Brief Thoughts on Collision (2005) by Max Hattler
Max Hattler, 2005, U.K. & Germany, 2 min, color
Collision is a short, award-winning animation from Max Hattler, a London-and-Germany-based animator and artist, whose work we have blogged before, e.g., 1) 1923 (2010), and 2) Live A/V Performance by Max Hattler & Noriko Okaku. Hattler’s minimalist approach to graphical forms, pattern, and the RGB color palette are bright.
Collision deploys a deft arsenal of shapes on path, stars-and-kaliedoscope-striping geometry, with textures and forms culled from the ensigns of Americana and Islamism. Animators crackle and explode; pattern and cadence enkindle war paradoxes between the U.S. Government, the special interests of the U.S. Gov. (some say Israel), and their Islamic adversaries. The sound design is slick and significant, and this crackle-crisp sound imbues extrasensory depth, while punctuating the graphic.
I presume this was made in-part with Adobe After Affects: We must note that Collision was made in 2005, which is many year before the ubiquitous use of kaleideoscoping in digital motion graphics software nowaday — therefore, here is true innovation in our current epoch of digital motion design. The film has won copious awards and nominations, and has screened at a hundred or so film festivals and events of note.
In this day and age of Adobe After Effects, Cinema 4D, Maya and so forth, you can make a compelling short film without even touching a camera — and without money — and without actors. The challenge isn’t money or what software you have, it’s a matter of your work innovating or replicating. Something to consider, aspiring film makers.
Know your thesis, antithesis, and conceptualize themes before designing motion. Do that, and you make great work like this.
CREDITS
Directed and animated by Max Hattler © 2005
Production: Royal College of Art
Additional animation: Ian Mackinnon
Sound design: Max Hattler
Sound mix: Christopher Wilson
35mm film recording: Andreas Schellenberg, Pictorion das werk
Available formats: 35mm, HD, Beta SP, DVD
Length: 2’30”
Official site: http://www.maxhattler.com/collision