short film

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Animation

Negative Space: The Vast Emotional Landscape of a Father-Son Relationship Packed into an Animated Short

We’ve written previously about “Negative Space”, and the highly-anticipated stop motion animation short is now available in its entirety on Vimeo. Co-directors Max Porter and Ru Kuwahata explore a character’s relationship with his father over his life, from fanciful childhood memories to the somber realities of aging and adulthood. “Negative Space” is adapted from a poem of the same name by Ron Koertge, which centers on the rituals of packing one’s possessions, passed from father to son.

You can step behind the scenes in a making-of video to see how the heartstring-tugging, Oscar-nominated film was created. Porter and Kuwahata share more of their animated films, including personal and commercial projects, on Vimeo.

Art

FILTRATE: A Futurist Guerrilla-Style Short Film Shot on an iPhone in Montreal’s Subways

A new short film titled FILTRATE imagines a future completely saturated with technology, where post-human figures interact using rune-like symbols on immersive social media platforms. The film, directed by Mishka Kornai, was created in the public spaces of Montréal’s underground Metro transit system.

The actors in FILTRATE sport futuristic costumes made by Odette Mattha with shimmering tinsel, long strands of party beads, and textured fabrics that match the setting’s architectural details. Mattha’s designs take advantage of the unique feel of different areas of the Metro system: each station was created by a different architect. Though the filmmakers clearly used the spaces during off-peak times, we can only wonder at the surprise of an unsuspecting commuter.

In a statement on the film’s website, the creators explain their impetus for FILTRATE. “If people retreat into smaller and more idiosyncratic groups, what will the evolutionary trajectory of our society look like? As social groups diverge further and further over the course of generations, when does humanity cease to be just one species?”

The whole process took two years to complete, including 43 days of shooting, six months of costume building, and a year of post-production. Despite its high-tech feel, the creators share that FILTRATE was filmed using just an iPhone 7, a wheelchair, a monopod, and a hand stabilizer. You can take a look behind the scenes in an additional making-of video.

Amazing Photography Science

An Extraordinary Time-Lapse Captures the Microscopic Development of a Single Cell into a Newt

In Becoming, a time-lapse film by Jan van IJken (previously), a single cell splits. Then it splits again, and again, and again, morphing and quivering as new quadrants continually appear and divide. The cell belongs to an alpine newt, and during most of its transition from a single cell zygote to hatched larva it looks remarkably like a sunny-side up egg. The film’s rapid timeline condenses four weeks of growth into six minutes, presenting a speedy and awe-inspiring glimpse at how we all begin.

“I wanted to capture the origin of life,” van IJken tells Colossal. “What is particularly interesting I think, is that the basics of embryonic development are the same for all animals, including us. I think the way we develop is a true miracle. In my film you can see individual cells move to the place where they belong in the embryo. How is this possible? It is all managed by a precise internal clockwork in each individual cell.”

Van IJken used time-lapse photography and video in combination with a trinocular microscope to precisely observe the details of the newt’s development. You can view more of his work, including a trailer for his first film Facing Animals, on Vimeo.

Animation

Aerial Images of the Earth Animated into Fast-Paced Sequences by Kevin McGloughlin

In EPOCH, the new short film by Irish director and animator Kevin McGloughlin, aerial images of the Earth are pieced together to compare the structural similarities of various suburbs, highways, and fields. When flashed one after the next, buildings and roads form circles and squares, while dozens of cul-de-sacs appear to elongate and morph as they flash on screen. The film bears many similarities in form and editing to his twin brother and collaborator Páraic McGloughlin’s short film from last April Arena, which also utilized Google Earth-sourced images to created fast-paced animated sequences. You can view more of Kevin McGloughlin’s shorts on his Instagram and Vimeo. (via Colossal Submissions)

Animation

A Gardener Spreads Joy Through the Cultivation of Lemon Trees in a New Animated Short

Laymun is a collaborative short film by directors Catherine Prowse (previously) and Hannah Quinn which follows the story of a gardener in a Middle Eastern war zone. The woman cultivates and spreads lemon trees as a way to bring hope to herself and community. The sets for the film were crafted from crumpled and sculpted paper over the course of six months, and the cut-out paper characters were scanned and added in digitally after the shoot. The directors chose this medium as a way to more accurately depict the tone they wished to bring across in their film.

“It was really important to us not to sentimentalize the ongoing violence in the Middle East and to communicate the precariousness of our character’s situation,” explain Prowse and Quinn. “So we explored the qualities of paper as a medium, crumpling and tearing to create a sense of fragility and vulnerability.”

The animated short has won several awards including the Royal Television Society Undergraduate Animation Award 2018, the International Animation prize at the Cardiff Mini Film Festival 2018, and the Short Film Prize at the World of Women Film Fair Middle East, among many others. You can see more of Prowse’s work on Vimeo and website in addition to Quinn’s work on her website. (via Short of the Week)

Animation Art

4D-Printed Aquatic Plants Spring to Life in “Hydrophytes” by Nicole Hone

Using modeling software and multi-material 3D printing, industrial designer Nicole Hone created a series of 4D-printed futuristic aquatic plants, or Hydrophytes, that are as full of character as the natural organisms they mimic. In the film of the same name, the hydrophytes are activated by pneumatic inflation in water, and transform into dynamic organisms that you could swear were actually alive.

“I have always been fascinated with nature,” the designer tells Colossal. “It inspires my design ideas and aesthetic. For this project, I became particularly interested in botany and marine life. I was amazed by the way sea creatures and corals moved, and I wanted to reflect similar qualities in my designs.” While working on her Master of Design Innovation thesis at Victoria University of Wellington, Hone learned about plans to redesign the National Aquarium in New Zealand. She thought that it would be interesting to develop a “future-focused exhibition” with moving models as an interactive installation for visitors. She began making test prints and discovered that the models moved best in water, which eventually became the pieces used in Hydrophytes.

Hone explains that software was used to create the shape, surface texture, and internal structures for the Hydrophytes. One benefit of the 3D printing system is that there can be a varying degree of hardness for the parts, but the machine can still handle printing them as a seamless object. During printing the works are encased in a support material, which Hone has to then painstakingly remove (sometimes a 4-hour process) by soaking them in water and using a toothpick. After cleaning, air is passed through the CGOs (computer generated objects) and they are placed in the underwater environments.

“They can respond to external forces such as gravity, water ripples or currents, and interaction with people or other 3D prints in real life,” Hone said. “Their man-made composite materials behave uncannily similar to living organisms.”

She went onto explain that each Hydrophyte has a unique character that is defined by both their style of movement and appearance. The colored lights that illuminate the printed plants were chosen to “complement each personality and amplify the emotive qualities of the film,” and the functions of each plant were inspired by the effects of climate change on marine species. “As the 4D printing experiments developed from abstract shapes into more plant-like models, their appearance and movement helped me think of which function would best suit each character,” she added. It’s fascinating to see the intersection of art and technology produce such a unique collection of objects. To view more of what Hone has created with her research, visit her website. (via Designboom)