A Boy And His Atom

A Boy And His Atom is a 2013 American stop-motion animated experimental short film directed by Nico Casavecchia. It was released on YouTube by IBM Research on April 27, 2013. The movie tells the story of a boy and a wayward atom who meet and become friends. It depicts a boy playing with an atom that takes various forms. In 2013, this film was certified by the Guinness World Records as The World's Smallest Stop-Motion Film.
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== Production ==
This film was produced by moving carbon monoxide molecules with a scanning tunneling microscope, a device that magnifies them by a 100 million times. These two-carbon atom molecules were moved to create images, which were then saved as individual frames to make the stop-motioned film.
The scientists at IBM Research were exploiting the movement of atoms to explore the limits of data storage because, with technology advancing with the creation and consumption of more data, data storage needs to get smaller, and the scientists can go as small as storing data at the atomic scale. This same group of scientists were interested in starting to build structures on this scale, hence why it was possible to produce this short film.
== Plot ==
The film begins with an explanation as to why this film was made. After the intro, there is a boy (made out of atoms) seen meeting a single atom. Hesitant at first, he dances for it to the film's musical accompaniment of atoms, then bounces it around like a ball. The atom then drops to the ground and forms a trampoline of atoms, which the boy bounces on. The atom reforms, and the boy tosses it into the sky, flying past clouds made out of atoms, and the word "THINK", also made out of atoms. After that, immediately, the IBM logo, in the form of atoms, appears.
==Videos==
thumb|left|185px|Watch this film on YouTube
Category:2013 films
Category:2013 in film
Category:2013 short films
Category:2013 American films
Category:2013 animated films
Category:2013 stop-motion films