Short Films
Student Animation'

Title: Pingpongs
Runtime: 5 mins 30 secs
Directed by: George Gendi
Synopsis: A married couple despite loving each other for many years have perhaps not spoken about certain feelings.
A nice little short about precisely what the synopsis says. The beginning is humrous as it conveys the idea of Ping Pong and Basketball merged as a sport. Th main idea being ut across being the lack of similarity in the thoughts of the man and wife. That said a certain compromise is found as in most marriages/relationships.

Years on they manage to remain true to each other, yet still haven't found the scope of communication. The man doesn't understand the feeling of his significant other as he feels if she had the need, she would ask & so he never does. A universally seen problem, perhaps both should find out a deeper understanding of the other & how they function & what they need. They finally do, one hopes they wold much earlier. Kinda depressing but uplifiting and educational. Simple drawing animation but quite effective in that I clearly identified with the characters.

Title: My First Taste of Death
Runtime: 9 mins 40 secs
Directed by: Laurie Hill
Synopsis: On Dodo Island, I face a deadly struggle with my nemesis the demented sea scorpion.
A story written at a very young age that many years later he has gone to make into a film, this is a fantasy film that resembles a little bit of King Kong mixed in with Jurassic Park. It is a tragedy of a young chap who upon finding harmless little dinosaurs on an island off shore, realises he must investigate further. As he tries to pursue his discovery he fights for his life in the dangers of the waters.

Rather a deep sentiment has gone behind this considering it was written by a child. I guess most thoughts of children are purer than us so-called adults. The animation here too is hand drawn pencil work, with a lot more shading as opposed to prmarily outlines like the above. Still effective, still impressive.

Title: Adjustment
Runtime: 6 mins 30 secs
Directed by: Ian Mackinnon
Synopsis: A diarist searches for flickers of hope in a drama of technical and emotional obsesion.
By far the best short I've seen. Techinically as well as the effectiveness of it. The flicker books are very effective and the use of 'live action' around it all. The integratio of drawing into it all is exceptional. The wow factor of how it looks so slick put aside, even the story is moving. It's about how the artist is so involved with his drawing he seems to miss what is happening around him & his girlfriend ends up leaving him.

As he finds himself drunk one night as she returns for her things, she realises that nothing has change since she left and this confirms the end for her. As she leaves she shuffles some of the diary cards upon which its all drawn. When the guy flicks through them, we see a number of mixed panels that we have seen before, but this time ordered in such a way it looks as though he is suffocating her. Though this wasn't true literally, it still wasn't far from the truth.

Title: George Grows
Runtime: 2 min 24 secs
Directed by: Martin Schmidt
Synopsis: Little George is one year old, when he experiences the shock of his life.
Very good. George crawls slowly and grows in age as he does, it is really as simple as that. Old and frail Grandpa George bumps into a little baby in his path .. & so it all begins again. It kinda reminded me of this picture on the right, showing the inevitable. It's supposed to portray reincarnation, I wonder if that's what the short was getting at?

Title: Mother
Runtime: 6 min 33 secs
Directed by: Christoph Steger
Synopsis: Mother is an animated documentary about a life devoted to the dead.
I almost got bitten for not liking this by one of the organisers who begged to differ. It was about the running of a funeral service. Now for the first two, maybe three minutes I was interested, then they should have just stopped. The average person with a TV probably knows about everything the woman is narrating, especially with a show like Six Feet Under practically based on it.

Title: Yarn .. Good Light is Essential
Runtime: 3 mins
Directed by: Reka Gacs
Synopsis: On a lonely night, a woman who is always waiting for 'the one' is in a nostalgic mood. What is there to do?
I'm not really sure this is the synopsis I would have given it, then again I'd probably struggle giving it one. It was a rather surreal little piece where the drawings blended from one thing to another. Kinda like where all the money goes these days on special effects. A tad reminder of the old school way of doing it. It is effective and kept me interested visually, I'me really not sure if there was a written plot behind it though.

Thoughts Overall: As a set of shorts, I think this has been the best lot yet, in that they all in my opinion I would rate above average. Considering these have all been done by students, I think the future of film isn't as doomed as people may think. An enjoyable watch :)