psst

In my opinion, there’s not much in the world of film than can top a short film created by a talented team of Artists……Although a short film created by 3 talented teams of Artists should just about do it!

This is the premise behind Psst Pass it on (or Psst!3 as its known its third outing), a collaborative film project of 17 films made by 51 teams of Designers, Directors, Animators and Composers.

The mission of PSST is to produce original short films through the collaboration of Designers, Directors, and Animators. Each film is comprised of three sections produced by three different teams: the beginning, middle & end. This process is the whole idea behind PSST! – a technique derived from the Dadaist game of Exquisite Corpse and the children’s game Telephone and applied to the arts of motion graphics, animation and film-making.

I think most of us will remember playing Exquisite Corpse when we were younger (although up until now I had absolutely no idea it was called that), the game where you draw on a piece of paper, fold it over just enough to reveal the tail end of your drawing and pass it on to the next ‘drawer’ to carrying it on. Well this is just like that…..but with film! [MarBelle: As a side note Little Minx have been knocking an interesting set of films from their directors following the Exquisite Corpse principle that are certainly worth a look too] One team makes the beginning passes it on (see where the name came from now!) to the next team, who make the middle and so on. It’s certainly a fascinating project and I must admit from the first movie I saw, I was hooked and had to watch the lot in that one sitting.

The films vary in effectiveness, with some piecing together to create some of the most interesting shorts I’ve seen in a long time. The crazy progression of Hare Four Thrillhare is thrilling and style-wise the three pieces flow together almost seamlessly, with a continuing theme running through all parts. Burial Sugar Live doesn’t have a reoccurring theme as strong as Hare Four Thrillhare (the final part of this film does include a couple of small reoccurring objects that kind of pull the first two bits together – sort of!), but fits together just as well because of the complementing animation styles used in each part. Don’t expect all of the films to flow like this though, some don’t seem to fit together at all, but this doesn’t make them any less interesting (in fact in some cases it makes them even more interesting!).

It’s a project that’s definitely worth your attention and at the very least you should check it out to support a bit of originality and creativity in the film-making process and if you like it……Psst Pass it on! (damn that was cheesy – I feel dirty!)

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