The new stop-motion 3D film ParaNorman features detailed sets that incorporate many tiny objects and details. All those things need to be built. This short film shows us how one small table lamp was created for the film.
This 2002 animated film by Haitian Canadian filmmaker Martine Chartrand takes us through Black history as a young boy hears stories from his grandmother. The gorgeous and bold images show scenes of village life, history of cultures on the African continent, the corruption and evil of slavery, work in the cotton fields, Emancipation, Industrial Revolution, fighting in world wars and the civil rights movement. It’s a beautiful, moving and graceful piece of art that tells history with a simple directness that gives the film immense power. It seems to have been animated by using a paint on glass technique in which certain parts of the image are erased and repainted to create frame by frame motion.
Jonathan Hodgson made this beautiful animated film of a 1992 poem by Charles Bukowski called ‘The Man with the Beautiful Eyes.’ The artwork is by Mark Shepherd. It was produced for Britain’s Channel Four.
This is an undersea stop-motion animation by Hayley Morris that takes place in a world entirely created by the filmmaker. She made all the sea creatures too! Her materials are clever and convey life under water brilliantly. She made the film for Hilary Hahn and Hauschka’s song ‘Bounce Bounce.’
This is an animated adaptation of Maurice Sendak’s marvelous book, ‘In the Night Kitchen.’ It was directed by Gene Deitch in 1987.
London animator Hayley Jukes made this stop-motion portrayal of an artist dealing with the various problems encountered when everything in one’s world contains life. Animators give this life to things and can’t always control the outcome. I particularly like the untied sneakers, the coffee urns, and the interesting sofa. Also, I just realized today that some of the music seems to be from a circus. Jukes appears to be making something in a simple way, framing shots so that she can perform and animate in what appears to be a single-handed effort. But she has a natural sense of composition that interests me for its ability to convey a mood. This is not the kind of film one makes to impress people. It’s the kind of film one makes to express something. It has that directness of technique and enthusiasm for mechanical discovery that I see in old avant-garde films of the 1920s and 30s. Jukes is using a very analog fun with cameras and objects style in a digital era and has the requisite talent for all true animators: the ability to imbue things with life.
This is the 2011 Oscar winning short animation, ‘The Fantastic Flying Books of Mr. Morris Lessmore.’ It’s the first film from Moonbot Studios in Shreveport, Louisiana. It was co-directed by William Joyce and Brandon Oldenburg
The film is also an iPad app that combines animation with an interactive picture book narrative.
This is an animation by Anders Friis Christiansen, Martin Sand Vallespir, Kirsten R. Grann, Michael Nielsen, Astrid M. Lauridsen, and Rikke Skovgaard of the Animation Workshop in Denmark. A young girl loses her father in a war-torn city after an accident with a cluster bomb.
This film was directed by Vladimir Tarasov and was adapted from a novel by Kir Bulychev.
Lye was from New Zealand and worked not only as an experimental filmmaker but also in newsreels and advertising. He was a kinetic sculptor, poet, painter and a writer of essays on artistic theory and philosphy. He made a 1935 short film called ‘A Colour Box’ which was the first generally exhibited film made by painting directly on the film emulsion. It’s a brilliant experimental animation posing as an advertisement for cheaper parcel post. I’m sure the great direct paint filmmaker Stan Brakhage must have been familiar with Lye’s work.
Here’s a gallery site with information and examples of his artwork.
