Friday, September 18, 2009
Space by Implication
Today, in a class devoted to the moment-to-moment progressions in cinematic storytelling, I showed a few shorts.
One of them was a Gerald McBoingBoing UPA film in which Gerald goes to a language therapist to learn how to speak in words instead of sound effects.
I chose the short in part because it uses such minimalist production design. Rarely do we get environmental information that goes beyond a color field. When we do get more, it's for a very good reason, and even then the touch is light. Below, a still from a hilarious sequence combining super-scientific technological processing with jet-age jazz.
Gerald's incomprehensible vocal signals are reversed telephonically–by placing a call across the room via Europe–and restated as words:
United Productions of America, released in 1954. Directed by Robert Cannon. Putting it up as a reference for students.