Tag: National Film Board of Canada

In March, Ann Marie Fleming’s Window Horses Rides Again

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By Ed Sum (The Vintage Tempest)

For a list of upcoming screenings,
please click here.

Window Horses has been trotting through many festivals since its world premiere at the 2016 Annecy International Animated Film Festival in France. In North America, it’s making a return for a special engagement today in Vancouver with the producer of this movie, Ann Marie Fleming, in attendance. It has played in other shows like the Toronto Film Festival last year and the Victoria Film Festival early Feb 2017. On March 4th, it is playing at the New York International Children’s Film Festival.

Plans for a wider distribution is continuing with Mongrel Media handling distribution, and soon, folks can see why this colourful and powerful coming-of-age story is particularly engaging.

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What’s Next after Cardboard Crash, VR Cinema? Talking to NFB’s Vincent McCurley

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By Ed Sum (The Vintage Tempest)

Virtual Reality (VR) is making further steps into the mainstream this year, and Vincent McCurley, Creative Technologist of the National Film Board of Canada (NFB), knows how to make an experience in this field matter. His work, Cardboard Crash, is only a beginning in exploring what this technology can do. It is not always about smoke and mirrors. The applications range from use in drawing in the third dimension to medical imaging — one day, doctors might be able to perform emergency surgery in the virtual space because they can’t get to the hospital in time. While its use in the entertainment forefront is getting the most attention at shows like the 2017 Consumer Electronics Show which wrapped last weekend and at film festivals there’s more to this technology than meets the eye.

“It’s really about putting the audience in a position where they feel like they’re actually in that world. My program came out of that core idea of what makes VR different than any other medium,” said McCurley.

Ultimately, VR is the computer mediation of our senses. A truly immersive experience makes what’s presented by wearing that headset completely indistinguishable from reality to an image on a computer. A suspension of disbelief is required and a willingness to be entertained (or shocked) by the computer program creates part of the fun. For this particular application, this software engineer and filmmaker created, it explores a topic that academia is interested in. It’s a subject worth exploring when considering Google wants to put self-driving cars on the market. The future is looking dangerous.

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Taking NFB’s Cardboard Crash VR App for a Spin

550575449By Shawn Trommeshauser
(Dreaming in Digital)

Would you trust your safety to a computer algorithm? What about to the people who programmed it?

Cardboard Crash for iOS and Android is a deceptively straightforward Virtual Reality (VR) experience by Vincent McCurley and the National Film Board of Canada. Mid last month, it won the Digi Award for Mobile Entertainment and this award is the 11th to an NFB production. This app was first previewed in the DocLab program of the International Documentary Film Festival Amsterdam (IDFA) in 2015.

This title has a cute stylised world filled with cardboard people, buildings, and cars. The cardboard textures add a lot of detail to keep the world simple and angular. The music is pleasant and fitting for the game’s contents. Nothing overstays its welcome as the scenario is only a couple of minutes long.

The game has a very simplistic interface. It doesn’t require any additional controllers or hardware beyond a VR headset such as Samsung Gear VR or Google Cardboard to play. All you need to do is look at an available button for a few seconds to activate it. A voice clip will play when you highlight one of the many buttons and if you only want to hear the description before you decide on anything, you have to look away just before the selection is finalized.

I had no problem with the motion tracking or response time using an iPhone 5s. The game was a little choppy at times, but I believe that’s simply due the age of my phone. However, I experienced a huge drain on the battery, approximately 20% in less than 5 minutes of play time.  I’m not sure if it’s this particular game, the Unity engine that it runs on, or it was simply too much for my phone to handle. So if you give this title a try, please make sure that your phone isn’t overheating as you play.

Spoiler Alert! I’m going to go into detail on what happens during gameplay. If you’re interested and have a VR-capable iOS or Android device, I suggest taking a few minutes to play through Cardboard Crash before reading any further. it is only about two or three minutes long.

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A NFB Spotlight at the 2016 Vancouver International Film Festival

it9e4l8l_400x400By Ed Sum (The Vintage Tempest)

The National Film Board of Canada is coming to the Vancouver International Film Festival (VIFF) with hometown premieres and three fantastic animated short-length movies which explore the human condition.

Ann Marie Fleming’s Window Horses: The Poetic Persian Epiphany of Rosie Ming is going to be the highlight. This feature animation is about the love of family, poetry and history. There’s a blend of Asian and Middle Eastern character designs in this product which offers great contrasts. When the heroine has over-protective Chinese grandparents concerned about her well-being, who is in the right? Will cultures clash? The style looks very colourful and wonderful, and a preview will hopefully be coming soon here at Otakunoculture.com

The voice talents in this film include Sandra Oh, Ellen Page, Don McKellar, Shohreh Aghdashloo and Nancy Kwan.

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National Film Board of Canada Releases BAM for Toronto’s UNITY Festival

1-BAM_02_861360_300dpiBy Ed Sum (The Vintage Tempest)

The National Film Board of Canada has made BAM, an animated short, available for free public viewing. This piece made its premiere at the 2015 Toronto International Film Festival and was nominated for Best Animated Short at the 4th Canadian Screen Awards. But not everyone can make it to this show, and with it now available online, I can see why it’s a modern take on the myth of Hercules. We are not necessarily talking about the twelve labours here, but instead, this film explores the psychological side of this unnamed animated character. This hard-boiled piece begins with a look at his life while at a subway. As reserved as he is in one moment, at another he suddenly goes postal for nearly no reason at all. The violence is hidden as a train roars by, and the fallout is at the core of this short where he silently questions everything about himself. Where does his rage come from?

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Emerging Talents in Canada: Curtis Horsburgh on “Fyoog” & The NFB

IMG_20160614_161614380By Ed Sum (The Vintage Tempest)

The National Film Board of Canada‘s (NFB) Hothouse Apprenticeship program for filmmakers specializing in the animation medium is very aptly named. The goal of this curriculum is likened to the structure gardeners use to create ideal conditions for plants, where new talents are mentored and allowed to develop in new ways. One purpose is to allow them to re-imagine ways of making animation that’s creative and technically marvellous to look at.

One such talent is Curtis Horsburgh, a mixed media artist from Calgary. He studied at the University of Alberta to find his calling. Eventually, he found a passion in experimental film and getting to know how the mind works in psychology. In art, he’s developed quite the style which can be viewed at https://skrowl.com

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