Within the world of animation, most experimentation occurs within short format productions, whether they be high-budgeted commercials, low-budgeted independent shorts or something in between. The growing number of short film festivals around the world attest to the vitality of these works, but there are few other venues for exhibition of them or even written reviews. As a result, distribution tends to be difficult and irregular. On a regular basis, Animation World Magazine will highlight some of the most interesting with short, descriptive overviews.

If you have the QuickTime plug-in, you can view a clip from each film by simply clicking the image.

This Month:

Magda (2004), 5:30, directed by Chel White, U.S. Contact: Chel White films, 2725 SE Division, Portland, Oregon 97209, USA [V] (503) 228-6206 [W] www.chelwhite.com.

Kaze: Ghost Warrior (2004), 23:00, directed by Timothy Albee, U.S. Contact: Timothy Albee Animation [W] www.KazeGhostWarrior.com

Get in the Car (2003), 5:52, directed by Greg Holfeld, Australia. Contact: Judi Oehme, Panic Prods. [W] www.panicproductions.com.au.

Seventeen (2004), 12:00, directed by Hisko Hulsing, The Netherlands. Contact: Hisko Hulsing, Balistraat 42-3, 1094 JN Amsterdam, The Netherlands [E] contact@hiskohulsing.com [W] www.hiskohulsing.com.

Bid `Em In (2003), 2:10, directed by Neal Sopata, U.S. Contact: Neal Sopata, 421 N. Pass Ave. #16, Burbank, California 91505 [V] (818) 427-2040 [W] nealsopata.com.

Magda’s subtle humor is like a Moebius strip. © Chel White films.

Magda
Chel White is the creator of Photocopy Cha Cha, which I hope everyone remembers from the 23^rd International Tournee of Animation, circa 1991. (Faces, arms, legs and various household objects dance to the tune of “Caravan” in this four-minute short built entirely from photocopies.) Since then he’s worked as an effects supervisor on two Gus Van Sant pictures, directed episodes of The PJs for FOX, and created several more shorts. His latest, Magda, takes its text from a brief and dryly hilarious riff by master radio surrealist Joe Frank.

Monologuist Joe Frank has been on public radio, on and off, for almost three decades. L.A. residents got to hear his new work every week on KCRW for many years on his shows, Somewhere Out There and The Other Side. His work resembles Spalding Gray’s, minus the neurosis, and with a greater tendency to rummage in dreamland. Listeners who stumbled on his gravel-under-gravelly voice often found themselves unable to break for lunch, leave the car or otherwise move away from the radio as Frank delivered tales of the worst freeway day ever (“Eye in the Sky”), stealing brownies from Howard Johnson restaurants and returning them a year later (“Fat Man Down”) and unbridled sexual activity in a slaughterhouse (“The Road to Calvary”).

Magda is a micro-story about a man who falls into a polite obsession over a circus contortionist who is able to fold herself into a Moebius strip, weave herself into a basket and spell out her own name for her delighted audience. Day after day, our narrator returns to see her, until one evening she pretzels herself into a knot she can’t untie. He rushes to her aid, the audience thunders its approval and they fall in love and tour together repeating the evening’s singular experience for ever-more delighted crowds. Ultimately, though, they end up on the rocks, not for any grand melodramatic reasons, but in disappointment over selling out their magic moment.

The characters are faceless manikins from the art store, posed in intricate and warmly lit sets. 3D props like toy cars share space with animated cutout photos of marching elephants and cheering crowds. Every frame is a non-digital creation originated on film stock, swimming in the rack-focus sea of a telephoto lens with an extremely shallow depth of field. This can feel like the equivalent of driving through a thick fog, but it is also a very efficient means of directing the eye to the relevant action in some very busy sets. The visuals are complemented by rich sound design, mostly ambient and naturalistic but with some off-kilter coloration, like the stretching bedsprings that accompany Magda as she flexes her limber joints.

All this, including the massive motion control rig, was procured by the Oregon-based artist despite the fact that so far he has “managed to avoid moving to Los Angeles.” Right on. Yet another reminder to all prospective artists that you can do genius work anywhere. Never mind getting a foot in the door — when it comes to industry, don’t bootlick it, bootstrap it.