Don Hertzfeldt

Hertzfeldt's films often feature hand-drawn stick figures acting out dadaist combinations of slapstick, absurd, and black humor along with heavier existential themes. I like to think of him as Kubrick incarnate with some seriously simple pen skills. He uses 16mm or 35mm film cameras to create his animations without the aid of computers and often employs old-timey special effect techniques such as multiple exposures, in-camera mattes, and experimental photography (seen to large effect in The Meaning of Life, and "Everything Will Be OK"). This lends a more organic feel to his works, most evident in occasional stop-motion animation sequences (as in the Intermission in the Third Dimension trilogy), as well as in the use of the celluloid and drawing mediums themselves as part of the visuals (as in Rejected and Genre).

Hertzfeldt has photographed all his films to date on an antique 35mm Richardson animation camera stand, believed to be the same camera that photographed many of the early Peanuts cartoons in the 1960's and 70's. It is reportedly one of the last remaining functioning cameras of its kind left in America (if not the world), but Hertzfeldt finds it to be a crucial element in the creation of his films and their unique effects. *
Rejected

Rejected was nominated for a 2001 Academy Award for Best Animated Short Film. It received 27 awards from film festivals around the world and in 2004 was ranked by the Internet Movie Database as the 3rd best short film of all time.

Although the film is fictional and Hertzfeldt never did any commercial work, he received many offers to do television commercials after his short Billy's Balloon garnered international attention and acclaim. In public appearances, he often tells the story that he always wished he could just make a cheap, nonsensical commercial to give to the company intending to hire him, make off with their money, and see if the terrible cartoons would actually make it to air. Eventually this became the germ for Rejected's theme of a collection of cartoons so bad they were rejected by advertising agencies, leading to their creator's breakdown and, presumably, his demise.

An Aqua Teen Hunger Force Rejected homage: "Broodwich"
(watch ATHF: Episode 34 in entirety.


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