Mar 19, 2015

Tim LeCart takes it to new heights with the online release of Head Over Heels

Director Timothy Reckert, recently named one of this year's "10 Animators to Watch," has released his Academy Award-nominated short film "Head Over Heels" online.

The stop-motion short, which had its world premiere at the 2012 Cannes Film Festival, tells the story of a husband and wife who have become completely estranged and no longer even feel a common gravity. Her floor is his ceiling, and his floor is her ceiling.

In a similar act of reversal, Lekert decided to abandon the usual backward-looking approach to short film distribution. No one is happy with the options available for distributing shorts, especially animated shorts," Lekert told Cartoon Blue in an email."

Non-paywall options like YouTube interrupt the vital relationship between artist and viewer by forcing ads on viewers before the film, Lekert said, and paywall options like iTunes and Amazon are even worse, because they "force viewers to pay for the film before it is shown. The power of Internet distribution "relies heavily on curiosity and sharing.

Reckert suggests that patrons of crowdfunding platforms are a promising model for monetizing Internet distribution.

Lekert has previously come under fire for his serious attempts to attract a large audience for Head Over Heels. Prior to the 2013 Oscars, for which he was nominated, Rekert released the short online, irritating theatrical distributor Shorts International. Eventually, the short film was removed at the request of the distributor.

No wonder Lekert chose to take the fate of the short into his own hands and essentially turn the "Head Over Heels" website into an "online DVD."

"An artist has something to say, and it is only valuable if there is an audience that will hear and appreciate what you are saying. Art depends on that relationship. So a high level of audience engagement is really central to why any of us are doing this, whether it makes money or not."

The website for Head Over Heels features a commentary track by Rekert, an audio featurette exploring composer Jared Sorkin's soundtrack, and an upside-down version of the film. Lekert likens it to DVD extras and director commentaries that have not yet been well integrated into streaming services and video hosting sites such as Netflix and Vimeo.

"'Head Over Heels' was never intended to make money, so my goal was always to get quality engagement from the audience rather than revenue," Lekert says.

"But online, there's always a tab on the right, and a 10-minute short film just can't compete with a Facebook update.

[20] "I hope more filmmakers start doing this. If the animation culture starts to hold that kind of promise, then so be it.

Check out the Head Over Heels website.