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:
Firehouse (1998), 5.5 min., directed by Bärbel Neubauer,
Germany. Info: Bärbel Neubauer Productions, Lindwurmstrasse
207, 90337 Munich, Germany. Tel/fax: 49 89 74 70 701. E-mail: baerbelneubauer@csi.com .
The Albatross (1998), 14.5 min., directed by Paul Bush, England.
Info: Ancient Mariner Productions Ltd., 93 Lausanne Road, London,
England. Tel: 44 171 635 7533.
My Father's Story (1998), 10.5 min., directed by Mary Kocol,
USA. Info: Mary Kocol, PO Box 441467, Sommerville MA 02144, USA.
URL: www.ne-arts.net/mkocol .
The End of the Earth (1998), 7 min., directed by Konstantin
Bronzit, France. Info: Folimage Valence Production, 6 rue Jean Bertin,
26000 Valence, France. Tel: 33 04 75 78 48 68. E-mail: folimage@wanadoo.fr .
The Indescribable Nth (1999), 9 min., directed by Oscar Moore,
USA. Info: Character Builders, 1476 Manning Parkway, Powell, OH
43065, USA. Tel: 614-885-2211. E-mail: cbuilders@cbuilders.com .
URL: www.cbuilders.com .
If you have the QuickTime
plug-in , you can view a clip from each film by simply clicking
the image.
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Firehouse. ©
Bärbel Neubauer.
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Firehouse
In May 1999, Animation World Magazine asked me, "If
you were stranded on a desert
island, which ten films would you take with you?" One of
my choices was Roots (1996), a direct-on-film animation by
sound
and image composer Bärbel Neubauer. It is not much of a
surprise, then, that I also enjoyed one of Neubauer's other works,
Firehouse (Feuerhaus); in fact, I might sneak it onto
that island along with Roots. To my mind, Firehouse
is one of Neubauer's most fully-realized films, in part because
of the lively, intriguing score she has composed for it and the
way in which this soundtrack works with her images.
Like all of Neubauer's
direct-on-film animations, images in Firehouse are primarily
abstract in nature, though recognizable forms appear from time to
time. In this case, she has exposed 35 mm film stock with a flashlight,
using bits of natural matter (such as grasses) to create forms on
the film stock. Neubauer has been consistently productive, creating
eleven short direct-on-film animations since 1993, most of which
have been screened in festivals and some of which have been commissioned
for advertising purposes. Worldwide, she is the most productive
and innovative artist specializing in the direct-on-film technique
(though she also has directed live-action films). Firehouse
has no dialogue, only an electronic score.
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The Albatross. ©
Ancient Mariner
Productions Ltd.
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The Albatross
A completely different use of direct-on-film animation can be
found in Paul Bush's scratched-on-film, The Albatross, inspired
by Samuel Taylor Coleridge's "The Rime of the Ancient Mariner."
This work is extremely realistic in its reproduction of human forms,
churning waves and rocking vessels on the sea, which clearly have
been created with the use of live-action reference footage. The
English-language voice track, sometimes motivated by characters
on-screen and at other times functioning as voice-over narration,
results in a tale that is told verbally as much as visually.
Bush's work has been described as crossing boundaries between fiction,
documentary, and animation. In terms of The Albatross' imagery,
the intersection of documentary and fiction is quite strong, with
the underlying live-action footage evoking a sense of the real while
the etched images are themselves quite stylized. Achieving a level
of stability approaching that of Norman McLaren in his "Lines"
films (Lines Horizontal and Lines Vertical, plus Mosaic),
Bush employs a diverse range of line qualities with great precision.
It is no easy matter to steady the naturally kinetic lines of direct-on-film
animation, but Bush comes close; the "wood cut" quality
of his images allows for some wavering, while still demonstrating
the artist's ability to maintain control.
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My Father's Story.
© Mary Kocol.
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My Father's Story
In this film, animator/director Mary Kocol relates the story
of her father, who was one of over two million Polish citizens placed
in forced labor camps by the Nazis. It is told through an interview
technique, with Kocol asking questions and her father, Romuald Kocol,
telling his story. Visually, the film is created with photo collage
(one of the best known examples of that technique being Frank Mouris'
Frank Film). Images from the past are combined with recent
photos showing her father today, long after his emigration to the
United States. It is not surprising that still photographs play
a significant role in the film, since Kocol is an accomplished photographer
with work in the Museum of Modern Art, New York, and the Museum
of Fine Arts in Boston, among other places.
Given the compelling nature of the subject matter and the natural
way in which her father imparts his story, the film has quite a
strong affect on the viewer. Personally, I feel that Mary Kocol's
narration, which is used to launch the interview/storytelling and
combine various aspects of his story, is a bit too overpowering;
her father's thickly accented, deeply meaningful recollections could
stand on their own. Still, I think the film as a whole has an impact
that would make it useful in many contexts: as a document about
WWII, as an example of oral history, or in terms of the photo collage
animation technique. The film's production was supported by grants
from the LEF Foundation and the Somerville Arts Council, through
the Massachusetts Cultural Council. The narration is in English.
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The End of the Earth.
© Folimage Valence Production.
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The End of the Earth
Russian animator Konstantin Bronzit has created another crowd-pleasing
comedy with his production of The End of the Earth (Au
bout du monde). The premise of this drawn-on-cel film is deceptively
simple: a house, perched at the very peak of a mountain, rocks back
and forth as inhabitants and visitors walk in a door on one side
of the home and out the other. Its humor is quite understated, with
gags based on timing, perspective, and sound, all used sparingly.
Quirky characters -- a woman and man who live in the house; their
dog, cat and cow; a passer-by who arrives first with sheep and later
a jazzy sports car; and even a flying bird -- add to this unstable
world. Through various gesticulations and unintelligible verbal
exchanges, these small characters are imbued with a lot of personality.
Bronzit, the film's director, was born in St. Petersburg, Russia,
where he attended art school, graduating in the early 1980s. He
has made several other short works that have appeared at festivals
worldwide, including Switchcraft (1994), about a man who
is continually disturbed by a mysterious creature which refuses
to be trapped. The End of the Earth was produced by the French
firm, Folimage Valence Production.
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The Indescribable Nth.
© Character Builders.
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The Indescribable Nth
It is the characters' visual design which highlights The
Indescribable Nth, a children's story about a boy whose most
treasured possession is a snow globe containing a heart -- his own
heart and the love that it embodies. This precious item is guarded
by the boy's father, treated roughly by his first girlfriend, and
finally treasured by a young woman who seems to be his perfect match.
The story is based on Stephen D. Moore's book of the same title,
published in 1991, and uses English-language narration.
Black line drawings on a white background create a strong graphic
look and capitalize on the studio's specialization: hand drawn animation.
Stylized and expressive, the film's characters and their environments
lend visual interest to the simple tale. The Indescribable Nth
was directed by Oscar
Moore and produced by Character
Builders, a commercial animation studio which has contributed
artwork to a number of animated features, television series and
commercials. The studio was co-founded by Jim Kammerud, Jeff Smith
(creator of the Bone comic books), and Martin Fuller in 1986.
Maureen Furniss, Ph.D., is Assistant Professor and Program Director
of Film Studies at Chapman University in Orange, California. She
is the Founding Editor of Animation Journal(John Libbey, 1998).
