Wholphin

Written by Billy Collins
Designed & Directed by Brady Baltezore
Produced by RADIUM

Liner notes:

“The Country” is a short animated film based on a whimsical poem by former U.S. Poet Laureate Billy Collins. The poem involves a guest at a friend’s country house who has been asked “never to leave a box of wooden, strike-anywhere matches lying around the house because the mice might get into them and start a fire.” A rumination on worry, it imagines mice creeping around the house at night: “Who could sleep that night? Who could whisk away the thought/of the one unlikely mouse/padding along a cold water pipe?”

Designer/ Director Brady Baltezore began with a small DV shoot of actors and live mice. The results were then hand-drawn, edited and composited alongside photographic, and 3D elements to bring the poem to life.

Biography:

“Brady Baltezore was born in California in 1976 and has worked variously as a bartender, photo assistant, landscaper, plumber, gravedigger, sign painter, and coffee roaster; moving between San Francisco, Germany, New York, New Orleans, and Los Angeles. In 2003, Brady graduated from CCAC with a degree in graphic design. Since that time, he has exhibited motion design, painted works, posters, clothing, and more; often in collaboration with musicians and other like-minded visual artists. Many of his waking hours are spent at Radium, where he works as a director & designer for commercial, music video, animation, and film projects. Brady currently lives in San Francisco’s North Beach neighborhood with his wife Carrie.”

2 Responses to “The Country”

• Shelley Noble
  June 3rd, 2009

  I love the skilled production of this, especially the mix of 2 and 3D animation. Lovely choice of content as well. Inspiring.
• Alison Dale
  October 21st, 2009

  What a lovely combination of poetry and animation…. I’m all about the collaborative works.

Leave a Reply