The Lift explores the consequences of one very common behavior of not holding the elevator door open for someone rushing to get on or worse, lifting your finger and actively pushing the close button. In this film, an elevator interaction between the two lead characters goes wrong, prompting a young woman to learn about being insensitive and to be more considerate in the future.

The Lift seamlessly marries traditional animation and 3D background illustration into a modern day moral tale that any city dweller should heed. A mix of realism and fantasy helps transport the story from the modern world into a fantasy ala Alice going into the rabbit hole to see what’s on the other side only to then learn that her attitude was wrong.

A true labor of love, it took Robert and his team over 4 years to complete this 5 minute plus film that has been screened in over 55 festivals around the world, winning awards in 15 of them. Robert explored working with artists found online, all of whom he had never met and have developed continued working relationships with some of them. In this day and age it’s important to leverage social networking into your business model and The Lift is an example of this trend.

Robert lives in New York with his fiancé and his computer.

Here is a little snippet of me talking about my film, The Lift, then check out the pics.

Overall, a great festival, lots of filmmaker only events, tours and activities.  Some of the screenings were held at this phenomenal theater called the Canal Place Theater where you could order food and drink from your seat while watching a movie.  The seats where wide leather – New York has to do this! 

Kat and I also attended a wonderful filmmaker’s brunch at Second Line Stages, a really swank new Hollywood quality sound stage in the heart of the city.  They recently wrapped up filming The Green Lantern there.  

I attended my screening on Saturday followed by a short Q&A, mostly I talked about my inspiration for The Lift.  Kat and I realized that we needed a motivation for a character early on, which is why we went for a moral tale.  Living in New York elevators are a big part of life, so is the etiquette around elevators.  We decided on an old and young woman because it would reflect a theme related to respecting elders, a common Chinese tradition.  I wanted to use a young woman simply because I wanted to animate that.  After that you throw the ideas together and see what sticks.

Overall a really wonderful time at a truly top notch fest!

www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ge9VfALthLI

Additionally I just returned from a wonderful weekend at the 19th Woods Hold Film Festival. Kathy, my co-writer also attended. I was lucky enough to have my film screened two times, once at the main screening then a second time at the 20 in 2 hours screening. At the main screening I did a short Q&A with the other filmmakers who were attending.

The festival also did this wonderful filmmaker’s brunch at a house out on Penzance Point which overlooked Buzzard’s Bay. The nightly after parties also made it progressively harder and harder to get up in the morning. We stayed in Falmouth which is just a hop-skip-and-jump away, in fact most days we just biked into Woods Hole for the daytime festivities.

Overall the Woods Hole festival was a class A experience, I had so much fun and all the people who were a part of the festival were just wonderful. There is one thing that you begin to appreciate about well run festivals, communication. Woods Hole never failed to keep me in the loop. I can’t wait to try and submit my next film in 2 years.

All of these are so wonderful and I couldn’t be happier, I have to say that its always been a goal to get into the Woods Hole Fest. I have been going up to Falmouth, a town near Woods Hole, since I was little. There was a time when I didn’t want to do art let alone animation, I wanted to be a marine biologist. Woods Hole is the seat of this industry as NOAA is based out of Woods Hole and Bob Ballard’s expeditions to the Titanic were also based out of here. So this one is a little extra sentimental.

That said I HAVE to go I can’t wait to watch my film of of HDCAM and chased with some lobster rolls

Other than that I have to once again and always thank Kat, she makes it all possible with her help I could never have gone to the bathroom.

On a final note here is an early comment on my table/film from another blog Warren Peace (thanks for the kind words)

And I also wanted to point out an animated short film called The Lift, which featured some mighty impressive animation that was all done by one person. The plot sounds like a riff on the sort of “old woman curses somebody for wronging her” story of which the movie Drag Me to Hell is probably the most recent prominent example. Neat stuff, and possibly a talent to watch.

If you are in the area check out The Lift at its first festival screening in 1080p! More details

Check out more at C2E2

www.youtube.com/watch?v=V8LnsRZrpTA