Short shorts
When I saw the first seconds of the movie ParaNorman (Laika, 2012), I was a bit confused and said "this doesn't seem right, it looks old". And indeed that part of the film was trying to look dated, because it was mimicking an old horror film that you later realize is being watched by a boy, Norman, on his TV. But it wasn't so much the old horror film itself that looked strange to me, it was the aspect ratio, those first moments of ParaNorman are not widescreen but had the more squarish 4:3 aspect ratio, which used to be the standard for TV viewing. It became clearer than ever that the 4:3 aspect ratio that I had been used to for years, had now become retro, a blast from the past. These shorts I made or participated in are all 4:3, so I decided to encase them in the kind of screen they were meant to be viewed with. I guess I'm making their unintended retro style even more obvious by the fact that it's all inserted within a widescreen frame and HD settings. Like a technical collage, or something...
The video embedded here is a compilation of four shorts, shown one after the other. There is a brief description of each below (from where you can also view them individually if you wish).
(To view in HD go here)
[On mobile devices, if it's not displaying properly you can try using a different browser, changing to "web version"
from the bottom of the page, going with the link to the HD version, or just using the links below]
First short: "Oniondrop has a little secret" (30 sec. animation). Oniondrop is a character I created and here he has something to tell you... [Some illustrations of Oniondrop, here]
Second short: "In Dreams" (3 min. animation) A woman wakes up, but where? Produced, directed and animated by María Curcio, Gabriela Pereyra and me, with an original score by David Portughes. This short also participated in the 2012 Official Selection of "CARTÓN", 2nd International Festival of Animated Shorts La Tribu (Buenos Aires, Argentina)
Third short: "Box" (4 min. animation) A pixilation short where a woman works at an imaginary customer service call center. I was in charge of sound editing and collaborated with the script. The original concept for the short came from it's director and animator, Matías Cerda.
Fourth short: "Sound and spatial representation of the Pachamama ritual" (1 min.) This one is not an animation, it's just a little experiment. I handled the camera and did the editing. The art was inspired by Diaguita culture. The Pachamama (Mother Earth) ritual is an ancient ritual of the indigenous people of the Andes and is still performed today. I think it varies but the version I know of consists in making a whole in the ground, burning coke leaves in it, putting the fire out, then offering some of what was harvested, covering the whole, so that Mother Earth remains content and fertile, translating in an abundant future harvest for the community. It's a ritual of respect and an acknowledgment that the community survives thanks to what the earth provides.
