Alright,  I’m having embedding problems with video here at ol’ Edublogs.org, so if you want to see 26 seconds of amusement based on this post, click the following link:

 http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=05yo2811i1Y

Michael Langan is a promising new animator whose short film “Doxology” was featured in a film festival in Alabama yesterday.  Michael is originally from Montgomery, Alabama and I wish I’d made the trip up to meet him, but we had a full day of activities yesterday. 

On the movie site, http://www.doxologyfilm.com/index.html,  you can watch the trailer and see where the film is headed next.  In a recent interview, the filmmaker described recording the music for the Doxology (aka, Old 100th hymntune):

Perhaps my favorite part of filmmaking is designing the sound and music for a film. “Doxology” involved extensive original recording, for which I enlisted the help of a choir, two organists, a box of corn starch, and a mariachi band. The song which plays over the climax of the film is called “The Doxology,” which is an English hymn sung at the close of many church services. To achieve the full sound of an enormous church congregation, I had to multiply the sound of a single choir many times over. This required animating a sing-along video of sorts, from which the choir and organist could take their cues and sync up when joined by editing. I recorded the Higher Keys of Brown University in a large dance hall, asking them to sing the song ten times, changing their voices and positions after each take to add as much variety as possible to the recording. They sang like grandparents, children, opera singers, bored teenagers, and hopelessly tone-deaf churchgoers. On a separate day in another hall I recorded the organist playing the hymn with no choir. I then layered all of these sounds on top of each other, creating the illusion that the audience is listening to a single, gigantic congregation being led by an organist.

Sounds like he’s got some producer chops….pretty cool, eh?  Well, the movie is about the complex interrelationships between tennis, dancing cars and spiritual enlightenment.

Check out the synopsis:

Before reaching spiritual enlightenment, one sweater-vested young man must face a dancing Oldsmobile, endure a boozy encounter with God on a frozen tundra, and brush his teeth, comb his hair, floss, Q-Tip, lather and shave simultaneously. “Doxology” combines groundbreaking stop-motion animation techniques and unusual storytelling with the time-honored quest for spiritual awakening.

 

The really interesting thing is that this film is stop motion.  Like that series of stick-figure drawings you did in the textbook margin in elementary school.   Very old-school.