In the family tradition, professional grandson/filmmaker Eames Demetrios has made A Gathering of Elephants, a stop-action animated short film to commemorate the going on sale of the 1,000-limited edition plywood elephants Vitra made to commemorate the 100th birthday of Charles Eames. [I may have gotten the order mixed up there, but you get the idea.]
Just as with the Sultan of Brunei's Ferrari station wagons, I can't tell if all the stunt elephants featured in the movie should be discounted because of the wear & tear, or auctioned off at a premium because of their celebrity associations. I do know that at a thousand euros a pop, the elephant budget alone for this film is phenomenal.
Also, I suspect that Vitra actually produced a few more than 1,000 of these things. Just a hunch. update: whoa, no kidding. the edition's now 1,000 of each color. [Plus a garageful for the Office, perhaps?] Also, Demetrios says they "hope" to make it some day in less expensive materials, too. Maybe some day, plastic molding prices will become economical enough to do that. Some day.
A Gathering of Elephants dir. Eames Demetrios [eamesgallery.com via boingboing]
Eames D's DAS Film Fest version has some making of footage at the end [dasfilmfest.com]
Wait, what? $1907? That's about EUR1400. That pre-order discount sounds like a 40% price increase. "special surprise gift from the Eames Family" notwithstanding, of course. [eamesgallery.com]
Previously, from the EUR1000 era: Whoa, kid! Get off that Eames plywood elephant! It [once was supposed to only] cost a thousand euros!
After the jump: a couple of things I noticed from the film:
If I hadn't been so flippant above, I probably could've asked the Eames Office publicist where this rad Moroccan-looking kid's chair came from. Also, vintage Babar doll.
Eames Stairage Unit. Get it? Stairage. I'm laughing so hard I can't type.
Seriously, though, nice effect.
The heads move!?
And that music... I was expecting a red-dye vs. natural West Side Story battle scene.
[I definitely wanted more overhead choreography shots, a la Ethel Merman or the Brady Special--or the Bugaboo Bee movie--but WSS would be just fine, too. Also, I forgot; WHOA, the heads move?? -ed.]
I had no idea bent ply was such as expensive material...
the words "professional grandson" were the funniest thing I've read in a week.