24 Feb 2012

Procrastination ★★★☆☆



Review of 'Procrastination' which can be found here on Vimeo

Length: 04:18
Written & directed by Johnny Kelly
Genre: Animation
Date: 2007
Rating: ★★★

Logline: A short film exploring the concept of avoidance.

Here's a film about something the vast majority of us are guilty of. In fact, you may well be doing it as you watch the damn thing. I got the impression that this is probably more like a showreel or calling card rather than a short film as there's not much to it. The fact that it is a graduation piece supports that idea. It wont suddenly enlighten you in any way or even tell you anything you don't already know but is is a nice collection of multiple animation techniques and styles collected into one. From stop motion to hand drawn, it covers all the traditional methods but doesn't foray into the more developed world of CGI.

Bryan Quinn does the voice over and about forty seconds in, it feels like he's going to increase our interest by changing emotion and possibly send us into comedy but that feeling is short lived as he quickly returns to a less that enthusiastic delivery of his lines. At this point you realise that this is just going to be a list of humdrum examples of procrastination where the words are not as important as the animation on screen.

The only thing that will hold your interest will be the differing techniques which, to be fair, are all well done, nice and colourful, and cleanly executed. Saying that, there is nothing in there that will astound you either. I thought that the ending lacked and just sort of fades away without leaving a lasting impression. So feel free to watch this if you have a spare five minutes to kill or if you're looking for a competent animator to employ. Otherwise I wouldn't waste your time.

Best Bit: Quinn's increasingly animated narration around 40 secs.

Worst Bit: The failure to keep momentum and poor ending.

Final thought: Maybe prioritize story over technique.

Read a condensed review of this film on Twitter here.

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