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TAG FOR “Shorts”Cartoon Brew's home for up-to-the-minute, unedited announcements and press releases direct from industry sources.
September 7, 2011 5:02 am
The Brothers McLeod decided to enter a film into the DepicT! mini-shorts competition. They gave themselves the added challenge of producing their entry in under five hours, which is an admirable feat even when you take into account they had previously recorded the voice track. The finished film, The Existential Pleading of the Inner Heart, is an amusing bit of nonsense that charts the “thoughts and feelings of an Internet filmmaker called Colin T. Heart and might be a little bit autobiographical.” (Watch it full-screen for best effect.) Perhaps most impressively, they also managed to document their four-and-a-half-hour production with a manic making-of video: 1 Comment » posted in Shorts, Brothers McLeod, UK 
September 6, 2011 8:45 pm
Seattle-based Michael Langan emailed to let me know about his latest film, Heliotropes, which “documents the parallel goals of man and nature, through the most primitive and sophisticated means, to simply stay in the light.” The short, which debuted at SXSW last March, is based on a poem by Brian Christian. Langan tackles big ideas in three short minutes, exploring the recursive patterns and laws of nature that govern both natural life (sunflowers, migratory birds) and human behavior. The writer’s statement on his website offers additional perspective on the film’s meaning, but Langan’s crisply executed visual concepts stand on their own merit. 4 Comments » posted in Experimental, Shorts, Michael Langan
September 6, 2011 2:49 pm
Don’t miss: tonight at 8pm is “Back to School” night at the Cinefamily. That means not only a program of rare industrial films, including a super-rare 35mm presentation of the Eyvind Earle-designed Rhapsody of Steel (with contributions by Maurice Noble, Vic Haboush, and Frank Armitage too!), but also a screening of all ten of the official selections in this year’s Cartoon Brew Student Animation Festival. Get there early because a lot of Jerry’s screenings at the Cinefamily tend to be sell-outs. Here’s a sampling of four of the rock solid student shorts that you’ll be able to enjoy on the bigscreen tonight: 1 Comment » posted in Events, Shorts, Student
September 5, 2011 6:54 pm
How minimalist can a lead character be in an animated short and still elicit an audience’s emotional reaction? CalArts student Nelson Boles explores the possibilities in his smartly designed The Little Boat. His sparing approach evokes the live-action short The Red Balloon which similarly imbued life into an obstinately mundane object. Boles doesn’t anthropomorphize the titular character; the dinghy’s behavior stems from its interactions with other characters in the film and its surrounding environment. And though its movement is controlled by an external force (wind), we still feel something for the boat. For instance, the shot at 2:10 that shows the boat resolutely pushing forward only to have its mast shattered in half—it’s as heartbreaking a moment as anything that could happen to a more conventional animated character with eyes, hands and legs. 28 Comments » posted in Shorts, Student, CalArts, Nelson Boles
September 3, 2011 4:29 pm
I’m not sure how effectively Plug, the New World promotes Nissan’s electric vehicles, which is the soft sell purpose of the commissioned film, but it’s an undeniably creative and well made effort. The director of the short is Tsuneo Goda, who is best known as the creator of Domo, the poop-inspired mascot of Japanese broadcaster NHK-TV. There are lots of behind-the-scenes photos and making-of details on the website of Goda’s production company Dwarf. (Thanks, David OReilly) 8 Comments » posted in Advertising, CGI, Shorts, Stop Motion, Domo, Dwarf, Japan, Nissan, Tsuneo Goda
August 30, 2011 5:15 pm
Despite getting food poisoning the last time I ate at Chipotle, they remain among my favorite fast food joints (along with my other fave, In-N-Out). One of the reasons I like Chipotle is their emphasis on humanely raised animals. Whether raising meat can ever be as idyllic or beautiful as depicted in this new stop motion short called Back to the Start is open to debate, but it’s an undeniably attractive piece of advertising. It was directed by designed by London-based Johnny Kelly whose hand-made approach to the art form is a perfect match for Chipotle’s message. Like George Pal’s Puppetoons, Kelly knows how to animate stylized geometric forms with organic appeal. Behind-the-scenes production photos on Johnny Kelly’s Flickr account. Making of video and credits after the jump: 15 Comments » posted in Advertising, Shorts, Stop Motion, Chipotle, Johnny Kelly, Nexus, UK
August 30, 2011 12:02 am
Passenger is a hand-drawn film that abstracts the nighttime driving experience into a playful, kinetic performance of color and shape. It’s a junior year film by the piquantly named Africanus Okokon. He attends Rhode Island School of Design, which was also the point of origin for Playing for Keeeps, the short that we debuted yesterday as part of our Student Animation Festival. 3 Comments » posted in Experimental, Shorts, Student, Africanus Okokon, Rhode Island School of Design, RISD
August 28, 2011 11:13 pm
Playing For Keeeps comes to us from Dylan Hayes who graduated last spring from the Rhode Island School of Design. The film is both witty and violent, primitive and sophisticated, and through all its strangeness, surprisingly poignant. Hayes uses hand-drawn animation to startling effect, creating a stark, ominous environment with a minimalist drawing style. The motivations of each of the film’s characters is crystal clear, yet the message one takes away is open to viewer interpretation. Perhaps a clue lies in Hayes’s film synopsis, in which he outlines the rules of his world:
Comment on the film or read production notes from the filmmaker on Cartoon Brew TV. Cartoon Brew’s second annual Student Animation Festival is made possible through the generous support of Titmouse and JibJab.
Comments Off posted in Shorts, Student, Dylan Hayes, Playing For Keeeps, Rhode Island School of Design, RISD
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