Hasta La Motion!

We’re very pleased to get this first batch of Happy F5 – RE:PLAY films online. We’ll be sharing three films at a time, one batch each Wednesday. Consider it F5 Wednesdays from here on out.

This first group includes work from Daniels, Kristoffer Borgli and Nomint. Each artist/studio has provided us a peek into the creative process for the work.

Our sincere thanks to all the artists behind RE:PLAY. Commissioned by F5, each team created unique and inspiring nuggets of creative expression. Perfect compliments to all of the other pearls that made up Happy F5 this year.

DANIELS – “PUPPETS”

PUPPETS – Daniels from F5 on Vimeo.

“RE:PLAY is a wonderful chance to be creative with no boundaries.  When given total freedom as a storyteller, we (daniel&daniel) found ourselves battling between a desire to make something meaningful and honest and a desire to make something perverted (which is also in our case honest).  Entirely by accident, Puppets became a perfect analogy for our self aware creative process.  But mostly it’s lots of butt jokes.”

KRISTOFFER BORGLI – “I EXPECT NO ONE”

I EXPECT NO ONE – Kristoffer Borgli from F5 on Vimeo.

“There was so little time for the creative process, so the first thing I did was to limit myself. The theme was “happy”, so initially I wanted to do something outside in the sun, but at the time in Oslo there was still snow. Being fed up with snow after a long winter, there was no inspiration to be found outside. But I had seen this Villa drawn by Arne Korsmo, and wanting to film there for a long time. Also I had just watched the documentary “L’enfer d’Henri-Georges Clouzot”, which led me to buying a Slinky toy. So I limited myself to write something about a Slinky-toy inside this Villa.
The main theme is about a resourcefull young woman, not being able to have fun, even though she has all these material posessions. It’s not untill she is in an extreme situation where she can connect with her feelings. Slinky made the day after all.
Thank you DP Jon Gaute Espevold, my friends the actors, the Norwegian Foundation for Design and Architecture and the post production team at Storyline Studios!”

NOMINT – “MAHAHULA THE GIANT RODENT OF HAPPINESS”

MAHAHULA THE GIANT RODENT OF HAPPINESS – Nomint from F5 on Vimeo.

“When we where asked to make a video about happiness, we decided that we should take it from the very beginning, when it first appeared in the world.

We find happiness to be a very serious matter, definitely worthy of an awesome deity like Mahahula, an ancient gigantic infant rodent born from an alien space traveling seed that crash-landed on primordial earth. We wanted to depict happiness in all its glorious complexity: obscure, hard to find, huge and colorful. Is it more of a constant personal pursuit or is it a fortunate offering by others?

Mahahula came about with the sole purpose of spreading joy to the world, only there was no one around to hear her say so, as this was a long-long time ago. As we speak, she might or might not still be around warming our hearts for eternity.”

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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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Patrick Boivin’s latest stop-motion short—a comedic battle between Iron Man and Bruce Lee—burned up the interw3b as soon as it was released a few days ago. And for good reason. Boivin’s storytelling skills are matched by his spot-on stop motion work. Watch the making-of video to get a glimpse of Boivin’s meticulous process.

The film above is just the tip of the iceberg. Boivin’s portfolio is brimming with entertaining and inventive work. Oh, and don’t miss the interactive dance-off between Batman and Joker.

Posted on Motionographer