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Subconscious Password

In this short animation, Oscar®-winning director Chris Landreth uses a common social gaffe—forgetting somebody’s name—as the starting point for a mind-bending romp through the unconscious. Inspired by the classic TV game show Password, the film features a wealth of animated celebrity guests who try to prompt our beleaguered protagonist to remember his old pal's name. Finally, he realizes he must surrender to his predicament and jump head-first into his subconscious to find the answer.
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In this short animation, Oscar®-winning director Chris Landreth uses a common social gaffe—forgetting somebody’s name—as the starting point for a mind-bending romp through the unconscious. Inspired by the classic TV game show Password, the film features a wealth of animated celebrity guests who try to prompt our beleaguered protagonist to remember his old pal's name. Finally, he realizes he must surrender to his predicament and jump head-first into his subconscious to find the answer.

Psychology and Psychiatry All subjects
Animation Auteur Comedy All channels
  • writer
    Chris Landreth
  • director
    Chris Landreth
  • producer
    Marcy Page
    Mark Smith
  • executive producer
    Roddy McManus
    Steven Hoban
    Mark Jones
  • cast
    Don McKellar
    Ron Pardo
    Patrice Goodman
    Ray Landry
    Tony Daniels
    Athena Karkanis
    Nanci Pach
    Kedar
    Denise Olivier
    Dwayne Hill
    Chris Landreth
    John R. Dilworth
  • casting
    Jody Terio
  • original music
    Daniel Janke
  • sound design
    Andy Malcolm
    Pierre Yves Drapeau
  • animation director
    Sean Craig
  • layout
    Sean Craig
  • production manager
    Shawn Swartz
  • pre-visual design supervisor
    Jim Graves
  • storyboard artist
    Belinda Oldford
    Naseer Pasha
  • character design
    Dongshin An
    Aaron Garcia
    Naseer Pasha
    Min Zhou
  • concept design
    Dongshin An
    Aaron Garcia
    Naseer Pasha
    Min Zhou
  • lead for modeling/rigging
    Zane Kozak
  • modeling
    Joseph Kim
    Mark Schmidt
  • additional TD
    Nevil Sidhwa
    Brandon Tasker
  • cg animation
    Stephanie Braithwaite
    Nogol Doosti
    Martin Ferland
    Aaron Garcia
    Seong Ah Han
    Tahereh Salimi
    Nevil Sidhwa
    Brandon Tasker
  • SANDDE animation
    Munro Ferguson
  • 2D animation
    Craig Small
  • lighting supervisor
    Steve Kahwati
    Kyle Menzies
  • lighting technical director
    Steve Kahwati
  • texture artist
    Alice Ho
    Dongshin An
    Timothy Dormady
    Zane Kozak
    Adam Peerbaye
    Nevil Sidhwa
    Brandon Tasker
  • lighting artist
    Alice Ho
    Dongshin An
    Timothy Dormady
    Zane Kozak
    Adam Peerbaye
    Nevil Sidhwa
    Brandon Tasker
  • VFX artist
    Sean Craig
    Zane Kozak
    Nevil Sidhwa
    Brandon Tasker
  • lead for compositing
    Joe Raasch
  • lead compositing artist
    Munzer Halime
    Abhyuday Ranjan Karn
  • additional compositing
    Aneesh Bhatnagar
    Vikram Chandran
    Alice Ho
    Zack Lovatt
    Filip Pandovski
    Thomas Trindade
  • render wrangling
    Kyle Menzies
    Timothy Dormady
    Alice Ho
  • titles
    Gaspard Gaudreau
  • credits
    Gaspard Gaudreau
  • stereoscopic grading
    Éloi Champagne
    Zane Kozak
  • stereoscopic output
    Éloi Champagne
    Zane Kozak
  • digital consultant
    Éloi Champagne
    Randall Finnerty
  • computer support
    Pascal Filion
    Bruno Gervasi
    Jozsef Horvath
    Adrian Klymenko
    Luis Marmelo
    Pierre Pilote
  • network support
    Pascal Filion
    Bruno Gervasi
    Jozsef Horvath
    Adrian Klymenko
    Luis Marmelo
    Pierre Pilote
  • production assistant
    Timothy Clark
  • voice recording
    Kyle Peters
    Teresa Morrow
  • music recording
    Geoffrey Mitchell
    Mathieu Leroux
    Luc Léger
  • musician
    Hélène Beaulieu
    Chet Doxas
    Mark Fewer
    Jennifer Bell
    Mike Cartile
    Chloe Dominguez
    Jim Doxas
    Daniel Janke
    Bill Mahar
    Dave Martin
    Karine Rousseau
    Ken Searcy
    Mana Shiraishi
    François Stevenson
    Adrian Vedady
    Cameron Wallis
  • foley artist
    Andy Malcolm
    Goro Koyama
  • foley assistant
    Sandra Fox
  • foley recording mixer
    Don White
    Jack Heeren
  • recording assistant
    Stephen Muir
  • final mix
    Serge Boivin
  • online editing
    Denis Gathelier
  • technical coordination
    Steve Hallé
  • production coordination
    Elaine Largie
    Rosalina Di Sario
    Sophie Dupuis
    Simon Zaurrini
  • administration
    Victoire-Émilie Bessette
    Gisèle Guilbault
  • development support
    David Verrall
  • administrative coordination
    Anna Kalika
  • rights researcher
    Elizabeth Klinck
  • legal
    Peter Kallianiotis
  • marketing
    Melissa Wheeler

Education

Ages 16 to 18

Notes

A comedic and experimental animated short that follows the psychological journey of director Chris Landreth as he attempts to remember a friend’s name at a party. Appropriate for classroom discussions and research projects related to animation, writing, experimental art, media studies, and psychology. Examine how metaphor, imagery, symbolism, tone, setting, and other elements are used in the film. What ideas do you think the film is exploring? Pick one of the authors depicted in the short and analyze, in-depth, their role, representation, and significance. Discuss the use of Freudian imagery in the film, and then compare and contrast it with another form of media that utilizes similar imagery. 

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Subconscious Password
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