Billy's Balloon |
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Based partially on a dream, the animation for this student film began shortly after Valentine's Day 1998. The animator was eager to animate pure action again after a tedious nine months of drawing endless talking heads. Also, he was depressed about a girl. A dangerous combination. To date, the film has received thirty-three awards. |
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Most of the questions during the Slamdance Q&A in Park City consisted of, "what's wrong with you?", and "do you have any children?" The movie was approached like a documentary. All the camera setups are motionless, distant, and strictly observational, with the total lack of any music also helping raise the tension. The cartoon's lack of dialogue unexpectedly makes it play like a traditional silent comedy, and it wasn't until after completion that it was realized just how much Billy is doing Buster Keaton. Appropriately, without access to the university's editing room for the last night of editing, final picture was locked using the only functioning equipment available: a rusted, barely operational silent movie era projector and a wall for a screen. Don foleyed most of the soundtrack in the studio with real balloons - the sound of Billy's rattle was created by shaking a combination of cat toys together. There were alternate endings in mind as Don approached the end of animating but he decided to stick with ambiguity, avoiding any sort of obvious punch line. Audiences' theories about what the film "really means" have ranged everywhere from socio-political messages, "childhood's innocence versus the agenda of society", to a "running commentary on the struggles of alcoholism." "Billy's Balloon" (1998) took home its first award at the 1999 Slamdance Film Festival, the Grand Jury Award for Best Short Film. Don was the youngest director in competition at Cannes in 1999. The Matita Animation Festival in Italy tied Billy for its Grand Prize, "for the cheeky and provocative irony wholly subverting adult-children affective relationships." To date, the film has received thirty-three awards. |
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Billy's Balloon Friday, February 29 Director: Country of Origin: Country of Focus: Length: |
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