July 08, 2012

TAAFI - Sunday

Today was the final day of TAAFI. I went to the "Style vs. Design" panel and the "Shorts 3" screening. My favourite shorts were "Dr. Breakfast," "Wiretap - Never Say I Love You" and "Psychic Land."

The last thing I went to was the screening of "Shorts 1 - Straight Up Toons" where my own short Fester Goes Fishing was screened. I was afraid the audio/visual quality wouldn't hold up on the Lightbox screen, but it looked fine. The audience seemed to enjoy it, and laughed at all the right parts. It was also nice to finally see "The Last Belle", which featured some brilliantly trippy layouts and animation in the scenes with the drunk guy.

All in all, it was a fantastic weekend. Let's hope the festival returns next year!

4 comments:

Bruce Walker said...

Aaron, how did the audience vote go on Shorts 1? Sorry Louise and I had to leave before the closing ceremonies but I was fading fast from lack of food and I only just made it home in time to avoid a migraine. :-/

I could tell the audience was totally on-side for Fester. Gotta say that creativity & story win out over pure technique any day. Some of that animation, with large teams and amazing visuals, fell flat for me because it was like a 3 minute technical demo.

Your work was in great company though. Lou and I discussed the work all the way home.

Aaron Long said...

Thanks Bruce! The "Stuck" short ended up winning the Audience Award after the vote. I agree that some of the shorts felt like there was no real idea behind them apart from just showing off (which can sometimes be entertaining but often falls flat).

Even though I didn't win any awards, I was very happy with the audience reaction to my short and it was a huge thrill to have it play at the Lightbox.

Bruce Walker said...

I'd never have guessed that Stuck would take the popular vote. I'd have thought that Gingerbread or Friendsheep would appeal more widely. So I'm thinking that either Ms. McDonald had more texting friends in the audience or there's something really amazing and/or appealing about Stuck that I just didn't see. The only thing that I thought Stuck had going for it was brevity. From your animator's viewpoint, is there a magic ingredient there?

Aaron Long said...

Nope, I'm with you. It was very polished visually, but it didn't seem like there was any point to it beyond the metaphor of the womb as a prison. The only feeling it gave me was "Oh yeah, I get it... Huh."

I thought Friendsheep, the Gingerbread Man or the Last Belle would win.