"POUR 668" Nuance will not be tolerated. Animated Short By Patrick Smith

"Pour 668” is a sequel to my 2018 film “Pour 585." This is another heavily metaphorical hand drawn animated film, this time a powerful pouring machine inflicts punishment on a wine glass for mixing liquids. nuance is not allowed. You are free to choose.. as long as you choose red or orange. Choose a side or you consequences are severe. Tyranny within a society is the deliberate removal of nuance.

In this animation we continue the journey of numbered wine glasses, their heads filled with wine, or juice, or blood.. or ideology. In this installment of the series, the Machine is a great dispenser of these liquids. Each glass will grow with tribal enlightenment. But one glass, a curious fellow with a spring in his step, has the tenacity to mix two different liquids. At first this proves empowering as he whips and morphs himself to heights the others have not reached.. but the victory is short lived. The Machine reacts in alarm, and destroys the nuanced glass with brutality and precision. When the dust settles, the Machine gets back to the cycle of filling up glasses, but never mixing contents.

Director’s notes:
For the first time ever, I’m going to publish this cartoon directly to Youtube instead of premiering at a film festival. That said, I am sending it out to my festival network post-premiere, so I’m hoping it will be in competition early next year (the film festival submission process happens months in advance). Please feel free to ask questions in the comments, I read every comment, and respond to those that are thoughtful or insightful.

This short film was drawn frame by frame using a Wacom Cintiq drawing tablet, in Adobe Animate. I also used Photoshop and After effects extensively. Since I’m a traditional animator, I still draw every frame. My process is straightforward, I construct a storyboard, build an animatic (which is a storyboard that is timed and rendered as a watchable movie). And then animate each shot individually. Those individual shots are put together with the background in After Effects (which is the modern day camera). I miss drawing directly on paper, but the process of scanning and coloring thousands of drawings took a very long time.

Director Bio:
Patrick Smith is known for his metaphorical hand drawn short films, as well as his experimental stop motion films. His formative years were spent as a storyboard artist for Walt Disney, and animation director for MTV. Smith is a member of the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences, and a fellow of the New York Foundation of the Arts.

"Pour 668" Animated short film by Patrick Smith
Animated by Patrick Smith
Produced by Kaori Ishida
Associate Producer Eason Lu
Music by Filip Halon
©2021 Patrick Smith Animation LLC
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