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Tropfest Short Film Festival 2011

admin — Tue, 08 Mar 2011 02:04:48 +0000

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.

Marry Me – 2008 Tropfest Winner

Be My Brother – 2009 Tropfest Winner

Animal Beatbox

Australian Film Collective Blue Tongue Films

admin — Thu, 17 Feb 2011 05:02:55 +0000

Nash Edgerton, an Australian fellow who was at one time an aspiring stuntman, has pulled off an even greater stunt by creating a collective of exceptionally talented filmmakers called Blue Tongue Films. I’ve mentioned before how – thanks to my goldfish-like attention span – I’m a bit of short film addict, so while discovering the treasure trove of quality shorts that Blue Tongue has made available via their YouTube channel has given me a huge fix, the sheer volume and quality of their output may unfortunately require checking into film junky rehab when I’m done booting up. I hadn’t heard of Blue Tongue until today, but this NYT piece from last spring outlines how the collaborative formed over the last few years, eventually evolving into a full blown production company that develops its various members’ work in a cooperative fashion perhaps reminiscent of filmmaker friends like Scorsese, De Palma, and Schrader, or Tarantino and Rodriguez. So far I’ve only watched the shorts Netherland Dwarf and Spider (featured below), but both of these films embody mature conception, execution, and production values that make it evident these filmmakers aren’t just talented dabblers. And their feature film Animal Kingdom – although I personally haven’t seen it – adds weight to that assessment; it won a World Cinema Jury Prize at Sundance last year. They have a number of other feature length films in production, and, as I said, plenty of shorts to whet your appetite. Which is why I’m going to just shut up now, and get back to perusing some of the highest quality shorts I’ve seen in a while.

Both of these films rely on skill and substance rather than eye-candy and cliche, and bring surprising little twists that make their various lengths seem just right, reeling you in enough to make you wonder how they could wrap it up in a 10-15 film, and then pulling it off. With a little jolt in one instance, and a gratifying anti-climax in the other.

Netherland Dwarf

Harry really wants a rabbit. Harry’s Dad really wants his wife back. And somehow in the middle of all this wanting, they both seem to have forgotten that they already have each other.

Spider

Jack and Jill are always hurting each others feelings. But like Mum said, Its all fun and games until someone loses an eye.

If You Loved Nirvana the Band You’ll Hate Nirvana The Band The Show

admin — Fri, 01 Oct 2010 22:06:12 +0000

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, and can tolerate a certain degree of the kind of hipsterism that made the series The Burg work, you might just enjoy The Website Nirvana The Band The Show . Except for the potentially annoying sideways-scrolling layout. On the other hand, if you’re a young hipster who spends most of your time talking about the YouTube show you should make that’s a deadpan take on two guys who spend most of their time talking about the show they will do, the series might just make you a little queasy. The YouTube clip below doesn’t really capture the feel of the show, so just go watch an episode. I imagine the series might have caught on if in all their hipness they had realized that “embeddable is spreadable” (I think I just coined a term), and had put it on YouTube. But since (as the duo themselves said in the interview linked to above) the entire series is based on illegal behavior, maybe you should do them a favor and snag all the episodes and put them on YouTube for them.

Short Horror Films By Independent Film Studio Fewdio

admin — Sun, 01 Aug 2010 17:53:37 +0000

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.

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Sloppy Seconds: Short Films Under One Minute

admin — Wed, 23 Jun 2010 04:44:08 +0000

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), but if you’re a cellphone filmmaker (and yes, even they have festivals ), 12Seconds.TV seems to be some sort of video sharing social site. And when we finally get to fifteen seconds, things get a little more interesting. The 15 Second Film Festival – supported by the Arts Council of Northern Ireland – is, in their words, “a small, but perfectly formed, two-seater itinerant Art-Deco Picture Palace” that “delivers a carefully curated programme of eye-popping, lip-smacking, brain-tickling quarter-minute masterpieces“. We’ll let you be the judge. We’ve already spent over 2000 seconds assembling these links for you, we’re not gonna spend another 1000 finding highlights and snagging the embed code. Let us know if you find anything good.

This piece was NOT brought to you thanks to this five second Honda ad:

Channel 101: More Media For The Attention Deficient

admin — Tue, 04 May 2010 15:38:39 +0000

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.

Fagney & Gacey, Episode 5

Soviet Animation Is Something You Can’t Go Russian Into

admin — Thu, 29 Apr 2010 03:59:40 +0000

This image actually has
nothing to do with animation.
I just like the imagery.

Last year we touched on some of the amazing Russian Flash Animation that’s out there, but I had no idea what an amazing body of work existed in terms of Soviet animation in general until I ran into this piece about 80′s Russian animation the other day. I’ve always had a mild fascination with things Russian; especially in the 80′s, when the cold war was sputtering out. I had a fair number of Russian military surplus caps, pins, and jackets, and loved the bold graphic style of Soviet propaganda posters. At the time the Soviet Union not only still existed, it was a dark and mysterious place in western eyes. I’ve also always enjoyed the tough-minded humorous attitude of my Russian friends, which is probably why I’ve threatened to run away and start a Balkan Funk Band. But that’s going to have to wait for a minute, because this Russian animation thing has triggered a wicked case of Wikiphilia, and I’ve got some YouTubing to do. The visual style of Russian animation prior to the 90′s is all over the map, and it’s hard to get a grasp on who did what and why. Some of the coolest stuff may or may not be politically-motivated, and all the best sources for this stuff are in Russian! So I’ve only included two clips below, but if you find this stuff intriguing you might start your trail with some things like this Soyuzmulzfilm channel on YouTube, or Wikipedia pages about the film studios Kievnauchfilm and Soyuzmultfilm.

“Battleground”, based on a story by Stephen King. Directed by Mikhail Titov

I love the shading style in this one. Now we know where the band “Aha” got their inspiration.

“Contact”, based on a story by Robert Silverberg. Directed by Vladimir Tarasov

It’s a little more Max and Lennon than Marx and Lenin

I think this woman is telling everyone to not tell us about all the cool Soviet animation:

No Lion – M.I.A.’s New Video “Born Free” Is Manely Just Violent

admin — Tue, 27 Apr 2010 03:40:58 +0000

Not to be outdone by Erykah Badu, Lady Gaga & Beyoncé, M.I.A.’s new video (below) is much more provocative short film than music video. And while it’s stylishly and cleverly shot it is – in my opinion – a little short on real finesse. When I first heard about M.I.A. back in 2004 or whenever, I was intrigued; the general indy press buzz and her first releases offered hope of some really creative sounds, paired with a meaningful message. I have to confess that the intrigue wore off fairly quickly. Her limited vocal stylings and the slightly under-inspired remix-rather-than-mashup sounds bothered me less than her seemingly somewhat contrived political posturing. I don’t mind when music comes with a story: I mean, what would blues be without the story? Or jazz, or reggae? But although I don’t question the truth of her personal story, I question the genuineness of how much she cares about the plight of her country. Mostly because she seems pretty at home making a lot of money and being a pop star in the country that arguably caused it. I do on the other hand have to give her a lot of credit for being a sharp business person and pop media manipulation artist. Which makes her latest video kind of “meta”, and ironic. In case you haven’t seen it, I won’t offer up any spoilers. But I will say that much like the way the rest of her work draws much more attention to her as a person than to Sri Lanka’s problems, the new video is getting more attention than the message it seems to try to deliver. Video below.

Warning: The video contains nudity and very graphic violence

And if you can still manage a sense of humor after watching it, seems to have some connection with this:

Life Is Short – Films Should Be Too

admin — Thu, 01 Apr 2010 01:46:54 +0000

Tokyo/Glow Is Gorgeous, Simple, and Short

One of my only disappointments regarding the recent Ann Arbor Film Festival was that I didn’t catch enough of it. Which is a little amusing, since I had a press pass*, and it’s a festival comprised largely of short films. Which are coincidentally kind of a fetish of mine, largely because of my goldfish-like media attention span. I regrettably missed winner’s night, but was confident that I could cleverly find a lot of the films online like I had with some of the opening night entries. How wrong I was. What I quickly learned googling the festival winners was that there are two distinct schools of thought on distribution of these festival-oriented works: one that believes in the new economy of “release it free and cash in later” (as in Chris Anderson’s book Free), and one that maintains its cachet mainly via scarcity of distribution. Ah well. I guess I’ll just have to spend more time in real theaters, watching real films! Until then though, there’s a never-ending film festival online. The biggest problem ultimately is sorting through the astounding number of indy shorts out there to find that genuine gem. Which is – as I just learned – precisely one of the reasons to go to a festival. So with all my complaining about being short on time, it’s rather ironic that I spent as much time as I did to find some sites to share with you. Of the dozens of sites I perused, two that I found that seemed to have the highest density of quality films were probably NZShortFilm.com and CoffeeShorts. My search is only just beginning though; if you have any suggestions, feel free to share.

I don’t know if IndyMogul’s The Best Short Films in the World really are, but this episode says a lot about the current generation of aspiring filmmakers and film addicts. The cardboard title crawls, overlapping segments, and inserts of host Bobby Miller make it hard to tell where the film submissions begin and end, but deliver a lot of selected shorts in a timespan that doesn’t lose my drug-damaged brain’s attention.

Tokyo/Glow clocks in at 2:10, and fills all 130 seconds with gorgeous time-lapse HD color:

*Thank you so much Becca Keating for the last-minute kind consideration!

Indy Film Alive & Well At The 2010 Ann Arbor Film Festival

admin — Wed, 24 Mar 2010 12:00:31 +0000

I always think of myself as film lover until I find myself surrounded by the passionate fanatics that will comprise a festival like the amazingly long-lived Ann Arbor Film Festival, now in its 48th year. It’s quite a feat filling a classic venue like the 1700+ capacity Michigan Theater on a Wednesday night, especially showing short films that no-one has heard of, but the AAFF did well on their opening night; I didn’t check the balcony, but there were very few seats open on the main floor. I was a little anxious about attending a full evening of indy film festival shorts; the luxury of time-shifted viewing and Internet access to an amazing variety of indy media has made me something of an on-demand media monster. But the festival didn’t disappoint, which is another impressive feat. The double-edged sword of creating a successful festival like the AAFF is that – yes, of course, you’re guaranteed a lot of quality submissions from around the world – but as the festival’s Executive Director Donald Harrison pointed out in his introduction to the festival tonight, their screeners and programmers had to sift through over 2500 submissions this year. I get a headache just thinking about what that must be like. Combine the sheer quantity with the multiple media formats and preparation required for simply projecting the material, and if the festival takes place at all, a monumental task has been accomplished. Think about that if you happen to be lucky enough to attend the festival this year. If you aren’t able to attend the festival, a surprising number of the films are readily available on line. Of course nothing compares to seeing them on a huge classic theater screen like the Michigan, but below are a few highlights from tonight’s entries for your perusal. See the AAFF’s YouTube channel for more previews, and their web site for the week’s schedule and other festival details.

El ataque de los robots de Nebulosa-5

Photograph Of Jesus by Laurie Hill

Missed Aches – Preview (See the AAFF YouTube channel for more previews)

48th Ann Arbor Film Festival Teaser

This, by the way, is a film lover. John Johnson of Ann Arbor is wearing lanyards from every Ann Arbor Film Festival since the fifth year. If the house lights hadn’t dimmed, I’m pretty sure he’d still be sharing his passion for indy film with me. And I’d be happily listening.