the three of us press kit

the three of us

with music by ben harper

an animated short film by
nirvan mullick & benjamin goldman

short synopsis:
a surreal love triangle between a mysterious conjoined creature and the elusive object of his desire. 'the three of us' combines hand-crafted traditional stop-motion with 2-d drawn animation, scratch-on-film, and found objects, to create an ethereal visual poem inspired by and set to ben harper's instrumental song 'number three.'

[TRT: 3 minutes, 35mm]

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the long story about a short film:

the three-minute film begins when a record is turned on and music starts: ben harper’s instrumental 'number three,' from his 1997 album, The Will to Live. this hauntingly beautiful melody sets the tone for the remainder of the film. a hand-drawn woman appears through an arched window frame; an egon schiele vision come to life. a dandelion flower is plucked from a spice tin of thyme and offered to the woman in the window. the woman magically morphs into a dandelion herself and blows away. this is where things really start to get weird...

the window then turns into a three-dimensional red-and-white striped ball that pops out of the wall and falls to the floor. then, through a seamless visual transition, we find ourselves in a desert and realize we had been inside of a mirror before. we can see half of our main character, a 3-d stop-motion puppet. his other half is concealed by the mirror. his reflection makes it appear as if he is two upper bodies, conjoined. suddenly the mirror falls; when it crashes, the music stops, and the main character is revealed in his entirety. he actually is conjoined, exactly as the mirror had suggested, with two upper bodies that are mirror images of one another. behind the mirror is the spice tin of thyme. and suddenly the red-and-white striped ball pops out of the thyme and leads the conjoined character on a chase through the desert. the conjoined chases after like a lizard, with one head leading the other. as he tries to catch the ball, he begins to struggle with himself over who will get to hold it. the ball teases each of him and then bounces into the air and turns into a rusty arched tunnel in the sky.

ben harper’s music can be heard faintly from within the tunnel in the sky. the character manages to do a hand-stand and leap into the tunnel, pulling both of him selves into a mysterious rust cave. the music echoes as the character watches a series of animated memories. they are drawn-animation placed within old objects: rusty cans of hair-spray, an old salt shaker. they evoke a sense of love lost. at last, he sees the tin of thyme, now rusted. the red-and-white ball suddenly appears from it and rolls into the character’s hands. they pick it up together and share it for a moment. suddenly, the ball turns into a dandelion, the two heads look at one another as the music ends.

the three os us has no dialogue... the main character doesn’t even have a mouth. but the film manages to evoke an emotional space that is rarely articulated, balancing beautifully on the thin line between abstraction and narrative.

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DIRECTOR’S BIOs

nirvan and benjamin join together to make 'the three of us.'

joint bio :
nirvan and benjamin met at CalArts while studying experimental animation. just two weeks after meeting, they began collaborating on an animated improvisation that evolved into the three of us. while working together on this film, they also completed their own separate films: the box man and the pickle jar, which have screened in festivals from Cannes to Clermont-Ferrand, winning numerous awards. both work in los angeles and are in development on various animated and live-action projects. for more of their work, visit nirvan.com and benjamingoldman.com.

nirvan mullick:
nirvan taught himself animation while studying philosophy at New College in Sarasota, FL. He then went on to study Experimental Animation at CalArts. His stop-motion short The Box Man has played in over 50 festivals worldwide, including CANNES and ANNECY, winning numerous awards. In 2003, Nirvan directed the title sequence animation for the New Line feature Willard. He has developed an animated television series for Nelvana (Beetlejuice) based on his first film, Fish Eye Guy, and is currently writing/directing his first live-action feature film which is being produced by Michael Besman (About Schmidt, The Opposite of Sex). For more of his work, including his 70mm work in progress THE 1 SECOND FILM, visit www.nirvan.com.

benjamin goldman:
Benjamin went to Hampshire College in Amherst, MA where he experimented with holography, filmmaking, and writing. His undergraduate thesis film, funded by a Princess Grace Award, won Best of Festival at the New England Film & Video Festival. After teaching workshops and freelancing in theater, film, video, and animation, Benjamin went to CalArts in Valencia, CA for an M.F.A. in experimental animation. Before completing The Three Of Us with Nirvan, Benjamin made The Pickle Jar, which won numerous festival awards, and was chosen to play in front of Amelie at select Regal Cinemas. He is currently working on a dark romantic comedy live action feature film, and a farcical musical animated feature film. For more of his work, visit www.benjamingoldman.com.

CREDITS:

a film by

Nirvan Mullick and Benjamin Goldman

music by

Ben Harper’s ‘Number Three’ from The Will to Live (1997)

post sound by David McKrell, DaneTracks

film and digital post services provided by Michael Brodersen, FotoKem

directed, produced, animated, written, and edited by

Nirvan Mullick and Benjamin Goldman

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ABOUT THE FILM:
Originally shot on 16mm, 'The Three of Us' is a collaboration between Benjamin Goldman and Nirvan Mullick that started in 1999, just two weeks after they met at CalArts. The film began as an experimental improve scheduled to last two weeks. After working together for a year on the project, they went separate ways to make their thesis films. Three years later, they finally found time to get back together and finish 'the three of us' . The footage was transferred from 16mm to High Definition, put on hard drives for editing purposes, and then blown up to 35mm by FOTOKEM. Post sound was completed by DANETRACKS (The Matrix).

The three-minute film began in 1999 and was finally completed in 2003, almost four years later.

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music notes:
'The Three of Us' was inspired by the instrumental song 'Number Three' from Ben Harper's 'The Will to Live'.

The film began as an improvisation; Nirvan and Benjamin decided to animate together in order to take advantage of two weeks of available stop-motion studio time. After settling on a character, they decided to find a piece of music that would give them some timing to animate to. They chose a song they thought was called 'The Three of Us' but later learned it was called 'Number Three'. Still, the name stuck, and its tone became the story.

festival screenings include:

AFI FEST 2003 (World Premiere), SLAMDANCE, Cinequest, Florida Film Festival, Independent Film Festival of Boston

contact: nirvan mullick

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