Killing Time at Home
Cel animation, UK, 2003
Director: Neil Coslett
Writer: Neil Coslett
Language: no dialogue
Colour: Colour
Runtime: 3 minutes
Short synopsis
For the main character, isolated from the outside world, the only way to make friends is to grow them.
Long synopsis
The opening shot follows wires spread on a floor to a man staring at his computer in an otherwise empty room. The light of the computer screen highlights his unshaven chin and bags under his eyes, so large they imply it has been a while since he has seen natural light. He is searching a website called disposablefriends.com, featuring several strange little creatures in boxes; all apart from one are 'sold'. Available is a white thing with a large circular head and big black eyes. The man clicks on the image and reads the vital statistics of the 'friend'. He taps in his credit card number and the screen reads 'dispatched'.
The man sits on the floor in a room empty apart from a microwave. When mail arrives he walks stiffly to pick it up and looks at it eagerly, scanning through to find a package. Inside the package is an embryonic version of the white creature he had ordered. He picks it up, blinking, and holds it in his fingers. After reading the accompanying instructions, the man puts the embryo into a tub of zinc and closes the lid. The tub sits on a pink rug and shakes as the man watches intently, looking frazzled and anxious. When the tub stops shaking, the man opens it and peers in. Out pops a larger version of the embryo - now matching the picture on the website. It sits there and blinks.
The man runs his new friend under the tap to rinse him and cleans his eyes. He sits the friend on the toilet and they stare at each other, blinking with their large round eyes. They shake hands. The two play a computer game together and sit in the large empty space. The man makes his new friend a parachute and flies him down the stairs. They play a board game together and the man puts his friend in a remote controlled car and drives him around.
Excitedly clutching his parachute, the friend comes running into a room to find the man at his computer browsing for a new friend. As the computer screen reads 'dispatched' the man turns to his friend and picks him up by the feet, opens a door and throws him inside. The friend sits in the room, head hanging down, looking sad. As he looks up, however, he discovers he is in a room full of other disposable friends, all of different shapes and sizes, and all eyes looking at him.
Background information
About the film
Killing Time at Home was funded by the Channel 4 television scheme Mesh, and was produced by Blackwatch Productions. It was made using hand-drawn images rendered in Photoshop animated in After Effects. The short was first screened on Channel 4 in November 2003 and has since been shown at festivals worldwide. It won Best 2D/3D animation at Le Festival des Tres Courts in Paris, 2004, and was runner up of Discreet Animation award at Soho Shorts 2004. Killing Time at Home also features on the 2004 British Animation Awards DVD.
About the film-maker
Neil Coslett graduated from Liverpool John Moores University in 2002 with a degree in Graphic Arts. Since then his commercial work has included an animated ident for BBCi and work published in i-D magazine, where he was tipped as a talent to watch. He works as a freelance illustrator, website designer and animator.
Teaching materials and additional materials
The teaching materials have been developed by practising teachers to provide a springboard for your own work with your students. Feel free to use and adapt them appropriate to your students' needs.
The additional materials, provided by the film-makers, can be used to develop your work with the film and deepen students' understanding of the process of film-making.
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