The NFB's focus remains the short animated form, which can be as short as 30 seconds, and created for mobile platforms. Above is Ann Marie Fleming's M.O.O.D.

"The focus remains on the short animated form, which can be as short as 30 seconds," Perlmutter says. "In the very short form, we've been leading the way in terms of creating original content for mobile platforms. Ann Marie Fleming's M.O.O.D. and Theodore Ushev's Sou are intriguing works that are creating new grammars for the very small screen. In the short form, we have work by some of the world's great animators, such as Cordell Barker, Michelle Cournoyer and Chris Landreth."

Landreth's 2004 work Ryan won an Oscar, along with over 60 other international awards, for its vividly original tribute to the troubled genius of the late Ryan Larkin.

"Chris Landreth's new work is a co-production with the same team that produced Ryan," says NFB producer Marcy Page. "Called The Spine [or Dan & Mary], it's the story of a co-dependent relationship between Dan and Mary, as viewed by a third party, Angela. It's a 'fiction film,' set in a group-counseling situation."

The 12-minute film continues the partnership forged between the NFB and Copper Heart Entertainment (Steve Hoban is also producing), and it represents Landreth's latest foray into "psychorealism" -- his use of cutting-edge animation technologies to explore the complexities of the psyche. The counseling session in The Spine provides fertile terrain for Landreth's imagination, and the experimental non-photorealistic rendering is designed to add an expressive, painterly quality to the visual effects.

Landreth trained as an engineer before moving into animation, working as a software "wrangler" with Alias/Wavefront. His first work earned international respect. The End was nominated for an Academy Award and Bingo won a Canadian Genie award.

While The Spine was conceived as a 2D film, Page says that there is a possibility to eventually develop a stereoscopic output during production -- one that would be purposed separately. "We don't want to paint ourselves into a corner," Page comments.

The NFB lays claim to having some of the world's best animators in its stable, including Chris Landreth, who won an Oscar and over 60 other awards for Ryan.

Hot Stereoscopic
Stereoscopic delivery is a hot topic around the NFB these days. Money has been allocated for stereoscopic work, but the focus is still on innovative and unusual ways of using the technology.

A new stereoscopic device is being explored for some projects. "SANDDE, or Stereoscopic Animation Drawing Device, is a technology invented by Roman Kroiter and originally developed by IMAX corporation," Perlmutter explains. "It allows an animation artist to draw freehand in 3D space. We are currently developing several projects in a longer format -- 30 minutes-plus -- including a science-based film on the quest to understand the fundamental building blocks of the universe, and an animated version of a Ravel opera."

Other short-form artists are also investigating stereoscopic presentation. "We try to find new ways of dealing with stereoscopic work... ones that industry may not find so mainstream," Page says. "We're about finding new language in film."

"We are putting energy into advancing stereoscopic animation through a variety of techniques," says Perlmutter. "There are ongoing projects working directly under camera and in the stop-motion studio, as well as a wide range of digitally based projects. Though digital processing touches almost all animation projects now, several of our artists still register the initial animation expression with pencil and paper. A new work for a museum in Quebec City promises to be an innovative combination of live action and animation -- all stereoscopic."

Two-time Oscar nominee Chris Hinton is experimenting in stereoscopic technique with his new project, Tiptoe. The film will feature three five-minute dance/movement sequences, tentatively titled Chroma Concerto, Momentum and Light Moves. Two of the three films will be stereoscopic.

"Chris Hinton's last project was his first venture into working with a computer," Page says. "He wants to push the envelope, abstracting the characters and story as much as possible, while still having a sense of story structure."

Page says that the use of stereoscopic technique allows Hinton to place a live figure into animation, and then manually displace the movement and change the fulcrum of the action in bizarre ways. Capturing the stereoscopic elements required a two-technician, two-camera green-screen shoot.