Grant Orchard – Basketball

Basketball
Basketball (2007, 13.5MB, 1:57 min.)

Director Grant Orchard joined Studio aka in 1997, and soon gained attention
for his idiosyncratic design and his ability to approach projects from many
different angles. He has created TV commercials for clients as diverse as Compaq,
Virgin and Orange. Grant has won two prestigious D&AD awards and achieved recognition
for his first independent short film WELCOME TO GLARINGLY.
He subsequently created 10 mini-films for QOOBtv under the banner LOVESPORT.
– from the shining Lumen Eclipse.

Sebastian Sommer – Happily Drowning

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Happily Drowning [clip] (2011, 126MB, 58 sec)

Here’s a clip from a short film by Sebastian Sommer, based on stories by the seemingly ubiquitousTao Lin.

It’s very nicely made – here is someone who takes to (and to some extent, reforges)
film grammar like a fish in water.
I’m not entirely convinced that the narrative is clear enough ( it all
looks so great and having not read the original I was intially prepared
to accept any lack of understanding was mine) – it was only a one sentence precis on
Sommer’s site that really clued me into what was happening.
Clearly, though, someone to be watched…
See the whole thing here

Edward Picot – Appraisal parts #3 & #4

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Appraisal Part #3 (2011, 159MB, 9:47 min)

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Appraisal Part #4 (2011, 143MB, 9:40 min)

Latest two in Edward Picot’s wonderful Dr Hairy series.

Sondheim – Unmissable , Unmatchable

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Native Dancer (2011, 92MB, 2:08 min)

Genbush
Genbush (2006, 17MB, 6:03 min)

Two pieces from Alan Sondheim -one we originally posted in 2006
and one very recent. The new piece –Native Dancer
is a particularly affecting example of recent motion capture/avatar work.
It properly forms part of a triptych but I think it is the outstanding of the
three and I’m going to exercise curatorial perogative & post it singly.
It enchants me -I don’t know exactly why, I think the reasons could be
quite banal -there’s something of the children’s TV sci-fi epic about it perhaps…
Don’t know, just love it.
And here’s what we originally said about the other piece, which I see no reason to change:

Humor is perhaps not a quality that springs immediately
to mind when discussing the work of Alan Sondheim.
Wrong! His work is saturated in it, often a species of
graveyard or gallows wit.
Here, though, he just lets loose, plays.
But the man is incapable of doing anything that doesn’t
resonate with layer upon layer of meaning too!

Dr Hairy – Appraisal Parts 1 & 2

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Appraisal Part #1 (2011, 232MB, 10:14 min)

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Appraisal Part #2 (2011, 151MB, 9:40 min)

Edward Picot’s bizarre and wonderful Dr Hairy series, the adventures of a hirsute
UK general practitioner coping with NHS (the NHS we love, don’t misunderstand us)
bureaucracy, continues with these first two episodes of Appraisal.
Picot’s comic timing just gets better & better (& occasionally strays into some
almost Beckettian territory) – it’s fascinating to watch a long
project like this unfold. If you missed the preceding episodes they’re here (as are some other
gems, some equally amusing, some altogether different in style and mood)

Emily Murdoch – Before Honeymoon

Before Honeymoon
Before Honeymoon (2011, 29MB, 1:39 min)

Another piece from a Writtle student, this from Emily Murdoch.
I think this is tremendous not only technically (I especially love the use of light)
but aesthetically too. It clearly owes a debt to Lewis Klahr but one can
see a very distinctive individual voice emerging too.
I do hope Emily continues to make art (and in particular moving image).
I find her work rich and moving.

Two Short Movies from Nick Fox-Gieg

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Disarmed (2002, 15.8 MB, 2:42 min.)

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Mother of All Bombs (2003, 9.5 MB, 1:45 min.)

Nick Fox-Gieg is an animator and theatrical designer.
His short films have been shown at the Rotterdam and Ottawa film festivals,
at the Centre Pompidou in Paris, and on Canada’s CBC TV.

Film by Samuel Beckett with Buster Keaton

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Film (1965, 68 MB, 17:28 min)

Samuel Beckett‘s only venture into the medium of cinema, Film was written
in 1963 and filmed in New York in the summer of 1964, directed by
Alan Schneider and featuring Buster Keaton. For the shooting Mr.
Beckett made his only trip to America. The film, which has no dialogue,
takes its basis Berkeley’s notion esse est percepti that is, to be is to be perceived.

Morrisa Maltz – Device Activated

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Device Activated (2011, 10MB, 1:54 min)

And after Tuesday’s ad here’s another piece of personal work
from Morrisa Maltz and it’s simply glorious.
I’m tempted to say it feels like restoration comedy on some
sort of mind-altering compound but it’s much, much weirder,
more beautiful & haunting than that.

Keep ’em coming Morrisa!
We’ll show them as long as you let us!

Edward Picot: Dr Hairy in Frank Talking #3

mathematics
Frank Talking #3 (2010, 278MB, 10:01 min)

Latest instalment in Edward Picot’s Dr Hairy saga which feels like
a weird amalgam of Oliver Postgate, soap and Carry On.
It’s interesting to observe how bold, deft & convincing Picot has become with the lo-fi
techniques he deploys in these and, furthermore, how engaging the actual
narrative is.
Great stuff!