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:

Airship (USA, 2002). 4 min. Dir: Sam Yousefian (Iran/USA). Music: Michael Sean Colin. Produced at the University of Southern California. Contact: Sam Yousefian, tel: +1-310-777-0189.

King Tangun (USA, 2000). 6.5 min. Dir/Anim: Jun Eun Lee (Korea). Music: Michael Colin. Produced at the University of Southern California. Contact: Jung Eun Lee, email: yijungeun@hotmail.com; or Sandrine Cassidy (distributor), 850 W. 34th St. G132, Los Angeles, CA 90089, USA; tel: +1-213-740-4422; email: Cassidy@cinema.usc.edu.

The Stork (USA, 2002). 3 min. Dir: Nina Paley (USA). Music: Edvard Grieg. Produced at Parasite Pictures. Contact: Nina Paley, P.O. Box 460736, San Francisco, CA 94146, USA. URL: www.ninapaley.com/parasite.html .

Drunky (USA, 2001). 3 min. Dir: Aaron Augenblick (USA). Music: Bradford Reed (USA). Produced at Augenblick Studios, Inc. Contact: Augenblick Studios, 55 Washington Street #805, Brooklyn, NY 11201, USA. Tel: +1-718-855-9226. Fax: +1-718-855-9227. E-mail: info@augenblickstudios.com. URL: www.AugenblickStudios.com.

Thought Bubble (USA, 2001). 4 min. Dir: Billy Greene (USA). Photography: Jean Margaret Thomas. Produced independently at Will Vinton Studios. Contact: Jean Margaret Thomas, e-mail: girl-spark1@excite.com or Karen Davis, e-mail: magren@mymailstation.com.

Airship. © Sam Yousefian, 2002.

Airship
In director Sam Yousefian's graduate film, Airship, created at the University of Southern California, a child drifts to sleep and dreams that his bed becomes airborne, gliding him through the starry night sky. It seems that a conventional ending closes the adventure, as he wakes up to go to school. However, Yousefian adds two small plot twists in the remaining moments of the film to make the concept magical and the story more fulfilling. The result is a well-developed film that explores an experience and state of mind in some depth, without the use of words, and yet with a clear sense of story development.

Ultimately, I think it is more difficult to build a film around a theme rather than action, particularly at the student level. Yousefian has shown his ability to maintain a thematic focus throughout the four-minute work, as well as restraint, holding back from an often powerful temptation to fill a film with a lot of movement. Aiding in the development of the film is a lovely soundtrack by Michael Sean Colin, which contributes a dreamy sensibility to the film. Yousefian's choices in designing the look of the film also add to its soft dream-like reality. Airship was created using 3D Studio Max for animation, Painter 6 for coloring, and After Effects for compositing. In order to create his soft images, the director did not render them in 3D, but instead made lighting and coloring decisions when he was painting over the images. Hazy effects were created with the 'chalk' tool in Painter, resulting in a look that is almost like pastels. The main character is made with a much more solid line, which sometimes makes him a bit too stiff-looking and unemotional within his environment; I don't think the character is as expressive as he might be. Still, the film has a nice look overall.