Don Hertzfeldt
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Don Hertzfeldt is an American animator, writer and independent filmmaker. He first gained wide spread appeal when his bizarre animated short film "Rejected" which earned him and Oscar nomination at the 2001 Academy Awards. He went on to earn further critical acclaim with his trilogy of animated shorts Everything Will Be Ok (2006) I'm So Proud of You (2008) and It's Such A Beautiful Day (2011) and he gained his second Academy Award nomination for his 2015 short film World Of Tomorrow. 1](Bradshaw, 2021) In 2014 his work aired on the famous animated TV show The Simpsons and 8 of Don's short films have gone on to compete at Sundance Film Festival, a festival record. Even more impressively, he's the only person ever to win the Sundance Film Festival's Grand Jury Prize for Short Film twice. 2](Don Hertzfeldt, 2021) In 2020, GQ magazine described his work as "simultaneously tragic and hilarious and philosophical and crude and deeply sad and fatalist and yet stubbornly, resolutely hopeful." 3](Don Hertzfeldt Is Making Animated Films to Last Forever, 2021)
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Hertzfeldt is known for being almost an entirely independent filmmaker. He completes his films entirely from scratch and animates, writes and directs every single one of them himself. Creating a film entirely by yourself is nearly an impossible feat however Don is as close as you can get to a purely independent filmmaker. Stephen Cavalier wrote in his book The World History Of Animation that "Hertzfeldt is either a unique phenomenon or perhaps an example of a new way forward for individual animators surviving independently on their own terms... he attracts the kind of fanatical support from the student and alternative crowds usually associated with indie rock bands"4] (Cavalier, 2011) Hertzfeldt primarily supports his work through self-distribution such as ticket sales from theatrical tours, DVDs, VOD, and television broadcasts and he has declined ALL advertising work.
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It's no secret that Don's minimalistic animation style, combined with his startlingly dark and estranged, yet stubbornly hopeful and philosophical narratives are the reason that so many like myself adore his work. He's a true auteur and a rarity in today's film industry. The dark humour that lends itself to truly saddening and shudderingly real stories about people and the world resonate with many younger, alternative audiences such as myself and are why we are so drawn to and impacted by films like Rejected (2000) and It's Such A Beautiful Day. (2012)
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His most recent success has come from his recent series of animated shorts "World of Tomorrow" (2015), "World of Tomorrow Episode 2: The Burden of Other People's Thoughts" (2017) and "World of Tomorrow Episode 3: The Absent Destinations of David Prime" (2020) Despite it's short 17m length, in 2016, Rolling Stone ranked World of Tomorrow (2015) #10 on their "40 Greatest Animated Movies Ever" list. 5](Adams et al., 2021) The most recent instalment of the World of Tomorrow series "Episode 3: The Absent Destinations of David Prime" (2020) has seen even more success than the first two. It currently sits as the highest rated short film on Letterboxd and The Film Stage noted "Hertzfeldt has crafted what might be the crowning achievement of modern science fiction." 6](Roan, 2021)
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Don's distinct technique comes from traditional pen and pencil drawings with as little digital input as possible. He uses old 16 mm or 35 mm–film cameras to capture his drawings and often employs old-fashioned special effect techniques such as multiple exposures, in-camera mattes, and experimental photography. While some of these techniques are as established as an occasional stop-motion animation sequence or a universe of moving stars created by back-lit pin holes, other effects are new innovations on classical methods, as seen with the in-camera compositing of multiple, split-screen windows of action in It's Such A Beautiful Day.
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Hertzfeldt used this technique right from his first major student film Genre (1996) and all the way to It's Such A Beautiful Day (2012). His recent World of Tomorrow franchise is the first time that Hertzfeldt used computer animation for one of his films. The film was still hand drawn however on Clintiq tablet instead of paper. 7](Don Hertzfeldt Biography, 2021)
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It's Such A Beautiful Day
In 2012, Don effortlessly edited together the three separate chapters of his animated short trilogy into one seamless 62 minute long animated film. It is his first and only feature film today, consisting of the shorts Everything Will Be Ok (2006) I'm So Proud of You (2008) and It's Such A Beautiful Day (2011) The feature film adopted the title of the third chapter and the film was an instant success among nearly all who viewed it during it's limited cinema release in Autumn of 2012. The film was then released on DVD, as well as on demand in HD on Vimeo, iTunes and Netflix. 8](Hertzfeldt, 2021) The film was received very well with critics making multiple top films of the year lists as well as giving Don the spotlight for his masterful direction. The film currently sits at a perfect 100% score on RottenTomatoes 9](It's Such A Beautiful Day, 2021), a score of 8.3 on IMDb 10](It's Such A Beautiful Day, 2021) and 4.3/5 on Letterboxd 11](It's Such A Beautiful Day, 2021), making it the 77th highest rated feature film on the website, higher than legendary films such as One Flew Over The Cuckoo's Nest (1975), Barry Lyndon (1975), Fight Club (1999), Taxi Driver (1976), Casablanca (1942), Lawrence of Arabia (1962) and many many more.
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The reason I love the film so much is due to it's utterly absurd direction and storytelling. It's easy to say that the film is unlike any that exists in almost every aspect. From the fact that it was made almost entirely by Don himself, who wrote, directed, animated, narrated, edited, sound mixed and composed the film, to the startlingly bleak but ever so impactful minimalist art style of the film. To me this film is the definition of the famous saying "less is more". The film is compiled together of basically stick figures with one or two objects in their surroundings. The film's minimalist style is actually crucial to the film and perfectly lends itself to the themes of the story. The film is about a lot of things and tackles a lot of themes, however, one of the most prominent themes discussed and presented in the film is that of death.
Death is prevalent throughout the film, whether it be family members dying off, or animals dying in the street, the reminder of death is everywhere. However the film's theme of death isn't necessarily what the focus is on. The focus of the film is about what comes before death: life. In one of the most emotional and memorable scenes of the film, the main character Bill talks about how he had wasted so much time of his life worrying about death and fearing it.
Another incredibly clever and poignant scene about life and death is the film's final scene, often referred to as the "Immortal Bill scene" The scene shows us Don's take on what immortal life actually looks like. It not only subverts the popular Hollywood convention of the hero always making it out alive at the end, but also undermines the common fear of death. Don cleverly gives us a look at how empty and strange eternal life would be and suggests that perhaps, mortality is what actually gives life meaning. Not in the sense of doing meaningful things like Bill creating enormous sculptures and reading every book, but in the seemingly indifferent and smaller things such as eating ice-cream bars with your friend. This is something I find deeply fascinating and poignant and something that I really want to take the chance to discuss in my film. That some of life's greatest pleasures come from the little smaller details, the experiences that stay with you forever even though you're not exactly sure why. These small, inconsequential things that you so often take for granted in life and never fully appreciate until you lose them, just as Bill loses the meaning of his life with his immortality. In my film's case, it'll come in the form of losing these things due to the pandemic and lockdown. I want to show just how much we miss these little, smaller details in life and offer solutions of to make the most of every day, and to never take anything for granted.
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Another fantastic scene in the film about life that I also want to point out in my film, especially given how well it translates to the lockdown, is where Bill realises that the inconsequential routine of actions he conducts every single day actually take up the bulk of his life, and that the unusual part he initially thinks are his normal, are actually the abnormal. This particularly applies to the lockdown experience given that how routine reliant I've found myself becoming. Not only because every single day follows the same old routine, but because there is almost nothing else outside of the routine we all currently have.
It's something that fascinates and depresses me and I think that a film about lockdown needs to address this issue. This feeling of Groundhog Day where every day pans out the exact same, where you complete the exact same chores and rituals, where nothing out of the ordinary happens. And as much as we wait and hope for something abnormal to pleasantly surprise us it never happens. Because in my case, unlike Bill's everything in between being the unusual part of his life, there's nothing in between. There is nothing but the routine. I want to capture the feeling of this imprisonment of our daily routines that we've all faced during the lockdown and this scene in It's Such A Beautiful Day gives me great inspiration. The main character coming to a realisation that his life is not really a life any more, and that every single day he does the same thing.
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Another thing I find fascinating about the film is that it's non-linear narrative style is actually due to the fact that the main character suffers from an unspecified mental illness that causes memory loss. Don's representation of memories comes in the most natural way possible. While mainstream media often uses memory sequences as linear flashback sequences that are easy to see where they fit into the overarching story, Don's approach is a lot less simple, but a lot more realistic. When we as people recount an event, say telling it to a group of friends, we create a beginning, middle and end to make the memory into a comprehensible story. However, our actual memory of the event is a lot more messy. We often recall random details and moments during our experiences with strange vividness, and these moments may not even have any overall meaning to us. They make almost zero contribution to our experience yet for some reason we remember them. We remember them more vividly than some of the more important and eventful moments of a certain experience yet it's impossible to pin point as to why.
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Don perfectly shows this in his film. It's filled to the brim with seemingly random events that's meaning is almost impossible to make sense of upon first glance. In fact, no matter how much you look into it and analyse it, you will never find any hidden meaning or metaphor in some of them. And that's because in this film, it doesn't need to. Take the moment in the beginning where Bill watches a person in a store hold up an onion and say "big onion". This moment contributes nothing to the film or to Bill's life but it's in there. You could argue that it is there for comedy however I'd argue that it's purpose in the film is to show that in amongst Bill's memories are scattered, utterly random details like this that he can remember but isn't really sure why, thus putting onto film this very human experience of being able to remember insignificant details without explanation.
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Putting these almost inexplicable human experiences into the film and as part of the character makes Bill, in a way, one of the most relatable characters ever. We don't know the specifics of Bill's life at all. We don't know his last name, or why he and his girlfriend split up, or what he does for a living because none of that actually matters. What Don communicates is that this information doesn't define Bill as an individual. In order to know and understand Bill, all of this information that's usually important in a narrative becomes irrelevant. It's Bill's relatable experiences and natural actions that make us fall in love with him.
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I want to try and incorporate this concept into my film. I want my main character Joe to be as relatable as possible. Given that we all have been through the lockdown and have all had our own experiences with it I want Joe's experiences to be a mixture of my own and experiences I've spoken about with other people. Joe is the audience in a way so making him relatable is essential. So to make him relatable, like how Don does it in It's Such A Beautiful Day, I'll make Joe experience and recall seemingly random and pointless events that we've all gone through during lockdown, and then these events will continually contribute to Joe's mental deterioration.
Due to the fact that I obviously cannot animate due to my own skills and time constraints, the visual look of my film will be very very different to that of It's Such A Beautiful Day. This film has a one of a kind spotlight effect in which Don shows multiple details at once during a scene whilst having the rest of the background entirely black. These small points of focus in the film really enhance this feeling of limitations that is prevalent throughout the entire film. We aren't just limited in our mortality (as explained when talking about the theme of life and death) but also our limitation in our human perception. It's human to be unable to constantly be picking up on everything in our environment as it is way too much information for us humans to comprehend and process. Instead we only focus on the things that are interesting to us, such as the task at hand or a strange disturbing detail about someone, perfectly captured by Bill looking at the child's deformed foot.
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We spend a lot of our time as humans processing information, whether it be the world around us or trying to understand our emotions for the benefit of ourselves and other people. It's impossible to experience the real world without the filter of our subconsciousness. This filter is the spotlight effect used in the film, and Bill's subconsciousness is of course, the narrator. The narrator speaks in third person rather than the conventional first person tense of narration. Why is this used? Well, it's because we usually perceive the world around us as objective. The whole story is Bill's point of view and no one else's. The narrator never thinks to comment on the thoughts and feelings of other people, only Bill's. It's not possible for Bill to perceive how what everyone in his life is thinking or feeling. Bill can obviously understand and perceive what they're doing, seeing and hearing, and we know that because his subconscious, the narrator, comments on it.
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The only time that we hear a voice other than Bill's subconscious is about two thirds of the way in where the left side of Bill's brain is put down and we get to hear the real world without the filter of Bill's subconscious. And towards the end of the film, Bill gets to experience the world free of the limitations of focus. The black and white, stick drawings we've been seeing for nearly an hour are suddenly replaced with bright and vibrant colours from live action photos. The spotlight effect is temporarily removed and these images fill the entire screen. The bias of focus has, for a blissful second, disappeared. It isn't ideal to constantly live like this at all and Bill's filter swiftly returns to him, but in this small scene in Bill's life, he's able to appreciate everything around him that he never really picked up on. The texture of his bathmats, the pattern of his wooden cabinets, the feeling of the air and the mesmerising nature of the stars are all things that Bill briefly comes to appreciate and love and this scene ends with "He wants to stop people in the street and say "isn't this amazing?" "Isn't everything amazing?" Bill is momentarily freed from the trap of his own subconsciousness, and instead of trying to analyse his life, he is able to experience it.
Loneliness and Cinematography
Coming back to the visuals of the film, it's impossible to adopt the same style and look for my film given that I don't have access to old school cameras and I also can't animate. So in order to retain an impactful and striking visual look to my film I have to make sure that the cinematography is as good as it can be. That means that it really needs to emphasise the core tones and themes of the movie I want to make, those being loneliness. There are a lot of great films about loneliness out there, and these are the best ones that I've seen that were answers in a poll I conducted on my Instagram asking for my followers to name 3 great films about loneliness:
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The Lighthouse (2019)
Joker (2019)
Moon (2009)
The Martian (2015)
Taxi Driver (1976)
Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind (2004)
Synecdoche, New York (2008)
Anomalisa (2015)
Ikiru (1954)
Cast Away (2000)
The Machinist (2004)
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All of these films communicate various different themes as well as loneliness. For example, The Lighthouse (2019), Taxi Driver (1976), Joker (2019), Moon (2009) and The Machinist (2004) are all films about people going insane and losing track of their reality in disturbing and horrifying ways that result in violence. While on the other hand, films like Synecdoche, New York (2008) and Ikiru (1954) are both films that associate loneliness with age, with loneliness being the grief of not having people to share life with. Instead of loneliness causing the characters in the films to become violent and mentally sick, loneliness causes them to become depressed and anxious. However, these films' depiction of loneliness aren't quite what I'm looking for. The feeling of loneliness in this film comes from the lack of human contact and warmth, causing the main character to become depressed but also cause his mental health to deteriorate. Therefore, my film is a mixture of both of these kinds of films about loneliness. However, there is one film about loneliness that I personally love and actually think is the exact type of film to take inspiration from. That film is Spike Jonze's her (2013).
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her (2013) is a sci-fi romance film written and directed by Spike Jonze about a lonely letter writer in the near future who falls in love with a human like operating system. The film was nominated for 4 Academy Awards in 2014 for Best Production Design, Best Original Score, Best Picture and went on to win Best Original Screenplay. 12](The 86th Academy Awards | 2014, 2021) The film has received enormous critical and audience acclaim sitting at 8/10 on IMDb 13](Her (2013), 2021), 94% on RottenTomatoes 14](Her (2013), 2021) and 4.1/5 on Letterboxd. 15](Her (2013), 2021)
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What separates her from being yet another sci-fi romance is the marvelous attention to detail in every shot, as well as a tragically human story to accompany it. The film is definitely about loneliness and the human dependency on social and sexual interaction, however the film hammers home these very clear themes with almost every single technical aspect possible. Joaquin Phoenix's fantastic performance certainly will always be extremely effective at communicating these emotions, however the way that this is communicated through production design, music, direction and even costume design are all incredibly effective at conveying what the main character is feeling. But the most effective of all is the cinematography and blocking.
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The film's cinematography is by Hoyte Van Hoytema, an Oscar nominated cinematographer best known for his works on Dunkirk (2017), Interstellar (2014), Spectre (2015), Tenet (2020), Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy (2011), Ad Astra (2019) and The Fighter (2010). 16](Hoyte Van Hoytema, 2021)
A great example of a shot that conveys the emotions of loneliness is this one:
The first thing to look at here is the shot's composition and framing. The shot is at an odd angle that cuts the main character off near to his mid waist so that the Shang-Hai city skyline is visible as a dramatic, large backdrop. Featuring these huge skyscrapers in a wide shot with the main character Theodore beneath them symbolises how small and insignificant Theodore feels at this given moment. Theodore is a small spec in an enormously vast world and this shot perfectly tells you that.
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The next thing to look at is the colour pallet. The shot is extremely grey and lifeless. Even the bright colour on Theodore's clothing seems saturated down to be just a sort of beige. This gloomy dull atmosphere created with the colour pallet further solidifies the feeling of depression or loneliness. It's clearly a very unhappy and unenthusiastic atmosphere and this is done because of how the main character is currently feeling.
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This isn't done with only the sadder moments in the film. In the film's happier moments there's a beautiful soft wash of colours. Like in this shot:
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These beautiful, inviting colours leap off the screen and radiate a far more comforting and romantic atmosphere in contrast to the greyness of the city skyline. The production design offers a perfect look at how the character is feeling, whether it be sad, or happy. This film demonstrates just how impactful and important production design and colour pallet is at communicating emotion, something that I need to accomplish in my film. Yet another way that the atmosphere and feeling is communicated in this film is through the costume choices. Theodore wears almost exclusively a choice of 5 different coloured shirts throughout the film, all of which symbolise different moods. The maroon shirt that he wears looks very red, and red in film is commonly associated with love and passion. Theodore primarily wears this shirt when he's feeling love and embracing it, like the scene where he first meets Samantha. On the other hand the pastel blue shirt is very cold and plain looking. Blue is often in films associated with cold, isolation and melancholy. This is utilised in the film as Theodore wears this shirt mainly during the sadder sequences.
He wears this maroon shirt 11 times.
He wears this checked maroon and grey shirt 6 times.
He wears this pastel blue shirt 7 times.
He wears this salmon coloured shirt 5 times.
And he wears this yellow shirt 3 times.
The different shirts are clear indicators for different moods. For example, the yellow shirt he wears when he is happy and enjoying himself, the times he's wearing the pastel blue shirt is usually when he's sad and miserable so that the shirt blends in with the already beige and boring colour pallet.
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So to summarize, her (2013) uses different colours in it's costume and production design to clearly and effectively communicate the mood of the scene. It also uses wide shots at odd angles to show the character in a vast, open environment where they look insignificant in comparison to everything else.
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Sound of Metal (2020) Ending Scene
Sound of Metal (2020) is a drama film starring Riz Ahmed, Olivia Cooke and Paul Raci about a heavy metal drummer who loses his hearing and struggles to come to terms with his deafness. The film has been nominated for 6 Academy Awards for Best Picture, Best Actor in a Leading Role, (Riz Ahmed) Best Actor in a Supporting Role, (Paul Raci) Best Original Screenplay, (Darius Marder), Best Film Editing (Mikkel E.G Nielsen) and Best Sound. 17](Sound of Metal (2019), 2021)
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Sound of Metal is a fantastic film that I've recently watched and there's a lot of unique filmmaking aspects about the film that I find very inspiring. Mainly, the film's sound design immerses you fully in the life and perspective of that of a deaf person. It distorts sound, uses high pitched ringing and silences to allow the audience to get a somewhat understanding of what a deaf person experiences on a day to day basis.
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In the final scene of the film, the main character Ruben goes outside not long after having surgery to have augmented audio receptors to help him hear again. The sounds are slightly distorted and muffled and can frustrate him. He sits on a park bench and takes in his surroundings. The constant noise from people and a nearby bell tower. Ruben decides to take his audio receptors where the entire world around him becomes silent. Ruben sits there taking slow breaths, embracing the world around him. He slowly but surely sprouts a slight smile on his face proving that he's come to terms with his deafness finally. The film then suddenly ends.
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What I find so amazing about this final scene is how it says so much without saying any words. When thinking of an appropriate and impactful way to end my film this scene came to mind and it's editing and sound design are what comes to mind. This final scene uses multiple cutaways to show us the different things Ruben is looking at and getting annoyed by. What I mainly want to take away from this scene is how it gradually shows us the character coming to terms with who he is and his unfortunate state in life.
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For my final scene, I want my main character Joe to find a remote, peaceful place where he can sit down and take in a beautiful view. There will be a few cutaways to show what he's looking at and the peacefulness of the area around him. Then the final shot will have very similar framing to the final shot of Sound of Metal, where Joe is sat down, and slowly coming to terms with the world around him, gradually sprouting a smile.
Aspect Ratio Changes In It's Such A Beautiful Day (2012) and Mommy (2014)
I briefly mentioned previously how during Bill's scene where he is temporarily freed from the restrictions of focus and can appreciate everything about the world that the spotlight effect that had been used the entire film is replaced with vivid colourful images that fill the entire screen. The screen's change in size is the choice of changing aspect ratios mid scene, a technique used in various films and TV programs. The reasons for this can be various. It is often when a different camera is used to film different scenes, and therefore the aspect ratio can slightly or drastically change. For example, during the climactic helicopter chase in Mission Impossible: Fallout (2018), there are shots that are taken from special cameras attached to the helicopters and drones that were used to film the sequence. The screen is completely filled by the picture, however, when the film cuts back to a brutal fist fight between 2 of the film's side characters and the villain, the aspect ratio slightly changes. There are clear unused black sections of the screen on the top and bottom due to the change in camera and the camera's changing aspect ratio.
While this still is a deliberate choice made by the filmmakers to make the climactic chase look all the more spectacular and real, it was mainly done due to the fact that different cameras HAD to be used. In terms of serving the narrative, this change doesn't entirely do much. However, there are a few examples that are for stylistic choices that are imperative to the narrative being told.
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More recently, Marvel Studios' WandaVision (2020) showcased multiple different aspect ratio changes throughout the show, but most notably in Episode 7 when Wanda enters her neighbour Agnes' basement, where it's revealed that Agnes is a powerful witch by the name of Agatha Harkness. As she travels further into the basement, the aspect ratio changes, and the screen gets tighter at the top and bottom similar as to how it does in Mission Impossible. However unlike suddenly cutting, the ratio gradually and very noticeably transitions, even with a faint sound effect, to make it more obvious that this is deliberate.
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This is due to the fact that Wanda travels from her fake reality that she has created, to the real world in Agatha's basement. In the show Wanda creates a sitcom world for herself to live in. The aspect ratio of the episode before that is 16:9, the most common aspect ratio used in 2010s sitcoms. However, it transitions into a 16:9 cropped to show that the difference between the two worlds that she is in.
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And technique is effective in this context, it wouldn't work in a way that I would want it to. I really like the effect that changing the aspect ratio has and there is a film that uses this technique in an incredibly impactful and creative way, similarly to how I want to use an aspect ratio change in my film. That film is Mommy (2014).
Mommy (2014) is a French-Canadian drama directed by Xavier Dolan and starring Antoine Olivier Pilon, Anne Dorval and Suzanne Clement about an unpredictable and, sometimes violent teenager who's single mother struggles to raise him. Matters are further complicated when their new neighbor Kyla inserts herself into the family dynamic in an attempt to help the situation. The film was well received by critics and audiences alike and the film won the Jury Prize at the Cannes Film Festival in 2014. 18](Mommy (2014), 2021)
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One of the most famous and acclaimed scenes in the film is the montage where Oasis' "Wonderwall" plays and the family reach a high point in the film, filled with joy and happiness and enjoying the world around them. Most of the film is shot in a box 1:1 aspect ratio, leaving a good portion of the screen unused for most of the film's runtime. However, at the ultimate high point of this montage, the teenager Steve makes a hand gesture to the camera as if to pull the screen himself. As he does this, the aspect ratio changes to a 1:85:1 ratio.
The effect of this is enormous. It's almost as if the audience and the characters are allowed to stretch out themselves. It symbolises the freedom that the characters feel in this moment and that's further emphasised by the fact that Steve takes a big, deep breath and relaxes his body language after changing the aspect ratio. The claustrophobic feeling the 1:1 aspect ratio is a temporarily removed and the audience are allowed to the view the film more freely and vividly, just like the characters do. After the montage ends too, where Steve's mother receives a letter containing terrible news about Steve, she stares at the letter for a while in a darker corridor, almost in disbelief. As she stares at the letter, the aspect ratio gradually shrinks back in on itself, once again trapping us in the claustrophobic 1:1 box ratio. It's a choice made to show the feeling of being trapped and no longer being free. The characters are once again compacted into a much smaller area of viewing creating the same feeling for the audience.
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