Short Film: DUST with Alan Rickman

Here's a great short film, written and directed by Ben Ockrent and Jack Russell. It stars Alan Rickman (Die Hard, Harry Potter) as a strange man who follows a little girl and her mother home one day, but takes a very unexpected turn. DUST is definitely worth seven minutes of your time.

Video: IT'S NOT YOU, IT'S ME

I don't usually post short films, but wanted to draw your attention to Matt Spicer's black-comedy It's Not You, It's Me. This 9-minute short stars Gillian Jacobs (Community) and Fran Kranz (Dollhouse) as a couple whose relationship's going through a bad patch, culminating in a shock. Warning: contains a few gruesome scenes.

[via Film School Rejects]

Sponsored Video: VIRGIN MEDIA SHORTS 2012

It's the return of the UK's biggest short film competition from Virgin Media, which is offering £30,000 of film funding and mentoring from the British Film Institute to this year's winner. 13 finalists will compete at the Southbank Centre in London this November, with a panel of judges (including actress Juliet Walters and film critic James King) selecting the winner. All of the finalists will receive a fantastic consolation prize, too, as the 12 shorts will then be shown in nationwide cinema for a whole year.

Short Film: 'The Commuter'

Here's an entertaining short film called The Commuter (filmed using Nokia's N8 smartphone), starring Dev Patel (Slumdog Millionaire) as a commuter whose car gets clamped by Charles Dance's (Gosford Park) traffic warden, forcing him to exact his vengeance with inspiration from an action movie poster. Co-stars Ed Westwick (Gossip Girl) and Pamela Anderson (Baywatch), directed by Edward and Rory McHenry. I think it passes 7-minutes rather pleasantly...

TRAILER PARK: I'm Here

I'm a huge fan of Spike Jonze's work (although I've yet to see Where The Wild Things Are, it shames me to admit), so the trailer for his 30-minute short I'm Here is particularly exciting to me. Originally a music video director, he's successfully taken his shortform creativity to feature-length to create award-winning films like Being John Malkovich and Adaptation, so it'll be interesting to see him meet somewhere in the middle with this half-hour effort (longer than a music vid, shorter than a film, yet "commercial" in the sense it's sponsored by Absolut Vodka.) I'm Here is a love story between two robots, and the trailer embedded above is a thing of charm, beauty and visual wonder. The film's being shown at the 2010 Sundance film festival, so check it out of you're lucky enough to be in attendance.

Short Film Saturday rests

I'm going to "rest" Short Film Saturday for awhile; partly because I don't have the time to search for shorts that interest me enough to share with everyone, partly because my hope that readers would submit their own finds didn't happen, and partly because I'm unsure how popular that feature was (due to a lack of comments.)

Over the two-month run we had funny sci-fi The Black Hole, an early Christopher Nolan oddity called Doodlebug, bizarre animation Rabbit, Oscar nominees Oktapodi and Presto, low-budget romance Butterface, cynical Valentine's special How To Tell When A Relatonship Is Over, and the amusing Goodbye To The Normals.

If you liked Short Film Saturday, and want to see it return some day, let me know below. Otherwise it may move from "rested" to "retired". Or perhaps become an irregular Saturday treat, instead of a weekly one.

Goodbye To The Normals [Short Film Saturday]

Jim Field Smith's "Goodbye To The Normals" is this Saturday's humourous choice, all about a little boy who's decided to leave home. You may recognise that the concerned Dad role is played by Steve Furst (ubiquitous supporting actor in the likes of Little Britain and those Orange cinema adverts.)

* Have you seen, or made, a short film you'd like featured on Short Film Saturday?
If so, please e-mail me the details, including an embeddable video-link. *

How To Tell When A Relationship Is Over [Short Film Saturday]

Yes, this counts as a Valentine's Day special in my twisted mind. The Mighty Boosh's Julian Barrett stars in a 90-second comedy from writer-director Tony Roche, entitled "How To Tell When A Relationship Is Over", about a couple who decide to split in 15 different ways. Enjoy!

* Have you seen, or made, a short film you'd like featured on Short Film Saturday?
If so, please e-mail me the details, including an embeddable video-link. *

"Butterface" [Short Film Saturday]

This week's short is "Butterface" by David McLaughlin; a two-minute piece about a boy (McLaughlin) trying to summon the courage to talk to a girl who sits next to him on a train. Very simple, very low budget, and overall a great example of the kind of entertaining short within most people's grasp. After viewing, head here for an interview with the director.

Incidentally, it's the BAFTAs tomorrow, so you may want to head over to the BAFTA website and see the nominees for Best Short Film. I had hoped to embed a few here this week, but the BAFTA site doesn't have them, and I had no luck trawling the 'net for any of the nominees. But I'm sure most people have seen Wallace & Gromit In A Matter Of Loaf & Death over Christmas.

* Have you seen, or made, a short film you'd like featured on Short Film Saturday?
If so, please e-mail me the details, including an embeddable video-link. *

"Oktapodi" & "Presto" [Short Film Saturday]

After last week's bizarre cartoon "Rabbit", we're sticking with animated animals for a special double-bill. First up, the 2007 French short "Oktapodi"; a Graduate Student Project from Gobelins L'Ecole de L'Image. This 2-minute animation is about a pair of besotted octopuses that become separated, but the one left behind goes to extraordinary lengths to be reunited with its mate. Comical, vibrant fun in the Pixar mould. You may also be interested to know that "Oktapodi" is one of this year's Academy Award nominees, in the short film category. As is our next short film...

Does it seem a little unfair to have this Pixar short competing with the likes of "Oktapodi" at the Academy Awards? Perhaps so. Regardless, Doug Sweetland's excellent short "Presto" (shown before WALL·E last summer) is absolutely wonderful: a snooty magician grapples with his disobedient rabbit and a magical hat on-stage. Can Pixar spearhead a return of Looney Tunes-style cartoon shorts like this? Pleeeease.

Rabbit [Short Film Saturday]

Our first animation this week, with the BAFTA-nominated "Rabbit", directed by Run Wrake. "A dreamlike but dark story of lost innocence and the random justice of nature, told with curious images from a distant childhood."

It was chosen to be part of the BBC Summer Of British Film (Shorts) Horror Season, and has won numerous awards, such as: a McLaren Award at the Edinburgh International Film Festival (2006), a Tiger Award at the Rotterdam Film Festival, and the Onda Curta Award at the Lisbon Independent Film Festival.

Incredibly bizarre and certainly not for everyone; but a strong, distinctive piece of work nevertheless. What's your reaction?

* Have you seen, or made, a short film you'd like featured on Short Film Saturday?
If so, please e-mail me the details, including an embeddable video-link. *

Doodlebug [Short Film Saturday]

A look into recent filmmaking history this week, with a surreal short from 1997 called "Doodlebug" by Christopher Nolan. Of course, Nolan went on to direct Memento, Insomnia, Batman Begins, The Prestige and The Dark Knight.

However, before his worldwide success, the British director was making a Twilight Zone-style 3-minute oddity about a man trying to kill a very unusual insect. To be honest, the twist in the tail is fairly obvious and probably not as clever as Nolan must have thought at the time, but it's still a great student film. It's also worth mentioning that James Theobald plays "The Man", and starred in Nolan's calling-card movie Following a year later.

* Have you seen, or made, a short film you'd like featured on Short Film Saturday?
If so, please e-mail me the details, including an embeddable video-link. *

The Black Hole [Short Film Saturday]

This is a new regular feature to DMD for 2009: Short Film Saturday. A selection of shorts will be made available -- from talented people trying to break into the industry, to up-and-coming directors at film school, and a few classics from established filmmakers.

First up is "The Black Hole", winner of the Virgin Media Shorts competition, directed by Phil Sampson and Olly Williams. The film involves a sleep-deprived office worker who unwittingly photocopies a black hole. It's less than three minutes long, so there's no excuse not to check it out! Afterwards, you can read an interview with Phil and Olly here.

Day 4: La Cabina (1972)

This 35-minute long Spanish short movie from 1972 became a cult memory for many Brits, after it was shown on late-night TV in the early-80s...

Directed by Antonio Mercero, it has one of the most deliciously simple and unnerving plots of modern horror cinema…

On a hot summer's day, a man (José Luis López Vázquez) becomes trapped in an inoperable phone booth. The passers-by are unable to help him escape, with many enjoying the spectacle and social embarrassment unfolding. The annoyance turns sinister when a phone company truck arrives and lifts the booth away, with the man still inside as an apparent prisoner! It transpires that the booth was in fact a "honey trap" and, for scarily unknown reasons, people are its prey…

Okay, it might not sound like much when you whittle it down to a few paragraphs, but for a low-budget film, it's a beautifully simple and memorable concept. La Cabina/The Telephone Box drips with a weird, dreamlike, slow-burning panic -- as events build to a truly, terrifying climax.

The musical score also does a superb job of giving voice to this man's escalating panic. The fact it's a foreign film only adds a strange ambiance for non-Spanish audiences, and the film justly won an Emmy Award back in '72.

La Cabina is a modern gem. A cult classic, if ever there was one. Even after 30 years, its simple idea and constantly tightening sense of peril is a joy to behold. It's the best Twilight Zone episode they never did.

And, thanks to the wonders of the internet, the entire film is available on YouTube (cut into four parts; see links below). This may not be the desired way to see La Cabina, but you're unlikely to see it on TV or DVD anytime soon, so it'll have to do...

But, however you see it: once seen, never forgotten…

Links

La Cabina
Chaotic Cinema - La Cabina

Download

La Cabina: Part 1
La Cabina: Part 2
La Cabina: Part 3
La Cabina: Part 4

SWEET - SHORT FILM
10 mins. 35mm/Super 35
WRITER & DIRECTOR: John Pilkington PRODUCER: Robert Mercer
EDITOR: Robert Townend DIRECTOR OF PHOTOGRAPHY: James Solan
CAST: Noel Fielding (Pete Sweet), Julian Barratt (Stitch), Suzy Bloom (Daisy) & Toby Walton (Dave)

Pete Sweet begins dating a short, dumpy, ginger-haired girl called Poppy. His best friend Stitch becomes jealous, despite the fact Poppy is imaginary...

Stand-up comedians Noel Fielding and Julian Barratt -- together known as The Mighty Boosh in their surreal BBC sitcom, but also recognisable guest stars in a variety of TV shows, take the leads in John Pilkington's oddball comedy short.

Fielding plays the eponymous Pete Sweet, a goofy twentysomething who works on a record stall and owns two puppies. Barratt plays his dour best-mate Stitch, with both characters shamelessly recycling their Mighty Boosh personas.

Sweet is a one-joke comedy short, but the joke is a good one. Essentially, it's a fast-paced cliched romp through a giddy sexual relationship between Pete and Poppy. The twist is that Poppy is an imaginary (and therefore totally invisible) girlfriend, but their relationship is still intensely sexual and imune to embarassment. Scenes of Pete having energetic sex with thin air, french-kissing empty space and having romantic meals for two/one are sprinkled liberally throughout the short.

Of course, the madcap relationship hits a few quirky speedbumps along the way, most notable with the appearance of a real potential girlfriend called Daisy (Suzy Bloom) and Stitch's increasing jealously of his friend's new partner.

It's all good fun and amusing acted by everyone concerned, particularly Noel Fielding, who sportingly agrees to shag nothing and make curious elephant noises. Both Fielding and Barratt are hardly being stretched here, but their presence will ensure Pilkington's short perhaps reaches a wider audience than it would do otherwise. Mighty Boosh fans will certainly be downloading, as should any fan of high-concept comedy.

While the short is pleasingly shot, nicely lit and boasts some entertaining moments, Sweet doesn't really take the concept into any radical areas. This pretty much pans out as you're probably imagining and the final twist doesn't quite work. I was waiting for Stitch to be unveiled as being similarly imagined (as he's rarely acknowledged by anyone but Pete), but this never happens...

Still, there are far worse ways to spend 10 minutes. I found Sweet to be good-natured fun, with a few sequences worth a chuckle, although wry smiles are more prevailant. Not a classic, but an amusing and well-made diversion by writer-director John Pilington and his crew.

To see for yourself, click here.

SILENCE IS GOLDEN – SHORT FILM (2006)
14 minutes. 35mm/Super 35
WRITER & DIRECTOR: Chris Shepherd PRODUCER: Maria Manton

An imaginative boy and his mum try to stay sane, despite the fact their "special needs" neighbour behaves in such an unorthodox way...

This short film by Chris Shepherd is the winning entry of the Turner Classic Movies Short Film Competition 2006, and it's easy to see why the judges decided to award it the top prize.

Silence Is Golden is an imaginative and inventive story based on a very simple premise. It's essentially about a young boy called Billy, imagination and how he projects day-dreams onto his oddball next-door neighbour, Dennis.

As with all the best short films, the simple premise gives the filmmakers plenty of room to let their visual side take flight. The piece is directed very well, with no scene wasted, and includes some brilliant uses of special-effects (most notably some child drawings that come to life, stop-motion animation when some mantelpiece figurines comes to life, and a surreal moment when Dennis is transformed into a giant robot, or breathes fire on some Bible bashers).

Chris Shepherd displays a sure hand with all the technicalities, and makes the real-life moments (essentially focusing on just three actors in two suburban houses) just as entertaining as the effects.

Conor Morris plays Billy, a believable child character thanks to his everyday features and plain-speaking dialogue. Too often children are treated as tiny adults in film, but Morris certainly brings a down-to-earth charm that's easy to buy into.

Kate McLoughlin is excellent as Billy's mum, getting to show some tension and emotion throughout the film, mostly as the situation with her strange neighbour and her son reaches a climax.

Dennis is played by Andrew Dunford, who manages to make a potentially stereotyped character more rounded and likeable despite his incessant banging on walls and quirky mannerisms.

The film is set in the 70s, with beautifully realized scenery (dark browns and yellows) and some excellent costumes. The production design is so spot-on that the film actually does resemble something from that time period (with only the CGI-assisted effects saying otherwise).

The budget was certainly quite large considering the number of effects and professionalism with the camerawork, which was also nice to see. The only criticism with the film is that once the premise is realized, the story doesn't really evolve into much and the ending is a little disappointing, but the 14 minutes certainly flew past and left me mostly satisfied.

Shepherd is certainly a filmmaker I hope gets the chance to spread his wings into a feature-length film, as it's this level of talent and visual imagination sorely missing from British television and film. Short films prove we have the necessary ambition and skills to match our American cousins, and Silence Is Golden is testament to that.

"Wonderfully surreal"
-- Imelda Staunton

"Technically extremely impressive, full of wit and imagination"
-- Stephen Poliakoff

"A wonderful combination of mixed media, strong
storytelling and talented actors"
-- Matthew Modine

"Terrific, strong, non-sentimental kid’s story"
-- Terry Gilliam

What are you waiting for? Download the film from the BBC Film Network
Also, visit Slinky Pictures, co-founded by Shepherd.

LA CABINA

Who remembers La Cabina? Well, perhaps not by name, but if you ever see a particularly wonderful foreign film about a man trapped in a telephone booth, then you'll never forget it! The movie has attained a cult status in the UK mainly due to the fact so few people have seen it, but those that caught a late-night showing in the 80's have had it burned into their memory forever.

La Cabina was a 1972 35-minute Spanish TV-Movie by Antonio Mercero about a man (played by José Luis López Vázquez) who tries to make a phone call on an out-of-order telephone booth. Unfortunately, the booth is a trap and he finds himself stuck inside...

Passers-by try to help him escape from the booth, but soon after a phone company truck appears and transports the booth away to an underground factory that contains hundreds of identical booths -- containing the skeletal remains of past victims, some of whom committed suicide with the phone cord...

Remember it now? If not, I recommend you download La Cabina on bittorrent here. It won an Emmy in 1972 for Best International Fiction, and quite deservedly so. Recommended to all fans of surreal cinema.