardiness and sharks (film). Creative sounds with dominoes. (audio) Using Tetris as the inspiration for interior design elements. (visual) Just a few fun things floating around in the mind of Tomas Mankovsky.

Canadian Film Animations

netbros — Sun, 17 May 2009 10:26:36 -0800

Perpetual Motions — for emerging filmmakers to make short calling-card films and for more experienced creators to explore the limits of animation on the web. From the National Film Board of Canada.

The trouble with CG is that nothing is left up to chance

filthy light thief — Fri, 15 May 2009 07:58:33 -0800

Since the mid 1990s, Don Hertzfeldt has been making animated shorts by hand. To date, his 8 primary films have an apprioximate runtime of 75 minutes, and in total have won 117 awards, all shot on 16 or 35 milimeter film. (There is another 8 minutes or so that was part of the Animation Show (previously).) His recent films have been shot on the same camera rig that recorded It's the Great Pumpkin, Charlie Brown (1966), as he noted in a 2007 interview (part of a Scene Unseen Podcast (direct link to the MP3)). Hertzfeltd is currently two thirds of the way through his most ambitious project to date, a trilogy of films which have been called "the closest thing on film yet to Kubrick's 2001: A Space Odyssey." (Video links inside) Ah, L'Amour (1995) - awarded Grand Prize Award for "World's Funniest Cartoon" in 1998 from the HBO U.S. Comedy Arts Festival (now known as The Comedy Festival). Genre (1996) mixes stop-motion and 2-D animation, and was shown on an episode of MTV's Cartoon Sushi in 1997. Lily and Jim (1997) - single-handedly animated from over 10,000 drawings, and was shown on an episode of MTV's Cartoon Sushi in 1998, and Hertzfeldt's first short with a vocal track. Billy's Balloon (1998) - The film was invited into Official Competition at the 1999 Cannes Film Festival (where Don Hertzfeldt was the youngest director involved), and it won the Grand Jury Award at the 1999 Slamdance Film Festival; has also appeared on Adult Swim and MTV Rejected (2000) toured North American theaters between 2000 and 2004, first as part of Spike & Mike's Sick and Twisted Festival of Animation, then with fellow animator Bill Plympton's films called "The Don and Bill Show," and finally as part of Hertzfeldt's own the Animation Show tour. Welcome to the Show/Intermission in the Third Dimension/The End of the Show - 3 shorts created as an introduction, intermission, and end for the first "Animation Show." The Meaning of Life (2005) is the result of almost four years of production and tens of thousands of drawings, single-handedly animated and photographed by Hertzfeldt. Everything Will Be OK (trailer) (2006) won the 2007 Sundance Film Festival Jury Award in Short Filmmaking, a prize rarely bestowed on an animated film. I am so proud of you (2008) Hertzfeldt traveled with the film on a sold-out special theatrical tour of his work in 2008 and part of 2009.

National Film Board of Canada's 5th annual online short film competition

mediareport — Thu, 14 May 2009 05:59:10 -0800

The National Film Board of Canada's 5th annual online short film competition "Internet votes will decide the best film, and the winner will be announced at Cannes on May 21." NFB previously. [via Drawn!]

Every day we get closer to an epidemic that cannot be stopped.

parudox — Tue, 28 Apr 2009 21:17:54 -0800

The Meatrix: parts I, II: Revolting, and II 1/2.

オオカミはブタを食べようと思った。

defenestration — Mon, 13 Apr 2009 06:23:59 -0800

Stop motion with wolf and pig. [SLYT]

"Monsters Inc. meets The Nightmare Before Christmas inside a retro Japanese video game"

Rhaomi — Thu, 09 Apr 2009 19:15:12 -0800

"Once upon a time there was a game that nobody ever played, sitting on the floor in the back room of an empty arcade. The game was full of life and strife, mega-monsters and robot fights. We Are The Strange was the title. Now meet the players who live inside, idle." The story of filmmaker M dot Strange and his solo indie masterpiece, We Are The Strange. When the trailer hit the web in October of 2006, it was an instant sensation. The video depicted a surreal digital dystopia full of bizarre characters and an absurdist plot, all set to rockin' chiptune music. Soon the eccentric creator of the film, M dot Strange (a.k.a. Michael Belmont), opened up his production process to the web. Through use of an official blog, making-of videos, and an extensive "film skool" series, Belmont gave viewers insight into the innovative animation process he calls "Str8nime" ("strange plus 8-bit plus anime"). By collating disparate techniques such as CGI, greenscreen, stop-motion, papercraft, and even Mario Paint, he had perfected a striking, overstimulating visual style that was not quite like anything seen before. The premise of the film unfolded, too -- a mute "dollboy" named eMMM and a cursed woman named Blue meet, forlorn, in the Forest of Still Life. Together they sojourn into the sinister Stop-Mo City in search of the perfect ice cream parlor. Meanwhile, the chain-slinging superhero Rain and his psychotic origami sidekick, Ori, do battle with the monsters inhabiting Stop-Mo in pursuit of their ectoplasmic archnemesis, Him (based on videogame baddie Sinistar). But, like the 8-bit games that inspired it, the plot of the film is incoherent and somewhat juvenile -- the focus is on the action and the cinematography. By the end of the year, Belmont completed the film and even snagged a spot at the Sundance Midnight Movie Festival, which led to favorable write-ups in Wired, Variety, and the New York Times. (Not all the buzz was good, however -- several of the Sundance critics reportedly walked out in bewilderment halfway through the film). His work finished, Belmont payed back the community that supported him by releasing the movie for free in HD on the web (eager fans churned out art and translated the movie into 17 languages, including Icelandic, Brazilian Portuguese, and leet). He also put together a 2-disc deluxe edition with scads of bonus features. He still runs a blog where he chats about filmmaking, animation, and upcoming projects.

I shall become a bat!

Artw — Sat, 21 Mar 2009 15:27:05 -0800

Batman Logo Evolution

festival-quality short films collection

taz — Mon, 09 Mar 2009 05:46:17 -0800

The Oscar-nominated "Mysterious Explorations of Jasper Morello" is an "adventurous tale of a navigator’s journey to save his ailing wife set in a beautiful world of Victorian science-fiction" and one the many fine film shorts and videos available to watch at shortof theweek.com - a site dedicated to "finding those few [video] gems amongst the enormous heap of garbage they're buried in..." You can browse the archives by genre, topic and style. Some of these you will have seen before, while some, I hope, will be new to you. A few personal favorites of both sorts: Solar, City Paradise, Comedy, Balance, Muto, Rabbit, The Pearce sisters.

Road Warrior

Artw — Sat, 07 Mar 2009 08:44:08 -0800

Lifting it's script from the abandonned fourth movie, Mad Max will be returning, sans Gibbo, as a 3D animated feature. I'll see you on the road, skag!

Animation, female robots and sequels

Brandon Blatcher — Fri, 23 Jan 2009 20:34:44 -0800

Andrew Stantion, director of Wall-E, briefly talks about a sequel, why the female robot has a gun and the separation of animated and live action films.

Art by Nadia Moss

Brandon Blatcher — Wed, 03 Dec 2008 11:26:31 -0800

Watercolors and a strange little world (YouTube) via artist Nadia Moss.

Trouble at' Mill

chuckdarwin — Tue, 18 Nov 2008 14:44:39 -0800

A Matter of Loaf and Death is the new BBC Christmas short from Nick Park and Aardman. In the mock murder mystery, Wallace and Gromit start a new bakery business, Top Bun. The short, Park's first since 1995, will introduce a new love interest for Wallace, Piella Bakewell, a bread enthusiast.

Another Russian animation post?!

defenestration — Sun, 16 Nov 2008 15:49:54 -0800

Animatsiya in English is weblog (warning: livejournal) with a narrow focus: tracking the production of Russian animated feature films. Russian animation has a long history with output both abstract and obstructed; from the early influence of the Russian avant-garde and the work of small groups of enthusiasts, through Stalin-era Socialist realism and a style known as Éclair that was marked by the use of extensive rotoscoping, to the 1960's and beyond when surreal and politically charged (and unfortunately, in this case, anti-Semitic) as well as unconventionally structured, emotionally fueled films found release. Fortunately, when Pilot Studio—the Soviet Union's first private animation studio—decided to relegate parts of that history to the dumpsters out back, the people were ready to sift through the mess. The links to YouTube are meant as examples– not definitive works. I am no expert and YouTube and the rest of the video-based interwebs don't have some of what I'd pick, unfortunately! If the video is broken up into parts, you will see the rest under Related Videos. It seems that propaganda pervades much of Russian animation, through its many phases. The topic of Russian animation is not new to MeFi. YouTube user yukkimishima has uploaded many Russian animated films that span from the beginning to present day.

The Aesthetic of Anticipation

louche mustachio — Fri, 12 Sep 2008 23:55:09 -0800

What does the artist do to a machine? There's a hammer lying here. Suppose we consider the computer a tool very much like the hammer, only we don't know what to make with it or what to do with it. Artist, animator and underground filmmaker Stan Vanderbeek (1927-1984) started learning animation while working on the show Winky Dink and You in the '50s. Inspired by Buckminster Fuller, he created his Movie Drome to create an environment wherein one would be fully immersed in floating imagery. He started working in cut-out stop motion animation and ended up working at MIT to become one of the first computer animators. Twelve of his films have been made available by his estate _via Ubuweb.

There will also be a singing crocadile

Navelgazer — Tue, 22 Jul 2008 17:46:22 -0800

In January of 2004, Disney shut down their Florida animation studio, part of their decision to move away from 2D, or cell-shaded, animation for good. Two years later, as part of the new deal with Pixar, John Lasseter and Ed Catmull were brought in as heads of Pixar and Walt Disney Animation Studios, and promptly declared that 2-D Animation would thrive again on their watch. For their first new project, the team wanted to show support for the still-struggling New Orleans, and simultaneously introduce Disney's first Black Princess in "The Frog Princess" (Or The Princess and the Frog, as it is now known), a fairy tale set in 1920's Jazz-era Louisiana, with Randy Newman providing a period-specific score. Much response to the project has been quite positive, but as with all things, the devil is in the details.

Czech animator Karel Zeman

sleepy pete — Sun, 06 Jul 2008 12:13:26 -0800

Karel Zeman was a Czech animator probably best known for his movies Journey to the Beginning of Time and The Fabulous World of Jules Verne. He used stop-motion animation, cartoons, puppetry, colorization, and live action to create surreal and otherworldly films of amazing beauty. Sadly (for some), there's not a lot on the internet in English about the man. Although, it really doesn't matter what language(s) you know when there are so many of his works online. These are in no particular order and some are not in English: The Magic World of Karel Zeman (partial) The Special Effects of Karel Zeman, part 2 (one of the vids that pops up on the "related videos" portion is NSFW) Baron Prásil (Baron Munchausen) intro, clips 1, 2, 3 1001 Nights Krabat Mr Prokouk Episode 1, 2, 3, 4 King Lavra part 1, 2, 3 Vynález Zkázy (A Deadly Invention/The Fabulous World of Jules Verne) part 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8 Čarodějův Učeň part 1, 2, 3, 4 Cesta do Praveku (Journey to the Beginning of Time) part 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11 Inspirace (Inspiration) Karel Zeman playlist on youtube (personal playlist which includes the above films) If you watch one, go with Inspirace. It's a stop motion/live action piece utilizing blown glass figures and takes place in a drop of rain. Previous thread on Eastern European animation