I recently watched a similar style film to this one called Stanley Pickle which I very much enjoyed for its animation but also for the fairytale world it created in the meantime. With Luminaris there is a point to which I feel the same way but also a point where I feel it is a lesser film. The plot sees a man working in a light bulb factory where he inflates the basic element of light into a classic bulb shape before handing it to his partner who activates it. This continues all day and is done in room after room after room. On the side though he has bigger plans and is secretly stealing some of the basic elements.
The technical delivery of this film is pretty impressive, not so much in just watching but also considering the task of shooting it. Stop motion using human models is physically incredibly demanding and technically tough, but to do so with the sun as part of your model is to add just more complications – most of which are really out of your control I guess. On first viewing I assumed that the film must have been made with intense floodlights to make it look like sun, but this is clearly not the case and I guess it must have taken some time and some swearing to get all the external shots. Internals are also tough but there was less wonder in their creation and the things going on were limited.
This lack of wonder for me had a bigger impact when it comes to the plot. The film does have a sense of beauty and wonderment to it but I thought it was lost a little in the technical delivery whereas this should have been the whole deal for the film. Part of this is that I wasn't really drawn to the characters on the way to the end, so the feeling of them getting something so great didn't resonate with me too much. It is a very nice short film still and the technical side of it makes it well worth a look for this alone, but I wanted more wonderment and beauty from it so that the conclusion gave me more feelings than it actually did.
The technical delivery of this film is pretty impressive, not so much in just watching but also considering the task of shooting it. Stop motion using human models is physically incredibly demanding and technically tough, but to do so with the sun as part of your model is to add just more complications – most of which are really out of your control I guess. On first viewing I assumed that the film must have been made with intense floodlights to make it look like sun, but this is clearly not the case and I guess it must have taken some time and some swearing to get all the external shots. Internals are also tough but there was less wonder in their creation and the things going on were limited.
This lack of wonder for me had a bigger impact when it comes to the plot. The film does have a sense of beauty and wonderment to it but I thought it was lost a little in the technical delivery whereas this should have been the whole deal for the film. Part of this is that I wasn't really drawn to the characters on the way to the end, so the feeling of them getting something so great didn't resonate with me too much. It is a very nice short film still and the technical side of it makes it well worth a look for this alone, but I wanted more wonderment and beauty from it so that the conclusion gave me more feelings than it actually did.