This all to say that when we see Ben, in Luke Snellin’s BAFTA nominated short Mixtape, hand over his creation to the mother of the girl next door, he’s got a whole lot riding on Lily getting it or not. Snellin appears to have tapped directly into the mainline of nervousness and anticipation bubbling around his young protagonist’s gut, – expertly portrayed here by Bill Milner, who you may be more familiar with from his starring role in Son of Rambow or this year’s equally excellent Sex & Drugs & Rock & Roll. The production design is also bang on, with subtle touches such as Ben’s copy of the now sadly defunct Melody Maker magazine or the Bowie poster, combining with the soundtrack to set the period without hitting you over the head with their ‘of then’ timeliness.

Shot in a single day, Mixtape was created for the Virgin Media Shorts competition, which it ultimately won ahead of 2,000+ competitors. Snelling describes the film as, “a kind of melting pot of all my influences both musically and as a director”, with the concept springing from, “all these little tapes I made for family and friends when I was young”.

It seems that the draw of depicting children’s lives on screen (his first short Patrick was about a bullied boy who learns to fly) remains strong, as aside from his commercial directorial duties at 2am Films, Snelling’s supposedly in development for a feature based on kids with special powers, due to be shot and completed by the end of this year. Personally, I’m hoping for a good New Mutants adaptation, but regardless, if he maintains his eye for detail I’m sure it’ll be worth a watch.

Best Animated Short

Logorama

by F. Alaux, H. de Crecy, L. Houplain

Best Live Action Short

The New Tenants

by Joachim Back

Best Documentary Short

Music by Prudence

by Roger Ross Williams

Lutz is a dreamer and malcontent in a controlled world where life is dictated by the number of social points you have. Intelligent enough to enter the prestigious Institute for Neuro-Informatics but lacking both the determination to succeed within the system and the sense that there is anything better, Lutz seeks to escape. With the help of Jannik, an ex-con and ex-dreamer who has suffered in the virtual prisons where each individual’s Hell is personalized, Lutz hatches a plan to give him what he’s always wanted, though even he realizes that the most likely outcome is a lifetime of agony.

As I watch this film again, what strikes me is not the FX. Those effects are excellent, be they flying robots, future cityscapes, or fifty foot mothers, but they don’t steal the focus. It is the story that grips me. This is a story of hope and fear and redemption. The quality of those effects allow Axel (writer/producer/director) and Henning (writer/producer) Ricke to tell that tale without my mind, and hopefully yours, slipping out of their world. I am there with Lutz, feeling his doubt, his hope, and his need for something else. Stars David Winter and Reinhardt Firchow bring such loss, energy, and humanity to their characters, but then the Ricke brothers make that easy, giving them such rich personalities to work with.

If my description makes D-I-M sound dour, let me assure you it is anything but that. Fast paced, with twisted humor running throughout, it is even more enjoyable than it is thoughtful. Cinematic cyberpunk has been a disappointment.  For every Blade Runner or The Matrix there have been twenty mindless, poorly shot rip-offs. D-I-M gives fans of the sub-genre something to cheer about again.

The Ricke brothers are just getting started.  Henning took the director’s chair for their follow-up, Rosfeld, a marvelously sly science fiction comedy that hit the festival circuit in 2009. It is not available online, so you’ll have to keep an eye out for it at your local festival.

(embed courtesy of eerieTube.com)

The two main characters in Pivot are meticulously designed and it’s easy to see that a lot of thought has gone into how to give them an eye-catching, individual look.

The concept for the styling of the main character was inspired by the look of our shadow in the Californian sun.

The long, stretched, oversized limbs of the main character are most effective when he is in full flow, bounding through alleys or bouncing across rooftops, his distinctive orange trousers (inspired by old Russian cosmonaut suits) a liquid blur behind him. In dramatic contrast the ‘villain’ of the piece, is a beast of a figure, his shadow swallowing light as he charges after Pivot’s ‘hero’, his heavy laden feet shattering pavement beneath his trunk-like legs, with every giant step.

In its essence, Pivot is a cat and mouse story—hunter versus prey—but it’s a short made with such panache and such vigour, it must be one of the best of its type. The night-time setting, low-key lighting and shadow play within the film, means we are treated to a mood and atmosphere similar to film noir, whilst at the same time hit with the high tension and frantic pace of a horror movie. To check out how the creators of Pivot created the vibe of the film, be sure to check out their mood boards.

It’s so refreshing to see an animation try something different in terms of style, form and content and I honestly can’t remember the last time an animated piece made me feel this tense and this on-edge. Pivot is a film I’m still not bored of watching, despite being in double figures in terms of viewings and surely that is the sign of a truly great short.

To get it out of the way in advance, this film is a bit graphic. That means boobies, hoo hoos and even a ding dong. What’s really graphic though for us who may have at one time seen all these things, is what they do to the ding dong. Yikes!

Directed by Thibault Emin, Else is an erotic horror of the highest order, the kind of film that it seems only the French really know how to make. A big hit at Fantastic Fest and other festivals, the film details a world where there is a massive outbreak. Society is still in the confusion/paranoia state as people—the animate—are fusing with their inanimate surroundings. Cordoned off, a young couple spend the entire 17 minute short in their apartment while a TV plays the expository role of describing the outside context. However this confinement does not lessen the horror, or eroticism.

You see, the young and good-looking couple are in the midst of infatuation still, the plague an almost welcome excuse to stay inside and make love constantly. However unlike many French films which take a nihilistic attitude to love, romance and faithfulness (typical stereotype I know), this film very poetically imagines a couple that, like our greatest romantic heroes, mean all that pillow talk. Therefore despite the graphic nature, this a film you almost would want to watch with your lover and contemplate how much nicer the end could be if fear was buffeted by desire and despair tempered by devotion. The result is an unsettling and emotional film that I’m very impressed by. If not for the low quality of the MySpace video, I would certainly have made this film my next full review.

TropFest! ‘Tis truly excellent to have Australian short film goodness back in one’s life. I post the winners every year, so I don’t want to repeat myself too much, but TropFest is a unique short film festival, birthed in Australia. All the entries are short and exclusive to the festival. The finalists screen in front of enormous outdoor crowds every year, as well as on satellite simulcasts, making it the most widely watched short film event in the world. If that weren’t cool enough for you, It also has <ahem> an extremely progressive online exhibition policy.

We linked to the YouTube playlist of last years finalists, and 2008 TropFest AU and TropFest NY winners, Marry Me and the sublime Mankind is No Island, got full reviews. This years finalists are trickling onto YouTube right now and are available at ninemsn in poorer quality. As the for the field: The winner is Shock, a 4 min comedic short from Abe Forsythe.

Shock doesn’t strike you immediately as a comedy, at least for me it didn’t. Watching a man sob uncontrollably for minutes at a time has a way of dislocating your funny bone. Using handheld camera techniques to impart of voyeuristic feel, the audience is subjected to this man’s anguish, but eventually the length and various settings of his spiritual devastation stretch the line of credulity, imparting the desired absurdist effect just in time for the payoff. Non-Australians may not be familiar with the film’s dedicatee—notorious shock-jock Kyle Sandilands, but the intent is obvious.

Hilariously enough Shock is blocked on YouTube right now by a copyright claim from TropFest NY at this time. No matter, you can still watch, though sadly at lesser quality, on the Australian site. But, for my money (or time, in this case) I’d watch the runner-up, the ridiculous claymation My Neighborhood Has Been Overrun by Baboons, which is about as hilarious as it sounds and available is dreamy 720p.

Watch the Finalists at: TropFest YouTube Channel

Let’s be honest. The story is good, but the visual art direction (or “aesthetic orchestration” as the film puts it) is outstanding—a perfect blend of new age and nostalgia. David puts the digital aesthetic on display in a very authentic way. His compositions reflect the three quarter view of old video games (not unlike A Volta), and at times even uses raw 3D wireframes to portray a characters inner thoughts. Please Say Something makes no attempt to hide it’s construction methods.

The animation is amazing. The pacing and movement of the characters is fast. Watching David play with perspective in referencing security cameras and time-lapse photography, I’m reminded of my first time seeing Aronofsky’s experimental camerawork in Requiem For a Dream. My only quip would be the sometimes overly-exaggerated camera movements when sweeping through rooms.

But it’s the full package that make this film special—the juxtaposition of many opposing things. It’s uniqueness comes from it’s disparity. Told any other way, the story would be ho-hum. The visuals, used for any other brand of story would be entertaining but shallow. It’s a film that has to be done the way it is and must never change—not unlike Cracker Jacks.

I must admit that I am infatuated with this short. I realize that my love is likely disproportionate and temporary, but that is little consolation. Please Say Something is a new favorite of mine.

Note*  — “This was one of the 10 excellent Sundance offerings this year. Check out the other 9 selections here“

The Machine, by Rob Shaw of Bent Image Lab, is an entertaining stop-motion fable about a man-made machine who knows no bounds to his power. I’ve had this in my queue for awhile but knew I couldn’t let it pass without sharing with you. I love Angela Poschet’s voiceover.

Description via Vimeo:

“The Machine” is an animated fable following the path of an innocently forged mechanical creature. As his independence and knowledge of the world grows on his journey, as does his desire to conquer all that we encounters, from the pastures of a farmer to the realm of man’s entire world.

The story is in itself a mechanized apparition, the characters and scenery exisiting inside of an early 20th century nickel arcade and being driven forward by the gears of this machine.

The main character, the innocently created, human like mechanism whose power knows no bounds, thinks of himself as invincible, that no man or spirit could ever overpower him. Yet, the irony is that he himself is only a small part of a greater device, and in this case, a mechanized stage for passers by to waste a nickel in.

This film was shot over many hours at Bent Image Lab over the course of several months in 2008-2009. Animated using stop-motion puppets and sets, then composited together in After Effects, the film has a mixed media presence to it that is accentuated by the machine’s own collage like form.

Bournemouth Film School graduate Rob Brown’s short takes a slightly different tack to other sex trafficking films you may be familiar with, such as Lukas Moodysson’s Lilya 4-ever. Instead of cataloging the indignities no doubt in store for victims of the forced sex trade, Echoes focuses on Anya, promoted from sex worker to trafficker, and her journey from Lithuania to London with the innocent (and secretly pregnant) Liliana.

Given that a large chunk of Echoes unfolds within the confines of the coach transporting the women across Europe, Brown and cinematographer Justin Brown make effective use of the handheld camera, capturing everyday locations in muted tones which reflect the film’s bleak world. I had initially presumed the decision to go handheld may have been born out of a necessity to steal shots in the London Underground, but as (I later discovered) Echoes was shot on Super 16 it’s more likely that this was solely a stylistic decision—one which completely works for the narrative and atmosphere of the film. The final shot of Anya, now boxed in by her decision to let Liliana go free, with nowhere to go except down the dark corridor that stretches out behind her is particularly foreboding.

Ultimately Echoes is a film about the willingness to sacrifice the future of others to secure your own position, it’s a sacrifice Anya is unable to make despite the hell that awaits her.

In a rare turn of events, a cursory web search has revealed that at least one of the Oscar live-action short films is online, Luke Doolan’s Miracle Fish. The animated shorts often are online, but for various reasons the live action ones don’t make it. New Boy last year was the only one of the five that was online in advance of the ceremony to my knowledge, but thanks to Qoob, which financed the film, we get Miracle Fish on our computers.

Going in to watching the short, my excitement was high. Part of the famed Blue Tongue Film family which gave us 2008 favorite I Love Sarah Jane, and featuring 2009 Favorite alum Nash Edgerton as an executive producer, Miracle Fish has great pedigree, via its association with those audacious audience-friendly films. Sadly my high expectations lead to simply greater disappointment. Were it not for the nomination I probably would not review the film for the site. What kind of film is Miracle Fish? It is a dark 16 min film about a bullied 8 year old named Joe. It’s Joe’s birthday, but that hasn’t spared him abuse at the hands of his young classmates. Feeling a bit put upon, Joe takes a time out in the infirmary and wakes to discover that his school is completely abandoned. The reason why isn’t clear until the film’s closing scene, and until then the tension is far from gripping.

In all honesty I find little about the film to recommend. It’s slow, and its payoff isn’t particularly interesting. The scenes of bullying aren’t clever or egregious, the scenes of Joe reveling in the emptiness of his school are not joyful or revealing. Whether by accident or design, Karl Beattie who plays Joe is a bland cipher—expressing almost no emotion throughout.

Frankly everything about the film expresses a bland competence. There is a base level of craft that all Oscar noms invariably possess, evident in things like floating jib shots, and great location sound, but little style. The palate of the film is drab, the editing is non-descript. The story itself is good enough, but is not supported by interesting details. At one point Joe steps over a cheap sci-fi book about alien abduction, supposedly to instill in the audience a spirit of speculation regarding the fate of his classmates. However this detail is the only one of its kind in the movie. Thus rather than getting caught in speculation I dutifully waited for the film to inevitably provide its reasoning.

I have to assume I’m missing something given the the acclaim garnered by the film, and would love to hear alternative opinions in the comments. This is the first short film Oscar nomination for the prolific Blue Tongue Films, and maybe its last, as its directors are moving on to features. So congratulations to that crew, they have really provided a well-needed jolt into the short film world, I just wish this recognition was for a film that I could get more behind.

note: I haven’t had success playing the film in Firefox, but have gotten it to work in Safari.

Who deserves the win? Toss your hat into the mix and vote. Many of the films can be found online:

Watch Animated Shorts (via Ticklebooth)

The plot is as complex as you would expect (or desire) from a beer-based zombie film. A drunken brew master has embarrassed the brewery for the last time, being exiled to the lonely late-night shift. He hasn’t let this setback interrupt his drinking, and while looking into a vat of… OK, let’s not over think this. We all know that beer turns guys into zombies, right? That’s the plot. Done.

Co-writer/director Rob van der Velden approached internet fame with his winning entry into Quentin Tarantino’s fake trailer competition (Dutch edition), Nailed by Nikita. Fitting with the tone of the faux trailers in Tarantino and Rodriguez’s Grindhouse, Nailed by Nikita introduces the touching tale of an abused, often naked woman, with a nail gun. God how I love nail guns. Van der Velden upped his game, with help from de Voogd, for Zombeer, surpassing the production values of most genre features, as well as almost everything which airs on the SyFy Channel. The last is pertinent because Zombeer screened on that channel, and was also nominated for their Shocking Shorts Award.

I suppose you could find some political commentary here, or a statement about alcoholism, but my mind never wandered into the land of deep meanings while watching drunken zombies take a bite out of tourists. Sure, it’s hard to become emotionally involved as the film never picks a character to focus on. And yes, it could be a more complete story and less of what feels like an intro to a larger work. But it is already delivering zombies and beer. To ask for more would be ungrateful.

Since Zombeer could stand in for the definition of “guy” film (definitions with words in them are way too feminine), don’t watch it alone. The Super bowl is nearly upon us, another stereotypically masculine bit of entertainment. Set out a few twelve packs, and make sure you have at least a case of Dutch brews chilling. Order up a few pizzas, and before the big game, start off the afternoon with Zombeer. Nothing could be more fitting.

A new film from Spy Films is always an event. This is the house that brought us Alive in Joburg, which was adapted into an Oscar-nominated film, and Trevor Cawood’s Terminus, which, thanks to Film School Rejects, I recently learnt might follow the same path.

Nuit Blanche is unlikely to follow in its predecessor’s footsteps though. Thinner in concept and almost non-existent in story, the 4 min film nonetheless is fat in style, featuring the customary groundbreaking VFX we expect from the house. Directed by Arev Manoukian, the film centers on a passing encounter by two people who share a charged moment. The B&W short faithfully reproduces a 50’s noir film effect that’s gorgeous in its own right before hyper-reality sets in.

I found this film via occasional SotW contributor Dek, who, after a long break, is back to publishing content at an inhuman pace over at No Fat Clips! He has a a 1080p version of the film you should check out. Also a making of is provided over at Vimeo.

Short Film (Live Action)
The Door—Juanita Wilson and James Flynn
Instead of Abracadabra—Patrik Eklund and Mathias Fjellström
Kavi—Gregg Helvey
Miracle Fish—Luke Doolan and Drew Bailey
The New Tenants—Joachim Back and Tivi Magnusson

View the full list »

Earlier this week, the venerable festival bestowed its favor—the coveted Jury Prize for short film, upon Drunk History Vol. 5: Douglass and Lincoln. The previous iterations of this series have gained great fame on the interwebs via YouTube and Funny or Die, but, as the vol. 5 in the title suggests, it really has more in common with what we think of as a web series. Linked by a central premise, the filmmakers record drunken historians rambling about key moments in US history. Celebrities then act out the narrative in hokey costumes, with the filmmakers using self-reflexively ridiculous sets and edit techniques, to, admittedly, riotous comic effect.

The two newest entries which took Sundance by storm, the jury prize winning Douglass and Lincoln, plus one about the tragic life and times of Tesla, are not available, so we start instead at the beginning. Performed by a wasted Mark Gagliardi, Vol. 1 recounts that most famous of American duels, Hamilton v. Burr, with Michael Cera and Jake Johnson taking on the parts of the long-dead politicians.

There is a charm to the sets and anachronistic details of the approach. The radiant soft focus glow as faces emerge from the shadows is a spot-on mockery of the History Channel aesthetic, and Michael Cera’s Vans inexplicably crack me up. These two forces complement, as the parodying faithfulness to the form of historical re-enactments is undermined by out-of-place details. By far though I think the key element of comedy is the literal interpretation by the actors of the narrator’s words, which leads to some great moments such as “Alexander Hamilton shot a bullet right into Alexander Hamilton”. Don’t forget that our poor historian is blitzed, so fun slips like these are fortunately inevitable.

I like Drunken History, I wouldn’t give it a coveted feature on the site if I didn’t, however I am a bit worried about what institutional approval for a web series from something like Sundance means for Short Film. Often I look at web series and viral vids as in competition with short films for eyeballs and buzz. As unfriendly as festivals have been to the web, we don’t want them to jump ship, abandoning their traditional role as shepherd of short films. Sundance has self-consciously tried to make itself younger, more independent, and more web-savvy this year, embracing YouTube for shorts and rentals, so I do not think it is a coincidence that it was this year that a project like this broke though.

It helped though that it was Derek Waters who was involved. A Sundance alum, he had previously come to Park City with Derek & Simon, a web series he co-created with Mr. Show’s Bob Odenkirk, that had a famous run on the now-defunct Super Deluxe web site. Be warned Short Film, you’re already losing the web, now your festivals are targeted. Talent in web video is rising, and Drunk History’s creator is leading the charge.

In keeping with the Sundance theme, this Short of the Moment is a documentary that was well-received at the 2003 festival. It is a portrait of Fred Harwin, who straddles the Art/Science divide in his line of work—fashioning realistic fake eyes. The film is interesting, though not recommended for the squeamish. Nothing imaged is really any more traumatic than putting in contacts, but it looks a thousand times worse!

Speaking of looks, the film has a very slick aesthetic in its shooting style and edit. There is a dynamic tension in the quick cutting and juxtaposition of close-ups with wider shots, complemented by a propulsive soundtrack. Though a small story it is not an amateur production. Vance Malone of Station Film is the director and is a veteran filmmaker with many commercials and shorts to his credit. He’s back at Sundance this year with his new short The Poodle Trainer.

Filmed outside Barrow, Alaska, this short takes place on the beautiful yet terrible Arctic ice amongst the Inupiat peoples. The film’s dialogue is spoken in their language. A hunter, together with his pack of dogs, sees two men fighting on the barren horizon. From that point the film becomes a tense morality play, as the bystander must decide his level of engagement, and the participants must decide on the level of escalation. Further explication would spoil this simple, yet riveting story.

The challenge for a film like Sikumi (On the Ice), is overcoming its exotic location and culture—the same features that serve as an asset to lesser films. It is easy to dismiss shorts such as these by charging that their, admittedly alluring, foreigness is the primary source of appeal. Sikumi rises above such perceptions via superior craft, and a plot that is ultimately universal.

Rising star Cary Fukunaga served as DP on the project. His feature length directorial effort Sin Nombre, made many top 10 lists this past year, and he has now lined up a Hollywood adaptation of Jane Eyre for himself. While the vast white expanse of the arctic is an admittedly attractive backdrop, You have not seen it with this level of intimacy before. Planet Earth this is not. Fukunaga employs beautiful close ups and hand held POV’s to complement the obvious panoramas, shooting in anamorphic 35mm. All this while dealing with the challenging sub-zero Alaskan “summer”.

Writer/director Andrew Okpeaha MacLean though does great work in providing the story and tone for Fukunaga to visually relate. A Barrow native, MacLean writes what he knows, but is also writing within a long filmmaking tradition. Sikumi you see is really a Western. The frontier has not been tamed it has simply moved. Westerns are often about competing moralities,  tensions between personal codes. The weight of personal responsibility in these instances is heightened and rendered in sharp relief by the absence of societal enforcement. Typical protections afforded by Hobbesian bargains do not apply. It is within this space—the frontier of the ice, that the entirety of the film resides, and thus Sikumi is alternately suspenseful, scary, yet humanistic. The hunter with whom we arrive upon the scene with speaks very little, he is almost a non-character, as the onus of action quickly shifts to the perpetrator. Instead he serves as a stand-in for larger concepts such as Community, which judges and sets standards of conduct for a people , and  Conscience,  which, even in the absence of witnesses, must live with itself.

A startling spare and beautiful update on the Western,  Sikumi (On the Ice) takes full advantage of the stark and dramatic setting it employs, yet nonetheless could have been effectively  told anywhere using anyone. Thus it transcends novelty on the way to becoming one of the best shorts of recent memory.

Sundance kicked off tonight in Park City, Utah. I hadn’t heard any advance buzz about the 10/10 online series, a recent Sundance tradition that we covered last year, and so I sadly concluded that the festival had moved away from online distro for short films to instead focus more on its much-heralded pay per view partnership.

Not the case though! YouTube seems to have scored a coup, stealing the series from iTunes. Coup of course might be a bit strong of a word since, as usual, there seems to be no advance buzz or fanfare for the presence of these films, but the quality is high— I recognize several of them as winners from various worldwide festivals.

This move probably wouldn’t have happened without YouTube’s new video settings—many of these short films are available in drop-dead gorgeous 1080p. 5 of the films seem to reside in the Screening Room, while another 5 can be accessed via Sundance’s channel. For convenience though the film’s are linked below. I haven’t watched them all yet, but I’ll pour through them in the coming days. Let’s try and outsource this a bit though, please go ahead and tell everybody what to watch and what to avoid with your own mini-review in the comment!

Mr. Okra — 11 min — A portrait of the beloved New Orleans vegetable salesman.

Please Say Something — 10 min  — Cat and mouse tale set in the distant future.

Dock Ellis and the LSD No-No — 4 min  — See our prior review here.

The S From Hell — 9 min — Doc/Horror about the scariest corporate logo in history.

Voice on the Line — 7 min  — Experimental animation on Cold War hysteria.

old fangs — 11 min — A young wolf decides to confront his father. Animated

Para Fuera — 9 min — Documentary about a man turning 100.

Charlie and the Rabbit — 9 min — 4 year old decides to hunt a rabbit.

Thompson — 10 min — Doc about two friends on the verge of adulthood.

Let’s Harvest the Organs of Death Row Inmates — 2 min — An animated “Provocation”

For once I didn’t have to look for a film, this one found me all by itself! Front page of the New York Times web site, in a fancy pull-down banner ad. So yes, this means once again I’ve fallen for a glorified commercial. This one comes courtesy of Prada, and features the cinematic talents of art-world sensation Yang Fudong, designing the film as a centerpiece to the company’s rollout of the spring men’s line.

First Spring is rapturously shot in B&W digital, and revolves around three couples—snappily dressed of course, as they traverse a bygone Shanghai on the cusp of modernity. The film is dreamy and vague, yet rich in detail, providing an engaged viewer a wealth of material in which to dissect meaning, yet surely will frustrate the casual viewer with its lack of dialogue, perplexing narrative, and its (potentially) non-linear presentation.

Yang is an interesting choice for a promo film. Hardly a household name, yet growing in critical estimation, he just recently had his 5-hour opus Seven Intellectuals in Bamboo Forest make its stateside debut over the summer. He is considered a rising star of independent-filmmaking in mainland China, but his output, though possessing the visual fetishism and spiritual melancholy that typifies some of the best work to come from that country, can be seen as similar to the more opaque works of the nouvelle vague, with its self conscious profundities, and deliberately challenging stance towards audiences. The concisest summary of Yang’s career and aesthetic can be read here.

Fashion has always maintained close contact with the arts via the photography and the various forms of design necessary to market its product, not to mention the aesthetics of the garments themselves. Therefore I have found the recent trend in fashion films to be logical, yet fascinating. First Spring, seems an interesting progression of this trend, as it moves explicitly towards the art-side of filmmaking and away from the commercial leanings of previous high profile fashion films, such as Dior’s Lady Noire Affair, Jean Pierre Jeunet’s piece for Chanel no.5., or even Murakami’s artistic, yet accessibly pop films for Louis Vuitton.

The fashion consumer, that most prized of commodity, tends to appreciate fashion on a level far above mere status; they are appreciators of construction, technique, taste and most of all history—the narrative behind the brand and the way the pieces comment and innovate within a shared history of fashion. This sort of cultured sensibility is similar in so many ways to the consumer of modern art across mediums, and Prada seems to recognize that by commissioning a fashion film that feels more at home in a museum than on the web.

In 1969, a 14-year-old Beatle obsessive Jerry Levitan tricked his way into John Lennon’s hotel room in Toronto and equipped with a reel-to-reel recorder, he managed to persuade Lennon to do a spontaneous interview. Almost 40 years later, Josh Raskin (along with help from Jerry Levitan as producer) has moulded this interview into a mesmerizing animation, featuring time-honoured ink sketching alongside modern digital illustration.

Taking the initial audio recording of the interview as it basis, Raskin develops Lennon’s words into a non-stop visual bombardment of the animated kind. Illustrator James Braithwaite lends his penmanship to the film and his scratchy style is the perfect accompaniment to the old school fuzzy soundtrack. At times Braithwaite’s designs and animations can’t but help elicit memories of The Beatles Yellow Submarine and although the illustrator’s vision is somewhat less colourful and psychedelic than it’s predecessor, you have to presume it played some part in his aesthetic choices. To add a modern edge to the film, Raskin employed the talents of Designer and New Media artist Alex Kurina, whose well-ordered, somewhat more precise style creates an intriguing infusion alongside Braithwaite’s.

Don’t be fooled into thinking this is a film solely based in its visuals though, as however eye-catching they may be, there probably isn’t an animator in the world that could eclipse the thoughts and messages of John Lennon. The interview with Lennon may now be over 40 years old, but it’s incredible how applicable and significant his words still are. In a time still overshadowed with ongoing war and the threat of terrorism, Lennon could almost be speaking of the ‘establishment’ of modern day and the troubles it faces. Adding to the charm of the film, the Musician and Activist seems to have a frankness and honesty in his answers, when speaking to the 14yr old Levitan. These are words and opinions that may not have been so forthcoming to a more seasoned, professional journalist.

Together, this powerful interview combines potently with the strong, imaginative visuals of Raskin and his fellow artists, creating a striking film that is bound to stick in its audiences mind for a long time after watching. It’s easy to see why this innovative short was nominated for a Best Animated Short Film Oscar in 2008.

Animated cartoons that strike a chord with audiences young and old are the gold that the Hollywood studios dream. Too bad most end up smothered by pop culture references and watered-down stereotypical characters in bland stories. Adventure Time is a cartoon that gets it right. It features interesting, smart characters that actually say smart things.

Watch Adventure Time on YouTube or Frederator

It blew up last week after Motionographer blogged it, but through teasers and stills it would be in error to say it hadn’t been anticipated. The reason? CG so fine it’s starting flamewars over whether it’s all CG or not. Supposedly it is, with behind the scenes videos of wireframes to prove it, all done by a single person—Alex Roman, aka Jorge Seva of Spain.

There isn’t any plot, but the film is quite the eye candy. It is the Avatar of the unheralded archviz genre, a video design niche that produces visualizations of architectural projects for firms and developers. Alex Roman, dismayed with the clunky and rote nature of the work he and his colleagues produce, decided, on his own time, to create this work—a more artistic and soulful exploration of architectural design exploiting the freedom of 3D virtual space, treating us, the viewer, to a new and magnificent way of appreciating the one of the most heralded of arts. The somewhat ambiguous title refers to a philosophy of aesthetics that proclaims architecture and cinema as the third and seventh pillars of art respectively. Alex Roman details a little bit more about his unique approach here.

The Tale of How is part two of the Dodo Trilogy. Forget for a second that there is neither a part one or part three, the team is operating on an epic vision which I can appreciate. Despite that, the film exhibits a silly and light touch. The mundane names chosen, “Otto” for the octopus and “Eddie” for the savior mouse, coupled with the stoner-ish vocal delivery of Eddie, provides an element of child-like fun to the proceedings, though children might very well be alarmed by images of the dodos being torn apart front and center onscreen.

Speaking of vocals, as distinct as the visual style is the operatic delivery of the story’s narrative. My initial reaction was dismissive—hokum, and difficult to understand hokum at that. But the short runtime of the film allowed me to immerse myself in visuals the first time, and then listen closer to the lyrics the second time. Under closer inspection I realized they were well written if nothing else, and the idiosyncratic deliveries, themselves a slight mockery of operatic forms, were done well enough. The crew has published the lyrics online if you have a curiosity in deciphering some of the more opaque passages.

First coming out in 2006, the film has found many fans, playing the festival circuit, winning a prize at Annecy, as well as touring with OneDotZero and the much-missed ResFest traveling tours. Motionographer and Dek, who also has posted a “making of” vid, have previously featured the film. To capitalize on the popularity the filmmakers have put up a book for sale, featuring original artwork and some lovely prints, along with a DVD copy of the film. I am quite a fan of this approach. Though a little rich for my blood at $50, I think the secret to selling digital content is to package it with non-digital content that appeals to fans, and the book certainly looks lovely, and the quality of our linked Vimeo file is certainly a little lacking.

The directors have repeatedly hinted of a prequel emerging soon for this film, we’ll keep you updated if and when it surfaces. Until then, there is the 2009 United Airlines commercial the team did, which is of a similar, marvelous aesthetic. I cannot believe this actually played on TV!

Since those days, this short has become sort of an online Halloween favorite, and it’s easy to see why.

As brisk as a nursery rhyme, The Cat with Hands is a twisted tale (so deliciously Grimm) about a well-dwelling cat that steals human body parts. That’s where the hands came from, see? Amazing how creepy the film manages to be just by attaching our normal limbs to the body of a household pet. Narrated by a single voice throughout, the story takes the shape of a freaky folk tale, and even has the campfire-style twist to go with it. This ghoulish concept originated from a recurring nightmare the director’s sister used to have when she was young, which stacks another evidence for children being the best source for all things messed-up.

Writer-director Robert Morgan’s experience with stop-motion animation is impressive, having also done a couple of really great grotesque shorts reminiscent of Brothers Quay (take a look at his Separation). Nowadays, it’s rare enough that stop-motion animation is used at all—unless your name rhymes with Schmenry Schmelick—let alone used as an effect. Funded by UK’s Channel 4, Morgan was able to shoot a portion of the film in stark 35mm live-action and a portion in stop-motion figures. The latter is specifically used to render the eponymous cat. It gives that side of the film an otherworldly effect: cartoony enough to be fantasy (which helps with hiding the revelation) but not so cartoony that it takes away from the spooky atmosphere.

Having been around for so long, The Cat with Hands may not be a discovery anymore, but it remains a favorite for its memorably simple creature and myth-like attribute—like a bedtime story that won’t go away.