All The Bulbous Accidents
animated poem, 2010

This is a collaboration with Sarah Pearlstein, in which I animated the imagery contained in her poem, All The Bulbous Accidents.  The music, Sensitive Data, was composed by Chris Korda.

This new version had its World Premiere at New Media Film Festival,  June 13th at the The Downtown Independent in Los Angeles.

The original All the Bulbous Accidents played on July 9th, 2009 at The Somerville Theatre as part of a week long film series sponsored by Reel Movement.

Read an interview on making this piece: Deciphering All the Bulbous Accidents on Beanywood

Watch the original version of All the Bulbous Accidents on IFC.com and tvguide.com as part of the IFC Media Lab Showcase

These are the first two parts in a series of four collaborative animations by Iridium Productions, Empire S.N.A.F.U. Restoration Project, and Setravision.   Parts 1 & 2 had their unofficial screen debut at the recent Boston Underground Film Festival.   All four animations were shown as part of the Empire S.N.A.F.U. Restoration Project installation at the recent Mobius ArtRages Benefit.   See all of the Symbiote’s antics at the upcoming Reelfest, running from May 28th to June 1st at The Somerville Theatre.

This is a re-creation of an animation originally created by the homeless visionary known as “S.N.A.F.U”.  Though S.N.A.F.U’s original films are missing, presumed destroyed, the articulated model of the Symbiote and many of the other oddities seen in the film, are the original relics assembled by S.N.A.F.U.  In the years since S.N.A.F.U’s death, The Empire S.N.A.F.U Restoration Project has labored in collaboration with like-minded individuals and organizations to bring S.N.A.F.U.’s legacy to the public.

This animated production is a joint venture with Iridium Productions and Setravision.

These Symbiote animations were staged, shot, and edited at the Iridium Productions studio.  Several objects and the projected artworks were employed from Juliet Schneider’s collection.

Setravision was formed in 1999 by  multimedia artist, designer and instructor Garabed Setrakian. In addition to his integral role as animator, technical consultant & post-production wizard,  Garabed made use of his Arabic influenced calligraphy to create the Symbiote title sigil.

Music on Parts 3 & 4 is by Birdorgan.

director:  Juliet Schneider
music:  Charles Segal
title drawing: David Rosen
storyboard consultants:  Garabed Setrakian, David Rosen
animation assistants:  Chyle Crossley, Dorian Rose, David Rodal, David Rosen, Garabed Setrakian, Terra Friedrichs
co-editor: Garabed Setrakian

The story for Ova comes from a childhood experience of mine, attempting to incubate a wild bird egg.  Like a lot of my work, Ova evolved over a few years, enduring three studio moves and several intervening projects.  I started making sketches, notes and shadowbox assemblages relating to eggs around 1995.  I started building the set in summer of 2000, but the actual production took place mostly 2005-2007.  Ova had its world premiere at the 2008 Woods Hole Film Festival, and screened at the 2008 Northampton Film Festival.  Ova also screened at The Brattle Theatre on May 3rd, 2009 as part of the annual Mayfair Film Program, and at The Coolidge Corner Theatre from May 15th through June 30th, 2009 as part of a new program called Shorts R Us.  On July 9th and 12th, 2009, Ova screened at The Somerville Theatre as part of Reel Movement, and won the Audience Choice Award for Best Short.

Visit Ova’s IMDb page

Read a recent interview on Beanywood.

Title drawing by David Rosen

Below is a sampling of production stills, showing the set in various stages:

Exfoliation,  2004

A remake of a piece I created in a one-day workshop with animator Bill Plympton, at the 2001 Woods Hole Film Festival. The new version has more detailed drawings than the original, and a second sneeze.

Too Lewd,  1998

Too Lewd is a simple motion test for the doll used in the Ova animation.

And So On,  1997

An experiment in combining more than one type of motion. The first motion is that of the two dolls rolling the globe back and forth. The second motion is the building repetition of the image frame.

Embrace,  1996

This animation was made by capturing short video segments instead of stills.  It combines live-action movement of wind with stop-motion.

Red Set,  1996

The Red Set was built as an exercise in scale model-making.  I had originally planned to choreograph a Busby Berkeley style dance sequence, but I ended up dismantling the set.   The dolls represent characters called Neoscientific Dancers of the Exalted Universe.  I re-worked many of the ideas and materials from this project into my MFA thesis installation the following year.

Neoscientific Dancer II,  1996

This is one of two animations made with the Red Set.  It was made by capturing short video sequences instead of stills.  It’s another simplistic attempt at combining character movement and background motion.

Neoscientific Dancer I,  1996

This was made on the Red Set.  It was shot on b&w super8 film.