Blogbook
Fulfilament is a charming stop motion short film with no dialogue by Rhiannon Evans, about how ideas pop into life as “lightbulb” moments. Via Short of the week:
A key appeal of stop-motion work for us is attention to its craft, and Evan’s does not skimp on detail. The production lasted a staggering 15 months with almost all the effects achieved in camera. The tiny, illuminated light bulbs were made of hand blown, sandblasted glass, and were all wired to mains electricity. Evans’ imagination and painstaking attention to detail have helped her create a fantastical world which is also surprisingly believable—a magical illusion best accomplished through stop-motion.
While the look and detail of the short provide immediate connection, without dialogue, the film is strongly reliant on its music and SFX to carry the story. Fortunately they do not disappoint! The creatures’ personality-infused whistles and squeaks are executed seamlessly by sound designer Matis Rei, and their variation is effective in establishing character and conveying tone. Combined with composer Filip Sijanec’s quirky score, the main character’s range of emotion is unusually well articulated from start to finish.
Rhiannon Evans’ work leading up to, and including Fulfilament shines with simplicity and warmth. We first saw these qualities in her graduation film Heartstrings in 2009, a Vimeo Staff Pick, which seriously tugged at the viewers’ (ahem) heartstrings, and now we are seeing it again here. Stripping away the visuals and sound design, we are left with a disarmingly sweet narrative. It delivers great storytelling with an earnest touch, and as such is a wonderful gift to audiences young, old, and everyone in between.
Keeping up with the Kattarshians is Iceland’s new reality tv show… about the life and times of a set of adorable, adoptable kittens. Via TIME:
Move over Kim, Kourtney, Khloe, and the rest of the Kardashian/Jenner/Disick/West gang. There’s a new reality show in town and its adorable quotient rivals that of even North and Saint West.
Iceland’s newest reality tv show is set to be a charm you, thanks to its furry and cuddly stars: the tiny, achingly cute kittens who make up the cast of Keeping Up With the Kattarshians, a show created in partnership with the Icelandic Cat Protection Society that’s available to stream online from Icelandic broadcaster Nutiminn.
The kittens (Guðni, Ronja, Bríet, and Stubbur, respectively) of KUWTK all came from a local animal rescue shelter before they moved into a fully furnished “cat” house, where they eat, play, live, and sleep, Big Brother-style. Multiple hidden cameras provide a continuous live-stream of these felines’ antics — viewers can peep the kittens sleeping in mini bunk beds, sitting in little pod chairs, or snacking in their spacious kitchen.
According to an interview with Vice’s Broadly, show producer Inga Lind Karlsdóttir said that the show has created the highest-ever traffic to Nutiminn’s website and has already been credited with raising the profile of animal adoption in Iceland. In fact, the four original kittens have already been adopted and will be leaving the house soon to make room for four more kittens.
Santa Fe Animal Shelter and Humane Society have a hilarious new ad parodying The Bachelor, featuring a dog, Stewart, and an adoption competition. Via CNET:
Stewart is available and looking for love in a committed relationship. Stewart also happens to be a dog.
He’s the star of a video posted by the Santa Fe Animal Shelter and Humane Society in New Mexico. The video sends up “The Bachelor” television show, a reality program that matches one available man up with a posse of women trying to win his affection.
The pitch-perfect video drops all sorts of jokes, including a bachelorette who’s excited to visit Santa Fe because she’s “never been out of the country before.” There’s lots sobbing, a triple date and accusations of one of women being an “in-the-closet cat person.”
The shelter has been dropping video teasers on YouTube for a week, but finally released the full short on Friday to coincide with the build-up to Valentine’s Day. The humane society reminds people that while Stewart’s heart may be taken, there are plenty of other eligible and furry bachelors and bachelorettes available.
If you enjoy creative animal shelter advertising, then also check out the low-budget commercial done in the style of a used-car ad that went viral on YouTube earlier this year.
Thor is the worst roommate in this promo for the next Marvel film for the character, directed by New Zealander Taika Waititi. Via LA Times:
Thor may have what it takes to wield Mjolnir, but he definitely is not worthy enough to be anybody’s roommate.
Marvel has released a teaser for the next installment of “Team Thor” and with it fans get another glimpse inside roommate Darryl’s woes: trying to get an Asgardian god of thunder to pay rent.
Thor, sporting a casual ensemble consisting of board shorts and a cloak, thinks Asgardian coins and a pumpkin are the proper currency to pay his share of rent.
The video is just a teaser for the full short, which is packaged with the “Doctor Strange” home theater release.
The pumpkin and coins may be familiar to fans who have been keeping up with “Thor: Ragnarok” director Taika Waititi (known for his comedy work on “What We Do in the Shadows”) on social media. Last month Waititi shared an image revealing Thor’s affinity for gourds (and Waititi’s affinity for puns) on Instagram.
Darryl, of course, was first introduced in the mockumentary-style “Team Thor” short that debuted at Comic-Con. Directed by Waititi, the video both teased what Thor was up to while his friends were butting heads in “Captain America: Civil War” — since he wasn’t called upon to join “Team Ironman” or “Team Captain America,” he created his own team.
A six-part video series about the art of storytelling by Pixar? Yes please. This series was made in partnership with Khan Academy Labs, and can be seen on their website here. Via No Film School:
Back in 2015, Pixar joined forces with Khan Academy to launch a free online course about animation called “Pixar in a Box.” For the third season, Pixar and Khan Academy have just announced their new lesson plan, The Art of Storytelling.
Now, Pixar in a Box is geared toward kids. As their announcement explains, “Through interactive exercises, your child will analyze the plot, world, and characters in their favorite films, and start developing storytelling superpowers.”
The Art of Storytelling will cover six lessons, each featuring Pixar story artists explaining their process:
Lesson 1: We Are All Storytellers
Lesson 2: Character
Lesson 3: Structure
Lesson 4: Visual Language
Lesson 5: Filmmaking Grammar
Lesson 6: StoryboardingThe Art of Storytelling from Pixar in a Box is free on Khan Academy, so don’t be shy about checking it out. The remaining lessons will be released throughout the year. You can sign up with Khan Academy to receive email alerts when new lessons become available. Also, be sure to check out previous Pixar in a Box lessons covering several animation topics, including character modeling, virtual cameras, effects, patterns, and much more.
The Crossing is an unnerving new Russian horror short film by director Arseny Syuhin, featuring some truly impressive SFX work. Via Short of the Week:
Inspired by the early films of John Carpenter and a particularly unnerving underpass the director walked through on his way to work, The Crossing is a Russian Horror with some impressive FX work and a haunting premise. Set in a subway late at night, Arseny Syuhin’s 7-minute short takes a recognisable, ubiquitous setting and toys with the fears we’ve all probably experienced using it, by making it the home of a blood-thirsty creature.
Shot in a real underpass over three nights, with the help of a Blackmagic camera, tripod and a production crew of just three people, though The Crossing features many tropes of the genre, this certainly doesn’t make it any less effective in the scares department.
Gripping and atmospheric throughout, though you know Syuhin’s film just isn’t going to end well, as a viewer it’s still unsettling, edge-of-your-seat stuff and if you’re anything like me, you’ll soon find yourself shouting words of advice (“LEAVE THE PHONE…LEAVE THE F*CKING PHONE!!”) to its hapless heroine.
Looking to introduce a new audience to the world of Russian horror, Syuhin is now working on what he describes as “several short exciting action films”, along with continuing to work as a ‘professional trailer editor’.
Mutual Rescue has a new pet adoption short film which is about a heartbreaking story between a dying girl and her new kitten. Via Adweek:
You may remember Mutual Rescue from their “Eric & Peety” video about a guy whose life was vastly improved—and quite literally saved—by a rescue dog. It was equal parts heartwarming and emotionally crushing, and Mutual Rescue’s new video, “Kylie & Liza,” is even more so. You know, because we haven’t cried enough since Jan. 20.
“Kylie & Liza” is about a 12-year-old girl, Kylie, who gets diagnosed with metastatic bone cancer. Her dying wish is for her family to adopt a foster kitten, Liza. The original agreement was that they would adopt a kitten after Kylie was done with chemotherapy. Upon finding out her cancer was terminal, Kylie responded by looking at her dad and asking, “NOW can I have a baby kitty?”
[…]
The kitten bonds with Kylie immediately, of course, and becomes a key element of the family’s support system after Kylie’s death.
It’s nice that they featured a cat this time around, too. Cats, while undeniably cute, are often dismissed as unfeeling jerks who live to knock things off desks and suddenly go crazy at raw hours of the morning. This video weakens that stereotype somewhat, and does a wonderful job of exploring how pets can both comfort people and help process grief.
A new tv series has begun on Netflix that’s focused on the art of design. Called Abstract, the series profiles eight designers in various fields. Via Curbed:
Abstract brings newfangled technology to the age-old task of explaining what designers do. It’s delightful to see so much money thrown at people who, almost unanimously, think best with a pen and a pad of paper.
At its best, Abstract illustrates that work through building tours, crits, and portrait sessions, augmenting everyday reality with animation and digital transformations, making designers into action figures and superheroes. At its worst, it swamps the screen with imagery, trusting us to be impressed without offering criticism or context for the subjects’ glossy portfolios.
The shadow of magazine publisher Conde Nast hangs over the whole project. Scott Dadich, the series’ creator and executive producer with Neville and Radical Media’s Dave O’Connor, was until recently the creative director and editor in chief of Wired.
In an editor’s note in the February 2017 issue he writes that the show “isn’t Wired on Netflix,” but in the Bjarke Ingels episode, at least, Abstract shows Ingels’s 2015 Wired feature and interviews Andrew Rice, the author thereof. Niemann draws for the New Yorker (as well as the New York Times, Instagram, the App Store, the world), the photographer Platon makes pictures for the New Yorker, set designer Es Devlin and architect Ingels have both received the full New Yorker profile treatment.
ICYMI: this amazing ad by TV2 Denmark titled “All That We Share”, celebrating diversity in many of its forms. Viva the Huffington Post:
Before you watch this Danish television station ad, you’ll want to grab a tissue. Go on…you’re going to need it.
Ok. Do you have your tissue? Are you ready for this?
As TV2’s video “All That We Share” opens, Danes file quietly onto a soundstage, stepping into outlined areas on the floor — areas meant to define them. “The High Earners” versus “Those Just Getting By.” “Those We Trust” versus “Those We Try To Avoid.” Lifelong Danes, versus those new to Denmark. Divisions you will find not just in Denmark, but in any country on Earth.
However, a man begins to ask questions:
“Who in this room was the class clown?”
“Who are stepparents?”
“How many of you love to dance?”
Quickly, the “Us versus Them” narrative falls apart. People begin to step out of their so-called defining boxes.
It’s a heartwarming reminder that our perceived labels do not define us. If we look below the surface, we can find common ground with those we perceive as most different to ourselves.
The English-language version of “All That We Share” was posted to YouTube on Jan. 27 — marking International Holocaust Remembrance Day, as well as the day President Donald Trump released an executive order blocking citizens from seven Muslim-majority countries from entering the United States for 90 days and halting the Syrian refugees program for four months.
The Climate Coalition, a group of over 100 U.K. charities and climate-related organizations, has released a “Love Song” to the climate. Via Adweek:
Created by RSA Films, it opens with a sense of foreboding: “I’ve heard talk of a quiet violence waiting at the water’s edge,” intones Charles Dance at its start, channeling his calmest, darkest Tywin Lannister voice from Game of Thrones.
But while the ad is over three minutes long, it doesn’t linger in the darkness—a welcome relief for those who crave something uplifting.
Fellow actors Miranda Richardson, Jason Isaacs and David Gyasi join Dance in reciting a melodic script, written by British poet Anthony Anaxagorou. As they speak, the ambient sound is crisp and resonant—the low rumbling of a cello mixed with the tinkle of ice, the mournful whistle of the wind, leaves cracking as rain falls.
Combined with these are beautiful images of the planet—a tree lit brilliantly by lightning, rippling water, the sky moving fast from light to dark, the moon rising with startling speed. You can almost smell the sharp note of ozone before a storm, and the kind of decay that paves the way for the sugary odor of fresh green life.
All this is met toward the end with a choir interpreting Elbow’s “Magnificent (She Says).” “It’s all gonna be magnificent,” they sing once the narration speeds up, then momentarily abandons us, leaving only imagery so beautiful that when Gyasi gazes upward, a trail of tears lining one cheek, we know how he feels.