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I’d seen pictures of it before, but an especially dramatic photograph caught my eye on a magazine cover in the grocery store. It almost looked like another vegetable: a brilliant marigold-orange “fuel-air” bomb, the most powerful non-nuclear weapon on the market.
format: DV video
software: Commotion, AfterEffects, Painter, Final Cut, Audition
Los Angeles, 2003.
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In this adaptation of an early Kafka story, a soldier is taken prisoner in the night by a pack of jackals. Offering a pair of scissors, they demand that he use the makeshift weapon to kill his sleeping friends. They overwhelm his initial, shocked refusal. Slowly, incredibly, he begins to see their point of view. He takes the scissors, and…
format: HD video
software: Flash, AfterEffects, Painter, Final Cut, Audition
Montreal, 2005.Screened at Ottawa Animation Festival 2005.
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The painter in this short may think she’s only painting circles on the ground. But from our privileged vantage point, we can see well enough where it’s all going to lead….
format: DV video
software: Commotion, AfterEffects, Painter, Final Cut, Audition
Los Angeles, 2003.
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“Is the nail attracted to the magnet?” “Yes!”
This oddly martial drill on the properties of the magnet comes to us from an old, damaged album of ’50s educational songs. I just couldn’t help imagining what the recording session must have looked like, and out came this little cartoon.
format: DV video
software: Flash, AfterEffects, Final Cut, Audition
Pittsburgh, 2002.
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“Remember, you never need to solve the problem right now.” Apparently, no problem could possibly arise that this handy video self-help pamphlet is unprepared to deal with.
This short, a dance for camera, was created at the Point Park Conservatory in Pittsburgh, choreographed by Doug Bentz.
format: DV video
software: AfterEffects, Final Cut, Audition
Pittsburgh, 2002.
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What if you’re offered only two options, and neither of them are any good? The poor creature in this short can’t hope to understand that it’s trapped inside a completely arbitrary system.
format: DV video
software: AfterEffects, FrameThief, Premiere, DVD Studio
Pittsburgh, 2001.
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At the start of the Afghan War, I heard the title’s classic Cold-War motto resurrected by Texas Congressman Dick Armey. Oddly enough, it made me think of the Lewis Carroll poem “The Voice of the Lobster,” in which the Panther and the Owl sit down to negotiate an agreement. The story just seems to have a timely ring about it.
format: DV video
software: Commotion, AfterEffects, Painter, Premiere, Audition
Pittsburgh, 2002.
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I was in my car, parked, and it was raining. I was under a giant neon sign, a grocery store sign that hadn’t had all its letters lit since I was a kid. The battery in my camera was still good, so I pointed it out the windshield and began taping. It lasted long enough to catch the sky turning dark, and the sign turning to gibberish as its un-lit letters faded away, and a most unusual song playing on the radio. The whole thing felt like a funeral.
format: DV video
software: AfterEffects, Final Cut, Audition, Photoshop
Huntington, West Virginia, 2001.
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The message consisted of nothing but the distant ringing of church bells and a voice that said only “Hello?” before hanging up. It arrived in my voice mail on July 8, 2000. How did it get there?
It must have been entrusted to a tiny electronic messenger, a wayward soul who somehow got lost in the phone system. It’s a short journey, but a very dangerous one, and maybe she didn’t reach her destination in time…
format: DV video
software: AfterEffects, Premiere, Audition, Photoshop
Pittsburgh, 2000.
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I began to take a video camera out at night and peek into hundreds of other people’s windows, just for a few seconds at a time. I wasn’t sure quite why I was doing this…
format: DV video
software: AfterEffects, Premiere, Photoshop
Pittsburgh, 1999.
