Last night I sat through 102 Minutes of Shorts. I say “sat through” because it was amazing to me, someone who makes his living within the constraints of five or so minute-scenes at The Second City, that so few of these films actually worked.
[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2A5tT4p_n-U]
Here’s the YouTube trailer for Jokers are Trumps, a made-in-Bermuda short and (therefore somewhat obviously) crowd favourite. It’s basically a home movie, and I mean that in the best possible way — a testament to the power of digital filmmaking, able to speak to a very specific audience in a way that no mass market Hollywood film ever could.
One thing, though… One of the end credits read “Shot on Location in Bermuda and Toronto”, and I’m pretty sure this got hisses from the audience. What’s that about?
[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=08I5YrqD5EU]
The other big success for me was t.o.m., a simple and absolutely ridiculous idea for a story, and I mean that in the best possible way.
The rest of the films suffered from at least one of the following symptoms:
- Poor acting
- Bad direction
- Trying to cram a feature-length idea into a short
Maybe I’m biased because the short I submitted to the festival a few years back never made it in, but the lesson to be learned here is this: Shooting something in 70mm widescreen doesn’t automatically make it good, whether it’s a short or a feature!