Pellet Gunn by Tim Beckhardt

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I saw Tim Beckhardt‘s Pellet Gun in Ottawa a couple weeks ago. It’s a student film from RISD. I liked the crisp linear style and it made me chuckle even though I didn’t get it. Tim explained it to me afterward, and the explanation was quite reasonable, which made me wonder why I didn’t get it in the first place.

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  • ben c

    after the comment about getting it, now I’m not sure if I do or not.

  • http://rauchbrothers.com Mike Rauch

    What I find really interesting is that the design seems to lend itself well to working digitally, but if I remember correctly Tim did everything entirely hand drawn. I would be curious to know what led to that choice, and what Tim thinks about it after going through that process.

  • Daniel M.

    That was pretty good. If you know what the pun is based on, it’s pretty easy to understand. It looks like a well done mini comic.

  • http://www.thepra.com.au Eddie

    Really fresh looking film. I didn’t get it fully either but that made me watch it a couple more times, which is a great thing for a short film to make you want to do. Still not completely sure if I totally get it. Maybe I’ll watch it once more!

  • http://www.animationfestival.ca J. Zaroski

    +1 to ben c

    Anyone care to explain, or provide a link?

  • http://richardthefox.blogspot.com richard fox

    I enjoyed the fresh drawing style,
    the humble garage-style guitar track,
    and all the bizzzarre scenes!

  • http://www.frankpanucci.com FP

    What’s not to get? This thing is quietly great. It reminds me of a Chris Miller story from an old NATIONAL LAMPOON, involving wormhole birth control and its disastrous consequences.

  • http://www.theAMIGOunit.com bone

    Excellent – It doesnt have to mean a thing.

  • Chris Webb

    Liked it alot! Tim, KEEP MAKING FILMS!

  • timmyelliot

    I liked it. It sort of reminded me of something out a Rudy Rucker novel, with its cyberpunk sensibility.

  • christy

    SO AWESOME! LOVE THIS FILM!

  • doug holverson

    As somebody who did too much Model Rocketry in my life, I loved the throwaway reference that the Rocket Hand hand two C engines.

    Also the time wormhole bit about retrieving the dead guy’s head from the near future.

  • http://www.theguysperspective.typepad.com THE GUYS

    This was freakin’ GREAT!! Intelligent and funny. And bizarre!!

  • http://www.sexymecha.com Hal

    Just awesome. Abosolutely awesome. This is the kind of animation that really pushes into fun Ballard or Vonnegut style narratives. So great that sci-fi toons can grow up beyond 50′s kitsch love. I just checked out Tim’s other films too – “I TOOK A TRIP” evokes “THE MONK AND THE FISH,” “AMERICAN ASTRONAUT” and “REVOLVER” for me – no small praise that!

  • http://timbeckhardt.com Tim Beckhardt

    Hi – thanks for the comments everybody and Amid for posting this up.

    Mike, everything was hand-drawn on paper then composited in After Effects (so I wasn’t totally un-digital). This film grew heavily out of my love of underground & alternative comix / old comic strips and other lo-fi forms, so the process of drawing on paper (hand-filling blacks, white-out, mistakes) was I felt really the only way to go. Even my crummy all-in-one fax/scanner/xerox became a part of the aesthetic.

    I find that I often enjoy working with/against the limits imposed by such a process, and hope to keep that tension as I’m moving to more all-digital ways of working.

  • http://www.tastyhand.com David Sheahan

    Could this be the smartest student film ever? It’s stronger and more pungent than it has any right to be, and it kicks butt!

  • stieg

    i really like the different tones of black in the lines and fills.