CMU School of Drama


Wednesday, July 30, 2014

Marilyn Myller, A Stop-Motion Short about Stop-Motion Animation

Tested: Marilyn Myller is a stop-motion short about the awesome power and frustrations of being a maker, through the wandering mind of a stop-motion animator. A little surreal and beautifully animated, it's the kind of story that any filmmaker or sculptor may relate to. "A year in the making, the full six minute stopmotion short features the voice of Josie Long, one zillion hand carved tiny things, literally tens of carved foam puppets, two eye fulls of in-camera, long-exposure light trickery and a pair of tiny dolphins, smooching."

1 comment:

Julian said...

There is a lot interesting about this past the cute and meta factor. In terms of stop motion, this short emphasizes the idea of putting a lot of effort into work that is often destroyed. Though some stop motion characters might make it through the filming process, they don’t always. However, this film is about more than just stop motion. Much of the beginning is about the emotion that is tied to almost any artistic process, especially processes that involve storytelling. The artist is creating a world, and that comes with an immense sense of wonder and power until something inevitably goes wrong. Myller’s film portrayed the emotion of an artist being passionate about and absorbed in the world they create, and the feeling of abruptly being pulled out of the world. Anyone who has ever had that experience when working on a project, and I would guess that most people have, immediately empathises with the main character of the short, and stays with her for the rest of the story. The skill with which that emotion is portrayed is what makes this film effective, powerful, and relatable.