“Private Eyes” trailer

By
on

Even the National Film Board of Canada is getting into the act – the 3-D act, that is. Nicola Lemay’s upcoming new short, by way of the NFB, is called Privates Eyes, and its also a hand drawn film mostly in black and white. The trailer below is in 2D and it looks pretty good without the glasses.

Also in Cartoon Brew...

  • “Gloria Victoria”
    Trailer and Clip by
    Theodore Ushev

    gloriavictoria

  • Meet the First
    (Stone Age)
    Animators

    cave-animation

  • “Dorothy Of Oz”
    trailer

  • paolo

    I attended to a presentation made by the film’s producer, Marc Bertrand of NFB, nad it looks promising. As far as I have understood, the idea behind using 3D for a drawn animated film is to have the spectator discover the main character’s world (a 9-years-old blind child) in the same way as he perceives it, by showing gradually the environments, objects and people that he meets. It looks promising; I hoped it would have been shown now at the Berlin Film Festival (so Marc told me at the time), but I guess it did not make it in time.

  • tom

    I’m not sure that I would say the NFB “is getting in the 3-D act”. They been creating and experimenting with 3D for awhile. Norman McLaren animated the 3D films Around is Around and Now Is The Time in the 1950′s. For the best several years (starting before the current 3D infatuation) Munro Ferguson has been exploring and creating films (with himself and others) in 3D with the SANDDE animation system. Last year the NFB’s Hothouse program was devoted to giving filmmakers a chance to experiment with 3D filmmaking.

    • paolo

      Well, in fact in the same presentation Theodore Ushev’s “Drux Flux”, also produced by NFB, was shown in 3D.

  • http://rodtejada.wordpress.com Rod Tejada

    It looks great, I love the concept behind the film.

    • http://www.ronimation.com Ron

      Me too. It strikes me as what could be a great use of animation and 3D technology. This could be one of those projects that elevates 3D from “gimmick” to “art form”.

  • Santiago

    Yesterday while looking for some Hayao Miyazaki videos on youtube I stubbled upon an extremely well done Tawanese animation by students of the National Taiwan University of Arts that shows the world and imagination of a little blind girl.
    Coincidence?
    See for yourself.
    Website: http://www.evaty.url.tw/oos/

    • Chris Sobieniak

      The concept of how a blind person ‘views’ his or her world isn’t too original. An earlier film I can think of was 1983′s “Sound of Sunshine – Sound of Rain” which was nominated for an Oscar that year, though if you wanted to go back even further, there’s 1947′s “The Enchanted Square” from Famous Studios!

      • Santiago

        I just though stumbling upon two animations dealing with the same subject in such a short time was nice.
        But it’s really not about someone coming up with an idea first.It seems that now days whatever you come up with has already been done, but that’s not what’s important. You can still be original with something that has been done many times, just gotta find the right formula.
        Anyways, I think many times people end up making something with out the knowledge that their idea has already been done and still manage to add their own essence and originality to their work. I also though I could give some exposure to the student’s amazing film.
        Thanks for the info! I’ll have a look at those films you mentioned, even though it’s not Fletcher studios they still managed to make some good work.

  • the foreign office

    Actually, it looks awfully ugly and bad drawn. And sounds awful as well.

    • Martin Juneau

      In contrary, i find it better than most of Canadian’s TV output of today. Now there is badly drawn.

  • eeteed

    I suppose this film might have been made to helped sighted people have better understanding and respect for blind people, but I’m guessing that if most blind people had their druthers, the budget for this project would have gone towards making audio-only that entertainment that they could enjoy.

    Most of the things going on in this film are visual imagery enhanced by music. A blind person would get no enjoyment from this work. If you’re going to create something like this, it would be a good idea for it to be something that a blind person could also appreciate.

    Now if you’ll excuse me, I must finish filling out the forms for my $500,000 government grant for an opera that deals with the plight of deaf people.

  • Jeffrey Simonetta

    I remember at Ottawa ’09, the NFB was showing off its 3D software for hand drawn animation and it looked pretty cool. It was a lot better than the computer animated films because everything was very clear what belonged in the foreground, background, and mid ground.

  • JMatte

    Just saw a report about it on television- the film as an adaptation from a book, and will be part of a larger exhibit that deals with blind people and how they interact with the world.
    There will even be a Norman McLaren film narrated for people with visual impairment.

    (I can dream that they will also include Toph, from Avatar, The Last Airbender, as a kick @$$ blind girl, ha ha! But no, not NFB related…)

    Congrats to Nicolas for his film! I wish it much success.

  • Craig

    Looks interesting. I love the concept. I’m pretty sure “les yeux noir” means “Black eyes” or “Dark eyes” though, not private. Just saying.