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I dig short films, but aside from the occasional showing at a film festival I don't really ever get a chance to watch 'em. I figure most of you are in a similar boat. Short films are a great way for inexperienced or amateur filmmakers to get their work out there. They allow people to experiment and push boundaries, or tell unique stories where it would be a disservice to bloat out the running time. They are great for animation, particularly beautiful 2D or traditionally animated films of the type you don't really see as much anymore. They are also a great format for documentaries. I know a lot of goons have made short films; please post them up. I thought I'd get the ball rolling in probably a boring way and post some shorts which would go on to be adapted by the directors into feature films. Its always interesting to see the core idea that existed. In many ways the shorter run time doesn't seem seem to be doing much of a disservice. First up is Glory at Sea by Benh Zeitlin, who would then go on to make Beasts of the Southern Wild. It lacks the performance by Quvenzhané Wallis, to its detriment, but keeps a lot of the magical realist charm of Beasts. quote:A group of mourners and a man spat from the depths of Hades build a boat from the debris of New Orleans to rescue their lost loved ones trapped beneath the sea. https://vimeo.com/10066407 Next is Monster by Jennifet Kent, which would become The Babadook. It lessens the focus on recovering from a traumatic event, and is more about the animosity of a mother towards her son. The Babadook is also the Movie of the Month. quote:A single mother battles her son's fear of a monster in the house, but soon discovers a sinister presence all around her. https://vimeo.com/39042148 Something that should probably be mentioned is try not to  . A lot of short film makers put their films up on the web to avoid them falling forgotten into the void, or for ad revenue or whatever. Post short films that have been uploaded legitimately. I think the ones I have posted here have been?I don't know how to embed Vimeo vids 
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Jan 12, 2016 03:28
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https://vimeo.com/8893511 I'm a fan of this one. It stars Matthew Rhys (The Americans) as just about everyone.
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Jan 12, 2016 05:30
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Here is a short from the fantastic Czech animator Jan Svankmejer, The Pit, the Pendulum, and Hope: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_6Wad7DS2D0 One short film that I think makes really interesting use of the format is Alan Clarke's Elephant: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Qwy7YQ41lHQ
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Jan 13, 2016 21:09
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Here's some of my favorite short films... Jim Henson made some really neat experimental films in the 1960s, including his Oscar-nominated Time Piece: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=z2aGUI9hJ64 Francis Thompson spent a decade making N.Y., N.Y. using kaleidoscope-like lenses and bent chrome to create distorted images: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ztxuCv5-4D4 It doesn't seem to be up anywhere complete, but Kenneth Anger's Scorpio Rising is essential viewing. Homoerotic documentary footage of bikers with contemporary pop music from start to finish. Jonas Mekas' Notes on the Circus is another landmark experimental film. It's "just" footage of the circus, but it's frenetic and dream-like. Hard to describe... just watch it. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xU83VS4IVwE Glas by Bert Haanstra. Jazz and handmade glassworking. Hypnotic. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KAYh0f1CPuc One of the first video re-edits, Apocalypse Pooh is inventive and hilarious: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5jWGJ3pyLgs (Someone made a precise HD reconstruction - the original was probably done on two VHS decks)
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Jan 14, 2016 02:13
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I'm really digging what's been posted so far, including this one (particularly the middle section with the ratcheting intensity of the demonic, mechanical wall):Anonymous Robot posted:Here is a short from the fantastic Czech animator Jan Svankmejer, The Pit, the Pendulum, and Hope: but it's reminding me that I had a big book of Poe stories, and when I got to the "The Pit and the Pendulum" I somehow read it such that it flowed seamlessly into the next story (might even have been Fall of the House of Usher?) without me noticing, and how weird the story came across. Do you have any other Jan Svankmejer recommendations, particularly neat stop motion stuff (which I assume was their main thing)? E: Anybody see any of the Oscar nominated shorts? quote:Best Documentary Short: Ruptured Yakety Sax fucked around with this message at 15:25 on Jan 15, 2016 |
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Jan 15, 2016 14:50
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Feel a bit intimidated putting it in with all these heavy hitters, but about this time last year I was editing this documentary short about students protesters occupying the university I'm at here in the UK: https://vimeo.com/121814367
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Jan 15, 2016 18:07
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A few of my favorites: There Will Come Soft Rains, which is Soviet animated adaptation of Ray Bradbury's story. The animation style fits very well - I think it evokes the mood of Bradbury's writing better than most other adaptations of his work on film. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5LNHYz89sNc La Cabina, which someone linked in GenChat a while back. Originally made for Spanish television, this is a really creepy little film that deals with the insidiousness of modern life, especially in the context of Franco's Spain. A really great lead performance and one of the better short films I've seen in a while. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uw-TUFsyufU The 7 Deaths of Pedro, the Boy Who Collected Cow Skulls, a very short, low-budget, and visceral film. It's kind of hard to even describe it, so just check it out. https://vimeo.com/48356363
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Jan 15, 2016 18:26
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I love shorts, so thanks for making this thread. Time to start making my way through  Someone else has already mentioned one of my all-time favourites, N.Y., N.Y.. That's a thing of abstract beauty. I've seen it a few times and it just gets better each time.Goatmask posted:E: Anybody see any of the Oscar nominated shorts? World of Tomorrow just went up on Netflix US and is my absolute favourite film of last year. I wrote a few sentences about it in last year's animation thread: quote:I thought it was hilarious, for starters, Hertzfeldt really on form. And hell, I just found it supremely charming. I'm a sucker for things which use child's eye view to undermine adults' attitudes, though. But thematically, the way it deconstructs memory and technology and our fears of the future, without ever truly embracing pessimism or cynicism is wonderful, something I really appreciate... And his transformation from this cynical, twisted comic animator into someone able to evoke an enormous amount of empathy has been pretty incredible. The only other director who does similar for me is Malick, funnily enough. To top it off, the ending is perfect: it sets up this classically Hertzfeldtian bleak and darkly funny conclusion, then completely subverts it... but in a way which retains a darkness and sadness in the reality it leaves behind. Spectacular. Since the Cloverfield spin-off/sequel/whatever was just announced, here's the director's first short, which is an interesting tech demo if nothing else, a film version of Portal (from the director's Youtube): https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4drucg1A6Xk Also, let's go back to the 1900s (the decade)! There were (at least) three truly momentous films, which are always worth revisiting, and not simply for their historical importance. (All three are in the public domain now.) Georges Melies' A Trip to the Moon, which has such great storytelling vision. It's still unbelievably charming and genuinely funny: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_FrdVdKlxUk Edwin S Porter's The Great Train Robbery. The birth of editing as something more than just stitching together different scenes. There are some really wonderful shots here (the finale, watching them get encircled, and suddenly spot their imminent demise as they have to make one last stand, is impeccable, just wonderful visual storytelling): https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZCWKh14Mvzg And finally, this was inducted into the National Film Registry for last year, another from Porter, Dream of a Rarebit Fiend. An innovative take on how to cinematically embody the experience of being drunk (weak spoiler but in case you wanna go in blind, I guess). Made me laugh more than most recent comedies: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=g98eVbp0zic That's about 35 minutes' worth so that's plenty for one dump
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Jan 15, 2016 23:04
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Allyn posted:Georges Melies' A Trip to the Moon, which has such great storytelling vision. It's still unbelievably charming and genuinely funny: Yeah, I'm a big fan of this one. I mean, it's super iconic, but I've always loved, for something made in 1902, how anti-colonialit or -imperialist it is. These bumbling idiots make it to the moon and immediately start murdering moonmen (selenites?) who, whilst from a strange and unfamiliar culture, aren't acting even remotely threatening. They quite rightly get arrested, only to kill the moonmen ruler and a bunch more citizens and soldiers, kidnap some poor fool and force him to dance in chains through the streets of Paris. These so-called modern scientists and thinkers are depicted as wizards. I felt like the last shot, of the statue of a man standing over the corpse of the moon with a staff through its eye, was particularly pointed. If you watch this on Netflix, like I did, be careful. There is a colourised version up there that has this voice over naration that's just awful. I understand that having people provide voices wasn't that uncommon when films like this were first doing the rounds? But that netflix version was just uncomfortable. Allyn posted:And finally, this was inducted into the National Film Registry for last year, another from Porter, Dream of a Rarebit Fiend. An innovative take on how to cinematically embody the experience of being drunk (weak spoiler but in case you wanna go in blind, I guess). Made me laugh more than most recent comedies: I was somewhat familiar with the old comic strip versions of Dream of the Rarebit Fiend, which always had someone going through a surreal experiance before waking up and lamenting having eaten a Welsh rarebit before going to bed. A Welsh rarebit is a melted cheese on toast sort of affair. Looking up on Wikipedia to see which came first, the comic strip or film, I see the example on the comic wiki page is basically an earlier version on the short film: 
Ruptured Yakety Sax fucked around with this message at 06:54 on Jan 24, 2016 |
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Jan 24, 2016 06:30
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Goatmask posted:Do you have any other Jan Svankmejer recommendations, particularly neat stop motion stuff (which I assume was their main thing)? Svankmejer worked primarily with stop-motion, yes. A lot of his early filmography is pure visual experimentalism, like A Game With Stones, but later in his career he developed into using his films as a vehicle for critique of the Soviet regime. I might recommend Punch and Judy, The Death of Stalinism in Bohemia, and Food. Also, Meat Love.
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Jan 24, 2016 17:04
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If you strip out the mediocre framing story, The Prophet is an anthology of some of the best animated shorts of the last year. For those who missed it, different animation studios were each given a segment that covers a chapter from Gibran's book. Each one is self-contained and there are no constraints on the style. Tomm Moore's segment ("On Love") is particularly brilliant. They are all really good. Even the framing story isn't terrible, but you can skip through it and not be missing a single thing. Skip about a minute into the trailer and you'll get a tiny glimpse of what they are like: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=h9dY5zkwK5M It just got a streaming release last week, so you can watch it now.
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Jan 25, 2016 02:20
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Kangra posted:If you strip out the mediocre framing story, The Prophet is an anthology of some of the best animated shorts of the last year. For those who missed it, different animation studios were each given a segment that covers a chapter from Gibran's book. Each one is self-contained and there are no constraints on the style. Tomm Moore's segment ("On Love") is particularly brilliant. They are all really good. Even the framing story isn't terrible, but you can skip through it and not be missing a single thing. Seems like it might be neat. I had to check, but I recognised Nina Paley's animation style in there too. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8tIdCsMufIY This reminds me that I keep seeing an animated shorts collection on Netflix called Genius Party. I'd avoided it because I'm from the half of goons that feel weird about anime, but criticker is suggesting I'd enjoy it. Worth a look? Speaking of animation, Gobelins is (I assume) some sort of French animation school. They put what look like final year projects up on YouTube, and some of them are pretty good. Some are quite sweet. Plus they're all really short, less than 5 minutes. Here are a couple: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sReQrbJVc6c https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oj7zfiMr7UI https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2xp22IYL2uU https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bVw68FKLEzQ Also, thanks Anonymous Robot
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Jan 25, 2016 14:08
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Goatmask posted:This reminds me that I keep seeing an animated shorts collection on Netflix called Genius Party. I'd avoided it because I'm from the half of goons that feel weird about anime, but criticker is suggesting I'd enjoy it. Worth a look? Not really. I wasn't impressed by it, though in my opinion the strongest short was the opening credit sequence which most people didn't seem to care for. I haven't gotten around to watching it yet, and it's weird enough that if you hate anime you might either really hate it or perhaps like it- but you might consider Mind Game instead, also on Netflix. Here's another of my favorite shorts, Ilha Das Flores: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gF0C67bavMY Here's some wonderful Estonian animation, Suur Toell: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WDEI06J00nk And just for fun, here's one of the Captain Pronin Supercop shorts: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=teIOMLgaoyk Anonymous Robot fucked around with this message at 05:42 on Jan 29, 2016 |
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Jan 29, 2016 05:38
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Anonymous Robot posted:I haven't gotten around to watching it yet, and it's weird enough that if you hate anime you might either really hate it or perhaps like it- but you might consider Mind Game instead, also on Netflix. Actually I had already seen Mind Game, it's good. I was put off by the first fifteen minutes or so, which (very deliberately I think) has the main protagonist acting like a stereotypically sleazy anime character. But it blossoms into something I really dug. It struck me as sort of being the inverse of Synecdoche New York in a lot of ways.
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Jan 29, 2016 07:43
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One of my all-time favorite filmmakers is Norman McLaren. While he was Scottish, he emigrated to the US briefly around 1939 before permanently emigrating to Canada for a long, fruitful period as one of the star filmmakers of The National Film Board of Canada. You can actually view most of his work on NFB's website for free, many in HD. Spook Sport - One of Mary Ellen Bute's abstract "visual dance" films features McLaren's innovative drawn-on-film animation from his brief New York period. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZnLJqJBVCT4 Begone Dull Care - A signature hand-painted film of his, collaboration with Evelyn Lambart. Pretty much the ultimate example of synesthesia. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0r2COvWPO4Y Neighbours - Very dark comedic allegory on the cold war done entirely with "pixilation" animation (animating people through stop-motion) https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=e_aSowDUUaY A Chairy Tale - Funny collaboration with Claude Jutra with music by Ravi Shankar https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NSRjRctL8XA Pas de Deux - Gorgeous ballet shot in B&W and with chiaroscuro lighting, with optical printer effects. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WopqmACy5XI Synchromy - Taking his hand-drawn sound approach farther by showing the synthetic soundtrack via optical printing. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UmSzc8mBJCM And on that note, here's some more great NFB shorts: 21-47 - Arthur Lipsett's experimental film that was an influence on George Lucas https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7-tMhRKS9Jo Universe - Roman Kroitar's documentary inspired elements of 2001: A Space Odyssey. Gee, that narrator sounds familiar... https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Hu64xbgprWY
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Jan 29, 2016 15:02
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Egbert Souse posted:
This is something really special, thanks for the post. Here's another short that is made of hand-painted animation cels, by the eccentric Cory McAbee: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=s2G9AsEWTbU Maya Deren's surrealist short Meshes of the Afternoon: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YSY0TA-ttMA And here's another sweet piece of Soviet stop-motion, Mittens: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-7ShBo_szVE
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Jan 29, 2016 18:30
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This is one I wrote and directed this past summer, my fourth short overall. It's pretty apparent I watched Apocalypse Now a thousand times during post-production, right? https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MHN8CpebaKM
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Feb 29, 2016 05:25
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