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“Half Sick of Shadows” by Parlour Trick (2013)

Video | | Paul Greer

 

Edit : Oct 2013

“Half Sick of Shadows” (The Parlour Trick’s first official music video) stars the enchanting, world-renowned dancer Rachel Brice.

“Deep gratitude and support to the hundreds of Kickstarter backers who made it possible to create this piece as well as The Parlour Trick’s first full-length album, A Blessed Unrest and a wide assortment of related materials.

Huge props to all of the wonderful people who collaborated on “Half Sick of Shadows”: Adam Lamas, Bryan Shelton, Devon Devereaux, Brien Hindman, M.S. le Despencer, and Star St. Germain.

Especially big snorgles to “A Blessed Unrest” partner Dan Cantrell, who composed the haunting piano tune that eventually evolved into “Half Sick of Shadows”, and to Rachel Brice, its shining star. Danbot and Bibbles, you are, without a doubt, two of the most fiercely talented creators I have ever had the opportunity to work with and I am endlessly inspired by you both.

Gratefully, ghostfully,

Meredith Yayanos“

Viennale-Trailer 2011: The 3 Rs (by David Lynch)

Image | | Paul Greer

With a sledgehammer approach a man, clad in a hat and coat, tries to cast out the nonsense on Earth. Every time he wields his tool and lets it come crashing down a pitiful screeching can be heard underground. The air is humming and buzzing aggressively with the sound of invisible insects flying to the attack. Nature is defending itself. Perhaps the man is having a psychotic episode. Or he is trapped in a film by David Lynch. The 3 R’s may be a reference to the three basic educational skills Reading, wRiting and aRithmetic; cultural techniques that, as Lynch’s dense school nightmare makes quite clear, are simultaneously techniques of manipulation, restriction and control. The question posed at the beginning regarding the number of stones in Pete’s hands is not trivial. Why two? Why not three? Or 14? In accordance with the Lynchian dissolution of cinematic narratives in an associative tangle of terror, everything that seemed to be linear, firmly established and secure is breaking down. Liberated images liberate thoughts. Or do free thoughts free images? There are spaces where experiences beyond the scientific-technical conception of the world can be made. In cinema even a squeaky bathtub duck can bleed if you cut off its head.

“Koko’s Earth Control” by Max Fleischer (1928)

Video | | Paul Greer

Tropes:

“Apocalypse How: At least a Class 2, but it seems to turn into a Class X. It was definitely one for the cartoon world.
A God Am I: The characters play with the control of the earth.
Baby Planet: The cartoon world is small enough for the characters to see it curving.
Big Electric Switch: The world-ending lever in the “Control of Earth” station doesn’t fully look like this trope, but it’s just as important.
Casting a Shadow: Fitz hides under Kokos shadow as if it were a carpet.
Declarative Finger: Used by Koko to chastise Fitz, and even inflates it to spank him!
Deranged Animation: Particularly the scene where a volcano morphs into the face of a man smoking a cigar!
Downer Ending: The short ends with buildings collapsing, the cities dissapearing into water, the earth still shaking, and Koko and Fitz melting into a puddle of ink.
Dramatic Thunder: One of the signs of the apocalypse.
Earth-Shattering Kaboom: Not the ending, but the toon earth they’re on blows up, throwing Koko back into the real world. This dosen’t stop the effects from going into the real world to wreak havoc as well!
Funny Animal: Fitz the dog.
Genius Loci: The volcano morphs into the face of a man smoking a cigar.
Hammerspace: How Fitz gets an ax out of thin air to chop apart a tree he is fighting.
Have You Seen My God?: There is a control room for earth with a lever to destroy it, but nobody watches over it.
Hell On Earth: One of the symptoms of the apocalypse, with demonheads living slightly under the ground level and volcanos turning into faces.
Hostile Weather: Happens after Fitz pulls the lever.
Instant Thunder
Losing Your Head: Koko, during the part where his head is stuck underground. When he first pulls it up, it has some…demon-esque-thing attached to it. Thankfully, he puts his normal head back on soon after.
Nice Job Breaking It, Hero: Fitz causing the destruction of their cartoon world and of the real world.
Oh Crap: Koko when he reads what the lever that Fitz is trying to pull does.
Our Demons Are Different: There is a horned demon head coming out of the ground, and when Koko looses his head, he grabs into the hole and accidentally takes the demon head, that seems to be just a head.

Roger Rabbit Effect: Mostly during the ending.
Schmuck Bait: Whoever gave a big lever a warning sign like that was just begging to have it pulled.
Screen Shake: Used in the life action apocalypse scenes.
The End of the World as We Know It
The Face Of The Sun: Melts The Man In The Moon before being hit by a Comet of Doom and swallowing it
The Man In The Moon: Melted by The Face Of The Sun
The Silent Age Of Animation
Thick-Line Animation
Too Dumb to Live: Fitz and his attempts to pull the lever that will destroy the earth.
Weather Control Machine: One of the functions of the eponymous Earth Control is Weather Manipulation.
Weird Weather: caused by the main character.
What Happened to the Mouse?: Just where did Max Fleischer go while Koko and Fitz were having their escapades?
When It Rains, It Pours
When Trees Attack: The scene where Fitz encounters an agitated old tree.”

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