Posts Tagged ‘Short Films’
A couple months ago I mentioned the Danish short sci-fi western Connected. That was when a very cool poster was released for the film. Now the whole thing is online, and you can see what happens when two people are forced to rely upon one another to survive in a blasted landscape.
Connected is only sort of a western, but it does have a nice reversal of expectations, and it primarily concerns greed as it takes control in some sort of wasteland. Or, as the official synopsis says:
Set in the distant future, Connected is a story about survival and greed with a post apocalyptic wasteland as its backdrop. Survivors of an unknown disaster shuffle through a desolate landscape, as it quickly becomes clear that not everybody has the strength to survive.
I love the look of the film, which makes the most of what I assume to be a fairly low budget. It looks like an old strip from Heavy Metal come to life. You won’t see faces or hear dialogue, but a great set of costume designs and a solid trio of physical performances provide all the character you’ll need. I want to know more about the science and systems behind what is happening here, but you don’t really need that info. That I’m curious about it at all suggests that the film is working.
My only qualm here is the music. The western theme would make more sense in a story where that sort of music might be heard at all. Here, rather than referring to anything about the world or the people in it, the tune basically says, “hey, we’d like this to be a western!” That’s not a huge deal, but it was a bit distracting.
There’s no embed of Connected at the moment, but you can see a good QuickTime version at the film’s official site. There are some good behind the scenes tidbits there, too.
With the recent release of Tim Burton’s Alice in Wonderland, I thought we’d take a look at the first film adaptation of Lewis Carroll’s tale, which was created 107 years ago.
Recently been restored by the BFI National Archive from severely damaged materials. Made just 37 years after Lewis Carroll wrote his novel and eight years after the birth of cinema, the adaptation was directed by Cecil Hepworth and Percy Stow, and was based on Sir John Tenniel’s original illustrations. In an act that was to echo more than 100 years later, Hepworth cast his wife as the Red Queen, and he himself appears as the Frog Footman. Even the Cheshire cat is played by a family pet. With a running time of just 12 minutes (8 of which survive), Alice in Wonderland was the longest film produced in England at that time. Film archivists have been able to restore the film’s original colours for the first time in over 100 years. Music: ‘Jill in the Box’, composed and performed by Wendy Hiscocks.
via: TDW
You might remember Adam Berg’s Dark Knight-Inspired Short Film Carousel which offered an exploration into one single frozen moment of time in a robbery gone wrong in one Hard Boiled-inspired continuous tracking shot. The Philips-funded short won the Film Grand Prix Winner: at the Cannes Lions International Advertising Festival.
Well Philips is hoping to recreate that magic, and this time has commissioned five filmmakers from Ridley Scott Associates to create a series of groundbreaking short films in a genre of their choice. All of the films feature the same unifying theme. RSA directors submitted forty-five treatments and Philips selected five it believed were most ground-breaking. The films explore the most popular genres of filmmaking including drama, action, animation, sci-fi and thriller, and were shot on location in Uruguay, London, Moscow, China and South Africa.
The project is entitled Parallel Lines, and the five directors are: Jake Scott, Greg Fay, Johnny Hardstaff, Carl Erik Rinsch, and Hi-Sim. A few of these filmmakers have been profiled on the site in the past. Carl was originally attached to direct a remake/prequel of Alien, but that fell through, and Jake Scott guest blogged for /Film during Sundance, where his feature film Welcome to the Rileys premiered at the fest. I’m interested to see what these filmmakers can do with a narrative too big for a commercial or music video.
You can watch a teaser trailer promoting the upcoming release of the five films, after the jump.
Teaser trailer:
More information about the films:
El Secreto de Mateo: Young Mateo, his companion and their secret in the touching drama. Directed by Greg Fay.
A former associate editor at both iD and The Face magazines, Fay has directed music videos for acts including Lilly Allen, Oasis, and The Streets and worked for commercial clients including Reebok, Orange, British Airways and Yellow Pages. In 2005 he wrote and directed his first short Last Trip to Cardiff on the back of which he was signed (as one half of directing partnership Ben & Greg) to Partizan Films. He joined RSA as a director in his own right in 2008 and has shot numerous commercials for the likes of The Guardian, Asda and Vodafone, amongst others. In February 2010 Greg will shoot a pilot for a BBC Wales comedy series called Dappers.
Jun & the Hidden Skies: Jun meets the dragon in the animation adventure. Directed by Hi-Sim
The pseudonym of directing duo Chris Hawkes and Cheun Hung Tsang, their work consists of live action and computer generated imagery. They were recently featured in Boards magazine as one of the top 20 directors to watch out for. They have directed many commercial projects for brands including Adidas, Stella McCartney, Bacardi and Investec Specialist Bank.
Darkroom: An investigator zooms in on his subject in the future film noir sci-fi thriller with a dark secret at its core. Directed by Johnny Hardstaff
His most notable works to date remain the politically provocative shorts films, History of Gaming and Future of Gaming, which have now been inducted into the National Film Archive. Hardstaff also famously created the experimental music video Like Spinning Plates for Radiohead, and is responsible for a raft of innovative, contemporary, design based commercials for leading brands.
The Hunt: Carl sights his prey in the mystical horror. Directed by Jake Scott.
Scott gained early directorial prominence with REM’s Everybody Hurts which won multiple MTV awards, a Grammy nomination and was inducted into the MVPA Hall of Fame in 2005. He has also directed videos for U2, No Doubt, Radiohead, Smashing Pumpkins, The Strokes and George Michael, and has two videos in the MTV 100 best videos of all time. In 2003, Scott won an Emmy for Best Commercial, three AICP awards and an Andy for his work on Nike’s Move. In 2005, Scott won a Silver Lion awards in Cannes for his work on Adidas in addition to winning two CLiOs for the same brand spot. Scott was nominated for a Grammy for direction of George Michael’s Flawless for Best Music Video and received three AICP awards for his work with Nike’s Magnet. In 2008, his work on HBO’s Voyeur won him a Grand Prix and a Cyber Lion at Cannes, Scott has recently completed his second film, Welcome to the Rileys starring Kristen Stewart and James Gandolfini and Academy Award nominee Melissa Leo, which has just screened at this year’s Sundance Film Festival.
The Gift: A robotic manservant flees the police in the futuristic action thriller.Directed by Carl Erik Rinsch.
At just 14 years old, Rinsch had his first film shown at both the New York and Tulleride Film Festivals. Since then he has worked as a photojournalist for Rolling Stone magazine, and now as a director has received accolades including the D&AD/Campaign Screen Award for Best New director. He was fortunate to have been included in the Saatchi & Saatchi New Directors’ Showcase at Cannes. Rinsch’s work includes visually stunning and memorable commercials for the likes of BMW, Earthlink, Sprite and the SciFi Channel.
The films will be released on April 8th 2010.
Thanks to DannyTRS for the tip.
This is a 1 minute teaser trailer for Judd L. Tilyard’s upcoming short film Frame 137.
The film is a sci-fi action piece based on the work of James O’Barr creator of the Crow, and made with his permission. The comic first appeared in Dark Horse Presents, and was expanded by Judd Tilyard into a short film in 2009 after several years of development. The film was shot on the RED using Lomo Anamorphic Lens over a weekend. Sam ransom the ten year old boy who plays Jonny Z, the films hero, notably performed all his own stunts including the fire breathing and wire-work, some of which is showcased in the Teaser. The music used in the teaser, was also very generously recorded for the film by Nick Oliveri and Dave Grohl my sincerest thanks guys.
Watch the teaser trailer embedded after the jump.
The film was shot for 2.35 aspect ration, so when the short film “a more traditional cinemascope.” Watch the teaser in larger resolution on Vimeo. Filmed over several months, in mid 2009 this is the behind the scenes Production Design for Director Judd Tilyards upcoming short film Frame 137:
You can follow the release of the short film and the development of the feature on facebook.com/frame137film
via: Twitch
We might have finally found out information about Pixar’s mystery boy and his dinosaur film. An anonymous source responded to our story last night and confirmed that is is a Pixar short film called “Night And Day“. Teddy Newton, a storyboard artist on The Iron Giant, Character Designer for The Incredibles and Presto, makes his Pixar directorial debut.If so, this might be the short film attached to Toy Story 3.
He is a Cal Arts guy, very respected, considered one of the most influential visual development artists in the field of animation. I did some internet searches, and found it listed on composer Michael Giacchino’s unofficial website. Giacchino has been working with Pixar for some time, providing the score for The Incredibles, Ratatoille, Up, and short films Lifted and Partly Cloudy, so it makes sense that he might also be working on the company’s next animated short as well. In the late 1990’s, Teddy formed a partnership with Giacchino to make animated films, but they apparently couldn’t come up with the capital to make it happen.
Of course, we are unable to confirm any of this information, as Pixar never seems to respond to our emails — but it seems highly likely. Anyone have any more information? Shoot me an E-mail!
Previously:
You might recall that last August, Pixar fans spotted some concept artwork featuring a boy and his dinosaur, on sculptor Greg Dykstra’s wall in behind the scenes b-roll footage for Pete Docter’s Up. Someone asked Pixar story supervisor Ronnie del Carmen about the artwork on Twitter, and he responded saying that he does know what the art is from “But not telling. Nothing to do with anything Toy Story, tell you that.”
Someone also noticed some interesting postings made by Pixar animator and paleontology buff Austin Madison on his personal blog recounting a trip taken by a group of Pixar dino enthusiasts, including Dykstra, to the badlands of South Dakota. Anyone who follows Pixar’s development process probably knows that the animation studio’s artists usually take research field trips while developing new films. For Ratatouille, they took a trip to Paris to study the city and eat in some of the fine restaurants. For Up, they took a trip to South America to study the the strange wilderness of the region. And it certainly looks like Pixar is doing some research on dinosaurs, and the concept art of Dykstra’s wall is definitely part of this upcoming project.
And yesterday, PixarTalk has been sent a photo showing Up production designer Ricky Nierva standing in front of even more concept art from the project, showing the boy, a brontosaurus, a prehistoric alligator, a pterodactyl, and a mosquito.
Spike Jonze has produced a new live-action/animated adaptation of Maurice Sendak’s Higglety Pigglety Pop! or There Must Be More to Life. The film, a collaboration between the National Film Board of Canada and Warner Home Video, will be included on the Blu-Ray release of Where The Wild Things Are, which hits stores on March 2nd. The 23 and a half minute short film was created by Chris Lavis and Maciek Szczerbowski, the Oscar-nominated team behind the short Madame Tutli-Putli, and features the voices of Meryl Streep, Forest Whitaker and Spike Jonze.
Once Jennie had everything. She had two bowls to eat from, two pillows, and for cold weather, a red wool sweater. She even had a master who loved her. But Jennie didn’t care. In the middle of the night she packed everything she had in a black leather bag with gold buckles and looked out of her favorite window for the last time… Higglety Pigglety Pop! or There Must Be More to Life follows Jennie’s surreal, suspenseful and unexpectedly moving journey to gain new experiences and realize her dream of becoming the star of the World Mother Goose Theatre.
Warner Bros Home Video has supplied us with some photos, posters and clips from the film, which you can see after the jump.
Photos/Poster:
Video Excerpts:
[See post to watch Flash video] [See post to watch Flash video] [See post to watch Flash video]Press Release:
THE CREATORS OF MADAME TUTLI-PUTLI RETURN WITH THE ADAPTATION OF HIGGLETY PIGGLETY POP! OR THERE MUST BE MORE TO LIFE
Toronto, February 16, 2010 – The National Film Board of Canada and Warner Home Video present a new live-action/animated adaptation of Higglety Pigglety Pop! or There Must Be More to Life based on the book by Maurice Sendak. A film by the creators of the Oscar-nominated short Madame Tutli-Putli, Chris Lavis and Maciek Szczerbowski, features the voices of Meryl Streep and Forest Whitaker. Produced by Spike Jonze, Vincent Landay and Marcy Page.
Higglety Pigglety Pop! or There Must Be More to Life will be featured as an exclusive short on the Where the Wild Things Are Warner Home Video Blu-ray out March 2. On February 28, the film will have its world premiere at the Festival International du Film pour Enfants de Montréal (Montreal Children’s International Film Festival) followed by a special presentation with the directors and the puppeteers. The NFB will distribute a DVD scheduled for summer 2010.
Higglety Pigglety Pop! or There Must Be More to Life tells the story of Jennie, who once had everything. She had two bowls to eat from, two pillows, and for cold weather a red wool sweater. She even had a master who loved her. But Jennie didn’t care. In the middle of the night she packed everything she had in a black leather bag with gold buckles and looked out of her favourite window for the last time. Higglety Pigglety Pop! or There Must Be More to Life follows Jennie’s surreal, suspenseful and unexpectedly moving journey to gain new experiences and realize her dream of becoming the star of the World Mother Goose Theatre.
Since 1997 Chris Lavis and Maciek Szczerbowski have formed the artistic partnership called Clyde Henry Productions. The pair have created award-winning films, ads, illustrations, comics, and music videos. Their first professional film, Madame Tutli-Putli, produced by Marcy Page for the National Film Board of Canada, received international acclaim – over 50 awards to date, among them the Best Short Film and Rail d’or prizes at the Cannes International Film Festival and an Academy Award Nomination in 2007. Lavis and Szczerbowski are currently working with the NFB and Silo Corporation on a feature film project entitled The White Circus co-produced by Lago Film (Germany) and Apple Film Production (Poland). In 2008 The White Circus was selected for development by the Sundance Film Institute’s screenwriting lab.
Higglety Pigglety Pop! or There Must Be More to Life is produced by the National Film Board of Canadain association with Warner Home Video.
Wow, we actually pulled it off. We successfully made an entire short film in 1 week flat. When I first heard about this contest, I knew I had to participate. It took a little convincing of Peter, but eventually we sat down and came up with a story together.
We shot the ending (as well as the Steadicam Merlin shot of the smoking trunk) the day this was due. Which pretty much gave us zero time to edit. Peter brought his portable hard drive and edited on my PC while I laid on my bed, occasionally talking to Marc Chester on the phone, going over the score.
My sister, Amy, made most of the skeleton, namely the skull. She's a ceramics student and has some pretty impressive work. She squeezed making this skull into her schedule by pulling an all-nighter the day before we needed it for a scene. It's made entirely of porcelain. I intend to fire the skull and jaw (at least) so I can keep it forever.
The actual "final cut" of the short film was nearly 5 minutes, but because of the strict rules of the contest, we were forced to cut out quite a bit. And because everything was coming down to the last second, some of it was a bit rushed. If the rules allow, Peter will most likely re-post The Funeral Date as a Director's Cut or something here on TZ. Relatively speaking, I think it actually turned out really well. And come to think of it, this was actually the biggest project we've ever taken on. It felt absolutely amazing. To wake up at 6am, dig graves, inhale homemade toxic ammonium nitrate smoke bombs, scramble to cast an actor at the last possible second. Most of the production days were very long and tiring. But it was the absolute best kind of tired, very satisfying.
Filmmaking is absolutely, hands down, a collaborative medium. I know we make it look easy (kidding, kidding) but really, there was quite a few people involved. Lily and Sandra's house was actually 4 different locations. The backyard was my own. Lily's bedroom was Anna's. We drove to LA to get the shots of Sandra's room at Francesca's apartment. The front of the house was my friend Sean Kao's. He was nice enough to give us free access to his house while no one was home. The truck and the guy who bought the trunk is the neighbor of my aunt, where we shot the garage sale scene. William Mas let us use his truck.
I was introduced to Marc, the guy who miraculously composed all of the music for the short in just a few hours on the last day, by an old friend from high school, Nikki. She was the senior clarinet section leader while I was a little freshman in marching band. I looked her up on Facebook and asked if she knew anyone who would be interested in composing for us. Oddly enough, Marc and Anna had taken an acting class together a couple years back. What a small world.
Sometimes, with enough effort, the stars just seem to align and everything works out. Oh how we struggled to find a little girl to play Lily. But then I posted a listing on NowCasting and there she was. The entire short film was almost ruined because the weather report said it would be raining on the one morning we had left to shoot the garage sale scene. We got up extra early that day and somehow the sun was out, shining bright as can be.
So, The Funeral Date may have flaws. Peter won't be satisfied with it until a month's time passes and he looks back at it. He'll watch it again and say, "That actually wasn't too bad." I feel incredibly lucky to be surrounded by so many friends who are willing to work with us on what it is we love doing. Thank you. I mean it with all my heart.
And now... time to go collapse in bed and sleep until noon.
Honda created an 8-minute short film about Robots titled Living With Robots. As part of the short doc/advertisement, they interviewed Roberto Orci and Alex Kurtzman – the screenwriters who wrote Transformers and Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen. Mocking Honda for reaching out for such robotics “experts” would be wayyyy too easy, For those interested, you can watch the short film embedded after the jump.
One of the short films we were left raving about at the 2010 Sundance Film Festival was an animated film titled Logorama. I was convinced at the time that the short would never see the light of day due to the obvious legalities involved. But I guess since it has now been nominated for the ultimate award, the creators are no longer afraid to put it online.
Written and directed by the French team of François Alaux and Herve de Crecy, and created over the course of a few years, this Best Animated Oscar-Nominated short film features a world full of brand logos and corporate mascots (I’m sure a couple thousand appear in all — it even features fictional companies like the Buy N Large logo from Pixar’s Wall-E) Watch the short film now, embedded after the jump.
Back in November, we told you that Chevy Chase and Beverly D’Angelo would be reprising their roles as Clark and Ellen Griswold from the National Lampoon’s Vacation movies, but not for another big screen sequel (not yet, at least…). The Griswolds reunited instead for an advertising campaign for HomeAway launched during the 2010 Super Bowl. The television spot advertised a new Vacation “mini-movie” titled Hotel Hell Vacation, featuring Chase, D’Angelo, and an exact replica of the film’s iconic Wagon Queen Family Truckster. Here is the official plot synopsis:
Ride along as The Griswolds hit the road again. This time theyre on their way to see Rusty at his vacation rental. They stop at a hotel and typical Griswold madness ensues.
The 14 minute short film is now online, and embedded after the jump.
I could barely make it through this “short film,” and that is coming from a guy whp enjoyed most of the National Lampoon Vacation series (yes, even Vegas Vacation… but not the Cousin Eddie spin-off craptacular). I’ve said it before… John Hughes is probably rolling around in his grave.
