Our top web videos 2007 part 1 : animation & stop motion

As the season finally closes in on us, for those tired of the same old re-runs on TV or wanting to avoid the family warzone of the living room and watch TV on a computer under your bed - or better still are looking for films to share during the post-dinner web video show-off - I've pulled together some of our favorites of the year.

In the first bundle I've focussed on animation and stop motion, with no shortage of inventiveness from France to Japan, Sweden to America. As well as a particularly strong set of films using stop motion, there's a special look at one of YouTube's first punk-star filmmakers, Lasse Gjertsen, who was ignored while studying at the Kent Institute but now, back living with his parents in Norway, gets millions of views for his no-budget yet most finely cut flicks.

Of course this is but a tiny selection - do link to your favorites in the comments, and more to follow soon.

Animation 

走れ！(Life in 30 seconds) 

 

Backspace Float

 

Le Grande Motion

 

Music in the City by James Sandifer

 

How to break up with your girlfriend in 64 steps by Lev Yilmaz

 

Animator vs Animation

 

 

Wonders in Stop Motion

Oh Mandy - The Spinto Band by Jon Watts

 

Shirts by Surf Les Bo

 

A motion story / Deyan Parouchev / Nikola Mihov

 

La vengeance de Boorbie (The vengeance of Boorbie) by Charlie Mars

 

Process Enacted: by Jordan C Greenhalgh

 

Puzzle by Rinpa Eshidan

 

Malajube music video - from Montreal

 

Lichtfaktor create SkyCast

An astonishing talent we probably wouldn't know about if it wasn't for the web - Lasse Gjertsen, 

You've probably seen some of his films, and if not you really should. If user-generated video is the new punk, then this man is Joey Ramone, only nicer and more Scandinavian. Apparently the 23 year old  Norwegian studied animation at Kent Institute of Art & Design, which ended with his teachers 'failing to appreciate his work, specifically Hyperactive' -  one of YouTube's 10 most highly rated films of all time - according to the Wall Street Journal. He currently lives with his parents 

Hyperactive 

 

Amateur

 

Den Lille Valpen (The Little Puppy)

 

Giovanni Sollima - Sogno ad Occhi Aperti (Daydream) 

 

 

The Machine is Us/ing US 

by Michael Wesch. If you're still hungry for inspiration, this animated explanation of web 2.0 gives some hint of what may be to come, now that moving image is almost as freely reusable as text.