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Inspired by the Half Life video game series, and the sense of wonder experienced in the opening scene as Gordon Freeman pulls into Black Mesa station, this is one of those shorts that’s interesting to watch even if you’ve never played the games. Just think of it as a deleted scene from LOST, unless you are a die-hard Half Life fan, in which case you will find that statement to be offensive. Sorry about that.
–via GeeksAreSexy
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This year there are 45 animated shorts being considered in the Best Animated Short category at the Oscars, and while the verdict isn’t out yet on which ones have qualified, the three shorts at the link below were submitted and may be among the finalists.
A man has a New York City sidewalk encounter with a chicken in A Morning Stroll, the dark and dreary world of Birdboy, and the surreal war-torn landscape of The Gloaming are all likely candidates for the Oscar, but do you have a bid for Oscar-worthy animated short?
This short demonstrates how sometimes simpler is better, and that good acting and straight ahead storytelling are often better than over-the-top action and visual effects in 3d animation. Enjoy!
–via 3d World
Felicia Day is one of the hardest working people in the entertainment industry today, and normally seems sweet as blueberry pie, but her new web series, based on the Dragon Age video game franchise, finds the demure Miss Day kicking some serious tail. I think it’s going to be a bloody good time, and seems to stay faithful to the games, but let’s hear from the gamers out there. Dragon Age web series-fun or failing?
If you think your life is strange, watch this animated short and thank your lucky stars that you don’t have to deal with the strangeness this guy deals with every day. Made by Santiago Grasso, this short yet insightful cartoon has lots to say and plenty of style to keep your eyes satisfied. This is animation for the lost, with a stark style that matches the dark subject matter, and an overall feeling that some people will identify with from frame one. Watch it while you’re at work and you just might end up with a better appreciation of what you do for a living!
Defective Bigbot Short from Michele Boldoni on Vimeo.
A group of friends put together this cute CGI short about a defective robot, and it looks quite nice considering these amateurs had no experience as professional animators. It’s no surprise that they all found jobs while making the short, they definitely have the skills! Hear what the artists have to say about the project at the Vimeo link above.
-via 3d World
Kyle Munkittrick encountered a story of a family who was encouraged to give their son growth hormones so that he would grow taller than the predicted 5′ 5″, which is just slightly taller than his parents. One parent thinks that may be a good idea; the other is appalled at the idea of treating a child for a normal condition.
Crack open any text on bioethics and I can almost guarantee that the “is shortness a disability” example will be somewhere among the pages. Shortness (and deafness, which The Dish is also exploring at the moment) sits right in the blurry space among disability, disease, and normal. How short is “too short?” Why is 5’2? too short for a man, but not a woman? The answer is pretty much: because we think it is. Human height does fall along a bell curve, but it varies around the world and throughout history. Yet, at some point, being short goes from a relative and descriptive term (e.g. I am shorter than Yao Ming) to a normative one implying a disability.
Growing taller than you would normally can have its advantages, but its all relative to the height of others around you. What would you do in this situation? Munkittrick looks at how we define “disability” at Science Not Fiction. Link
Vimeo user zeitguised has quite an array of entertaining art pieces on his profile. This is my favorite, but I also really liked “The Zoo.” The blending of impossible scenes with crystal clear sound effects wins me over.
Peripetics from zeitguised on Vimeo.
Zeitguised made a piece in six acts for the opening exhibition at the Zirkel Gallery. It entails six imaginations of disoriented systems that take a catastrophic turn, including the evolution of educational plant-body-machine models and liquid building materials.
via TwistedSifter
“Lucky” is a short short animation that is both arrestingly sad and gorgeous at the same time. Its moody, hypnotic tone and spurts of animated blood are set to rights with a semi-happy ending. Created by EB Hu. Music by Philip Sheppard.
Lucky from EB Hu on Vimeo. (via Motionographer)
The years of work that went into Chris Jones’ short animated film, The Passenger, finally paid off, for it’s now available on DVD. As Chris says, you can also “defile your senses by watching the quality-deprived version” on YouTube.” The piece won Best Australian Film at the Melbourne Animation Festival last year.
Follow our hero as he discovers an interesting riding companion on a dark, stormy night.
via Bifurcated Rivets.
Last February, director Spike Jonez (Where the Wild Things Are) agreed to shoot a video for Kanye West’s song, “See You in My Nightmares,” which was then expanded into a creative, short film – shot at a nightclub over two days.
The end result is an uneasy glimpse of Mr. West at his worst, premonitions of his MTV Video Awards appearance abound, and the ending says a lot about the musician’s own battered image of himself. It’s a fine piece, and will soon be available on iTunes.
Unfortunately for Spike Jonez, it was leaked last week with the help of…Kanye West.
“We Were Once a Fairytale” was leaked to the Internet and posted on Mr. West’s official Web site, kanyeuniversecity.com. Within a couple of days it was taken down without explanation. Mr. Jonze said the film was accidentally leaked from the postproduction studio of a friend, and that Mr. West did not realize that it was not meant to be circulated yet. “I think he was like: ‘Oh, it’s out. I’ll link to it,’ ” Mr. Jonze said. (A representative for Mr. West declined to elaborate.)
NYT has the whole story here and here.
“We Were Once a Fairytale” (embedded video)
(Photo: Spike Jonez, Inc. & Getting Out Our Dreams Pictures)
Let Hollywood Saloon take you back to a time before Stanley Kubrick was "Stanley Kubrick", before Spielberg was "Spielberg" and Scorsese was "Scorsese".
The folks at Hollywood Saloon have gathered together the early directorial efforts of some of cinema’s biggest and most acclaimed names, ranging from Stanley Kubrick and James Cameron to Paul Thomas Anderson.
These early works, consisting of 16mm student productions, Super 8 and VHS films, give us a glimpse of the youthful talent that would go on to produce some of the most important films of the 20th century.
From the Upcoming 
ueue, submitted by whitespace.
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Check out this award winning short film (it’s only 3 minutes long). It’s a nice shoutout to the gothic horror films of the 20s and 30s. Simple but effective.
Plot Synopsis:
A leasing agent prepares an apartment with a mysterious past for an
afternoon viewing. While awaiting the arrival of the prospective client
the leasing agent learns that she’s not alone in the apartment.
– via fightingowlfilms
From the Upcoming ueue, submitted by Gukbe2000.
