Bottle of Message

Separated by the sea,a unique Duo pass along message of their lives through a bottle.An elegant animation of minimalist perfection to show how to communication inside the innermost of human's soul.
Animated on location at a beach, in snow, and underwater, this stop-motion short details a transoceanic conversation between two characters via objects in a bottle.

The shot film Bottle captures a current cultural desire to engage in the world on a physical, experiential level. This cultural desire expresses itself through the fetishization of craftsmanship, workwear, rustic Americana, roots music, biking, hiking et al. The short film is able to do this by inventively leaving the cramped animation studio to create stop-motion out in the world—an outdoors, on-location stop-motion that I can only imagine to be hellish in practice. The result is worth it however, unique and interesting. I have seen the world play a role in stop-mo, the graffiti of Blu notably, yet he creates representations on the world, not of the world as Lepore does here.

This larger cultural flow which Bottle latches on to can be seen as reactionary, a consequence of the mediated and seemingly inauthentic substance of modern life. The film understands this, obliquely addressing modern disconnect via the loneliness and desire for contact that the two characters exhibit.  It is a well worn theme, but is nonetheless as relevant as ever, trapped as we are in an infoculture advancing faster than we can keep up. The desire of the characters for physical interaction rather than the mere continuation of bottle-messaging can be read as a statement to this effect.

However the short film would not have garnered the affection it has received simply as a document of exquisite taste or even insight, instead it is the depth of feeling the two abstract masses are able to engender that endears the audience. The heart of the film's skill in this regard is a unique process by which the characters are personified. Through the co-opting of gifts into their bodies, Sand and Snow progressively individualize themselves, allowing for deeper attachment by the viewer. It is a clever sequence and the character's pleasure is infectious, overcoming the inherent difficulty presented by the amorphous character design and the film's brief run-time. That said, this sequence has interest beyond mere utility, it is also a profound statement. The character's transformation touches on philosophy and psychoanalytics, dramatizing theories of ego-formation and individuality, which posit that these concepts are wholly dependent on contrast—the presence of an "other".

The animation video is one of the best short films I've seen.Well paced and executed.The images need no dialogue.A love story that has it's own language.It is worthy of to be Winner of the Vimeo Audience Award for Animation 2010.