brewmasters
JERRY BECK
bio & contact
view posts by jerry
AMID AMIDI
bio & contact
view posts by amid
Meatwaffle
by jerry
September 29, 2009 5:30 pm


Leah Shore just graduated from RISD. This is her thesis film. This is either genius or nonsense. I’ll let you decide. It’s NSFW.

09/29/09  5:45pm
uncle wayne says:

What EVER Ms. L. is having….I’ll have a double!!

09/29/09  7:14pm
Omnitarian says:

‘Tis a delightfully schizophrenic film. Seemed to me to be trying to emulate the experience of senility. Intrepid!

09/29/09  7:50pm
JQ says:

WTF? … and sadly I don’t mean “Why the face?”

The stop motion aspects of it were very well done for a student film. I just wish it made sense and didn’t rely on ’shock’ for no reason.

09/29/09  8:10pm

I’ll vote “nonsense” because it appears to be a a very slim premise for tying together some wandering non-sequiters. A territory that’s been previously well-mined in film.

I might award bonus points if all the images in the montages are cleared. If not, that suggests they weren’t really thought out, just found.

Difficult to judge, however without knowing the details of what was assigned for this project. If the assignment was “anything”, that’s about what they got.

09/29/09  9:43pm
FP says:

I liked it. It made no sense, but hey. It reminded me a little of Pitt’s ASPARAGUS.

09/29/09  10:11pm
Mike S. says:

It’s nonsense, which isn’t that easy to achieve– it’s hard to make no sense and still be be well composed with textures, rhythms and moods; good abstract art consists of a strong structure but no surface meaning– most artworks have a banal meaning over a familiar structure. I found it absorbing; I didn’t know where it would go next but it had an inner logic, like that of a dream. A good piece of surrealism.

09/30/09  12:58am
TJR says:

Nonsense……but enjoyable and fun nonsense. I had a good time.

09/30/09  4:29am

Seeing stream-of-consciousness like that combined with technical polish and considered animation, is a rare thing, and signs of a capable and confident film maker.
Get thee to Superjail, missy!

09/30/09  5:05am
s.w.a.c. says:

I probably should have watched that after I’d had my breakfast.

09/30/09  7:50am
frost says:

Well done it makes sense to me. It was a moody film and I want to see more. Moving art that inspired strong emotions. This girl is going places!

09/30/09  8:09am
Gagaman says:

You say nonsense as if it’s a bad thing! I really digged the stop motion character especially, and the 2D gags were a good laugh. If anything I’d like to see more from the mind of Leah Shore in the near future. :)

09/30/09  8:37am
mick says:

nonsense it is and all the better for that. I didn’t see anything shocking just meandering rhubarb. It made me smile so a thumbs up from me

09/30/09  9:01am
bone says:

Genius

09/30/09  9:27am
Lodi says:

It’s like John and Faith Hubley made an episode of Superjail.

09/30/09  10:21am
Doug says:

I enjoyed the stop mo section(s) though I only watched until the “are you a Jew part”. I will say this, I’m tired of ugly.

09/30/09  10:48am
chris robinson says:

I didn’t take it for Ottawa this year, but I liked the film a lot. Sometimes there’s just not enough space. Categories also muck things up.

09/30/09  11:15am

Looks like Svankmajer meets Hertzfeldt. I say nonsense, and stimulating for the first 2-3 minutes then I couldn’t wait for it to end (and I didn’t).

09/30/09  11:35am
sam says:

I think this is a fantastic piece! the use of the stop motion and hand drawn is indeed bizarre-nonsensical. I absolutely enjoyed the hand drawn pieces, they were hilariously dark. LOVE IT. make more. now.

09/30/09  11:59am
Animator says:

Lodi
That was the funniest comment I’ve read on this site in a while. I’ll be laughing for the next week. Thanks!

09/30/09  12:14pm
Lee Cahill says:

I think it was a genius portrayal of a man pulling at the strings of time within his own head. Crazy fabulous.

09/30/09  2:54pm

Well, hats off for completing a film. Hats off for experimenting with technique.
This sort of non-sequential editing is well-traveled territory, like abstract is for painting. It may not be EASY to do, but it’s easier than something with hard criteria like a story. Art School Grads have all played the “Can You Sell It And Pass?” Game at one time or another.
I call NONSENSE.

09/30/09  8:16pm
Doofus says:

Well, so I sat through the entire film, so that my opinion isn’t based on the first 3 minutes after which watching was simply painful.

Jerry, why did you post this?

It’s clearly not very good.
It seems like someone just recorded their what their friends said while hitting tabs of acid, or actually not even that, it would’ve been far more interesting that way. It seems like someone said “Hey, people, can you make up random skits and I’ll animate them?” And then they took these skits, free of any kind of constructive….anything, and made them into a short film with some stop-motion puppet that could serve as definition for a lack of any kind of sense of design.

And there, people, is a film. Good for you for completing it Leah Shore, I hope you learned how to use the medium better through doing this. Just please, next time, make something half-passable for a short film, rather than indifferent psycho babble.

09/30/09  9:22pm
Sean says:

Wow “Doofus.” Thats extremely harsh.

I think you get off on bashing anything experimental/avant garde. I believe ms.shore has won awards with this film and from watching it I understand why. Just because you cannot understand this piece does not give you the right to completely tear apart something that has obviously took a lot of time to make. I mean, one person made this! Its amazing! the techniques, audio and compositing alone stands out of the commercial generic narratives that are produced/submitted in the festival market today.

10/1/09  12:15am
nikip says:

I like very much that it has a sort of dream-like, stream of consciousness quality to it. I think it was very well-done technically and i loved the concept. It was different and refreshing.

10/1/09  12:47pm

Great tittle sequences. It perked me up to see something special and I did. Congrats!

10/1/09  4:03pm
Hal says:

Dear Leah - Great thesis, you’re onto something. For the rest of you - Its sad that this film’s discussion is loaded with the black and white statements of “GENIUS” or “NONSENSE” - and its definitely neither (though I have no problem labelling nonsense as a positive). Students should experiment when they have the chance - there’s nothing worse than wasting a peroid when you should be playing within the medium and discovering its potential into little more than a feeble attempt to get a job mimicking a pre-existing style (unless you want to work in such a style, then goto town). Student films are a time to take risks and I think the students who enjoy the process of exploring animation will keep at it through their professional lives and hopefulleye reache ye evere elusive “genius.”

10/1/09  5:01pm
Zekey says:

I thought it was very cute in a dirty sort of way

10/2/09  6:49am

It would be so interesting if Svankmajer met Hertzfeldt, for say, brunch.
Svankmajer’s face would melt & morph surrealistically and Hertzfeld would be carried off by an angry balloon. The waitress would get no tip.

As for this film, those who are hypnotized by the formulaic commercial paradigms of some major US movie studios we’ve been so accustomed to, for 80 years and 15 years respectively, may not have the open mind to embrace the fresh, fun approach of this exciting young filmmaker.

Write a comment.





Comment: