archived-videos My First Original Animated Short, a cartoon love-triangle tale

animagusurreal · Dec 23, 2004

Hello, Group,

I've just completed my first full-fledged animated short, "Hearts in the Highlands - Episode One" (full fledged = longer than 10 seconds

)

It's a fast-paced love triangle tale between a cartoon sheep, sheepdog and wolf, all done without dialogue.

It's only 4 minutes long (with credits) but it is very Indie - I did it solo on virtually no budget. It's available for download as an 8MB wmv. -

Download Cartoon

(If, for any reason, that doesn't work, you can find on this page, under "Episode One - Full Episode", along with files for the individual scenes -

Website )

Comments are greatly appriciated,
Thanks,
Brent M. Parker

cinematography · Jan 5, 2005

I had a hard time following it.

I had a hard time reading the signs also. I enjoyed the strangeness of it all, but I would have appreciated it a lot more if the narrative was easier to follow. For a first animated short, I thought it turned out pretty okay. :yes:

animagusurreal · Jan 5, 2005

cinematography said:
I had a hard time following it. I had a hard time reading the signs also. I enjoyed the strangeness of it all, but I would have appreciated it a lot more if the narrative was easier to follow. For a first animated short, I thought it turned out pretty okay.

Glad you liked the strangeness.

As to the confusion -

My goal was to try to make it without dialogue - originally, ironically, in order to preserve the simplicity of the story! :lol:

(plus, every time I started writing dialogue, it was like "You can love him! He's a wolf!" Bleh.) I hoped the music and sound effects would help. Recently, I thought about adding narration in the form of a ballad.

Here's the synopsis, in a nutshell,

SCENE ONE

Sheila the sheep dreams of a handsome ram coming along, but instead is approached by Kyle, the shy wolf, who secretly loves her. Mack the sheepdog spots the wolf and dashes over to chase him away. Sheila intervenes, but Mack thinks she likes him, and gives her a lick. She then realizes she *does* like him, and Kyle is left dejected.

SCENE TWO

Sheila introduces Mack to her parents, and they instantly disapprove. Meanwhile, Sheila's Mother wishes that she and Sheila's Father could be closer. Sheila solves both problems by pretending to introduce Kyle as her new boyfriend, scaring her Father into her Mother's lap. Meanwhile, she ditches Kyle, and brings back Mack, who is now swiftly accepted.

SCENE THREE

Sheila and Mack are warily doing *something* (ahem) behind a sign. Mack howls triumphantly, but Kyle (watching from a distant hill) out-howls him, distracting him and stealing an intense kiss with Sheila. Mack is momentarily angry, but instead falls to Sheila's feet, leaving the sheep to ponder the romantic entanglements.

And all that in 3 1/2 minutes! (I also wanted it to be fast paced. )

Oh, BTW -

FIRST SIGN - "Please, Don't Overgraze - by order of Flocksboro Grazing Authority"

SECOND SIGN - "Please, Don't Overhunt - by order of Packsboro Hunting Authority"

THIRD SIGN - "Please, Don't Howl at the Moon Too Loudly After 6PM - Flocksboro/Packsboro Joint Howling Authority"

FOURTH SIGN - "Wolves On the Backdrop Mtns. - Please Don't Look at What the Sheep and Sheepdog Are Doing Between These Signs"

Thanks for watching and commenting

,
Brent

cinematography · Jan 5, 2005

animagusurreal said:
My goal was to try to make it without dialogue - originally, ironically, in order to preserve the simplicity of the story!

Making a movie without dialogue is actually very hard to do. I highly recommend some of the old Charlie Chaplin movies. I believe they could offer you better advice than I could, and give you a feel for the classic silent cinema comedy techniques. Charlie Chaplin was a master of this style of filmmaking.

Thanks for watching and commenting

No problem.

animagusurreal · Jan 5, 2005

cinematography said:
Making a movie without dialogue is actually very hard to do. I highly recommend some of the old Charlie Chaplin movies. I believe they could offer you better advice than I could, and give you a feel for the classic silent cinema comedy techniques. Charlie Chaplin was a master of this style of filmmaking.

No problem.

Yeah, it sure is hard. I guess I shouldn't be so hard on the makers of "Spirit: Stallion of the Cimmaron" anymore :rolleyes:

, (though, of course, they had voice over narration and talking humans)

Chaplin -
Thanks

, good idea. I've been meaning to see "The Great Dictator" (among others of his) for a long time.

When I was making it I was kind of thinking of Disney's Silly Symphonies, the ones where it would be just a little story about, like, 2 trees or 2 musical intruments in love, with music and no dialogue.

- Brent

cinematography · Jan 5, 2005

animagusurreal said:
Yeah, it sure is hard. I guess I shouldn't be so hard on the makers of "Spirit: Stallion of the Cimmaron" anymore

No. Be as hard as you want to be on that movie. That movie was total crap! :lol:

Fantasia is a better example of animation with only music and no dialogue. The original Fantasia is one of my favorite movies of all time. I thought the newer one was okay. I only liked a few segments from it.

animagusurreal · Jan 5, 2005

cinematography said:
No. Be as hard as you want to be on that movie. That movie was total crap! Fantasia is a better example of animation with only music and no dialogue. The original Fantasia is one of my favorite movies of all time. I thought the newer one was okay. I only liked a few segments from it.

I saw "Spirit" 3 times, because I really liked the character design and I wanted to like the movie, and I was disappointed every time. I re-scored the entire movie in my head, with pre-existing songs like "Wild Horses (couldn't drag me away...) " and "Running Against the Wind". I also felt that, because the horses weren't talking, they tried too hard to say, "see, he's feeling afraid right now..." with extreme close-ups, etc. Perhaps that's another reason I just kind of let "Highlands" keep going without stopping.

I thought about Fantasia - which is my all-time favorite animated film - but I aimed for the cartoonier (but still great) "Silly Symphonies"-style at this stage (also, since I'm just one guy with one computer.)

Actually, I was pretty impressed with Fantasia 2000, especially the Hirchfeld/Rhapsody in Blue segment and the final thing with the stag and the green nature girl. It's sort of its own achievement that they got it out (albeit in limited release) in the recent state of commercialized Hollywood animation, though they probably couldn't have gotten it done today, what with Eisner declaring 2D "dead", and all...

- Brent

P.S. Not to say that all "commercialized Hollywood animation" is bad - liked "Incredibles" - in a very different way than "Fantasia", of course...

cinematography · Jan 5, 2005

animagusurreal said:
I thought about Fantasia - which is my all-time favorite animated film - but I aimed for the cartoonier (but still great) "Silly Symphonies"-style at this stage (also, since I'm just one guy with one computer.)

Never think of it that way. With enough time and patience, one guy at a computer can do some amazing things.

Actually, I was pretty impressed with Fantasia 2000, especially the Hirchfeld/Rhapsody in Blue segment and the final thing with the stag and the green nature girl.

Yeah. Those were two of the segments I liked.

I also liked the beginning part with the abstract shapes, the whales, and the bird with the yoyo.

with Eisner declaring 2D "dead", and all...

Michael Eisner is a fool. As long as there are people like us around, 2D will never die.