Digital Projections
(12th June - Greater Union #2)
A nice mix of shorts, some more memorable than others. On the funny side was a trio of films; 'Pirate Baby's Cabana Battle Street Fight 2006' (a 2D 'video game' with hilarious parodies of game violence - decapitating zombie babies anyone? - and random superpowers... a bus?), 'MTV Happymart' (an ultra-short film about a quirky Asian supermarket where shoppers feel compelled to dance whenever the store manager turns his focus to a sexed-up MTV clip) and 'The Lecture' (a nicely reflexive animated piece about two animation teachers bitching about their students).
I particularly liked the idea of 'Pirate Baby', but I felt that it went on for a bit longer than necessary. For such a short short (90 secs), 'MTV Happymart' had an noticeably outstanding colour palette, was well cast with great costuming. 'The Lecture' featured some interesting animation, great visual jokes and a succinct punchline.
Other films had a beautiful fragility, such as the opening number 'Explain', a video clip for Sarah Blasko, short film 'On the Other Ocean' and stop-motion piece 'The Luminary'. Blasko's music, lyrics and vocals for 'Explain' gave it particular appeal, though the environmental interpretation and illustrative animation did a lot to enhance the emotion of the song.
'On the Other Ocean', a narrative about a family excursion that ends in tragedy, was beautifully shot and beautifully told. Generally I don't like films that indulge in lots of stills and slow pans, but in this case it was really well done and entirely appropriate. However, the soundtrack of disturbing noise was quite difficult to listen to and grated on the ears throughout. Silence might have achieved the same effect.
As a stop-motion piece, 'The Luminary' already had a painstakingly fragile look and feel about it, but the focus on the minutae of the character's life created a wonderful picture of a lonely life. This led to a punchline that I didn't expect, hence making the film much funnier than the beginning half suggests.
Contents:
Explain [Sarah Blasko video clip]
On the Other Ocean
Hearts A Mess [Gotye video clip]
Life Begins [The Energies video clip]
The Reality Project
Under the Cherry Tree [Telemetry Orchestra video clip]
Peephole
Choking on a Wishbone [Architecture in Helsinki video clip]
Pirate Baby's Cabana Battle Street Fight 2006
MTV Happymart
The Lecture
Black Hole Blues [Jack Ladder video clip]
The Luminary
My Old Ways [Dr Dog video clip]
Comedy Shorts
(14th June - Greater Union #1)
I had high hopes for the Comedy Shorts. I'd had a crappy day and was especially looking forward to laughs, thus it was rather disappointing that this compilation eased into the laughs with the first few films but then just fell away. Don't get me wrong, the films in this lot weren't bad at all, they just rarely moved past 'mildly amusing'.
'The Guitar Lesson', for example, was about a middle-aged guy attending guitar lessons at a younger man's flat. He learns to play Serge Gainsbourg's 'Letitia'. Eighteen minutes later... The End. NOT FUNNY. NOT INTERESTING.
Most of the films had a chuckle in it, but rarely did they inspire the kind of laugh that the audience struggled to contain lest they miss the next part of the film, which I was expecting. (And I don't think that's an unreasonable ask considering that Digital Projections delivered such moments and never advertised itself as comedy).
The pick of the lot was probably 'The Japanese Tradition: Apologies' for laughs and the claymation offering 'Professor Pebbles' for amusing story. 'Apologies' was a compound joke that exploited the Japanese culture of apology to attain the laughs, thus the translations were particularly important in this case. 'Professor Pebbles' was a story about a 500 year old devil who sets out to prove that he is evil enough despite everyone else's opinion in the underworld. Some great one-liners and visual jokes with the claymation giving the storytelling an automatic cute factor.
Still, I can't contain my disappointment about this compilation, I consider it the single weakness of my SFF viewing.
Contents:
For a Few Marbles More
The Japanese Tradition: Apologies
Pick Up
The Night Before Christmas
The Technical Hitch
Christmas in Huddersfield
Fetch
The Guitar Lesson
Hold Up
Stuff
Professor Pebbles
Menged
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