Flat Black Films

Waking Life is about a young man in a persistent lucid dream-like state. The film follows its protagonist as he initially observes and later participates in philosophical discussions that weave together issues like reality, free will, our relationships with others, and the meaning of life.

In this short film, filmmakers Bob Sabiston and Tommy Pallotta accompany Ryan, a six-foot-tall, 13-year-old autistic boy, to a local convenience store to purchase a "snack and drink".

Color test for animation by Bob Sabiston

This is the first ‘independent’ use made of our “rotoshop” software. It was quite primitive in the beginning. This is a short road-trip documentary consisting of animated interviews with people found along the route from New York to Austin.

In Grasshopper, park-bench philosopher AJ Vadehra expounds on astrology and more productive avenues of contemplation. Done all in grey-green, this animated but otherwise unedited interview is a good example of what happens when you approach the right stranger with a camera. Grasshopper premiered at the 2004 Sundance Film Festival and has since played in many other festivals worldwide.

Ryan Power is back and he means business. This second trip to Fiesta Texas is done ride-by-ride “just like last time.” Thrill to the psychedelic sights and sounds of a Texas theme park as you are slowly worn down by the implacable will of this young man. Ryan previously appeared in our short Snack and Drink and the ‘unreleased’ Ryan’s Capitol Tour. He also shows up briefly in Waking Life (as an alien leaving Earth).

Flat Black Films’ rotoscoping software was originally developed for an MTV contest. It is 34 animated interviews with random people encountered in NY’s Washington Square Park.

This abbreviated short, though never finished, got into Siggraph’s Electronic Theater for 1994. An early Bob Sabiston animated short

Ryan gives a tour of the Capitol in Austin, Texas

An animated short about recycling.