Archive for January, 2006

Disarmed (Rule or Ruin #5)

Saturday, 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)

Monday, 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)

Thursday, 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

Monday, 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)

Wednesday, 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

Friday, 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.

Bird’s Eye Bull’s Eye (Rule or Ruin #4)

Wednesday, January 4th, 2006

Bird's Eye Bull's Eye
(click to play)

Available on: youtube.com | archive.org
>>  #4 in a series of 6

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.

All About the Magnet

Monday, January 2nd, 2006

All About the Magnet
(click to play)

Available on: youtube.com

“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.

The Volga Will Be Our Mississippi

Sunday, January 1st, 2006

The Volga Will Be Our Mississippi
(click to play)

This is a demo for a new video installation I’m working on. It’s like an old puzzle in a kid’s magazine–can you find all the eagles?

format: realtime animation
software: Isadora, Live
The Hague, 2007.

Coagulate

Sunday, January 1st, 2006

Coagulate
(click to play)

This was created during the same Kitchen workshop that spawned The Little Bird of Disaster; the soundtrack was made with a 1960s analog computer and a brand-new upright piano.

format: DV video
software: AfterEffects, Final Cut
The Hague, 2006.