Wednesday, March 10, 2010

The White Gazelle





Some of you may know the legend of the long lost film The White Gazelle, made by Tony Laudati in I believe 1981 (?). It was featured in Cinemagic magazine long long ago, but until now the movie itself was unavailable for viewing to anyone who didn't know Tony personally. Well, thanks to today's digital culture, it's now available - for 99 cents no less (!!) on a site called Filmginder.

White Gazelle on Filmgrinder

This is an amateur production... shot in 16mm, but featuring some incredible sculpting and in-camera compositing effects. The compositing isn't as flawless as it would be if shot on 35mm film with a pin-registered camera... the 16mm models are known to suffer from what's called "film weave", making compositing effects tricky.

All that said, as soon as I found out the film was available I went ahead and downloaded it. I was able to pay through my PayPal account, simple as pie, and no problems whatsoever with joining the site or getting the download.

I really love the atmosphere of this movie. There's something primal about it... watching this caveman and his woman I get a real sense of how tough life was in paleolithic times, and what's more I get a strong sense of shamanism. Magic and mojo... the basis of all art and performance, leading right up to and including of course stopmotion itself.

Needless to say, I highly recommend this... ESPECIALLY for the price!!

23 comments:

jriggity said...

interesting!

I'll look into it 4 sure.

jriggity

masterymistery said...

Very interesting what you say about shamanism. I've just finished reading Joseph Campbell's "Primitive Mythology" in which he demonstrates that it was anything but.

masterymistery at cosmic rapture

PS I know a person who calls himself a "cyber-shaman" and who attempts in his website to draw parallels between shamanism and virtual reality.

Patty said...

Ah the wonders of internet sharing, thanks for posting I'm definitely interested.

Jeff Lafferty said...

Wow, what a great find! Thanks for putting up a link
Jeff

Cindy said...

Hey, you hit a goldmine with this movie. Thanks for finding it.

Dan Metalmadcat said...

m_) the trailer was already breathtaking

Dan Metalmadcat said...

m_) ♫♫♫We want Mike Brent back, we want Mike Brent, We want Mike Brent Back ♫♫♫

Well, you hear the protest here.


I am probably not the only one missing all your insightful works.

StopmoNick said...

You're definitely not!
I was just over at Shelley's Halfland, and noticed that as well as not updating this blog for a couple of months, he hasn't posted there either for a while - what's he doing, getting a life or something?
You OK Mike?

UbaTuber said...

Yeah, what's up MyKee???? Miss your posts, bro...

Dan Metalmadcat said...

m_) sing along, everybody!

StopmoNick said...

More than 3 months now...
We want Mike Brent Back!

UbaTuber said...

OK...undeleted spam.....time to worry?

Mike, where are you?

Anonymous said...

Mike, where are youuuuu? As Han Solo said "I've got a bad feeling about this". Marc

StopmoNick said...

Hey everyone,
Apparently Mike is alive and well - it's his modem that has died! Marc Spess gave him a call on the old steam-powered Alexander Graham Bell, and it sounds like he's using this time free of distractions to get into some serious animating. Yay Mike!!!!
We still want you back though mate!

UbaTuber said...

*phew* Thanks for the update Nick/Marc! Cant wait to have you back Mike!

Dan Metalmadcat said...

m_) AWESOME NEWS, NICK! thanks.

m_) it's great that we know now he is doing well...And we are all missing him anyway.

I am having some issues too with real life so I totally understand what is like to keep up with everything online.

Online RSA said...

Ah the wonders of the internet ;) Thanks for the link, I'd love to check this film out.

weeds dvd said...

interesting!

StopmoNick said...

Mike - if you ever see this - just though I 'd let you know that I still check in every week to see if you've got back online. And others at SMA keep asking after you.
Best wishes from all of us with whatever is going on.

Last I heard was a couple of months ago, when someone else who lives in the USA talked to Mike on the phone.

StopmoNick said...

Mike is back at StopmotionAnimation.com! Woo Hoo!

Darkmatters said...

Yes... I return!! I'll be making a blog post soon explaining all that happened in my extended absence, and the reason for it. Stay tuned....

R.S.Cole said...

C'mon man, what's the hold up? You're back from the land of the dead and after a wait THIS long, we fully expect reams and reams of new material!!!

Just kidding, So glad to see you back and I do understand it'll take you some time to unpack your many boxes of your life in the new location.

All the Best! -Ron

UbaTuber said...

YAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAYYYY!! So great to have you back, bro! :D