Carlos shot the film with a Nikon D70s and Sony HVR V1, captured with a Blackmagic Intensity Card, and edited using Adobe Photoshop, After effects CS3, Final Cut and iStop Motion on an Mac Pro from Apple. Many of the organic textures such as particles, drops, autumn leaves, etc, were carefully filmed over a green background in uncompressed full HD at 1920 x 1080.
Cohl made “Fantasmagorie” from February to May or June 1908. This is considered the first fully animated film ever made. It was made up of 700 drawings, each of which was double-exposed, leading to a running time of almost two minutes. Despite the short running time, the piece was packed with material devised in a “stream of consciousness” style. It borrowed from Blackton in using a “chalk-line effect” (filming black lines on white paper, then reversing the negative to make it look like white chalk on a black chalkboard), having the main character drawn by the artist’s hand on camera, and the main characters of a clown and a gentleman (this taken from Blackton’s “Humorous Phases of Funny Faces”). The film, in all of its wild transformations, is a direct tribute to the by-then forgotten Incoherent movement. The title is a reference to the “fantasmograph”, a mid-Nineteenth Century variant of the magic lantern that projected ghostly images that floated across the walls.
It’s an amazing little piece of history. It’s nice to see how far we’ve come and yet how things don’t change that much. Here’s to another 100 years of animation.
It’s amazing to know that the whole thing was shot on a Canon HV20. Here’s the before and after color grading.
The film was shot mostly with the stock lens, and some shots used the CANON Wide-angle adapter. I did extensive tests before hand with different settings and CC ideas, so I knew exactly how to use the Camera during production. I shot with 1/60th shutter at least, sacrificing the cinemode — and compensated for that by turning down the contrast in the settings to gain a bit of dynamic range. The “Before” images are really washed out and look flat, but having done the tests I knew what to look for. The wardrobe and locations were carefully considered to get a certain kind of look and colors after CC.
Eerie, magical, and beautiful. The music changes the entire tone of the piece. The editing also draws you in, begging the question, “What happens next?”
Some behind the scenes photos and a short making of video.
Jimbo is 13. All he can think about is one girl, Sarah Jane. And no matter what stands in his way - bullies, violence, chaos, zombies - nothing is going to stop him from finding a way into her world.
Between May 9 and May 19, 2008, filmmakers from 40 countries entered the NFB Online Competition when they registered their films with the Cannes Short Film Corner, the meeting place for short films at Cannes.
These 9 films were selected for our Online Competition by short-film expert Danny Lennon, programmer of this year’s Short Film Corner. They represent the best in the world and were culled from over 650 submissions.
