LTV21

Saw this a while ago but have no idea what led me to it. Here’s the original site I found it on:
http://ticklebooth.com/2009/07/matthias-sturm-blood-and-thunder/

A video by Tobias Stretch.

http://vimeo.com/5772524

Blood And Thunder by Matthias Sturm from Tobias Stretch on Vimeo.

More videos and other art by Tobias Stretch:
http://web.mac.com/tobystretch/Site/Film.html

More music by Matthias Sturm:
http://www.myspace.com/mslucifermusique

I first heard about this from The Animation Show’s site (a great animation site and traveling animation show created by famed animator, Mike Judge).

Getty has an amazing archive of photos and video. They are one of the foremost archives of such things. You’ve probably seen dozens of their stock photos and video before (check the credits when you go to the movies, you’ll see Getty mentioned none too few times). In 2008, they teamed up with London-based Short & Sweet, a weekly short film gathering, to host a film challenge. The four selections shown are all really great, but two stood out as potential LTV fodder.

The winning selection was called “Photograph of Jesus” by Laurie Hill. The animation starts about 60 seconds into the video. Some great use of the Getty archive with some serious cutout stop motion action:

http://vimeo.com/2362113

Photograph of Jesus by Laurie Hill in association with the Getty Images Short & Sweet Film Challenge from Hulton Archive on Vimeo.

The second may be more of an LTV bumper type thing, but still trippy enough to be included. So here’s you’re two-fer bonus prize.. Jasmin Jodry’s “Star Games”:

http://vimeo.com/2362236

Star Games by Jasmin Jodry in association with the Getty Images Short & Sweet Film Challenge from Hulton Archive on Vimeo.

The other two videos are pretty good too. Definitely check out “Perrington Stud” by Big Red Button and “Long Jump” by Ian Mackinnon & Dominic Parker.

Check out the Getty film challenge site and the four winners in nice light-boxy video displays here:
http://filmchallenge.gettyimages.com/

Thanks to Pig Jockey for posting this animation a few months ago.

I like the song (“Two Weeks” by the band Grizzly Bear), but if you replaced it with something a little creepier, this might be a prime LTV candidate. Either way, it’s a well made animation. Great job, Gabe Askew.

Two Weeks – Grizzly Bear from Gabe Askew on Vimeo.

These videos are almost too cheery to be considering LTV-worthy, but every now and then something truly phenomenal comes around that you just can’t help but feature it for all the animation fans who might enjoy a brighter/cheerier palette cleanser before delving back into the dark and weird.

I haven’t read all his postings, so I’m not sure of all the little tricks he uses, but the primary result of these videos is a technique that makes real life scenes and events look like they’re stop motion animation.  I don’t know if it’s the bright colors and high saturation coupled with the sharp focus near the middle of the frame and blurred toward the edges.  Whatever it is, people come out looking like tiny little matchstick models, the seas look like they’re fake, even a real helicopter appears to be a little toy.

The “Bathtub” series appears to be all water oriented, but he has other videos that cover other topics.

I want to thank MythBusters’ Adam Savage for tweeting the link to this video and bringing the series to my attention.

Bathtub IV from Keith Loutit on Vimeo.

Keith Loutit on Vimeo

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

From the creative brain of Adam Pesapane (aka PES) comes a culinary visual feast of inedible delight.  Western Spaghetti is heading to Sundance 2009 and has been featured as Time Magazine’s #2 Viral Video of 2008.  Be sure to check out his site for some of his other videos.  You may recognize some of his commercial work like “Human Skateboard”.   Best of luck at Sundance, Adam!

YouTube

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qBjLW5_dGAM[/youtube]

From the YouTube description:

*2009 Sundance Official Selection *

Written and Directed by PES
*see more stop-motion shorts by PES at http://www.eatpes.com
*to see behind-the-scenes stills and video from Western Spaghetti and other PES films, find PES on Facebook
*want a t-shirt designed by PES? or a PES Yule Log for your TV? visit the PES Store

A fantastic “stop motion” (* see last note below) animation piece that recreates major military battles.. with food.  It’s fantastic and grotesque.. perfect for your typical LTV fan.

YouTube

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=e-yldqNkGfo[/youtube]

YouTube description:

Posted by: TouristPictures (youtube user) for TouristPictures (official website)

“An abridged history of American-centric warfare, from WWII to present day, told through the foods of the countries in conflict.”

For a breakdown of the actual battles portrayed in the film, click here.

For the official cheat sheet (breakdown of the foodstuffs), click here.

Now, to answer some FAQs…
- The food in this film was consumed either by myself or my dog after shooting. None of the cast went to waste.
- The software used was photoshop and after effects.
- The film took me 3 months to do.
- Although it seems like stop motion, most of it was stop motion created within After effects, using keyframe animation. I am basically moving the food around within the the program, frame by frame, which is the same as traditional stop motion, only it’s digital.