Shaft of Light

Stop motion animation set in a dystopian industrialized society.

Why have you stopped?
The way is blocked.
What is blocking the way?
I do not know.
We shall be late.
Yes.
It is bad to be late.
I know.
But the way is blocked?
Yes.
So we must wait.
Yes.

Screened at the 1997 Sundance Film Festival, and on Bravo, IFC, and the SciFi Channel. Distributed by the Anti Defamation League.

Category:

Film & Animation

Tags:

• stop
• motion
• animation
• robots
• carriers
• mechanics

[whatalune]

I taped some animated shorts off IFC about 15 years ago.  I labeled that tape "DO NOT TAPE OVER." A couple months later, my brother taped over it. I was saddest to lose this gem. I cyberstalked and found an email address for you, Bill Tomlinson. You wanted a swap, so I sent a copy of a DC/MD/VA music mix, and you sent me Shaft of Light! I was randomly thinking about it tonight and remembered that YouTube exists now. Do you remember, Bill? Hopefully my FB share will bring some traffic this way.

[wmtomlinsonjr]

@whatalune Sure I remember! I imagine I still even have the mix around somewhere. :)

Thanks for getting in touch! I hope you're doing well.

[PeteD07]

Does anyone remember a stop motion thing (a bit like this) that would be shown on bravo(UK) about 10 years ago at about 2 in the morning...

It was a fucked up bizarre yoke with all these sleeping fat ugly naked guys just sitting on these really high levers in the sky, then this strange telescope with arms started hitting one of them trying to get a reaction....

thats about as vivid a description as i can possibly give, bizarre but really cool...

[wmtomlinsonjr]

Was it "The Saint Inspector"?

[MistaDollaD]

cool

[dragoonpvw]

Was this in siggraph 98? I know my wife and I first saw it a long time ago, or maybe it was on a late night spot on tv. Whatever, it is part of our shared vocabulary. Whenever something is in the way of anything, us, the kids a pet we say "the way is blocked" and laugh. Be glad to know that your creation had such an effect on some people. Thanks. I haven't seen it for years and was inspired to look for it today after seeing "the scream" by sebastian cosor today. Also brilliant

[dymoandayers]

@writeonmatt1 Matt! You silly poohead, I am your sister. Marjorie? Hi!!

[writeonmatt1]

@dymoandayers That sounds like a hauntingly familiar scenario... My own sister had them recorded, too, and she showed me and I LOVED this video!

[FalcoLuft]

I have been looking for the independent shorts like this one from IFC.

They are not easy to track down. If anyone knows more about the Kafka animations 'The Country Doctor', 'The Bucket Rider', or a title I cannot remember about a person raising a crane.

They were done by a Russian animation studio and were amazingly done.

[dymoandayers]

I loved this one that they played, IFC, circa 1999. Was stop motion called Hillary. Was this guy carrying his daughter round, going through different doors that led to unconnected worlds, telling her a story in a British accent. I would love to see that again. It was totally intriguing to me. My brother LOVED this one, shaft of light. I recorded about an hour of these shorts on a VHS tape and we watched so many times. Also had "Death and the mother" which I also found on youtube.

[sickfixxreturns]

Anybody remember the name of a film on Exposure about a guy who befriends this alien, they go hand in hand to visit an amusement park and all kinds of friendly things like that, but in the end, the alien blows up the earth and gives an evil laugh. It was hilarious and I can't find any info anywhere, not even on a complete list of Exposure films because all they give is the film titles and their directors.

[pgadams1]

Excellent. I was unaware of this until someone showed it to me this week. Strong messages delivered in a short clip.