The Animation of Mikey Please
February 6, 2013 6:44 AM Subscribe
The Eagleman Stag is an award-winning stop motion animation film directed by Mikey Please with a striking visual aesthetic. The website for the film offers a "How It Was Made" video that is, in itself, highly engaging, but comes with a warning: "BEFORE WATCHING THIS, WATCH THIS. THEN ASK YOURSELF IF YOU REALLY WANT TO KNOW." If that link puts you off "making of" media, then perhaps you can watch more of Please's work: Spectacular View, Zombiegotchi, Seven Legs, Animation Tag Attack EP-10, title sequence for The Rabbit Lover, Picasso Pictures Christmas Card, etc.
The Eagleman Stag was shortlisted for the Oscar Nomination for best animated short film. I am disappointed that it didn't make it to the final round. (I wish I could say surprised, but so many worthy films get passed over that... OK, I was actually a little surprised.)
It is really, really good though.
posted by louche mustachio at 7:21 AM on February 6, 2013
It is really, really good though.
posted by louche mustachio at 7:21 AM on February 6, 2013
Well... Now I've not got any excuse. Time to get in the studio and make art. That. Was. Excellent.
posted by 1f2frfbf at 7:30 AM on February 6, 2013
posted by 1f2frfbf at 7:30 AM on February 6, 2013
All I can say is thank you for this.
posted by njohnson23 at 8:46 AM on February 6, 2013
posted by njohnson23 at 8:46 AM on February 6, 2013
I've often thought about that basic idea: that each year goes by subjectively as a percentage of your total life. But the analogy he uses in the making-of film suddenly made me feel somewhat dubious about the whole premise (although it certainly seems to capture the subjective experience well). That is, the analogy of the value of a pound to a poor man vs. a rich man. While it's true that the pound is enormously important to a poor man and insignificant to a rich man who is rich and who is poor when it comes to time, the child or the adult? Every year granted to a child is just a small percentage of the total remaining years of the child's life, and thus is relatively valueless to the child. But every additional year granted to the adult is a sizable chunk of the increasingly scarce resource of time remaining before you're either dead or incapacitated.
posted by yoink at 9:25 AM on February 6, 2013 [1 favorite]
posted by yoink at 9:25 AM on February 6, 2013 [1 favorite]
Every year granted to a child is just a small percentage of the total remaining years of the child's life, and thus is relatively valueless to the child. But every additional year granted to the adult is a sizable chunk of the increasingly scarce resource of time remaining before you're either dead or incapacitated.
I think the emphasis is not on the amount of time left, but in the significance of a moment and in its potential to be something new and unique. Over a lifetime many patterns will be established and repeated, many existing models validated, but earlier in life the chance that something will be experienced for the first time, or that some new experience will cause a significant change in your view of the world, is much higher.
So in that case, scarcity of already passed experiences increases the value of the moment, not scarcity of future experiences.
posted by beegull at 12:36 PM on February 6, 2013
I think the emphasis is not on the amount of time left, but in the significance of a moment and in its potential to be something new and unique. Over a lifetime many patterns will be established and repeated, many existing models validated, but earlier in life the chance that something will be experienced for the first time, or that some new experience will cause a significant change in your view of the world, is much higher.
So in that case, scarcity of already passed experiences increases the value of the moment, not scarcity of future experiences.
posted by beegull at 12:36 PM on February 6, 2013
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posted by HuronBob at 7:12 AM on February 6, 2013