The Renter

Narrative · CalArts

When I was six I spent my days with an old woman who rented out rooms in her house. This is that house: the bugs on the pears, the tenant who worked nights in the trainyard and slept through the days, the chicken she killed and plucked and turned into soup by lunchtime. It was my first film, made on my own after CalArts, and there's no dialogue in it.

It’s painted, with a thick black line, and colors of rotting pears and peeling wallpaper. There was no bathroom downstairs but in the pantry there was a bucket to pee in. Near the end it overflows and floods the house, with all the anxiety the boy felt at the time. Its the one thing in the film that never happened and the truest thing in it.

The woman is kind, but not in any way a six-year-old could recognize at the time. She protects him from the tenant when he needs it and leaves him alone the rest of the day.

9 min · 2011

The film snuck up on me...there’s no question in my mind which of the nominees is the most emotionally captivating, artistically innovative, and viscerally beautiful.

— Amid Amidi · Cartoon Brew

In a dim room, an old woman stands near the doorway holding an axe and looks toward the renter's door, as the frightened boy peers from his seat at the table — The Renter.

Before there
was a film

Boards

Storyboard: a pear hangs from a branch of the tree — The Renter.
The old woman leans over the sink as the boy holds up a pear — The Renter.
The boy and the woman sit together in a rocking chair, watching television — The Renter.
A farmhouse sits alone on a hill above a wide field, with a large animal in the grass — The Renter.
The renter scowls outside as the boy pees in a bucket behind a screened window — The Renter.
The renter stands outside a window, as the boy pees in a bucket in the pantry — The Renter.
A sink tap, spilling a bubbling flood — The Renter.
The woman and the renter argue as the flood pours out between them — The Renter.
The flood surges through an open window — The Renter.
The boy watches from a swing as the renter is breaks through the roof of the house — The Renter.
A giant renter roars, holding the roof of the house aloft as the flood rises around him — The Renter.
The giant renter chases the tiny boy on an island surrounded by a sea — The Renter.
The renter points angrily at the woman as she holds the boy close — The Renter.
The renter clutches his head in tears as the woman shouts at him — The Renter.
The woman hugs the boy as the renter walks away down the road — The Renter.
At night, the renter leaves with his lunchbox as the boy looks on — The Renter.

A whole world

Backgrounds

A white farmhouse stands alone on a hill of dry, golden grass beneath power lines and a pale sky — The Renter.
Close on the side of the house, a single window above the tall grass — The Renter.
Inside the dim dining room, a bowl of pears sits on the table by an open door looking out to the field — The Renter.
A narrow bed and a small radio on the bedside table in a shadowed bedroom — The Renter.
An open door leads into a dark bedroom with a dresser, an oval mirror and an iron bed frame — The Renter.

He slept
through the days

Final Frames

The renter comes through the door with his lunch pail, beneath a note that reads "Pay your rent" — The Renter.
A dark train rolls past in heavy black silhouette — The Renter.
A wide, empty field stretches toward a distant farmhouse behind a broken fence — The Renter.
A young boy has a standoff with three chickens in a dry field — The Renter.
The boy stands beside the kitchen table and a bowl of soup — The Renter.
The renter sprawls asleep in bed, mouth open, beside a radio — The Renter.
In a dim kitchen, an old woman stands in the doorway holding an axe and looks toward the renter's door, as the frightened boy peers over the back of his chair — The Renter.
An empty swing hangs from a tree at the edge of the field — The Renter.
Two pears rest on a windowsill — The Renter.
The renter scowls from behind a window screen — The Renter.
The boy crouches on a chair, terrified, as soup lashes the dark room — The Renter.
The old woman steps into a darkened bedroom — The Renter.
The renter stands alone at night beneath a tree, a hand raised to his face — The Renter.
The old woman and the boy sit together on the porch bench at night — The Renter.

The truest thing

Excerpt

The house is gone

Research: Photographed while I was making the film. The house had already been torn down.

Greensboro News & Record, 1980

Do yourself a favor: Stop what you’re doing and, for the next 9 minutes devote your attention to The Renter

— Motionographer

Credits

Written, Designed & Animated by
Jason Carpenter

Music & Sound Design
Jeff Shiffman

Production
California Institute of the Arts


Awards

Cinanima
Grand Prix · 2011

Ottawa International Animation Festival
Grand Prize, Best Student Animation · 2011

Atlanta Film Festival Grand Prize
Best Animated Short · 2011

Bradford Animation Festival
Special Jury Prize · 2011

MONSTRA MEO Award
Best Student Film · 2012

CILECT Prize
Awarded by the international association of film schools · 2012

Also Tindirindis · AniFest ROZAFA · Etiuda & Anima · Computer Space · Anima Mundi · Cabbagetown · Hardacre · RIFF · Clare Valley


Nominations

Annie Award
Best Animated Short Subject · 2011

AniWow!
Best Screenplay · Best Music · 2011


Finalist

Student Academy Awards Animation · 2011


Festivals

Stuttgart · Zagreb · Holland Animation · KROK · DOK Leipzig · Palm Springs ShortFest · Chicago, and more than 80 others

Next project

The Biggest Little Farm

Documentary · Neon

A cow stands in a meadow inside a swirl of grass, flowers, and butterflies — The Biggest Little Farm, Neon.
A cow stands in a meadow inside a swirl of grass, flowers, and butterflies — The Biggest Little Farm, Neon.