MetaFilter posts tagged with shorts

Another Stupid Newsreel! I Hate The News.

The Whelk — Thu, 16 May 2013 13:50:10 -0800

We visited Weirdo Video back in 07 for propaganda films, but the YouTube channel has been steadily updating with yesterday's ephemera. Why not enjoy some vintage newsreels about STRIKES! SULTANS! SUEZ! SAN FRANSISCO! or some FITNESS FADS!

Can you brown this up for me?

The Whelk — Fri, 03 May 2013 08:43:36 -0800

Josh Way's MST3k/Rifftracks-esque series FUN WITH SHORTS (previously) returns after a long haitus with the businessman filmstrip PROMOTION BY-PASS and the utterly bizarre stop-motion cartoon MUNCHERS

Constant and flux...

dobbs — Sat, 27 Apr 2013 13:51:28 -0800

Fun, unusual short films slash excerpts (& music video & animation) made by Callum Cooper.

20 minutes of hand-drawn and CGI teasers and trailers from Headless Prod

filthy light thief — Sat, 23 Mar 2013 14:00:52 -0800

Strange Oaks is the latest teaser trailer from the Barcelona-based Headless Productions (and friends), this time about a retirement community for witches. The Headless Productions Vimeo account has 13 more teasers and trailers, mostly featuring hand-drawn animation, some of which has since made its way into full movies.

My family and the wolf, "a love letter to childhood summers trying to evoke certain lights and smells and above all that, claim memories as the most valuable treasure." And there's a big wolf in there, somewhere. They're looking for partners, distributors, and others necessary to develop the film.
PLOK is a little animation test/character study
IdN Magazine, an opening title clip for a DVD from the design magazine
Two test clips for Mr Collieu, the mechanical pig, set in a war between the north and the west. Supposedly slated for 2014, but not a lot is online about the project.
Paititi and Max Mordon, clips that apparently made their way into the Spanish feature film Tadeo Jones (which seems to have started as a 9 minute long CG short film
English trailer for Nocturna, an animated film that was released in 2007 (see more: Headless Productions blog on character design; Nocturna on TVTropes)
No Pets Allowed, a teaser trailer for Headless' first foray into 3D; a bit more information and some images in an interview with Headless Productions team, and even more character sketches from the Headless Prod. blog
I'm a monster is another teaser trailer for something that didn't get too far; there is some art on Headless' blog
The Strange Case of Dad's Missing Head, a teaser trailer, Headless Production's first piece as Headless (thus the name), dusted off and presented for all to see

Has the cordless telephone been invented

Potomac Avenue — Fri, 18 Jan 2013 10:56:50 -0800

Premiering this week at the 2013 Sundance Film Festival, two Youtube video channels! ... 1. The Screening Room: A selection of short films, including The Event, Irish Folk Furniture, and Black Metal. and 2. Adam Carolla's new "Video Podcast Network" VPN, featuring video content from his own audio podcast network as well as Scott Aukerman's Earwolf, The Big 3, and Nerdist. Live streaming at this link starting tonight.

Helping you maintain

matthewr — Sun, 13 Jan 2013 06:46:40 -0800

High maintenance: a nameless cannabis delivery guy delivers his much-needed medication to stressed-out New Yorkers in this character-driven web series.

Computer Boy & Abe Forsythe

flex — Fri, 21 Dec 2012 00:59:26 -0800

Computer Boy! (also available here): Abe Forsythe made the movie Computer Boy when he was just 18. It's a 50 min. spoof of The Matrix that was filmed in less than two weeks at actual Matrix shooting locations in Australia and cost just over $2000 to make.* It became a cult hit when it was released online in 2000 & was one of the first internet films to hit 500,000 views.* (wikipedia, imdb) Forsythe (wikipedia, imdb) went on to make another movie, Ned [1], in 2003 - "... [a] satire of Australian outlaw Ned Kelly, and his iconographical status as a 'hero.'"[2] Full of lowbrow humour, it was released the same year as the movie Ned Kelly, starring Heath Ledger. [3] ("Let's talk instead about the other war... the one between Ned Kelly, the big-budget drama starring Heath Ledger and directed by Gregor Jordan that has made millions, and Ned, Forsythe's iconoclastic low-budget comedy." [4]) The trailer for Ned is available on YouTube, as well as a few short clips from the movie (one - two - three). Forsythe has also made a number of (often darkly-comedic) film shorts, available on YouTube: *Being Carl Williams (2009), which won 2nd prize and Best Comedy at Tropfest that year (references Australian criminal Carl Williams) *The Talk (2010) *Tomorrow (GPS) (2010), Grand Prize Winner for the Pepsi Refresh MOFILM Awards (short film competition) in Barcelona 2010 *Shock (2010), Tropfest 2010 winner (Forsythe's acceptance speech) - a comedic tribute to Australian radio/TV personality Kyle Sandilands *The Hostage (2010) *Prick (2012) (NSFWish) As an actor, Forsythe has starred in the Australian TV series Always Greener (2001-2003, imdb); Fireflies (2004, imdb); Tripping Over (2006); Laid (2011, imdb); and most recently in one of Australia's most popular TV mini-series ever, as John Cornell, in the Australian drama Howzat! Kerry Packer's War which was based on Packer's takeover of cricket in 1977, and the establishment of World Series Cricket.

Faster than a speeding bullet! More powerful than a locomotive! Able to leap tall buildings in a single bound!

zarq — Sun, 25 Nov 2012 10:54:22 -0800

Via io9: "The first nine Superman cartoons produced by Fleischer Studios from 1941 to 1942 are a wonder of animated retrofuturism, giving us a peek into a world that not only had a flying superstrong protector, but also filled viewers' heads with dreams of autonomous robots, comet-controlling telescopes, and machines that could shake the Earth. These films are in the public domain and have been available on the Internet Archive," but now Warner Bros. is releasing them (remastered) on YouTube. The first short, "Superman" (also known as "The Mad Scientist,") was nominated for an Academy Award. Also see: The Super Guide to the Fleischer Superman Cartoons. Find links to all nine episodes and more inside. Fleischer Studios Superman Episodes 1) Superman / The Mad Scientist [1941] 2) The Mechanical Monsters [1941] 3) Billion Dollar Limited [1942] 4) The Arctic Giant [1942] 5) The Bulleteers [1942] 6) The Magnetic Telescope [1942] 7) Electric Earthquake [1942] 8) Volcano [1942] 9) Terror on the Midway [1942] Per Wikipedia: The Fleischers produced nine classic cartoons in the Superman series before Paramount took over the Fleischer Studios facility in Miami and ousted Max and Dave Fleischer. By the end of 1941, the brothers were no longer able to cooperate with each other, and the studio's co-owner Dave Fleischer had left Florida for California, where he would eventually become the new head of Columbia Pictures' Screen Gems studio. The sleek look of the series continued, but there was a noticeable change in the storylines of the later shorts of the series. The first nine cartoons had more of a science fiction aspect to them, as they involved the Man of Steel fighting robots, giant dinosaurs, meteors from outer space, and other perils. The later eight cartoons in the series dealt more with World War II propaganda stories, such as in Eleventh Hour, which finds Superman going to Japan to commit acts of sabotage in order to reduce the morale of the enemy; meanwhile, an angered Adolf Hitler had a cameo role at the end of Jungle Drums after Superman foiled another Nazi plot. The first seven cartoons originated the classic opening line which was later adopted by the Superman radio series and in the live-action television series a decade later: "Faster than a speeding bullet! More powerful than a locomotive! Able to leap tall buildings in a single bound!" (The radio series also eventually used the cartoon series' theme music.) However, for the final two Fleischer-produced cartoons and the first of the eight Famous Studios-produced cartoons, the opening was changed to "Faster than a speeding bullet! More powerful than a locomotive! Able to soar higher than any plane!". For the remaining Famous Studios-produced cartoons, the opening line was changed again to "Faster than a streak of lightning! More powerful than the pounding surf! Mightier than a roaring hurricane!" This series also featured a slight variation of the now-classic exclamation (also from the radio series): "Up in the sky, look! It's a bird! It's a plane! It's Superman!"
Famous Studios Superman Episodes These were American WWII propaganda, and some include racist caricatures. 10) Japoteurs [1942] 11) Showdown [1942] 12) Eleventh Hour [1942] 13) Destruction, Inc. [1942] 14) The Mummy Strikes [1943] 15) Jungle Drums [1943] 16) The Underground World [1943] 17) Secret Agent [1943] The Internet Archive has all 17 Fleischer and Famous episodes, combined into a single, two hour movie.

3 cute videos from French graphics students

filthy light thief — Wed, 19 Sep 2012 21:22:09 -0800

Three cute shorts from the Bellecour School of Art's 3D graphics program: Boringtown (3:38), about three youths who battle monsters; Monsterbox (7:38), about a little girl, her monsters, and a kind old garden shop keeper; and Destiny (5:26), about a fellow and his relationship with time. There are more student short films and on Vimeo, plus a number of really short videos (less than 2 minutes long) from individual students.

I WAS OFF MY FACE ON TARO CHIPS SO I DIDN'T KNOW RIGHT FROM WRONG

The Whelk — Mon, 25 Jun 2012 10:42:36 -0800

Gayle is a short weekly web-series about the hyper-competitive upper-middle class mom Gaye Waters-Waters and her relentless attempts to dominate the local chapter of Mothers Against Road Head. Episode one with links to the latest ten. NSFW audio.

20 short films, each made in 48 hours for Sci-Fi-London 2012

filthy light thief — Wed, 23 May 2012 13:09:33 -0800

Sci-Fi-London put on another 48 hour film challenge this year, challenging film teams to make a short based around a given title, a snippet of dialogue, a short list of props, and an optional "scientific" theme. After two days in April, over 380 shorts had been made, and the winners have now been announced and and their short films posted on Sci-Fi-London's Vimeo account. 17 more shorts below the break. The other shortlisted films presented to the jury were: Rising Tide by Banterdillos Nothing More Than Thunder by Super Awesome The Travels Agent by Timesluts Spectrum Shift by Shaven Ape (NSFW semi-nude bits) Eradicate by The Vogon Poets Choose by Bokeh Pictures Dead Air by Brighthelm The runners-up: Back Story by Heller Do Backwoods by Tree Babies Hands To The Wheel by Laymen He And I Can Travel by Blind Aura (not [yet] online?) Inconsistent Results by Midnight Ash Leyman’s Curse by Kindred Spirit Sunrise by Flock Of Condors The Bond by The Sticky Bandits The Correct Angle by The Why Men (currently a private video) The Other You by Intoxy Films

Prison animation

latkes — Wed, 29 Feb 2012 14:52:15 -0800

Animated shorts made by California prisoners in the early 90s. Link is to first video in series. Hopefully linked correctly so it will autoplay remaining videos.

You kind of go like “Hey, could I pitch something?” And they are like “Yes, this is not a bad time. Go for it.”

minifigs — Thu, 08 Dec 2011 15:44:55 -0800

How Does A Pixar Short Film Get Made?

I'm gonna find you, Crow Dickerson

infinitewindow — Mon, 10 Oct 2011 08:34:48 -0800

MTV has posted a crapload of twenty-year-old Liquid Television shorts on their site. Watch all the Aeon Flux shorts, Joe Normal, The Running Man or Jac Mac and Rad Boy among others. Don't worry, though, your favorites will still not be available on the site.

The short animations of Frédéric Back

filthy light thief — Sun, 25 Sep 2011 16:45:33 -0800

Frédéric Back was born in 1924 in France, where he studied drawing and lithography. He was lured to Canada by Jack London's stories and Clarence Gagnon's paintings, as well as correspondence with a Canadian pen-pal. Back moved to Canada in 1948, married his pen-pal Ghylaine Paquin, and was hired by Radio Canada at the birth of their television network to create still images for display on and to promote moving pictures. The drawings lead to experiments with animations, which lead to a series of animated shorts, starting with the wordless short Abracadabra (9:23, YT) in 1970. You can read and see more about Frédéric Back on his extensive website, and see more animations inside. The follow-up to Back's first short came in 1972, with the Inon ou la conquête du feu (Inon or the Conquest of Fire), which is based on the Algonquin legend about Inon, the God of Thunder, who kept fire from humans. A series of adventures follows with a happy ending. [No video found online beyond the three clips on Back's website] That same year, Back created a second short based on Native American legends, La création des oiseaux (The Creation of Birds) (10:07, YT). The short won best animation at the 1973 Yorkton Film Festival, the longest running film festival in North America. It would be 3 years until Back's next short, ¿Illusion? (11:31, Tudou), which is a largely wordless short about the miracles of nature versus "magicians of advertising, the promoters of progress and over-consumption." In 1977, Frédéric Back made a short, Taratata (8:33, YT), in celebration of the parades that used to be held on Saint-Jean-Baptiste Day. Tout Rien (All Nothing) (11:00, YT) is a short from 1978 about the greed of humankind. The short was nomination for an Oscar, Back's first nomination. His next short, Crac! (15:20, YT), was a tribute to Quebec, his adoptive home. For the short, Back won an Oscar, allowing him to undertake more ambitious projects. Unfortunately, while working applying a coat of fixative to a Crac! drawing, the fumes got into his right eye. His eye did not recover, but Back continued to produce art. There is a story-book version of this short, illustrated by Back and written by his wife. The next, more ambitious project was the 1987 animation, L'homme qui plantait des arbres (The man who planted trees) (30:03, YT, with English and Spanish captions; previously, twice). The film would be Back's first that relied on spoken roles to convey the story. The story resonated with Back as he had planted over 30,000 trees, as a member of the Society to Overcome Pollution, which formed in 1970. Back's final film, Le fleuve aux grandes eaux (part 2, in French on Daily Motion) (The Mighty River, 24:02, on Google Video in English, with narration by Donald Sutherland) was about the St. Lawrence River. The film was won four awards for animation, and was nominated for an Oscar, but lost to Wallace & Gromit in The Wrong Trousers. Frédéric Back is now 87, and is continuing to be recognized for his lifetime of artwork, from his environmental message to a celebration of his work in Japan (10:00, Japanese news clip, with interviews of Back who speaks in French), including a display at the Ghibli Museum (I think -- this part of the Ghibli Museum site is only in Japanese, and the Google auto-translation may not be terribly accurate or clear). Bonus links: * Lengthy interview with Back, year unknown. * Aother lengthy interview, in 1996.

27 Xs Followed By An L

Potomac Avenue — Wed, 22 Jun 2011 10:56:36 -0800

Billy puts on some new clothes and looks nice for once. By Erik Fensler, director, writer on the Tim and Eric show, inventor of the Rachel Ray Drinking Game and the original creator of the classic GI Joe re-dubs.

T Takes

zarq — Wed, 01 Jun 2011 10:02:05 -0800

In 2008, T: Magazine released a 12-part video series called "T Takes," (Also on Youtube) which featured up and coming indie and mainstream actors in short (2 - 3 minute) improvisational roles. A 6-part sequel series Brooklyn '09 was released the following year -- an episodic love story that was not as celebrity oriented. Episodes on YouTube: T Takes, Season One:

Trailer

T Takes: Brooklyn '09

Trailer

Catching Up With | Brody Baker, ‘T Takes’ Director

scarcity is no longer an option

dobbs — Wed, 11 May 2011 22:52:12 -0800

Instant Cinema is a comprehensive platform for experimental film, video and computer art, making the best audio-visual work of artists of all generations available to a worldwide audience. Not a tonne in the archive just yet--it's still in rough beta--but still some nice viewing. For instance: Balance Study, or Trying.

To Infinity... And Beyond!

zarq — Wed, 30 Mar 2011 12:33:08 -0800

The Beauty of Pixar and 25 Years of Pixar Animation. (MLYT) (Via and Via)

Short Stories

zarq — Mon, 20 Dec 2010 13:38:54 -0800

"We gathered our favorite cutting-edge content creators from across the internet and gave each of them a deceptively simple mission -- tell a short story in an innovative way." Showtime presents: Short Stories. They're all available on YouTube: Walks of Life, by Cyriak Harris: "The abridged story of life on earth, as told through the medium of walking fingers." The Deep, by PES: "Metal objects of the past come to life in the depths of the sea" Pretty, Dead by Jeff Scher: "Pretty Dead is an homage to the labyrinthical narratives of film noir." Music Box, by Mixtape Club: "With "Music Box," a film that turns the traditional process of music video making on its head." Tales of Mere Existence: A Few of my Highschool Teachers by Levni Yilmaz (Tales of Mere Existence Archive) Dahlia, by Michael Langan: "'Dahlia' is the result of a controlled chaotic filmmaking approach created by artist Michael Langan." Wisdom Teeth by Don Hertzfeldt: "Wisdom Teeth is an unnecessary new five minute cartoon that Don drew in between more important things." (Previously)

Oh Great Another Spiteful 50s Narrator

The Whelk — Sun, 13 Jun 2010 12:15:57 -0800

Of all the many heirs to Mystery Science Theatre 3000 crown (previously) , Josh Way's FUN WITH SHORTS is maybe the best at capturing the show's unique voice via short social hygiene films.. Learn all about Coffee! Being Popular! Food! Congress! And of course the complex, harrowing world of personal grooming.

Execute artist, Everything.

idiopath — Mon, 03 May 2010 11:34:44 -0800

Everything is a variety program. Five presentations per episode, each one minute or less. Sitting somewhere on the border of experimental film, music video, and bad TV. From Channel 101, who previously brought you Yacht Rock (previously), The 'Bu, House of Cosbys (previously), Cautionary Tales of Swords (previously), and Channel 101: the Musical.

'Tis the gift to be simple, 'tis the gift to be free

kimota — Thu, 24 Dec 2009 22:08:00 -0800

If you're of a certain age, you might've seen Simple Gifts: 6 Heartwarming Holiday Stories on PBS in the late 70s or early 80s. Maybe you enjoyed it as much as I did, or maybe you still will.

Prologue, by Maurice Sendak.
1. A Memory of Christmas part one, part two
2. Lost And Found
3. Excerpted from Orlando, The Great Frost part one and part two
4. My Christmas, as told by a young Teddy Roosevelt
5. December 25th, 1914 (You might otherwise know this event from the video for Paul McCartney's "The Pipes of Peace.")
6. No Room At The Inn part one, part two

BORN TO DIE! NEW YORK'S NEW YORK! THE TURN OF THE CENTURY! ALL CRIME!

Dr-Baa — Thu, 20 Aug 2009 09:07:27 -0800

STEVIE WASHINGTON- THE ANGRY YOUTH! If you watched MTV in the late 1980s, chances are during a commercial break you'd catch an episode of Stevie and Zoya (A.K.A. Stevie Washington- The Angry Youth). The series was created by Joe Horne, who later produced the similar series The Specialists (2)(3)(4)(5)(6)(7)(8)(9)(10)for MTV's Liquid Television . Narration was provided by Russell Johnson probably best known as The Professor on Gilligan's Island. There's also a couple of recent flash animations for Stevie Washington, which may or may not be by Joe Horne. (I'm thinking not.)

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.