The Foxhole Manifesto

February 28th, 2007


(download mp4)

Available on: youtube.com | vimeo.com | archive.org

This is an adaptation of a poem by Jeffrey McDaniel, who has some ideas for a few appropriately modern gods.

format: HD video
software: Flash, AfterEffects, Final Cut, Audition
The Hague, 2007.

Screened at Rotterdam Film Festival 2009.

Azharah

September 2nd, 2006

Azharah
(click to play)

This lovely sand animation was created from Hebrew calligraphy by Gil Omry, as part of Lauren Hartman’s play Out of Me and Into You.

format: DV video
software: Director, AfterEffects, Final Cut
Los Angeles, 2003.

Battletank

September 1st, 2006

Battletank
(click to play)

This is a bit of found footage from an old video game, slowed way down. Turn up the sound and take a look….there’s something going on here that I can’t quite explain.

format: DV video
software: AfterEffects
Los Angeles, 2003.

I Wanna Be Famous

March 29th, 2006


(download mp4)

Available on: youtube.com | vimeo.com | archive.org

Here’s a brand spankin’ new one, from a song by Jessica Delfino. She’s discovered a guaranteed shortcut to everlasting fame–watch and learn!

format: HD video
software: Flash, AfterEffects, Final Cut, Audacity
San Francisco, 2006.

Disarmed (Rule or Ruin #5)

January 28th, 2006

Disarmed
(click to play)

Available on: youtube.com | archive.org
>>  #5 in a series of 6

My cousins used to play this odd little game; they were about five and three years old at the time. The older one would pick up the remote control to the TV, point it at her sister, and say “Turn you off”–she’d obligingly fall to the ground and play dead. Then the remote changed hands, they’d change places, and the game would begin all over again. It was carried out with the solemn gravity of an execution by firing squad.

This short is a grown-up version of the same game, played with a grown-up weapon…

format: DV video
software: Commotion, AfterEffects, Painter, Final Cut, Audition
Pittsburgh, 2002.

Broadcast on CBC TV 2002.

The Story of Enoch (Rule or Ruin #2)

January 23rd, 2006

The Story of Enoch
(click to play)

Available on: youtube.com | archive.org
>>  #2 in a series of 6

Enoch receives a premonition of disaster, so he sets out to collect as many books as he can find, to preserve the knowledge of the world. But, lacking reliable divine guidance, all his careful preparations come down to a straight-ahead, all-or-nothing gamble….

format: DV video
software: Commotion, Final Cut, Audition, Photoshop
Los Angeles, 2003.

Broadcast on CBC TV 2005.

The Little Bird of Disaster (Rule or Ruin #6)

January 19th, 2006

The Little Bird of Disaster
(click to play)

Available on: youtube.com | archive.org
>>  #6 in a series of 6

This is a story about a little bird who claims to be able to predict the future. Don’t trust him.

The Little Bird of Disaster was developed at The Kitchen’s 2003 summer workshop. The speaking characters are real-time “video puppets,” controlled with Mark Coniglio’s Isadora software. The piece was actually performed, like they say, in front of a live studio audience (you can hear them in the background).

format: DV video
software: Commotion, AfterEffects, Painter, Isadora, Final Cut, Audition
Los Angeles, 2004.

Screened at Rotterdam Film Festival 2005.

A Good Joke

January 16th, 2006


(download mp4)

Available on: youtube.com | vimeo.com | archive.org

This short is based on an old joke, a perennial in compilations of Jewish humor. Although the details differ between versions, the scene remains the same: a priest challenges a rabbi to a debate on the spiritual condition of Jewish people. But neither speaks the other’s language, and…well, I won’t spoil the punch line.

format: HD video
software: Flash, AfterEffects, Final Cut, Audition
San Francisco, 2005.

Screened at Ottawa Animation Festival 2006.

Mother of All Bombs (Rule or Ruin #3)

January 11th, 2006

Mother of All Bombs
(click to play)

Available on: youtube.com | archive.org
>>  #3 in a series of 6

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.

The Option of War

January 6th, 2006


(download mp4)

Available on: youtube.com | vimeo.com | archive.org

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.