The Quintessentials - Meshes of the Afternoon

Meshes of the Afternoon. Maya Dern and Alexander Hammil.

USA. 13:30. 1943.

Meshes of the Afternoon is a formative experimental short film directed by husband/wife duo Maya Deren and Alexander Hammil. The plot vaguely follows the meanderings of a woman and splices shots of her with recurring thematic motifs- a loaf of bread, a flower, a key, and a hooded figure with a mirror where his face should be all make regular appearances. This all creates a feeling, as the title strongly suggests, of dreamy, hazy suggestion. The surreal quality of the images is enhanced by a stark and haunting soundtrack of what sounds like traditional Japanese music.

The film's obsessive focus on its woman protaganist in tandem with its surreal repeating imagery is obviously suggestive of a psychologically dense dream. Countless interpretations can be read here. Perhaps the falling flower is meant to symbolize the woman's perceived loss of agency of her sexual identity as a woman? Perhaps it's meant to symbolize her fear of aging? Death? If it does indeed symbolize death, then that idea is certainly bolstered by the presence of the mirrored grim reaper figure. What seems important here too is the fact that the images can be read so many ways. Their very vagueness seems to be central to the film, and allows it to defy a simply reading, choosing instead to favor something just a bit more mysterious.

Quintessentials: The Cat Piano

Quintessentials: The Cat Piano

Directed by Eddie White and Ari Gibson, Australia, 2009, 8 minutes.

Source: Vimeo

Just as a quick recap, The Cat Piano follows a beat poet in a city of singing cats. However, a darkness falls over the city as the city’s best singing cats are catnapped to be used in a cat piano. This musical instrument tortures the cats to make them scream certain notes and as the main character discovers this horrendous machine, he gathers an army. The army subsequently attacks the machine and the human operating it to free their fellow cats.

This short which was originally posted here by Marco Zamora discussed how this award winning short uses blank dark space and limited colors to emphasize different points and to set the mood tones throughout the movie. As video editor, I completely fell in love with this short the moment I saw it because of it’s amazing use of color to emphasize a already amazing story. The best example of this emphasis is the use of the color blue throughout the entire movie. The beat poet, who is the main character throughout the story, narrates the story through a poem. However, by making almost anything blue not only to you instantly give the viewer a much more relaxed feeling but it allows the animators to focus on important objects by simply changing the color of it. This can be seen as the female cat who the beat poet is interested in is white and stands out and draws attention to her.

Also, the use of green to show the beat poet when he is sick after he learns about the cat piano and finally the red overtone to express the anger towards the piano. Simply put, color allows for the narrator to continue his poet and to emphasize his slight changes in narration to fully express the mood.

However, the only thing that I did not like about this short film is this fat cat who is colored white. Simply put, when I watch the film, it distracted me and suggested to me that he was of some importance when really he isn’t. If he had just been some light blue I think that more emphasis would be geared toward the pure white songstress. But this doesn’t change my opinion that this is a very well put together short that deserves all of the awards that it has won.

Quintessentials: The Millionaire

The Millionaire

Directed by V. Bordzilovski, Soviet Union, 1963, 10 minutes 18 seconds

Original post

The original post on this short discusses the film within the context of the Soviet Union and addresses it as a piece of anti-Capitalist propaganda. I think that for the purpose of this class, I think it would be much more interesting to look at this film within a group of self-aware and sophisticated animated short films. Every classic animated short we studied this semester had a very adult twist- from the very obviously politically charged "Private Snafu" to even "Duck Amuck", which has meta undertones and can even function as an experimental short.

This film captures the spirit of these politically and self aware animations that challenge the assumption that animations are simply for kids or that "cartoons" do not have artistic/historical/cultural value. "The Millionaire" has a definite style which might be enjoyable to children but a message that would only be truly meaningful to adults and is only fully understood with a knowledge of the political climate of the time. This film fits within a tradition of animations with an edge and more importantly, with a purpose, that helped to shape the world of short films.

Quintessential: "ARE YOU THE FAVORITE PERSON OF ANYBODY"

Are You the Favorite Person of Anybody
Directed by Miguel Arteta,Written by Miranda July USA, 4 minutes
Original Link to this post is Here

This film is a about a man (John C. Reilly) who is standing on the street waiting for people to walk by. He is not an innocent bystander, but a man geared with paper and pencil and looking for answers in life--in this case, specifically the answers to the question "Are you anybody's favorite person?" Though we are given little character development as far as why the man is standing on the street waiting for strangers to walk by and take his survey, we learn a lot about the man's personality through his reactions to people's responses.

We are introduced to three strangers, each different in both their sex, race, and comprehension of the question. The first stranger is a woman (the film's writer, Miranda July). She hesitates to answer the question, but due to vanity, she immediately finds an answer when she gazes at the man's mildly judging look. The second stranger to walk past is a man (Mike White), who, when bombarded by the question, answers immediately with a 'no'. After further questioning, the male stranger holds firmly to his beliefs that no one considers him their favorite person and, in return, receives three oranges from Reilly's character. It is at this point that we learn more about Reilly's character--that he has a wife, owns three fertile orange trees, and that he is sympathetic towards others. The third and final stranger to pass by is an immigrant man (Chuy Chavez) who does not have any interest in taking the survey, believing it to be a political vote. This passing character is important to the story line because he questions Reilly's character's existence. As Reilly's character tries to explain to the man that it is not an election vote, he exclaims, "No, that's not what it is about", to which the stranger replies "Yeah, but I don't want to be involved with this, sorry". What is this film about? And should we as viewers be involved? The film successfully makes us want to answer the man's question. Does someone favor me above all others?

I think the setting of this film is very important to the story. As Tyler mentions in his original post, this film is "an experiment in psychology", as the question the man poses is not an everyday question and might be right up there with "Why are we here?" That said, the street is an interesting location for the man to choose as his questioning location. Besides for the three strangers we meet, the street is empty and can be compared to a black hole. When we are introduced to Reilly's character, we see the street in the direction left of him, where all of the strangers enter from. We never see the direction the characters take, and the film just ends with the Reilly's character looking down the street in the direction the strangers head after they answer or block his questions. In many ways, the man's question is impossible to answer, and by not showing the street, we do not know where the characters are coming from or going to, just that they exist.

Although this film amazingly tells a story just by the responses of individuals, we still do not understand why Reilly's character is asking these questions, nor why he is standing in the street wearing a nice suit. We get the impression that he is a working man, who might possibly be in a midlife crisis--is he his wife's favorite person?--but we do not know why he has chosen this street or how far away he lives. His questions leave us wanting more answers. Because we learn a lot about his character through his interactions with the strangers, as well as learn about character traits of the three strangers through their responses, I wonder if a fifth character would provide more character development. The three strangers are all assured in their responses, whether it be 'yes', 'no', or 'I don't want any part in this'. It would be interesting to see a character who answers with an 'I don't know. How can one tell?' It would turn the table on Reilly's character.

Quintessentials - Marcel the Shell with Shoes On

Morgan's Original Post about "Marcel"

"Marcel the Shell with Shoes On" is one of those quirky little films that seem to pop up on the Internet every day, that become an Internet sensation and skyrocket to Youtube-darling status, seemingly overnight.

In her post, Morgan argues that the random story and adorable voice place "Marcel" in a completely new and different category. She essentially says the film is in another league than your typical short film. I think she's correct in that the fact that we can't define what "Marcel" is (is it a comedy? a mockumentary? an animated film?).

The point is that these Internet-based videos, or short films, or whatever you want to call them are challenging the conventions of film and filmmaking. Specifically with short film, they make us question and debate the definition of a short film. I think if Internet-based films did not exist, we wouldn't have had as many debates over what a short film is as we did. Therefore, I think we have little basis on which to determine whether "Marcel" is or is not a short film.

I'm going to play devils' advocate for a moment and take the "Plot Girl" stance: because there is no narrative arc whatsoever, does "Marcel" count as a short film? What is the film trying to achieve with its dry, obscure humor? Are we supposed to feel bad for Marcel? Should we be laughing at or with Marcel? What is the point? According to Jenny Slate, the narrator and co-creator, the film was the brainchild of a voice she used to annoy her friends. The film really isn't about anything except a small slice of life, according to Slate.

Morgan also mentions Jenny Slate several times in her post. I think this says something about how much stardom affects the way we view and perceive film. Would she have mentioned Jenny Slate's name if she wasn't a "Saturday Night Live" cast member? I doubt that the film would have garnered as much attention and praise as it did had Slate's name not been attached to it. I also think that the quirkiness of the story wouldn't be as funny if a known comedian hadn't narrated it. Without Slate, I have no doubt that the film would be dismissed as hipster pretentiousness.

Quintessentially Sneezing Pandas

The Short Films Blog: Sneezing Panda


Originally Caren makes the point in her blog that 'The Sneezing Baby Panda" is not in fact a short film. I feel it's worthwhile to play devils advocate in this case in defense of home movies as short films.


In reference to home movies I'm going to rope in some features. Short films have been discussed in our course as "experiments", ways to try new things with film without the cost of a full length movie. So in this way, we can expect to see full length movies emulate shorts when shorts prove successful at doing one thing or another. Enter movies like Blair Witch Project and Paranormal Activity, which are filmed to emulate home movies. Part of the reason these films were reportedly scarier than normal was that people were uncertain of their status as fiction. "Home movies" (insert cheesy finger quotes here) make great horror movies because it gives the viewer the unsettling feeling that this happened to someone just like them, someone with a phone or a camera just like they do, who intended to film something for personal use rather than for theaters just like they have in the past. The technique ventured into TV shows too, proving its versatility. This widely successful technique originated  with the use of home media like youtube, and yet the predominant genre on youtube is actually humor at this point.

Here's the thing:

• If short films are experiments of new ideas or techniques and 
• 'successful' shorts can impact full length media and
• the idea of home video and hand recorded footage impacted (at least horror) movies

then aren't home videos short films?

So here's my question-
Why can't the same be said for humor?

For example, in a short I can't seem to find online called "Jack Jack Attack", Pixar character Jack Jack of The Incredibles does lots of funny things and generally terrorizes his babysitter with an array of yet undiscovered super human abilities. (side note: I finally found it online... but it's backwards and in Spanish. Sorry y'all. You get the idea though.) However, in some ways I find these to be funnier baby videos. (I just googled funny baby and this popped up, although after doing some 'research' I would argue this belongs in there too). On the same token, watch this and then watch this and tell me which one makes you crack a smile. Why? These babies actually exist somewhere, and that somehow makes them more amusing. For the same reasons the previously mentioned horror movies were scarier with 'home footage'. So if the youtube babies are funnier than Jack Jack, and the sneezing baby panda is funnier than Kung Fu Panda, how are these not 'successful' home videos and thus short films? Is it possible for the lesser genre to also be the more effective genre, and if so, how is it lesser?

Quintessentials- Drinking Out of Cups

Original Post -> http://shortfilmsblog.blogspot.com/2011/10/drinking-out-of-cups.html

The original post argued that Drinking Out of Cups is an experimental film. I disagree with this categorization. The original argument is that because Drinking Out of Cups has no narrative than it is experimental. I think that this is simplification of what an experimental film is.

If Drinking Out of Cups is experimental, than what is the experiment? An experimental film is trying to do something different with structure, technique or writing. Drinking Out of Cups is certainly not something that we would normally watch in a movie theater, but it is completely within the normal elements of its context.

Drinking Out of Cups is not an experimental film, it is just a meme film. For a youtube video that is intended to be funny, plotlessness is not only not experimental, it is par for the course. I do not find Drinking Out of Cups to be particularly odd for a youtube video. This makes it unexperimental.

School Portrait (2011)

School Portrait (2011) from Michael Berliner on Vimeo.

England, 2:25

An ironic juxtaposition of contexts makes for the main conceit of this little short film. We see painfully adorable faces of British schoolchildren smiling for school pictures while the photographer berates them about the unpleasant realities of adult life (what he calls a "reality check"). The grumpy photographer makes the children repeat phrases like "the banking crisis means I'll never afford a home," and asking them if they've filled out their tax returns. Each time the photographer succeeds in wiping the smile of the children's faces, which appears to be his main objective. He meets his match in a girl with curly red hair who refuses to stop smiling. The photographer becomes visibly annoyed, shaking his head head and telling her, "Look, I'll go on all day," before explaining the painfulness of a divorce. But the girl eventually wins the little stand-off, and continues to smile. The photographer finally concedes defeat and takes the little girl's picture.

The film is adorable and memorable because it takes advantage of the specific pleasures allowed to short film: that a small, obvious conceit can become the subject of the entire film, and function as an effective punch line because of the short film's conciseness. It's impossible to imagine a feature that plays entirely on the tension between the innocent beaming faces of children and the cynicism of an adult with a chip on their shoulder, but here, in the span of two and a half minutes, the joke works. The way the children are shot too, where they are framed by the camera as if in a school photo, adds to the preciousness of their responses to the grouchy photographer.

Nuit Blanche

Nuit Blanche from Spy Films on Vimeo.

NUIT BLANCHE
Directed by Arev Manoukian, Canada, 2010, 4 Minutes
Source: Vimeo

This film is about a man walking down the street and what happens to him when he sees a woman and instantly feels a connection. Also, this film is about a woman sitting in a cafe drinking wine when she glimpses a man outside and instantly feels a connection. We witness these two lovers as they charge obstacles to reach one another--the woman breaking through glass and reaching the sidewalk unscathed, and the man damaging a car and meeting the woman in the street in one piece. At the end of the film, we learn that the man and woman do not actually push cars or break glass, respectively, but we witness their emotion. We are left to wonder if they act on their promising future.

Once they get past staring at each other, the man and woman have a promising future, due to the events we witness. Both of them overcome obstacles of the same material. Time slows when the man steps into a puddle on the street the minute he decides to walk towards the cafe window where the woman is seated. Similarly, when the woman views the man's actions, she stands and drops her glass of wine, where it shatters elegantly on the pristine white table cloth. Both of them suffer with liquid. The second similar material is glass. The man experiences the shattering of glass when the car explodes around his form, and the woman walks through glass to meet him. These two material elements alert to the viewer that the man and woman have a chance--that they can overcome the same obstacles and come out unharmed.

The technique of this film is both interesting and detrimental to its viewing. Positives first. The formation of the puddle around the man's foot, the wine glass shattering on the table, the window glass shattering around the woman's face, and the car reacting to the man, are well done and enjoyable to watch. That said, the construction of this film is all fake and the man and woman are acting in front of green screens. Because it is more interesting to see then for me to explain, please click here to watch the 'Making Of' video (only requires a few seconds of your time to get the idea). This copy-and-pasting element to the film is what harms the film. When we are introduced to the woman, she is sitting in the cafe minding her own business until she looks up and sees the man. She is a bit too large for the window frame, and it becomes obvious that she does not belong there--that she is separate from her location. Viewing the 'Making of' video, we can see that in fact, she does not belong in the cafe because the cafe is completely constructed from cutouts. This leads to some confusion. If the location is pieced together around her, shouldn't the proportions be better? It is true that she is the dominant character of the shot and we need to see her and only her, because that is what he sees, but, just by sitting front row and center in the window, she is the main focus.

Arguably, this film is not a short, but a portion of a film, a scene more or less. That said, this film cannot be made into a feature, but instead, included in a number of feature film plots. For example, one story can be about a man consistently looking for love and constantly going on unfortunate dates throughout the film. This can be the last scene of the film--the man finally finding the right one. Or, this film can be an additive scene to a film about a woman who is constantly coping with men falling in love with her at first sight. There are a number of possibilities. This film is more of emotion and reaction, than a story. Short films can be emotional, but can they be emotions? This film is about a man and woman meeting and falling in love at first sight and their feelings. If this film had a brief clip of either the man or the woman having bad luck with love, then it would be a short film.

We understand how they are reacting, not necessarily why they are reacting.

West Coast Report: Fraternity Rush

West Coast Report: Fraternity Rush
Written by: Jimmy Tatro
Filmed by: Jake Broido
Directed by: Jimmy Tatro and Jake Broido
USA 2011 4:49

Essentially, this film is a satire on the entire Fraternity rush process. It is narrated by the brother of one of the fraternities and outlines the various processes of Fraternity Rush such as talking to kids at Rush events and evaluating them afterwards in a closed meeting. It is perhaps one of the most hysterical videos I've ever watched simply because of its accuracy. I cannot speak for other fraternities but in terms of my own, this video closely resembles much of what the rush process is like for my fraternity. From the ridiculous questions asked to what happens behind "closed doors" this video is incredibly accurate in terms of what my fraternity looks for when looking for potential new members. Many of the personalities in the video are very close to those in my own fraternity. There are those who take things far to serious and highlight the fraternities philanthropic endeavors while there are many who view the fraternity as a means to get drunk and "pull" females.

Please watch this video, if not for its comedic value but for its authenticity. If you ever wondered what exactly happens during the fraternity rush process, this is a very accurate depiction. I'm not sure that that is a compliment to my fraternity, but it certainly supports the "frat boy" stereotype.

Heartless Potpourri

HEARTLESS (Cover) by The Fray Official Music Video
Located on Youtube: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yE21NQckSmc&feature=related
Uploaded September 28, 2009

This music video is an excellent one for potpourri week, I think, because it so effectively blends multiple themes from this class. In a cover of Heartless, originally by Kanye West, this music video provides a glimpse into the life of a young boy in class (algebra, from the look of his notebook) who does not appear very pleased with the course of his love life, particularly as it pertains to one brunette student who looks way too old for him.

The reason I selected this video, besides being such an eclectic blend of animation, online-based media and music videos, is the way animation itself is used. The story line depicted in the animation contains one of the boys' drawings, a little anatomically-accurate heart, trudging along having terrible thing after terrible thing happen to him. I love the effect of what is essentially a short film within a short film, illustrating the sort of corny cliches that we would never accept if they were in live action. If, for instance, the boy were to walk under a cloud and have it rain only on him, we as the audience might be inclined to yell at the screen "OKAY, we get it, he's sad!" However, by using a child's doodles, it seems only fitting.

This also allows for other things that would be difficult on film, such as the 2 cameos by Kanye West where he is shown wearing those ridiculous glasses and bobbing his head, which add to the overall entertainment value of the film. They also, (although perhaps this just reflects how much I am the daughter of an English professor who never let me watch Barney because he plagiarized people's songs), seem to use those cameos as further acknowledgement of the songs' original artist. I appreciated the gesture, whether it was actually meant that way or not.

Ultimately, it's impressive that the secondary character line (the heart) is integrated it so fully that it never strikes a viewer as odd. I think it's important to note that whether for practical reasons, optimal entertainment value, the ability to provide animated in-text citations or just to provide variation and visual interest, the use of a short within a short is just plain cool.

Umbrellas Amuse Me: Observations from One Day in Munich

UMBRELLAS AMUSE ME: OBSERVATIONS FROM ONE DAY IN MUNICH

United States/Germany, 2010, John Green, 3 minutes and 44 seconds

Given that the theme of the previous blog posts and the next several blog posts is potpourri which allows us to talk about any kind of short film, I decided to stretch the definition a little bit. This is a vlog by John Green (yes, that John Green). He and his brother Hank have a YouTube channel called VlogBrothers where they each film a vlog a couple times a week (alternating turns) and start off each vlog by saying "Good Morning ______, it's ______" and then talk about whatever they want to for that day. They're also some of the leaders of the NerdFighter community (DFTBA!).

In this particular vlog, they've created a playlist for certain vlogs they do that are about them being out of the house to film the vlog and giving thoughts/commentary on where they are. This playlist is called Thoughts From Places and in this particular episode, John's greeting us from Munich! In Munich John gets gifts for his wife and son, muses about church bells, and goes to a Children's Literature Festival (which is why he was there in the first place).

We've only vaguely touched upon vidoes such as these, better known as vlogs (and this one can perhaps be categorized under our discussion of home videos) and whether or not they can be considered short films (the dreaded topic). I myself think they can be. They're not particularly stylistic or have a narrative plot or 'characters' but they are short in length and a visual film that is available to all. Not to mention both John and Hank are incredibly hilarious and intelligent. I subscribe to a handful of vloggers on YouTube (VlogBrothers, Nerimon, Charlieissocoollike, etc.) and I find their videos to be a great source of entertainment and relaxation for a period of time out of the day. I'm not sure we want to get into the discussion of whether or not these are short films but given it's potpourri, I wanted to bring something mildly different to the blog and see how people might respond.