Asparagus (1979)

Interesting facts

Asparagus is a 1979 American experimental animated short film written and directed by Suzan Pitt. Featuring music composed by Richard Teitelbaum, the film was produced over the course of four years, while Pitt was in residence at Harvard University and in Berlin, Germany. The animated portions of the film were accomplished through the use of hand-painted cels; a physical model set and puppetry are also utilized.

Production

While in Amsterdam in 1974, Pitt sketched her ideas for Asparagus in about 30 minutes. She later stated, "But of course, an idea like that doesn't come to you all at once. It had been on my mind for a long time as I worked on other projects."

Asparagus was completed over the course of four years, while Pitt was in residence teaching at Harvard University and in Berlin, Germany. The animated portions of the film were hand-painted, cel-by-cel, and photographed at 12 frames per second under a 35 mm film camera. Pitt created around 8,000 drawings for the film. The cels were painted by a team of artists, including the Lincoln, Nebraska-based Tim Hartin.

Filming took place at Harvard's Carpenter Center for the Visual Arts. The scene in which the woman watches the garden pass by her windows involved shooting for over a period of 48 hours, during which, Pitt recalled, "I never slept or left the camera room."

The film features an electro-jazz score composed and performed by Richard Teitelbaum.

Read on Wikipedia · Text from Wikipedia, CC BY-SA 4.0. Data from Wikidata.