The Eagleman Stag

I saw a quick synopsis of this short - animated, BAFTA nominated and revolving around the philosophy of Peter Eagleman , a man who as he gets older becomes aware that aging has an effect on time . Since I've recently been getting in to discussions as to " Does religious faith make you live longer - no it doesn't . It's just that being in a church for an hour seems longer due to its tedious nature " I thought this might be similar to Einstien's theory of relativity where "If you sit on a hot radiator for five minutes it seems like two hours and If you talk to a beautiful woman for two hours it seems like five minutes . That's relativity " but this isn't really the philosophy we got which was very esoteric and despite the velvety tones of David Cann I found the points that were being made very pretentious and not half as clever as it likes to think it may be

That said I don't think if Michael Please is putting forward any sort of life changing manifesto and it's all a showcase of the animation . Interesting that The Short Of The Week website brought our attention to the animation by saying they weren't going to mention the animation under any circumstances ! Obviously everyone keeps the technique secret in the same way Coca Cola wants to keep their brand name formula a secret . You quickly find yourself asking what indeed is this technique . It isn't quite CGI , it isn't quite Claymation and it isn't quite stop frame animation . It's so unusual that you find yourself forgetting everything and asking what is it ? which is to its own detriment . It's easy to admire and I've no idea how much of it was achieved but I do know some of the techniques such as including shadow in the images and how often do you see shadows in animation ? but over all THE EAGLEMAN STAG is unsatisfying

Let's not say that something is bad because it is too profound. These shorts do not have to be for children. That is a bit judgmental. I'm not a huge fan of the angst portrayed in this little film, but I think that it pushes our thought processes. A thing I have thought about for a long time is that most of humanity wants to find a way to extend life (be it an afterlife or whatever), but what good is that if our lives are vapid and unimaginative. What good is having more of it? This is a good, thought provoking feature, even with its pomposity.

Written and directed by Michael Please, The Eagleman Stag is an eccentric white-on-white animated stroll through the life of a philosophizing taxonomist who 'discovers that if you say the word "fly" for long enough it sounds like you're saying "life". Though this is of no real help.' Please has described his film as "a dark, cerebral comedy about a man's obsession with his quickening perception of time and the extreme lengths he goes to in order to counter the effect." He considers his use of monochrome stop motion as giving a surreal effect and wishes his settings to "create a sense of contemporary film noir." Please's film is more verbal and intellectual than the usual. The writing is so good and the pacing so elegant -- the thoughtful monologue gives greater coherence than short animations often have -- that it's easy to miss how inventive and remarkable the images are. The techniques used are listed as "puppets, animated objects, after effects." Tony Guilfoyle voices Peter, the other character, and Benedict Please did the music scores and sound design. Surprsingly, given the sophistication, this is a "graduation film" for the Royal College of Art -- ostensibly, student work. It received an award of Special Distinction at the Annency animation Festival of 2011, as well it might.

"The Eagleman Stag" is an extremely strange film and the plot is just about impossible to adequately describe. It's just one of those odd existential shorts you have to see and not even try to understand--just watch and admire the artistry.

I am not 100% sure how Michael Please made this film. It appears as if he's taken Styrofoam and cut it into various objects, people, animals and buildings and then animated them using stop-motion. But, this would have taken forever and would have been very, very difficult, so I wonder if perhaps he used some sort of CG that imitates this look. All I know is that it is a gorgeous and amazingly original and captivating. What's even more unique is that the film is entirely in black and white--with white shapes and gray/black shadows to give it depth. The bottom line--you just need to see this one. It's brilliantly made and so very, very strange. Well worth your time and I can't wait to see what he has for us next.

Peter's life begins in the womb like everyone else. At age four he is told he will not be allowed another birthday party for a quarter of his life. Years later he finds an insect in the backyard and is so taken by it that the next years are empty and dull in reflection. Time passes and he becomes obsessed by the idea of time passing and in particular speeding up with no hope of stepping back. His work as an entomologist brings a discovery that excites him with possibilities.

The Eagleman Stag is a film that really is hard to describe and being honest part of that is that ultimately I am not sure where the narrative leaves us at the end and it did rob a bit of the joy from me that I didn't have more of a satisfied feeling at the end. The upside of this is that I have another reason to watch it again – although to be frank, there are many of those anyway. Although the destination is not as strong as I would have liked, the journey and the telling of the tale is quite something. To focus on the story, the narration from Peter is wonderfully dense and engaging, helped a great deal by great voice work from David Cann. The flow and pace of dialogue and the clipped nature of his words is just great.

As a base for the whole film though, is some quite wonderful stop-motion animation and model work. It is hard to describe but everything flows so well and is filled with great cinematic touches. So we have small moments between a father and son which contain great animation but are also incredibly atmospheric with great lighting, but my personal favourite is a move through a building only for it to become apparent that it is model within the world of Peter (who himself is of course a model). It is stuff like this that impressed the most and makes the film beautiful to watch and compelling as a story but also as a work of sheer technical mastery.

Yes, it is a shame that for me the narrative shook me off at the end, however the telling of the tale and the delivery of it is really engaging and visually the film not only has great animation and model work, but also make impressive use of them with a real sense of the cinematic and the creative.