Oscar Focus: Grant Orchard Talks About “A Morning Stroll”
Oscar Focus: Patrick Doyon Discusses "Sunday"
Oscar Focus: Enrico Casarosa Talks "La Luna"
"The Secret World of Arrietty" talkback
Follow @CartoonBrew on Twitter
YouTube
Vimeo
RSS
Follow Cartoon Brew on Facebook
|
|
|
CBTV Student Fest 7: Always, Only, Ever
September 9, 2010 8:35 am
Always, Only, Ever was created by Barbara Benas at the Columbus College of Art and Design. There’s so much to like about the film including Benas’s expert handling of color, design, and storytelling, but what stood out above all else was the quality of her animation, both technically and emotionally. From the tender, drunken behavior of the main character to the exuberant choreography of the women, the animation in Always, Only, Ever carries us into a world that is both familiar and magical. Barbara wrote the following about the making of the film:
Visit Barbara Benas’ website.
24 comments
posted in BrewTV, Barbara Benas 
|
ADVERTISEMENTS
EVENTSLos Angeles Animation Festival UPA CARTOONS at LACMA RECENT BREW TV EPISODES By Sitji Chou. A man tries to understand the futility of creating human connections when they’ve been impeded by the microcosmic void between material particles.  By Nikolas Ilic. A story of a Scottish sheep farmer who shears his sheep and tosses them cliff side…  By Dylan Hayes. Lesson 1: Everyone gambles, not everyone loses. Lesson 2: The world is full of traps. Lesson 3: You cannot win if you don’t take risks.  By Jean Yi. A personal and humorous exploration of being the ‘Nice Girl’ and coming to terms with the label and all its different meanings.  By Ferg Brennan. A lonely fisherman catches an unusual fish, which he decides to keep as a pet. |
Thanks for a wonderfully honest and surprising animation. I love your imagery and drawing style. Looking forward to more.
Terrific, great everything I love about animation.
I think what is a telling sign of an excellent work is eagerly waiting, or re-watching parts of this short while it downloads to one’s computer. I was engaged with the character and his life viewed through beer goggles. You can see the care taken in the subtle bits of animation. I can see this short being very successful on the festival circuit. Excellent job, Ms. Benas!
amazing short, I loved it.
Really mature work! This subject matter in the hands of a student (or anyone else for that matter) usually is packed with cliched acting and a bunch of crass burp and fart gags. Kudos to you in going for the story of a heart-sick guy who just happens to be drunk. I felt for the lil bugger. And it was nice to see why the grumpy bartender was so grumpy. At first I thought it was because he was tired of the drunk’s antics, but there’s that look of concern he gives the passed out fella near the end; he cares about his customer and is angry at the chick who broke his heart. Really nice stuff.
I really like it, but the sound was a bit off…
What a fantastic piece! Love the style, it’s unique and fitting
Loved the colors and the fluid animation, very well done.
Oh, and this was done in Flash, so eat that, all you Flash haters!
Wow! Absolutely great use of the animation medium to tell a story! You could never do this kind of thing, for example, the colour shifts, in any other medium in this way.
This short is really great. I love the world you created with this.
Now this is an animated short. It has a unique look. This film could only be made by Ms. Benas. Truly visionary. My only question is why is the bartender angry in the beginning?
Genius. that line quality!! is so premium
Hello! Thanks everybody for the kind words, it’s really encouraging
It’s fantastic, Barbara. That little furry drunk dude is a work of art.
solid piece, barbara. awesome drawings, great design, fun animation, creepy music, and a crying shower scene. that spells a perfect movie to me.
Wonderful work! Don’t you love how the best combination of originality and expertise nowadays comes from animation students?
Overall I enjoyed and admired it. I did not “get” the story on first viewing.
My major hesitation is about how the perfect flatness of the color fills becomes distracting after a while. I begin seeing abstract shapes rather than characters. Some element of imperfection might need to be introduced. Perhaps the decision to sometimes not draw interior lines compounds the flatness problem.
Also the color choices make it hard to read at a times. The preview image that shows before you hit play on the video is an example.
But now that I “get it” I like it more. Unlike most student films it’s not glacially paced.
Brilliant! This was an highpoint of the 2010 CCAD Student Show earlier this year– I’m glad it has achieved international visibility with CBTV.
I love this, and… I gotta say… it’s really sexy.
Barbara, I always thought you were the real deal, and this film confirms it!
You have a bright future ahead of you.
Love the color and design…all of it :)
Arg, I would love to do the sound design on something like this. The animation is great. I love the whole thing from a visual standpoint, but the sound design has some shortcomings (some visuals need to be accompanied by sound, voice track is distorted, etc…). If those little issues with the sound track were resolved this would be such a great short.
Lovely.
That. That was outstanding.
It’s beautiful, it’s moving and it’s believable.