Playdates
2016 · 5m · USA
Directed by Jacob Sluka
A CalArts Character Animation thesis film in which a hero is chosen, trials are endured, and questions are answered to some extent — Sluka's fourth and final student film features original music by Izaak Thompson.
Picked by Zoe
The scouts
CalArts thesis films live or die by whether the animator has something to say beyond technical facility — Sluka's hedge in the description suggests enough self-awareness about genre conventions to make the execution worth watching.
CalArts thesis with self-deprecating logline. The deliberately vague description isn't formal sophistication; it's a fourth-year student hedging.
A CalArts thesis film that signals its own ambivalence — 'questions are answered to some extent' is the whole posture. Charming in the student-reel tradition; I'd want to see what's next more than I want to revisit this.