Mr.CityMen is a collection of 5 short videos telling the
stories of unique and colorful characters, living their
lives in the city. The series was inspired by the childrens
books "Mr.Men" by Roger Hargreaves. The films
feature 3D Animation integrated onto live action footage.
23-year-old director Eric Lerner lives in Tel-Aviv, Israel,
where he's recently graduated from "Bezalel" academy
of art and design in Jerusalem with a degree in Visual Communications.
"Mr.CityMen" was his graduation project.
What
makes this series special is that the characters are simple
and straight-forward, so people relate to them very quickly.
The combination of 3D and live action is used as a story
telling tool rather then a celebration of techincal possibilities.
And its cute.
"I liked the possibility of creating simple, one feat
characters.
I love simple yet truthful stories and situations, so when
I was writing, I tried to aim for that. I think the stories
came out a little too complex after all, even after being
cut to fit within time budget. I would like to try and create
30 second films someday, just to present a character and
a situation.
CLICK HERE TO VISIT THE MR CITY MEN WEBSITE
When
I was filming for the series, I couldn't possibily plan
and remember all the different locations, so a lot of the
filming was pretty random: I got on rollerblades and toured
the city. I had an idea of what I wanted to see but I had
no idea what I was going to find. A lot of the script was
written in reaction to the different locations I found.
Some of the characters were very different before I found
their rightful place.
So I could say the city wrote the stories with me.
The
videos were created in Maya and AfterEffects. I am not a
Maya wizard so I had to learn a lot on the fly and sort
of tweak things to make it work.
|
"Animation
is the deepest art form, in my opinion. It combines
all the different art practices into one: film, illustration,
music and so on, all rolled up into one..."
--Eric
Lerner
|
The
music was created specifically for the videos. All the artists
are close friends of mine, and I tried to give each one
characters that fit their personalities. Directing the music
creation process was very hard but very rewarding, for both
sides, I hope. It took alot of work but I think the music
makes the movies what they are. They would not work the
same way without it. Big thanks to Eitan Shefer, Ariel Einfeld
and Dan Weisman.
Animation
is the deepest art form, in my opinion. It combines all
the different art practices into one: film, illustration,
music and so on, all rolled up into one final product.
--Eric
Lerner, FEB 2007
