particle valentine

An ecstatically gooey valentine for every secretly conscious particle.

_{"you won't be able to tear your eyes away from it"- Film Threat}

_{"stunning"- High Falls Film Festival Program}

an abstract experimental animation complete cast and crew list:

digital video, 4:44 minutes Christine Victoria Dunn

...the scoop...

This film is based primarily on a lucid dream, involving an "orgy of butterflies". They demonstrated to me the beautiful irony of doubting an irrepressible regenerative potential, with all their charming fluttery slime.

The film's called "particle valentine", because this dream made me so profoundly happy and jam-packed with gratitude, that I needed to record and express it as purely and completely as possible. The film is my valentine to every particle of everything, everywhere.

This film's ingredients include but are not limited to: a miniDV camera, a loyal Mac G4, Frame Thief, AfterEffects, clear soap, cake decorations, bleach, clay, streetlight and seashell refraction patterns, vaseline, vegetable oil, rotting wood paneling, tapioca, hand-painted 16mm film; and naturally, substantial amounts of time, patience, and chocolate. It was made using both stop-motion and live-action recording, and woven together in AfterEffects.

...the action...

The film opens by pulling the viewer through a dark and flickering organic world, in which a glowing clump of white petal-winged slimy butterflies is soon revealed. The mass of fluttering slime gradually disperses, leaving a busily churning body of fluid. This fluid turns over on itself, subtly changes colors and eventually disappears. The viewer is left in darkness until a soft blue spark illuminates the scene, revealing that the fluid has multiplied and thickened tenfold. It is now a light-filled watery nest bearing tiny red eggs. One red egg hatches, spilling its red fluid, starting a reaction throughout the nest.

Light bounces, glowing intensifies, fluid flows, general ecstasy ensues. The watery nest gradually transforms into a pink fleshy womb, in which pearls are being generated with connective tissues of light. The movement of the pearls within the womb reaches a crescendo just as the surface of the film's image seems to begin burning. We burn through the image to see a pure white clam shell being held in outstretched hands. The clam has the same rhythmic white glow and double structure as the butterflies in the opening sequence.

...director's bio...

I was born in Newport, Rhode Island, 24 years ago. Technically, my endeavors as a digital artist began in the 80's, as a child using MacPaint. I later earned a B.A. from URI in Studio Art, specializing in filmmaking and computer art. I'm now completing my M.F.A. in Film and Animation at RIT.

contact info:

stineshine@mac.com

http://homepage.mac.com/stineshine/

...screenings & awards to date...

Nov 2003--High Falls Film Fest, Rochester, NY- "Women of S.O.F.A."

Jan 2004--Slamdance Competition Shorts, Park City, UT

Apr 2004--Sarah Lawrence College X-Fest, Bronxville, NY- 1st prize

May 2004--American Cinematheque/Egyptian Theatre, Los Angeles, CA- "Hunger Artists"

June 2004--Synaesthesia 2.0 (art collective show), Rochester, NY

June 2004--Emerging Filmmakers Series, Rochester, NY

Aug 2004--NextFrame Festival, premiering in Philadelphia, PA--internationally touring program

Aug 2004--Rhode Island International Film Fest, Providence, RI

Aug 2004--Chicago Underground Film Fest, Chicago, IL

Sept 2004--Antimatter Festival, Victoria, BC, Canada

Oct 2004--Not Still Art, Micro Museum, Brooklyn, NY

10/04---Berkeley Video & Film Fest, CA- Grand Festival Prize

02/05-- Valentine’s Day Animation Block, Brooklyn,NY

TBA/05--International Festival of Cinema and Technology

...reviews to date...

Film Threat Slamdance Reviews:

http://www.filmthreat.com/Reviews.asp?Id=5576

PARTICLE VALENTINE

by Stina Chyn

(2004-02-18)

2003, Un-rated, 4 Minutes,

When you watch Christine Dunn’s experimental animated film “Particle Valentine,” you won’t always know what you’re looking at, but you’ll know how it makes you feel. Confused, “did I just see a manicured thumbnail?” Frightened, “was that a pair of eyes?” Awestruck, “it’s like the birth of a new life form or planet.” The images in Dunn’s four minute-long stop-motion piece are an assortment of definite objects (the thumbnail), colors (pinks, reds, oranges, yellows, and light greens), and discernible but ambiguous shapes (white flower petals that could also be mushrooms). The accompanying soundtrack is like organ music that’s lighter and twinkles more. Along with the visuals, it produces an eerie sensation. When the screen fades to darkness, you’re almost certain that something the next image will make your heart race. Instead, it’s something beautiful. Even if you can’t identify it, you won’t be able to tear your eyes away from it.

......

Distortion Music Magazine:

http://www.distortion.us/?K=722

New York's 9th Annual Not Still Art Festival a Great Success

"Particle Valentine" snapped us out of our reverie and into a "lucid dream" of profound happiness. Christine Dunn had a dream one night of an "orgy of butterflies" and then she proceeded to work for months to realize this experience in animation. She told us that the abstract images were created often from found objects, including tapioca (which in case you didn't know is a kind of pudding). The piece thoroughly succeeded. We were brought into her ecstatic experience - made up of outrageous if unidentifiable images - processed in 2-D animation software. And even her audio - which was industrial light, was created from a huge number of minute audio samples, then layered and scrambled so as to appear as hazy as her dream.