It's Such a Beautiful Day + ME

Bill struggles to put together his shattered psyche in this animated odyssey from the mind of animator Don Hertzfeldt.

The Village Voice's Simon Abrams called the animated feature, which ranks as one of the top 100 feature films of all time on Letterboxd, "nothing short of revelatory" in his review: "Warped keyhole-size images stack atop one another in a Frankenstein-ian collage that evokes the films of Terrence Malick, David Lynch, Stan Brakhage, and Bruce Conner. " Hertzfeldt's other films (Rejected, World of Tomorrow) have also received wide acclaim.

The film, which originally came out as a trio of short films, was captured entirely in-camera on a 35mm rostrum animation stand from the 1940s. It painstakingly blends hand-drawn animation and experimental effects with digital hybrids, printed out one frame at time and placed under the camera.

Hertzfeldt's rostrum was one of the last surviving cameras of its kind still operating in the world until, towards the end of production, the old camera’s motor began to fail and could no longer advance the film properly, riddling the final reels with unintentional light leaks.

The film’s signature ”split screen” effects were achieved by photographing the animation through small holes that were positioned just beneath the camera lens. One area of the film frame would be individually photographed, the film was then rewound, another section of the frame would be exposed through a different hole, and the process repeated until all elements of a scene were composited together.
It's Such A Beautiful Day returns to screens across the country for the first time since 2012 this summer, when it will be paired with ME -- an all-new 22 minute musical odyssey also directed by Hertzfeldt.