I don't watch as many short films as I would like. I believe the future of imagination is in the long form, so I work at that end.
Yet there is a purity that can be achieved with a small, concentrated thing. These are not easy, as any artist will tell you.
They are also not easy to watch lucidly, because the effect is the thing itself. It completely reverses the normal contract.
But this was recommended to me, and I am sorry I did not meet it when I could. This is viewable on the web, and the effect would be ruined if I said much about the film itself.
The idea is one that matters. My comments are spattered with remarks on folding, the idea that the film and audience entangle to produce a narrative effect that comes to the foreground. Like "Loretta," this works with that effect in foreground only. The way the inversion works is extremely well engineered. The actors really knew what they were about. Camera-work in these situations becomes ever more challenging: the staging here is two men at tables back to back. You have fewer seconds than in a long form — many fewer — to establish things physically, situationally and personally.
This is good. It inverts enjoyably. It shows skill in the craft associated with the fold. Now it is time to use that skill and attach a narrative wagon to this tractor.
Ted's Evaluation -- 3 of 3: Worth watching.
Yet there is a purity that can be achieved with a small, concentrated thing. These are not easy, as any artist will tell you.
They are also not easy to watch lucidly, because the effect is the thing itself. It completely reverses the normal contract.
But this was recommended to me, and I am sorry I did not meet it when I could. This is viewable on the web, and the effect would be ruined if I said much about the film itself.
The idea is one that matters. My comments are spattered with remarks on folding, the idea that the film and audience entangle to produce a narrative effect that comes to the foreground. Like "Loretta," this works with that effect in foreground only. The way the inversion works is extremely well engineered. The actors really knew what they were about. Camera-work in these situations becomes ever more challenging: the staging here is two men at tables back to back. You have fewer seconds than in a long form — many fewer — to establish things physically, situationally and personally.
This is good. It inverts enjoyably. It shows skill in the craft associated with the fold. Now it is time to use that skill and attach a narrative wagon to this tractor.
Ted's Evaluation -- 3 of 3: Worth watching.
