Bob Sabiston

At the American Computer Chess Convention, enthusiasts gather to pit their programs against other computer chess programs and human players in a tournament for a grand prize of $7500.

In 1967, experimental filmmaker Jorgen Leth created a striking short film, The Perfect Human, starring a man and women sitting in a box while a narrator poses questions about their relationship and humanity. Years later, Danish director Lars von Trier made a deal with Leth to remake his film five times, each under a different set of circumstances and with von Trier's strictly prescribed rules. As Leth completes each challenge, von Trier creates increasingly further elaborate stipulations.

An animated short about recycling.

A robot plays the drums. An insect, bearing a familiar logo, buzzes around it.

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.

An animated short about recycling.

A robot plays the drums. An insect, bearing a familiar logo, buzzes around it.

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.

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

Color test for animation by Bob Sabiston

After Thomas Hooven graduated from medical school, his girlfriend of 12 years ended their relationship. It was only three weeks before they planned to marry.

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".

Ryan gives a tour of the Capitol in Austin, Texas

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.

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).

A sinister flying pod crashes to Earth and unleashes a giant mechanical roach that attacks the city.

In 1999 we got a contract from ITVS to make a series of animated short documentaries in the vein of Snack and Drink. The twelve segments of Figures of Speech feature subjects interviewed in Austin and on the road between there and San Francisco.