It's Such a Beautiful Day returns to theaters for the first time since 2012, paired with Don Hertzfeldt's all-new 22 minute musical odyssey, ME!
Originally released as three short films over the course of six years, the picture was captured entirely in-camera on a 35mm rostrum animation stand. Built in the 1940s and used by Hertzfeldt on all of his animated films since 1999, it was one of the last surviving cameras of its kind still operating in the world, indispensable in creating the story's unique images and visual effects. It's Such a Beautiful Day painstakingly blended traditional hand-drawn animation and experimental optical effects with new digital hybrids, printed out one frame at time and placed under the camera.
The film's signature "split screen" effects were achieved by photographing the animation through small holes that were positioned just beneath the camera lens. One area of the film frame would be individually photographed, the film was then rewound, another section of the frame would be exposed through a different hole, and the process repeated until all elements of a scene were composited together.
Towards the end of production, the old camera's motor began to fail and could no longer advance the film properly, riddling the final reels with unintentional light leaks.
In 2012, the three completed short films about a man named Bill were seamlessly combined to create a new feature film. Upon its original release, It's Such a Beautiful Day was named by many critics as one of the best films of the year.
Don Hertzfeldt’s newest animated film ME is a 22-minute musical odyssey about trauma, technology, and the retreat of humanity into itself. Indiewire has described it as “soul-shaking” and “a triumph”.
Don Hertzfeldt is an American independent filmmaker whose animated films have screened around the world. His work has received two Oscar® nominations for Best Animated Short Film, two Sundance Film Festival Grand Prizes for Short Film, a Short Film Palm d'Or nomination at the Cannes Film Festival, and over 250 other awards.
"One of the great outsider artworks of the modern era, at once sympathetic and shocking, beautiful and horrifying, angry and hilarious, uplifting and almost unbearably sad." —Tom Huddleston, Time Out New York
"There aren't many films where the characters and philosophical ideas stay with you for months afterward, but this is one of them." —Trilby Beresford, Nerdist