News | Dusty Studio

Finished assembling five brand new Animation Hotline Hotspots for the Sundance Film Festival. The Hotspots are television-telephone combinations that allow the viewer to watch the previous Animation Hotline videos then if they feel so inspired pick up the attached phone and leave their own message. Some messages are then chosen to be animated and then put back on the televisions (as well as the internet at animationhotline.com) to be viewed. These five Hotspots will be placed around the festival (HP Sundance House, Filmmaker Lounge, and in will call lines) and we will be animating the new messages live in the Sundance House presented by HP at downtown Park City, UT on January 16-26. The goal is to create 10 new animations from the messages we have collected. So if you are at the festival and see a Hotspot be sure to leave us a message then be sure to come visit us working live at our Sundance House studio.

Concept/Design: Dustin Grella
Programming/Assembling: Luis Navarro
Assembling/Testing: Amanda Pohan
Painting/Assembling: Erhan Mues
Assembling: Tony Tan

6:58pm on Friday 10th January 2014

Prayers for Peace (Japanese Subtitiles) from Dustin Grella on Vimeo.

Ottawa Animation Festival - Walt Disney Award
Stuttgart Animation Festival - International Competition
Annecy Animation Festival - Graduate Films
Student Academy Awards - Finalist, Documentary
Monstra Lisboa - Best Student Animation
Anima Mundi - Graduate Films
Palm Springs -Best Student Animation
DOK Leipzig - International Competition
Silverdocs - Official Selection

7:11pm on Monday 6th January 2014

Dusty Studio has been asked to come out to the Sundance Film Festival in January 2014 to animate hotline videos live throughout the course of the festival. There will be five blue Animation Hotline Hotspots placed around the festival with little blue phones on top of it for you to leave messages. So if you are going to be at Sundance please leave messages and make sure to visit us at the Sundance House.

If you don’t already know, Animation Hotline is a series of short animations where potentially anonymous messages on the artist’s voicemail provide the content for these sometimes insightful, sometimes bizarre micro-shorts. So pick up the phone and tell your story…

animationhotline.com

To leave a message call…
+1 212-683-2490

6:12pm on Sunday 5th January 2014

I’ve been saving this one for the Autumnal Equinox for almost a year now. For some reason it really made me think of the end of summer and the fact that everything is starting to move toward winter’s hibernation. I think the transitional seasons are my favorites, or maybe just the beginning of any new season. Changes are always difficult but at the same time so exciting.

Dusty Studio has been asked to come out to the Sundance Film Festival in January 2014 to animate hotline videos live throughout the course of the festival. There will be five blue Animation Hotline Hotspots placed around the festival with little blue phones on top of it for you to leave messages. So if you are going to be at Sundance please leave messages and make sure to visit us at the Sundance House.

If you don’t already know, Animation Hotline is a series of short animations where potentially anonymous messages on the artist’s voicemail provide the content for these sometimes insightful, sometimes bizarre micro-shorts. So pick up the phone and tell your story…

animationhotline.com

To leave a message call…
+1 212-683-2490

4:11pm on Saturday 4th January 2014

This message was left by one of the residence of HSI, an organization to help people find permanent housing. I was thinking I should edit this down but after listening to the message a few times I really couldn’t cut anything out. She is so sincere and so excited and thought that to edit anything would be taking away from the beauty of the individual.

Dusty Studio has been asked to come out to the Sundance Film Festival in January 2014 to animate hotline videos live throughout the course of the festival. There will be five blue Animation Hotline Hotspots placed around the festival with little blue phones on top of it for you to leave messages. So if you are going to be at Sundance please leave messages and make sure to visit us at the Sundance House.

If you don’t already know, Animation Hotline is a series of short animations where potentially anonymous messages on the artist’s voicemail provide the content for these sometimes insightful, sometimes bizarre micro-shorts. So pick up the phone and tell your story…

animationhotline.com

To leave a message call…
+1 212-683-2490

4:11pm on Friday 3rd January 2014

Spent the day hard-wiring a 1976 ITT I76-B11 telephone. It was almost impossible, almost, but I finally got it working.

4:47am on Friday 3rd January 2014

First animation for 2014! Starting to work on some new animations! Used the Paradise Movie Theater clock in the Bronx to celebrate the fact that we’ve moved the entire studio up to the BRONX! Don’t tell anyone, but it’s so awesome up here! So much space to spread the wings!

Dusty Studio has been asked to come out to the Sundance Film Festival in January 2014 to animate hotline videos live throughout the course of the festival. There will be five blue Animation Hotline Hotspots placed around the festival with little blue phones on top of it for you to leave messages. Of course, you can also still call using the 212 number.

If you don’t already know, Animation Hotline is a series of short animations where potentially anonymous messages on the artist’s voicemail provide the content for these sometimes insightful, sometimes bizarre micro-shorts. So pick up the phone and tell your story…

animationhotline.com

To leave a message call…
+1 212-683-2490

4:11pm on Thursday 2nd January 2014

Starting 2014 with a blank slate! Hoping all your dreams come true!

3:43am on Thursday 2nd January 2014

Dusty Studio has been asked to come out to the Sundance Film Festival in January 2014 to animate these hotline videos live throughout the course of the festival. There will be five blue Animation Hotline Hotspots placed around the festival with little blue phones on top of it for you to leave messages. So if you are going to be at Sundance please leave messages and make sure to visit us at the Sundance House.

If you don’t already know, Animation Hotline is a series of short animations where potentially anonymous messages on the artist’s voicemail provide the content for these sometimes insightful, sometimes bizarre micro-shorts. So pick up the phone and tell your story…

animationhotline.com

To leave a message call…
+1 212-683-2490

12:05am on Thursday 2nd January 2014

The Night Witch

This animated Op-Doc explores the life of Nadezhda Popova, known as Nadia, who became a World War II hero as part of a Soviet all-female bombing regiment.

We worked with Alison Klayman on this New York Times Op-Docs piece. Thanks to everyone who helped figure out the Moscow newspaper for that period. :)

3:58am on Tuesday 24th December 2013

HP Sundance House has asked Dusty Studio to come out to the Sundance Film Festival and animate the Animation Hotline live during the course of the festival. We are building a bunch of Animation Hotline “Hotspots” and putting them around the festival to gather the festival goers messages. We are then going to animate inside the HP Sundance House. Here are a few photos of the hotspots getting painted by the talented Erhan Mues in the new Bronx studio. So grateful to have the space we need to spread our wings. If you are going to be at Sundance this year please stop in and say hello! Of course the hotline is still accepting messages and we are going to be posting a few before the festival, so give us a call at 212-683-2490!

9:24pm on Sunday 22nd December 2013

Nobody Cares!

9:18pm on Tuesday 19th November 2013

Prayers for Peace won the Out of the Shadows Award this weekend at the Underexposed Film Festival in Rock Hill, SC.

7:59pm on Tuesday 19th November 2013

Spoke on a US Indie Filmmakers panel at the Winterthur Film Festival in Winterthur, Switzerland. One of the block of films was a retrospective of Adam Yauch’s videos. The whole time I was there I was amazed at how everything made perfect sense.

12:05am on Friday 15th November 2013

Animation Hotline: Jewish

My friend Mike left this message. I can tell his voice. Apparently so can his mother, because while she was watching this at the Naples International Film Festival, she recognized his voice and sent him a text after the screening. How bizarre would that be to be watching a film and then have the film talking about you, not you in a general sense, but you specifically?

11:56pm on Thursday 14th November 2013

Animation Hotline, 2013 won Best Super-Short at this weekend’s Savannah Film Festival!

5:43pm on Tuesday 5th November 2013

Organizing the pastels by color so there will be no shoveling through everything to find the right color.

3:50pm on Friday 25th October 2013

Day 15

Got the ‘notes to self’ all ordered and filed away in a little chest. I don’t think I need to number these days any more, I feel like the whole whirlwind of trying to get the thing set up is over and now it is just fine tuning and taking care of business.

4:21pm on Wednesday 16th October 2013

Day 14

Is there any way to get a 240v 30a plug to fit into a 250v 20a socket?

10:55pm on Tuesday 15th October 2013

Day 13

If I leave a book on my desk long enough it will eventually get read. If I leave a lucky penny jar on my desk it will eventually get filled.

10:53pm on Tuesday 15th October 2013