To begin researching on the ambitious animated documentary, we were advised to look into four animated short films (under eight minutes in length) and examine their formal elements, animated movement, subject/content, narrative/storytelling, and actions that can't be replicated in live-action. Two of these we were to look for in the list provided by the teach, and the other two were ones we had to look for ourselves.
“Fell in Love with a Girl” - The White Stripes (2002, USA)
Dir: Michel Gondry
French filmmaker Michel Gondry has decades of experience in making artistically-pleasing music videos, and this one is no exception. The music video for "Fell in Love with a Girl" by The White Stripes (from their 2001 album White Blood Cells) would start the frequent collaboration between the band and Gondry, all thanks to its unique usage of Lego.
While typical stop-motion Lego videos just use mini-figures and props, this music video takes this technique to unprecedented heights where nearly every frame is constructed out of Lego bricks. The squareness of the bricks and lack of colour variety helps to give the video a retro look, which makes it resemble something abstract like an Atari game. The amount of detail in each shot varies, with some looking completely abstract (yet still recognizable), while others provide three-dimensional close-up shots of band members Jack and Meg White which feature additional blocks for facial details.
The amount of time and effort of having to assemble each frame is quite astonishing to behold, due to the fact that each frame had to be constructed from scratch. Despite its primitive look, the fact that these frames were built from authentic Lego block, and made to be assigned to the lyrics of an under-two-minute song really demonstrates how much blood, sweat, and tears that Gondry and his team of animators had to go through just to get it completed.
“Dragon” – United Airlines (2006, USA) Dir: Jamie Caliri
The "Dragon" commercial for United Airlines is one many unique art pieces from Jamie Caliri, who you recognize as the guy who animated the end credits in A Series of Unfortunate Events (2004) and Madagascar: Escape 2 Africa (2008). This commercial was maliciously crafted by Jamie, his brother Dyami, and Duck Studios (now called Noble) over many months by using cut-out stop-motion and Adobe After Effects.
What makes this commercial particularly special is that it uses its 60-second narrative to its full advantage. This depicts a father's business trip from the perspective of his son, where something typical like this is imagined to be an epic and magical journey across to the distant land to slay a dragon. This especially helps the father-son bond to be very strong, where he makes up the time apart from his son by giving him the dragon he "captured".
Despite using 2D cutouts, the usage of the medium allows the usage of depth perception helps to give the view a grander sense of the scope, along with some very smooth movements. Additionally, the mixture of Celtic and Asian styles blend in so well, that it's easy to assume that the father went to either destination. White the compositing was completed in After Effects, all the sets were entirely hand-crafted, which enhances the authenticity of the art displayed in the commercial.
It's also interesting to note that the Caliri Brothers were developing the stop-motion software Dragonframe while making this commercial. Today, Dragonframe is the current standard for stop-motion animation, being used in the projects of Aardman Animations and Laika, as well as Tim Burton's Frankenweenie (2012) and Charlie Kaufman's Anomalisa (2015).
Trip: The Virgin Atlantic Safety Film (2014, UK) Dir: Clement Bolla & Mike Moloney
When it comes to airline safety demonstrations, many of them are the standard typical fare of seatbelts, emergency evacuations, and no smoking. This is where British airline Virgin Atlantic steps in with Trip, an animated safety video created by Art and Graft, which helps to keep the viewer entertained while also being informed about safety procedures during flight.
The video focuses on a passenger who just wants to use his in-flight entertainment system instead of having to sit through a boring safety demonstration. He then falls asleep and dreams about himself being in various movies. Each segment is dedicated to a certain genre such as film noir, westerns, and superheroes. Some even pay homage to British cinema, with nods to 2001: A Space Odyssey (1968), James Bond, and Yellow Submarine (1968). The latter has it's own 2D animated visual style which perfectly replicates The Beatles' animated psychedelic adventure.
The safety video was reported to take six months to produce. By fusing 2D hand-drawn illustrations with 3D techniques, it presents itself with a flat and simple, yet very stylized aesthetic, along with some striking lighting effects. Each segment perfectly assigns the typical airline safety instructions to creative visual storytelling, and they all smoothly transitions from one genre to the next without feeling jarring sudden.
What this safety video succeeds with mostly is that it works both as an animated short film and an instructional video. The stylized visuals and creative storytelling are at the service to engage the passengers in being briefed about in-flight safety, while also keeping them occupied from beginning to end, ensuring that all passengers are prepared in the unlikely event of an emergency.
Feast (2014, US)
Dir: Patrick Osborne
Produced by Walt Disney Animation Studios, this Oscar-winning animated short was released with screenings of Big Hero 6 (2014). Feast builds upon the same Meander technology used in the studio's past animated short Paperman (2012), where the supervising animator of that short, Patrick Osborne, would push the artistic CGI even further in this one.
While Paperman's stylistic approach was lacking colour, Feast improves on the technique by adding it. The result, along with the lack of linework, gives the visuals an abstract hand-drawn look while also giving the smooth CGI character animation and the unrestricted usage of camera shots. The visual style is further enhanced with the strong use of lighting, where each light spot is one consistent brightness value, and allowing it to stand out from the unlit areas.
Narrative-wise, it is set in the perspective of the Boston Terrier dog Winston. The low-shot cinematography allows the audience to engage with the eating activities that Winston would go through, as in they're put into the eyes of another canine. The short also frequently utilizes jump cuts to advance the story forward through time to an older Winston. Osborne was inspired by this storytelling technique through his usage of the app 1secondeveryday, where users record one-second videos each day and then puts them into a single movie.
Osborne would later take his artistic talents to Google, where he made the Google Spotlight Stories VR short Pearl in 2016. At the time of writing, he is currently at Blue Sky Studios directing an animated feature adaptation of the webcomic Nimona, which is set for release in 2020.
Other noteworthy shorts:
Brush: A Fox Tale (2018, US, Dir: Willi Anton & Faustina Arriola)
Creature Comforts (1989, UK, Dir: Nick Park)
The Dam Keeper (trailer) (2014, US, Dir: Robert Kondo & Daisuke Tsutsumi)
Desert Critters (2016, US, Dir: Li Wen Toh)
Head Over Heels (2012, UK, Dir: Timothy Reckart)
Kiwi! (2006, US, Dony Permedi)
Lunette (2016, UK, Dir: Phoebe Warries)
Pigeon Impossible (2009, US, Dir: Lucas Martell)
A Single Life (2014, Netherlands, Dir: Marieke Blaauw, Joris Oprins, & Job Roggeveen)