Tropfest Short Film Festival 2011
[ Add A Comment ]Posted on March 7, 2011 by admin in Popular Media
Monday, March 7th, 2011Our coverage of the world’s largest short film festival is two weeks late and a film short.
It’s a testament to my short attention span that I didn’t mention this year’s Tropfest short film festival winner a few weeks ago. This was especially shortsighted, given the combination of my obsession with short film and the fact that I ranted about Australia’s Blue Tongue Film shorts just three days before Tropfest announced this year’s winner, Animal Beatbox (also below). Ah well, “a week late and a film short”, as they say. If you haven’t heard of Australia’s Tropfest, don’t feel badly. In spite of laying claim to being the world’s largest short film festival, it seems to get remarkably little press in the states. Tropfest was created nineteen years ago by John Polson as an informal short film screening for cast, crew and friends at the Tropicana Cafe in Sydney. 200 people showed up the first year, and it’s been growing ever since. Past celebrity judges include names like John Woo, Samuel L Jackson, Baz Luhrmann, Keanu Reeves, Ewan McGregor, and Jane Campion, and as of this year, the festival attracts a live national audience of more than 150,000 people on a single night. One little thing that makes Tropfest unique and helps keep the films fresh is that there’s Tropfest Signature Item each year, an item that must be referenced in the film somehow. This year’s TSI was “Key” which explains why the festival graphic here is a pile of silhouetted keys. Below are two of my favorite winners of the last few years – Marry Me from 2008, and Be My Brother from 2009 – followed by this year’s winner, mentioned above. I have to say, I love that one of the promotional pieces (also below) dredged up the old Hitchcock quote “The length of a film should be directly related to the endurance of the human bladder“. See more winners and 2011 finalists on Tropfest’s YouTube Channel.
If You Loved Nirvana the Band You’ll Hate Nirvana The Band The Show
[ Add A Comment ]Posted on October 1, 2010 by admin in Popular Media
Friday, October 1st, 2010It’s sort of like “Curb Your Enthusiasm” for hipsters.
Given my love of short film, I have no idea how I missed this one. Back in 2008, two guys in Toronto – Matt Johnson and Jay McCarrol – created a short lived web series called “Nirvana The Band The Show”. If you like dry verite style of Curb Your Enthusiasm
Short Horror Films By Independent Film Studio Fewdio
[ Add A Comment ]Posted on August 1, 2010 by admin in Popular Media
Sunday, August 1st, 2010Fewdio cashes in on the often overlooked fact that horror films are typically 90% setup to bring you studio-quality, witty horror film shorts. And they’re FREE.
The fact that so many films can be summarized in about 90 seconds is probably one of the reasons I enjoy short film so much. Why spend 120 minutes of your life doing something that can be accomplished in five? What is fairly easy to do, and is done a lot in this genre, is comedy. Which is why it was refreshing to run across Fewdio , an extremely talented and polished group of professionals who had been working in the studio system and decided they wanted to do something where they had complete control, and without a huge budget and production cycle. They cashed in on two facts that are largely overlooked regarding horror: first of all, that the best segments of horror films often stand up on their own and are strung together with setups, and secondly, that no-one was really doing quality horror shorts. As Fewdio’s Drew Daywalt points out in this Shock Till You Drop interview, it’s a very viable and largely unexplored format. As he puts it: “You end on a scare and bang, you’re out…it’s a good model to aspire to. Twilight Zone is formulated that way. Set up, continued set up, expected left turn, roll credits“. All of Fewdio’s films (and there are around 50) have fairly high production values, a clever concept, and exceptional attention to details that are often overlooked in independent productions, especially their attention to sound, probably one of the most powerful tools at a horror filmmaker’s disposal. You can watch most of their films on their YouTube channel, or buy the Nightmare House – Volume 1 DVD on their site. Watch a few below. Read the rest of this entry »
Sloppy Seconds: Short Films Under One Minute
[ Add A Comment ]Posted on June 23, 2010 by admin in Popular Media
Wednesday, June 23rd, 2010It took over 2000 seconds to locate these five, ten, and fifteen second film sites. Don’t expect us to take another few thousand to actually REVIEW them too.
There’s a feeble irony in the fact that it will take you longer to read this than it takes to watch any of the short films referenced. Take solace in the fact that if you do read this, you’ll be spared the endless tens of seconds that I subjected myself to in order to spare you some of the same agony. As an attention deficient media sieve, I’ve previously mentioned my obsession with short format visual media, whether as tradtional short film, TV commercials, or obscure animation. I’ve been especially busy lately, so I thought maybe it’s time to push the envelope and see if there are any REALLY short films out there. I started small, with 5 Second Films. Clever idea, but we’ll have to see if they manage to bump up the quality of the content. If I’m going to spend a minute of my life perusing your five second films, I want at least four scintillating seconds packed into every feature, not just a clever gag. On a slightly more arty note, we have Ten Second Film. I guess that extra five seconds really gives you some room to expand on a theme. I didn’t find any 11 or 13 second film sites (although I did find a 93 minute film called 13 Seconds
Channel 101: More Media For The Attention Deficient
[ Add A Comment ]Posted on May 4, 2010 by admin in Popular Media
Tuesday, May 4th, 2010One hundred channels of television and still nothing to watch? Try Channel 101.
In our continued search for amusing media for the attention deficient, we bring you: Channel 101. And in a convenient example of life imitating art, we’re going to do what Channel 101 does to its audience, and rather than tell you what to like, force you to go look at it and tell us what’s good. So just what is Channel 101? Well, if you live in LA, it’s a film festival with monthly screenings. But beyond that, it’s a “web channel” created by Dan Harmon and Rob Schrab that lets filmmakers create short “pilots” that are then judged by the audience for a shot at getting into top rotation on the site. Kind of like real TV, except no-one’s getting paid, and the fat rich executive that calls the shots is YOU. The concept was born back in 1999 when Dan Harmon and Rob Schrab were banished from legitimate television after the FOX network opted not to make a show from their pilot Heat Vision and Jack. As their lives unraveled in 2000, Rob Schrab went on to make a series of home movies about eating poop and having sex with babies. Dan Harmon, not to be outdone, makes a movie about Chris Tallman coming back from the dead and raping him in the ass. That’s pretty much verbatim from their About Us page, for the record. The fact is these guys appear to have pals like Sarah Silverman, Jack Black, and Ben Stiller, and the concept draws some pretty decent talent, ranging from the “meta” arty 60′s mod stylised vignettes of EVERYTHING to the camp of Fagney & Gaycey. I didn’t take time to dig deeper. Why don’t YOU. And then come back and share. We get tired of doing all the heavy lifting around here. Read the rest of this entry »