Short Film Saturday: Duet (2014)

If this short is eligible for the Oscars this year it has the potential to blow the field out of the water. Less than four minutes in length and I was moved to tears. This is Glen Keane’s first project for Google/Motorola’s Advanced Technology and Projects Group, Keane has worked as a supervising animator on many Disney films – if you didn’t know that going in it would be evident as you watch the spacial freedom, the journey through time and the metamorphic traditional animation at play.

Short Film Saturday: Howl

There are quite a few reasons to include this short. First, James Franco reads this version of Ginsberg’s “Howl” in this film. As Entertainer of the Year last year things he’s involved with get y attention. However, there’s also the fact that a poem is being artistically rendered as an animated piece in several small sections. The other sections, this is merely part one, and more information on the film can be found here.

Short Film Saturday: Cyrano de Bergerac (1900)

What is often overlooked when the discussion of the end of the silent era is had, or colorization for that matter, is that experiments with both color and sound occurred quite often before technology progressed such that it became a more practical feat.

Many know that quite a few silents were hand tinted, which is to same the color was applied frame-by-frame as desired. However, sound experiments often occurred also. Usually by implementing a technique called sound-on-cylinder. This film is believed to be the first to implement both as a scene from Cyrano de Bergerac plays out.