The Spine (film)
The Spine | |
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Directed by | Chris Landreth |
Written by | Chris Landreth |
Produced by | |
Starring | |
Edited by |
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Music by | Kirk Elliott |
Animation by |
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Production companies |
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Distributed by | National Film Board of Canada |
Release date |
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Running time | 11 minutes |
Country | Canada |
Language | English |
The Spine is a 2009 animated short film by Chris Landreth about a married dysfunctional couple, created in Landreth's "psycho realist" style, in which characters' mental states are reflected in their physical appearance.[1] Voices for the couple were supplied by Gordon Pinsent and Alberta Watson.[2][3]
Landreth has explained his animation style as "a kind of surrealistic portrayal of real people and what I do with the surrealistic part is to make people's emotional, psychological and spiritual state kind of very evident on their faces and in their body so that they look …scarred in a way that reflects their history."[2]
The Spine was produced by the
Production
Producing The Spine took two years, with the first year devoted mainly to development. The film was a more ambitious project technically than Ryan, and so required a much larger production team. Animators from Seneca College, which had been involved in Ryan, played a much larger role in the making of The Spine, with Seneca College people doing "about 95% of the animation," according to Landreth. Seneca professor Sean Craig, who had worked on Ryan as a student, was an animation director on The Spine. The film also utilized the input of C.O.R.E., including a team that did most of the computer rendering. The film was principally created using Autodesk Maya and Houdini 3D software.[5]
The screenplay for The Spine was written by Landreth while enrolled in a professional screenwriting workshop at Ryerson Polytechnic University. Some of the story was based on what he'd seen, 20 years earlier, at a group therapy session for couples, where it seemed to Landreth that portraying a dysfunctional relationship would make for an interesting story. It took Landreth just two hours to put the outline together, but completing the story took a year. The Ryerson workshop helped Landreth to flesh out his story and as of 2009, he continues to meet with his writing group once a month. Landreth also credits the production teams from the National Film Board and Copperheart for their creative input.[5]
Release
The Spine had its world premiere at the
Reception
Scott Hill of
The Spine received the award for the best film at the
References
- ^ Thill, Scott (1 September 2009). "Chris Landreth's Twisted Spine Will Melt Your Mind". Wired. Retrieved 11 March 2011.
- ^ a b c d "The Spine displays Landreth's unique animation style". CBC News. 17 June 2009. Retrieved 1 March 2011.
- ^ a b Wilner, Norman (12 June 2009). "Spine-tingling short". Now. Retrieved 12 March 2011.
- ^ "The Spine". Official website. National Film Board of Canada. Retrieved 11 March 2011.
- ^ a b c d Desowitz, Bill (9 June 2009). "Chris Landreth Talks The Spine" (Interview). Animation World Network. Retrieved 12 March 2011.
- Wired.com. Retrieved 2 October 2014.
- ^ "Chris Landreth's The Spine gets top award at Melbourne fest". CBC News. 29 June 2009. Retrieved 1 March 2011.
- ^ "The Spine". Collection. National Film Board of Canada. Retrieved 12 March 2011.
- Seneca College of Applied Arts and Technology. Archived from the originalon 20 June 2010. Retrieved 12 March 2011.
External links
- The Spine at IMDb
- Watch The Spine on the NFB website