Done Hertzfeld

Don Hertzfeldt is an animator, artist, writer, and independent filmmaker. He is the creator of many animated films, including his most famous films: It's Such a Beautiful Day, World of Tomorrow, The Meaning of Life, and Rejected. Don is 41 years old and was born on the 1 August 1976 in Fremont, California, United States. While at film school, Hertzfeldt was drawn to animation as it was a less expensive form to work in. He could not afford to buy the numerous rolls of 16 mm film required to shoot live action.Although Hertzfeldt's approach to animation is traditional (pen, paper, and film), his methods are self-taught and untraditional. Most of his films are created without a script; he usually begins with a concept that is created and shaped out as the month's progress. This allows for creative experiments, improvisation, and an element of spontaneity.Hertz is the creator of some of the most popular animated shorts of all time, which have been featured in over a thousand film festivals and theatrical venues worldwide.

Hertzfeldt often does not use computers in his animation or photography process. This forces him to draw every element on the screen over and over again, lending his films their jittery, kinetic appearance. He also often forgoes animating traditional keyframes and instead simply draws straight ahead.

Artist style:

Hertzfeldt's work commonly features hand-drawn stick figures, in stories of black humor, and tragicomedy. Some films contain philosophical themes while others are more straightforwardly slapstick and absurdist. His animation is created traditionally with pen and paper, often with minimal digital aid. He has a crucial element in the creation of his films and their unique visuals. In 2015, Hertzfeldt released his first digitally animated short film, ‘World of Tomorrow’, which was created at the same time as another digital piece, an animated guest appearance on The Simpsons. Both pieces were still hand-drawn by Hertzfeldt, but on a Cintiq tablet instead of paper.

He shoots on film and animates on paper as some of his movies are visually impossible to produce digitally. It's not unusual for Hertzfeldt to write, direct, produce, animate, photograph, edit, perform voices, record and mix sound, and/or compose music for one of his films, at times requiring years to complete a single short by working alone. The animation for one of his films may often require tens of thousands of drawings. Hertzfeldt frequently scores his pictures with classical music and opera. The music of Tchaikovsky, Bizet, Smetana, Beethoven, Richard Strauss, and Wagner have all appeared in his films. On occasion, Hertzfeldt has also scored portions of his films himself, with a guitar or keyboard. He has proven to be a multitalented man who could create a whole movie on his own if he wanted to.

The Meaning of Life is a 35mm animated short film, written and directed by Don Hertzfeldt in 2005. The twelve-minute film is the end result of almost four years of production.

In the film, the evolution of the human race is traced from prehistory (mankind as blob forms), through today (mankind as teeming crowds of selfish, fighting, or lost individuals), to hundreds of millions of years into the future as our species evolves into countless new forms; all of them still behaving the same way. The film concludes in the extreme future, with two creatures (apparently an adult and child subspecies of future human), having a conversation about the meaning of life on a colorful shore.

The movie is animated/ drawn in simplicity. Many would argue that this was done purposely to show the simplicity of men whilst others would say that Don’s style of animation is unique and gives it a sort of fresh look. The characters would repeat their sentences over and over again leaving space for interpretation about their lives whilst the audience would continue to meet more new characters. This goes on for about four minutes when all the characters die and the future is shown. It is an amazing film showing an actual representation of life on Earth! Once again the “stick-man” style can be seen which has become synonymous with Hertzfeldt’s filmmaking. If the characters weren’t minimal, if you didn’t have that white negative space, it would just be really, really difficult to watch. The minimalism of the characters, in hindsight, provides a place that you can project yourself- a space for conceptions.