Short and Skype

Hello bloggerfollowers!

In class this week we learned about the great works of Peter Glantz! Don't know him? Well, lucky for you he has a website. http://www.imaginarycompany.org/ We actually visited this website in order to get a better idea of his work. I'm posting the videos because I know some people missed class and would probably love to experience what we missed:)

The first thing we looked at was some animated shorts that Peter directed inspired by texts that he and his friend Becky started sending to each other. The first, Change your relationship to nature.

This short looked like someone took a children's book and animated two pages of it. With that in mind, it also seems like a short that would be used in a children's program on television. It's very simple, but positive. I think it's funny that it looks like it was made from a children's book because it has a print that goes with it.

The second short in the 'inspirational text' series is was "Your Heart is a Prism"

This short reminded me of 80's/90's television shows for kids. It just seems to have that rough artistic and psychedelic feel to it. I couldn't help but think of the show CareBears. I kind of wonder what exactly they want the response to be for these videos and if that is the effect received. I just have flashbacks to shows I watched when I was four.

The next piece was a music video titled, "I want to see you go wild."

When we first clicked play I was pretty excited to see the video. The beginning seemed really cool. I loved when the hands punched through the wall and played the piano! I started to loose the enthusiasm when the artist jumped through, but that's mainly because it's not my type of music and I'm not too into blood. Overall, I thought the music video was really effective because I liked the way the animations and the singer intermingled. The animations reminded me of cartoons you would see on Nickelodeon (Doug, Real Monsters).

We also watched a section of his performance. There was this big beast like statue with eyes that talked. You can find other videos of his performance on his site. When I went back to his site to remind myself what we watched I saw another music video he did. It was Madonna's "Like a Prayer" performed by Lavender Diamond.

I think the look of animation and real people looks pretty cool. The beginning was like a blank coloring book. What amused me while watching this video was that the prism heart came back! When Lavender says "home" an animated heart comes out of her chest and you see the faded prism light coming out of it. This whole video I was thinking "oh, the genius of green screen."

When I was watching the previous video something on the "suggestions" column of youtube caught my eye. A video of Zoey Deschanel and Becky Stark. The same Becky that Peter works with? I think so. I added the clip for your viewing pleasure.

Enough videos. We decided to do something brand new and exciting in our class. Skype with Peter! We had some trouble with sound, but I was happy to amuse our guest with a little song and dance, which he responded back by dancing around in a green mask. I think we'd get along great.

So skype with Peter. We each had to ask at least one question. Here are a few things I remember:

What tips do you have for film hopefuls that are moving to NY or LA.

Peter responded by telling a story of his own life. When he moved he went to a person that he really liked the work of. That day he was paid to write a few treatments for 300$ and by the next few weeks he was hired. His advice? Seek out companies or places that you like the work of and get connected.

There was a question about the difference between performance and film.

Mr. Glantz responded that he tries to make his videos incorporate the feelings one gets from live performances.

There was a question of how it is to work from his home town.

Peter said that through the use of the internet, phone, and Skype, he has been able to do projects with people all around the country. He hired on his friend Becky, even though she doesn't live by him, because working in different places is easier now with our technology.

We only had a few minutes before he had to go so I shouted out a question that I was curious about.

Me to PG: What inspires you?

To boil down PG's answer to it's simplest form, Peter said the earth and the air inspire him. I loved that answer because I feel the same. Life and love are definitely at the top of my list (which he also stated) and I feel our hippie like inspirations go quite well together.

Since I went so far into depth on Peter Glantz, I'm just going to talk a little about the Barber of

Birmingham. I LOVED the short. Maybe it's because I find elderly men adorable and fascinating, but also because this man fought for something he believed in.

Even though the film was short it was incredibly powerful. I loved how they combined history with the life story of this fantastic man. The whole time I was thinking "I should send him the print of Martin Luther King that J. Zielinski took!" I was sad to see that both he had already passed away. The film was dedicated to him and the co-director Gail, who also died.