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The Cartoon Brew Student Animation Festival is made possible by sponsor JibJab and their strong support for emerging filmmakers.

Alex Horan’s Wolf Within grabs the viewer with its opening line: “As a boy in Kansas I was afraid of three things: rattlesnakes, tornados, and my father.” The short doesn’t let up, hitting all the right emotional beats throughout its nine-and-a-half minute length and exhibiting maturity and ambition that are rare for a student filmmaker.

Horan’s film, the seventh film to debut in this year’s Cartoon Brew Student Animation Festival, was produced at Massachusetts College of Art and Design. Th film is a period piece and family history, based on the relationship between Horan’s father and grandfather, the latter whom Horan never met. Without giving away the story, Horan’s literary allusions to the Jack London novel The Call of the Wild give the viewer an entry point into the world of the film, while providing an engaging narrative framework.

Horan’s delivers the complete package: carefully considered cinematic compositions and camera movement, one the more lush monochromatic palettes you’ll see, evocative sound design, and understated but highly proficient animation that matches the tone of the story. It’s this attention to detai that gives resonance to the father-son relationship depicted in Wolf Within.

Continue reading for comments from the filmmaker Alex Horan—

THE IDEA

I tend to lean towards humor in most of my work because it lends itself so well to the medium and it’s something I feel I have a natural ability to produce. I was afraid of using comedy as a crutch, and thereby challenging myself as both storyteller and an animator. For my degree project I wanted to push myself to create a film that made the audience feel something deeper than laughter; a film where you could connect and empathize with the characters. I felt that in order to create a film that meant something to the audience I first had to make one that meant something to me. I looked at what was closest in my life and found my father standing at the forefront. When I was growing up, he recited parables of his youth that shaped his character which, in turn, shaped mine. By deciding to explore the relationship between my father and grandfather I provided myself with the source material necessary to create a compelling narrative. More importantly, I also ended up learning a lot more about myself and my own relationship with my father and a man I never knew.

TOOLBOX

Nothing fancy here: backgrounds in Photoshop, frame-by-frame animation in Flash, compositing in After Effects and edited using Premiere. I love Foley so I tried to do as much as possible, only downloading sound when completely necessary. My favorite was using a pad of Post-its for the moth’s wings, utterly satisfying. I had initially hoped to use my father for the narration but quickly learned he’s a doctor, not a voice actor. I lucked out with a really talented guy from California using a casting website, which was a great learning experience coaching somebody via telephone.

CHALLENGES

Over the course of the year I really struggled with the narrative structure of this film. Initially I had a rough animatic with a general outline, but nothing concrete. I wanted my father’s story to carry the same weight for the audience as it did for him, but finding a way to do this narratively proved to be difficult. How much narration was too much? When was there not enough? Should there be any at all? I felt there was a fine line between spoon-feeding the audience and leaving them totally clueless. Unfortunately, due to deadlines, I had to start animating immediately and hopefully iron out the kinks along the way. I met with my god sent teacher, Tammy Dudman, a couple times a week where we’d just workshop my story. During these meetings we explored the relationship between my father and grandfather which, in a way, became an inquisition of myself. Here, I finally realized I had to worry less about my audience and more about myself and the film I wanted to create. Regardless of how tight or loose a narrative structure is, ultimately it is the viewer who decides how to interpret the film.

INSPIRATIONS

Lone Wolf and Cub by Kazuo Koike was a huge inspiration to me as well as The Road by Cormac McCarthy, both works obviously dealing with similar themes as my film. Also, The Book Of Five Rings by Miyamoto Musashi naturally played a huge role throughout the filmmaking process. Daniel Sousa’s film, Mikkel Sommer, whose loose style really influenced a lot of my process work leading up to my film. Additionally, “A Boy Named Sue” by Johnny Cash actually influenced me quite a bit because of its Americana feel and the lyrics of Shel Silverstein which parallel my father’s upbringing in a way.

WHERE YOU SEE YOURSELF IN FIVE YEARS

I’m sitting on a few short ideas right now that need some nurturing which I will continue developing and producing over the next five years. Ultimately I’d love to produce my own original content for television or film, but until then I feel there is still so much I need to learn about the industry. I’d be more than happy being a worker bee somewhere just to learn the ropes where I can develop my skills further as both an artist and an animator.

FILMMAKER WEBSITES

WEBSITE: AlHoran.com
TUMBLR: Phantomlobster.tumblr.com

For the fourth year in a row, we are delighted to present the Cartoon Brew Student Animation Festival, the premier online showcase for animated short premieres by student filmmakers.

Our 2013 festival offers one of the strongest and most dynamic slates of short films since we launched the festival. Chosen from a record-breaking 266 film submissions, the eight films in this year’s festival represent a remarkably high level of creative vision and filmmaking skill. The films selected were made by adventurous filmmakers who show a commitment to exploring the narrative and visual possibilities of the animation art form, and whose ideas and concepts are fully realized.

More quality student work was submitted than ever before. In fact, half of the films in this year’s festival are from schools that haven’t been in the festival during its first three years—Moholy-Nagy University of Art and Design, DePaul University, University of Southern California and Massachusetts College of Art and Design. On the other hand, Eric Ko is the first filmmaker who has been selected twice for the festival; his junior film Troubleshooting was a part of our festival last year.

Each of the eight filmmakers whose work is featured in this year’s festival will receive a cash award of $500 (US), thanks to the generosity of our festival sponsor JibJab. Further, Evan Spiridellis, the co-founder of JibJab, will select one additional film to receive the Grand Prize and an extra $500, for a cash prize totalling $1,000 US.

The festival will debut on Monday, July 8th, and a new film will be presented every week throughout July and August. And now, we proudly present the 2013 class of Cartoon Brew’s Student Animation Festival:

Lady with Long Hair
Directed by Barbara Bakos
School: Moholy-Nagy University of Art and Design (Hungary)
Synopsis: An old lady relives memories of her life contained within her hair.
Running time: 8 min 45 s

Sun of a Beach
Directed by Natan Moura
School: Sheridan College (Canada)
Synopsis: Shunned for shining a little too brightly, the poor sun feels alone in its search to connect and be wanted.
Running time: 1 min 20 s

Dumb Day
Directed by Kevin Eskew

Brain Divided
Directed by Josiah Haworth, Joon Shik Song and Joon Soo Song
School: Ringling College of Art and Design (USA)
Synopsis: The story about an ordinary guy who meets a not so ordinary girl, but his brain cells can’t agree on how to go about winning her over, which leads to Conflict!
Running time: 5 min

Our Son (우리 아들)
Directed by Eric Ko
School: Rhode Island School of Design (USA)
Synposis: Celestial bodies and the fragility of happiness.
Running time: 4 min 30 s

i
Directed by Isabela Dos Santos
School: California Institute of the Arts (USA)
Synopsis: Hand-drawn animation and dance performance intersect and interact in this short piece that deals with a well-known question: Who am I?
Running time: 3 min 35s

Wolf Within
Directed by Alex Horan
School: Massachusetts College of Art and Design (USA)
Synopsis: A father prepares his son for a world without him.
Running time: 9 min 35 s

Passer Passer
Directed by Louis Morton
School: University of Southern California (USA)
Synopsis: An animated city symphony celebrates the hidden world of background noise. Field recordings from the streets of Los Angeles and Tokyo drive imagined characters and cycles that build to form a living musical creature.
Running time: 3 min 47 s

What an amazing day. I was first invited to Mass Art Portfolio Review day last year. This year, Irena Roman invited me back for another go, and I was so happy to oblige. This is one day when I can talk to these bright, talented young artists and find out what direction they are most drawn to. I get to look at their work and, from my own perspective and from listening to their goals, I can give them useful feedback and advise them. It's such a great feeling to be able to chat with these artists.

Basically, the illustration graduating class file into a room where reviewers line the edges of the room. Illustrators choose a reviewer to talk with for 15-20 minutes and then move onto another reviewer of their choosing. We all wear name tags and our posts are clearly marked with our professions, so they know where we're coming from.

the process is informal, not uptight. It's a chance for the kids to talk to creative professionals from all walks. They might be interested in working the fine art print market, or children's publishing, or editorial, or any number of markets. The point is that we are here to give them feedback based on what we bring to the table and where they are coming from and where they want to go.

It was such a whirlwind day that I did not remember my camera. My friend and guru Carol Eldridge did bring hers, however and she managed to get s a nice helpful student illustrator to take a picture of us (which I will link here once she posts it.)

There were several students who showed an interest in children's publishing. Here are some points I feel are important to putting together a good children's portfolio. I may not have had to hit every one of these points with someone today, but


About the art process itself...
• Be a ruthless critic about eyes. This may sound really trivial, but eyeballs are very important and they have to be relatable and convey emotion and personality, but also work with the character and the facial expression. If your eyeballs are too stylized, cold, cartoony or whatever whatever, just be brave and go and experiment with your eyes (which consequently will also eventually encompass the face and then the entire body of your character. Oh well what can you do!). Experiment until you can really feel great about your eyeballs. Don't worry if it takes years. Take years. You can still work while you take years. Just don't stagnate-continue to evolve, don't be afraid to do this. It's how you grow.

• Find a way to love and become one with full, rich and saturated color. The children's industry craves color. This is a simple fact. You are more likely to work if you work in juicy color instead of light, soft washy, beach bleached color. I am not suggesting you sell your soul here, I promise. You can evolve a style that works for both YOU and for the industry, I PROMISE. If you work in a softer medium (like watercolor) and would like to evolve while maintaining the integrity of your medium, this will require some experimentation. You may have some growing pains, but you can do it. I did!

• Anatomy of any living creature you draw is incredibly important. the line/painting style in which you utilize to execute the illustration doesn't matter if the "bones" aren't there. The important thing is that you have an understanding of the anatomy and gesture, and that the anatomical drawing is correct and natural in whatever stylistic form you choose to draw it in.

About the portfolio in general...
• Create a series of narrative pieces to take the viewer through a story.  Anyone who is looking at your portfolio as your potential client is going to expect to see character/story progression in this very way. (Unfortunately I sound like a broken record on this one because they probably heard it one zillion times, but that's because it is really important.)

• Have characters interacting in a scene together. Show emotion and expression in faces. Show action. Show life. I