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.

This Month:

The Shadow of Doubt (2001), 10 min., directed by Cynthia Wells, USA. Info: The Digital Theater Group. E-mail: gandcwel@earthlink.net. URL: www.tdtgee.com.
Drink (2000), 5 min., directed by Patrick Smith, USA. Info: Patrick Smith. Tel: 917-549-3763. E-mail: pat@patsmith.com. URL: www.patsmith.com.
Grace (1999), 6 min., directed by Lorelei Pepei, USA. Info: Lorelei Pepei, 806 Kodak Drive, Los Angeles, CA 90026 USA. Tel: 323-953-9579. E-mail: loreleip@jps.net.
Chicken Kiev (2000), 9 min., directed by Thomas Stellmach, Germany. Info: Thomas Stellmach, Ahornweg 3, 34295 Edermuende Grifte, Germany. Tel: 0049 170 2828194. Fax: 0049 5665 7762. E-mail: thomas@stellmach.com.
Nous sommes immortels (We Are Immortal, 1999) 2.5 min., directed by Daniel Guyonnet, France. Info: Daniel Guyonnet.

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

Tallulah returns in The Shadow of Doubt.© Geoff and Cynthia Wells. 160X120 | 320X240

The Shadow of Doubt
The Shadow of Doubt, directed by Cynthia Wells, is the second production to feature the sultry redhead character who made her debut in Tallulah, Queen of the Universe. Here, the singer is haunted with doubts about her work, after seeing a once-great musician who is now happy to be running a club and serving drinks to customers. Because the film centers around Tallulah's inner questions, it is natural that the work employs a good deal of voice-over narration, to suggest her interior monologue. It is also fitting that the visuals in the work are somewhat 'dreamlike' at times, as they depict both memory and fantasy. It is in terms of the visuals that the short really shines. In terms of character design, but especially backgrounds and effects, Shadow of Doubt is very well designed.

Wells is a veteran animator, having won a number of awards for her work, which includes animation on two Emmy Award-winning shows, Ziggy's Gift and Roman City, as well as the features Anastasia (Fox), Space Jam and Quest for Camelot (both Warner Bros.). Shadow of Doubt was co-produced with husband Geoff Wells under the company name of The Digital Theater Group. The production relied on a large team of assistants who were trained in various capacities in exchange for their work, as well as seasoned professionals. Composer Steve Orich composed this short's score and song, "Shadow Days," which was performed by Deborah Pearl, who also performed Tellulah's dialogue and voice-over. Art director Donna Prince painted all of the short's fine background scenes. Geoff Wells served as writer, script editor, and sound and picture technical director. The 10-minute short is recorded in English.

Technically, Shadow of Doubt has much to illustrate about the way in which relatively inexpensive technologies can be used to create a very professional-looking work. While the animation was drawn on paper, Toonz software was used for digital ink-and-paint. Adobe Photoshop and Premier were also employed. The software was run on an NT computer, a Gateway GP6 450Mhz PC using a standard 12GB hard drive and 256 MB RAM. For backup and storage, the team used a Quantum DLT 4000 drive and an 18GB Quantum Atlas III SCSI drive for temporary storage. A softer look was achieved by using a resolution of 1K, as opposed to the standard 2K resolution of a film frame, in order to reduce the memory burden on the system. The film employs up to 50 levels of effects, with storage of source files exceeding 80 GB. Rendering of the film was done on a single computer, which ran nonstop for five weeks during final outputting.