LTV21

Commercial from 1938 for the new Philips Symphonic Series radios.  Directed by George Pál who also directed the 1960 version of The Time Machine, among other features you may recognize.   The Philips Broadcast features Sam Browne and Evelyn Dall with Bert Ambrose’s orchestra.

I can imagine this being something the old LTV would play during the intro sequence or as an incidental bit of animation that doesn’t play all the way through.  But I have to give props to the creators of this stop motion piece because it’s hard enough to imagine the things Nick Park and Tim Burton and those guys do these days, but  to do fairly fluid stop motion without the aid of all the fancy tools we have today (computers and I’m sure there’ve been some non-computer gadgets invented since 1938 to aid im stop motion production).. this has to be the equivalent of a 5 minute long Superbowl commercial in 1938 standards.  Enjoy this blast from the far past.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CUrqrbk1aeg

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CUrqrbk1aeg[/youtube]

BTW: Thanks to YouTube commentor “raymond18” for introducing me to a new animation term: puppetoon invented/pioneered by George Pál.  Essentially, stop motion using rigid figures, not posable ones.

More information at IMDB’s page, NNDB’s page and GeorgePal.com.

First, thanks to @LeoLaporte for retweetn @paulandstorm on this video.   These are the kind of things you might not necessarily stumble across without watching what all the cool kids are doing and watching.

This video is a bit of an oddball in the “LTV” context, but I think the animation fits well within the realm of LTV animation qualifications (even if the music is too ‘nice’).

A far cry from any Superjail, Dogboy, Franks Planet or even the artsy foreign pieces that have been featured, Oren Lavie‘s music video for “Her Morning Elegance” is a fantastic live action+stop motion piece that’s just fun to watch.  Oh hell, I don’ t know what else to say about it.  Sometimes things just fall into the category of “I don’t know what it is, I just know I like it”. 

From the YouTube description (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2_HXUhShhmY)

For fun Facts about the video visit -
http://www.myspace.com/orenlavie

Oren Lavie music on iTunes-
http://itunes.apple.com/WebObjects/MZStore.woa/wa/viewAlbum?id=293075581&s=143441

Her Morning Elegance
Directed by: Oren Lavie, Yuval & Merav Nathan
Featuring: Shir Shomron
Photography: Eyal Landesman
Color: Todd Iorio at Resolution
© 2009 A Quarter Past Wonderful

“Her Morning Elegance” written and produced by Oren Lavie, from the Oren Lavie album The Opposite Side of the Sea
© 2009 A Quarter Past Wonderful/Adrenaline under license from Tuition

Wow.. been ages since I’ve posted anything new.  Sorry about that.  Holidays and work got away from me.  But it’s February now, so time to get back to the updates, eh?

Here’s a really special piece.  “One Rat Shot” is the love child of Alex Weil and Charlex Films.  It’s a masterfully produced piece of CGI animation on par with anything Pixar has ever put out.  The camera work, sound work, composition, model work, writing.. everything.. is just superb.  Maybe 10-20 years from now, we’ll look at pieces like this and call them “primative”, but the quality and artistry put into “One Rat Short” will last a VERY long time.   I almost didn’t want to include it because I’d like to focus on some of the deranged and inspired examples of animation that LTV was such a great forum for, but there was a masterpiece here and there so “One Rat Short” still fits the theme and heart of LTV in the 21st century.

Bravo to Alex Weil and everyone who put this together!

From the YouTube description:

http://www.oneratshort.com

“One Rat Short” is a work of love created by Charlex Films. It began as part of the effort to grow the company’s CG department but eventually became much more than that. Originally, it was entitled “labratz” and as the title might suggest it mimicked the look and sensibility of worked already pioneered by other studios. As it evolved it took on a life of its own- it became my film- or as any director of an effort like this knows our film. We decided not to use anthropomorphic animation. We decided it would take place in two worlds- one so gritty, grimy and dark that the viewer needs to peer into the screen in order to make out the images- the other a sterile, white world so brightly lit that you feel the need to turn your head away from the screen. It was also important to me to keep the film looking as real as possible. One of the techniques we used was to give a lot of the camera work a hand-held feel and to keep it a little behind the action so that the scenes didn’t seem staged. Lastly and most importantly I kept the story simple and tried to give it heart. One of my favorite short films, which I saw as a child was “The Red Balloon”. I think the melancholic and innocent spirit of that film inhabits “One Rat Short.”

Alex Weil, Director