It's only half over, but I feel it's safe to declare 2004 l'AnnÈe du Court MÈtrage Soutenu, The Year of The Sponsored Short. Nike got some, Interpol's buyin' some, and now, if you're a socialite, an I-banker, or just a run-of-the-mill moneyed narcissist (not, I admit, mutually exclusive categories), you can get one, too.
For $25,000 (don't forget to ask for your discount), you can commission an animated short film portrait by artist/filmmaker Jeff Scher. Although we're assured "many celebrities and their families" have commissioned portrait films from Scher, party girl Susan Shin's is the first to be feted in the New Yorker.
Completed, a Scher portrait resembles an animated Warhol silkscreen portrait, not coincidentally, a must-have art accessory of 80's-era Manhattan society.
Tell you what I'll do. If you're in the market for Warhol-inspired cinematic immortality, I'll break out a 16mm camera and shoot a Screen Test for you instead. $25,000, less discount.
