Hasta La Motion!

This week’s RE:PLAY films come from Alexander Gellner and David Wilson. Fellas, take it away…

ALEXANDER GELLNER – “HOW TO GET IDEAS”

“I was thinking a lot about concepts of creativity and the exploitation of ideas. On the one hand, you can’t really steal ideas, only share them. To make a solution public and enable collaboration, raises the potential of one small idea and things can build on each other. The whole CreativeCommons movement is based on this concept. But in a competitive, entrepreneur driven environment, sharing may not be perceived as the ideal and the value increases by being the sole vendor of one idea/solution.
The famous “I drink your milkshake” scene in “There will be blood” finally gave me a visual shorthand for this paradox. I used collage technique instead of my usual lineart, because collage art is unapologetic about appropriating and building on work that other people have made for you. ”

DAVID WILSON – “LIFE AS AN INDEPENDENT ASTRONAUT”

“I didn’t want to start with a blank piece of paper on this one. In fact, I decided to step away from my desk completely and start with some fabric, card, scissors and glue, and I made this space suit. The process of doing and making is very therapeutic for me. Over the few days that it took me to create the suit, I developed the character of who lived inside it. Developing the script and costume side-by-side made a lot of sense to me, and was refreshing to start from a different angle. Ultimately, the life of John Barlow, our Independent Astronaut revolves around the importance of inner peace and finding acceptance.”

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This week, we have RE:PLAY films from Holbrooks, Physalia and Mixtape Club. Another great line-up of talented directors approaching the idea of happiness, joy and synchronicity in clever ways. We’ll let the artists speak for themselves…

MIXTAPE CLUB – “HELLO I LIKE YOU”

‘”When presented with the creative brief, we thought what better way to express our happiness than to distill the essence of our craft, to serve up a creamy shot of artistic espresso? So with this film, we’ve gone back to the basics: the simplest of inanimate objects, and transformed them into a tapestry of playful, choreographed dance for your enjoyment.

The goal here was simply to explore materials, themes, and techniques that have always made us happy – the things that drew us to this crazy art form in the first place. Like music. The whole process started with some simple visual experiments, and using those initial kernels as a starting point, we worked back and forth with our favorite tuneful youngsters, Huma-Huma, to develop the score for this piece. The music and the visuals evolved organically together, with each new version inspiring something in the other. We always find it particularly satisfying to develop the sound as part of the process itself.”

PHYSALIA – “INDUCTANCE”

“Inductance is the making-of for a piece that will never exist, a behind the scenes with no scenes! When faced with the challenge of creating a short under the theme of happiness, we first concluded with Gerardo del Hierro that whether the short was going to overtly address the theme or not, what we really wanted was to enjoy the process. We have always loved to share the making-of’s for our pieces, not only because we usually have fun developing tools that allow us to create them (sometimes in a very masochistic sort of way!) but because we understand as professionals that part of the enjoyment of watching a piece comes from finding out how the hell it was done.

The choice of the device to build came shortly after, spurred by some painful trial-error process and being the colour balls from the F5 logo the last inspiration spark we needed. The video is a document of how the happiest machine Physalia has built to date came to exist.”

HOLBROOKS – “VELO CEREBRUM”

“We wanted to take a dry look at the subject of happiness. To strip down the aesthetics of a smile, literally tearing skin from flesh, flesh from bone, bone cracking away. We wanted to expose the brain and let it reveal the spirituality and enigma of happiness. Of a simple action that makes this person happy in a way that they’d find hard to describe.”

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F5 Live Titles – Made by Buck from F5 on Vimeo.

Let’s just address F5 from the heart. It’s been a little over a week and we still can’t get it out of our heads. Ping-pong between the speaker sessions, re:play films, installations, drinks, the massive balloon logo, and above all…the atmosphere.

From Friday morning forward, you brought warmth and curiosity to Roseland. You engaged with each other and the world-at-large. You helped build a village of inspiration that will live far into the future.

Judging from what’s been said, what’s been written, what’s been posted…you also walked away with something new. It could have been an appreciation for artists you just discovered – or those you already knew. You might now be working on a project through a different lens with some new friends. You may have lifted one of the pinatas and have it there, staring at you while you read this. There are so many possibilities and opportunities that came from the festival.

And you got the spirit of F5 from Day One. The minute that Buck’s titles rolled, it was clear that this was like no other conference before. We had puppets, peacocks and robots — DJ’s, VJ’s and MC’s — severed goat heads and happy face avatars — banjos and turntables — a laser harp — and countless perspectives on the creative process.

As Kid Koala finished his set with Moon River, the beauty of our collective spirit was fully awake and you all stood as one – until the balloons fell late on Saturday.
The dreamers and the doers came out. And your smiles said it all. Thank you from the bottom of hearts.

(Our countless thanks to Buck and music/sound design team, Antfood, for an incredible title sequence that brought down the house and set a new benchmark for the future of titles. Basil and Noodles are the new mascots of F5! Check out the full version — and photos from the event)

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F5 RE:PLAY Films on Stash 60

Since F5 last April, I’ve received a slew of emails asking how people can get their hands on a DVD of the F5 RE:PLAY films. Never fear: Stash has swooped in to save the day.

Stash 60 is a special two-disc set that includes 14 films created for the F5 RE:PLAY Film Festival.

As a reminder, the RE:PLAY festival invited filmmakers from around the world to create original short projects for the F5 festival last April in New York City. The result was an astounding array of innovative, memorable work that has helped keep the flame of F5 burning strong.

Pick up Stash 60 here.

Review: Stash Short Films Vol. 1

While we’re on the topic of Stash, we received a review copy of Short Films Vol. 1, and it’s definitely worth discussing.

Focusing on non-commercial, mostly narrative works, this DVD signals an extension of Stash’s influence to a wider, more general audience.

The 30 films (with a cumulative runtime of 2:32) include work from some Motionographer favorites, including Neill Blomkamp (of District 9 fame), Roman Coppola, Gaelle Denis, Johny Kelly, Shilo, Three Legged Legs and Run Wrake. There’s also a healthy smattering of student work—all of which rivals the quality of the professional work. The majority of the collection is based in animation, but there are enough live-action and hybrid works to keep you guessing.

My honest appraisal: Short Films Vol. 1 is probably the best collection of its kind. Where other collections harbor a few duds that force you to keep your DVD remote handy, this disc is an inspiring lineup of glittering gold.

Complaints? The accompanying booklet, while informative, is a little confusing. Its contents were basically copy-and-pasted from back issues of Stash, meaning that the chapter headings don’t correlate to the actual DVD.

And I’m not a big fan of the DVD navigation. If you want to play a single film, you’ll need to recognize it by the tiny thumbnail presented on a two-screen menu system void of any descriptive text. I would have preferred a textual index. Minor quibbles though, given the quality of the work.

I’m curious to see how this release will broaden Stash’s reach. Hard-core Stashers who own the entire catalog of monthly DVDs probably will pass over this offering. But for those outside “the biz,” Short Films Vol. 1 will be an eye-opening introduction to work beamed here from some hitherto unknown universe, one full of promise and excitement.

NOTE: Motionographer and its authors receive no compensation of any sort from Stash. Review copies of materials are donated to SCAD’s Motion Media Design department.

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It’s with great pleasure that I share another batch of films created for the F5 RE:PLAY Film Festival. This time around, we’re proud to present work from Sehsucht, Crush and Bearfight. Enjoy!

Sehsucht: Idea

Crush: Art of Thought

Bearfight: Contraction

Related posts:

• F5 RE:PLAY Film Festival: Batch One
• F5 RE:PLAY Film Festival: Batch Two
• F5 RE:PLAY Film Festival: Batch Three
• F5 RE:PLAY FILM FESTIVAL

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