Adam

I’m sure you’ve all seen this by now but if you haven’t be sure to check it out.  Fabrice Joubert, former animator – currently animation director, was the writer and director.  The two things that really stand out to me, outside of the animation, are the character designs and staging.

The camera work is kept simple and clear by conveniently using a large wall mirror in the background.  The story is told without the use of any cuts.  Now I’m not the type that freaks out, getting in friends’ faces screaming, “Man!  Did you see that sequence where the cinematographer told the story without cutting once?!?!  DID YOU!!?”  I actually prefer seeing a series of well cut and connected images that move the story along but I think French Roast was successful with their execution of the single shot short.  The background mirror, being the key factor,  allows for visual cues for what time of the day it is, not only with the use of daylight but also with store owners closing up shop, and a way for new characters to enter the scene.

This could have been a tough challenge for the animators but they did a great job separating the actions throughout, making it clear where the viewer is suppose to look. I’m sure the boards really helped separate the large motion between characters but there are some nice quick back and forth moments where the timing in animation is key. A great example of this is at 49 seconds in, where the bum raises and waves his arm around to request for money. At 52 seconds his movement comes to a stop and the customer proceeds with his arm wave. Then the action goes back to the bum. Separating actions is also something to really think about when animating a single character.

Character designs are obviously something that can sway one person’s opinion one way or another about an animated project.  The average viewer might not be able to point out what is specifically wrong with a character design but they will know if they like to look at it.  This is the first thing that I noticed about the short and really feel they all have a unique look, specific to this project, and are visually appealing.  Unfortunately most people creating a short film don’t have Nicolas Marlet designing their characters. You can see some of his design work for this short and an interview with Fabrice about the short on the Character Design blog.

You can find the blog for the short film at frenchroast-blog.blogspot.com where they’ve posted a nice write up on the process of creating Gaspard the Tramp(the bum) here:  http://frenchroast-blog.blogspot.com/2008/12/gaspard-tramp-from-idea-to-3d_13.html

Watch the short film at:  www.frenchroast.fr