The Brothers McLeod's 365 (2014)

NOTE: This Monday short was originally posted on October 15, 2018. We are re-uploading Peter Hemminger's original Monday Shorts until further notice.

This one was picked originally since it was during Inktober, but I think it's cool since it's a neat lead up to this year's Animation Lockdown. This year's theme is WHIPLASH, and this film being one-second-a-day with various cuts and techniques is an awesome idea. How many seconds could you make during the long weekend? What would that look like as a film?

Seeing as we're in the midst of Inktober, it's as good a time as any to share another drawing-a-day project, this one from animation duo The Brothers McLeod. For an entire year, the McLeod's drew one second of animation each day, basing it on something they had seen, heard or read over the course of the day, with a little creative license for good measure.

As you might expect, the results are a jumble. Unlike Mirai Mizue's Wonder, released the same year and with a similar second-per-day premise, the McLeods made no effort to string their moments together, instead unleashing them as a stream of disconnected thoughts and images. But the steady stream of non-sequiturs is hypnotic and occasionally hilarious, even if it is difficult for a film like this to establish momentum.

So what makes 365 worth watching? Partly, it's the inventiveness. A daily deadline doesn't leave room for indecision, and that makes for a decidedly unpredictable film. Partly, it's admiration for the way the McLeods' style lends itself ot such a quick pace—their clean lines and spare compositions read easily enough that the viewer has no trouble re-orienting themselves every 24 frames. But mostly, it's just neat to get a glimpse into someone's diary, even one as brief and stylized as this one.