Daily post 19 Jan 2009 08:56 am
MLK, EAP etc.
- Today, of course, is the National holiday honoring Martin Luther King Jr.
It’s impossible to avoid the paradox that this is also the celebration of our first black President’s inauguration. I’ve watched all I could of Obama this weekend and was delighted with the concert held yesterday at the Lincoln Memorial. It’s interesting that the entertainment didn’t feature any of the blockbuster former Mousketeers: Brittany, Christina, Jason, Jessica. Perhaps pop was out.
I am a bit irritated to have to work during the actual ceremony tomorrow. Thank heaven for on line streaming; I’ll be able to view it from my studio on Hulu. I’ll also watch it repeated, undoubtedly, on real tv later tomorrow nite.
Enjoy the day.
Today is also the 200th birthday anniversary of Edgar Allan Poe. The celebrations are smaller but considerable.
- This past Saturday marked the screening/judging in NY of the short listed shorts, both live and animated. There were eight animated shorts totalling about 90 mins of screen time
One-30 min, seven-under 15 min.
Two hand-drawn 2D / six cgi.
One student film, five big budget studio films, two small Independent films.
The nominees will be released on Thursday. Good luck to all of them.
For all but three of the ten live-action shorts death seemed to be the underlying or, in some cases, overriding theme. This made a couple of them wearisome. They were all good, though some were long. There were two or three I might consider exceptional.
The immediate difference between the animated and the live action shorts hit me hard. The live action films felt adult, even the most trite, whereas the animated films seemed cartoonish. They may have had serious themes, but they felt simple in comparison to the adult films. Even my favorite of the animated shorts came across as romantic and somewhat smaller than the best of the live films. It was eye-opening for me. Yet, I’ve often had this experience in watching animated and live action programs back-to-back.
The style of film making is markedly different; the difference is subtle yet obvous, and I haven’t really understood what that difference is. I can think of a couple of animated shorts that felt more complex, like the live films. A good example was Madame Tutli-Putli from last year’s nominees. It was a puppet animated film, and, to me, felt equal if not better than the live action entrants. It was also adult.
This is a theme I’ll have to explore in more depth sometime soon.
- Roy Iddan wrote to ask me to view his latest animated short, calaled Patriot. “Its the story of a veteran of the German army of WWI, Jewish by origin, who finds himself a prisoner in a Nazi German concentration camp during WWII.” The film was financed with a $37,500 grant from the Israel State Lottery. (First Waltz with Bashir, then $9.99, now we’re seeing shorts financed in Israel. This situation is worth watching.)
Character model sheet from Patriot.
The film is complex and serious. It moves from B&W to sepia tones to muted colors. It flashes back and forth in time from WWI to WWII without any confusion. No mean feat.
Check it out here.
My friend, Tom Hachtman pointed me in the direction of this two part interview: One on One with Bill Plympton
with Riz Khan on Al Jazera.
on 19 Jan 2009 at 11:48 am 1.David Nethery said …
Interesting you should mention Roy Iddan’s “Patriot” . Right before I clicked over here this morning I had just read about the film briefly on the TVPaint User Forum. (Roy is a member of the forum) Paul Fierlinger had some good comments on the film (he liked it) .
Also , appreciated the link to the Bill Plympton interview. Thanks as always for starting off my Monday with some good animation links !
on 19 Jan 2009 at 12:23 pm 2.P Jackson said …
I’m just interested in shorts. What type of live action shorts were there this year? I can’t waiti till Thursday.
on 19 Jan 2009 at 5:11 pm 3.Michael said …
All of the live action shorts were European – one in English.
As I mentioned, seven of the ten were about death or featured dead characters that came back to talk to the lead protagonist. A couple felt like Afterschool Specials, but at least half of them were fine and a couple were exceptional. I had no problem sitting through all ten of them (over 4 1/2 hrs of screening time.)
on 19 Jan 2009 at 9:08 pm 4.Mark Mayerson said …
I wrote on my blog at some point that I discovered that the films I keep returning to are all live action. While I admire the craft of good animation, very few animated films are as satisfying to me as my favorite live films.
Animated films rarely have the same complexity of character or theme as the best live action. As much as I admire Pinocchio, if I had to choose between it and How Green Was My Valley (both stories about boys who are trying to grow up and meet their fathers’ expectations that were made at roughly the same time) I would pick Valley. There’s no contest for me. I don’t know if it’s because we spend so much effort on craft that we shortchange content or maybe we just aren’t good enough. In any case, it’s a frustration for me and I wish I could figure out how to beat it.
on 20 Jan 2009 at 7:43 am 5.Ben said …
What’s the name of the first picture of the 9 animated shorts that was shown in NY this past Saturday? (the one that has the picture of the round headed boy about to sit on a chair)
on 20 Jan 2009 at 8:56 am 6.Michael said …
Skhizein by Jeremy Clapin/France