The Legend of Beaver Dam
The first short I saw was probably also my favourite. It takes place around a campfire where the camp counselor is singing a spooky tale to the kids. One child in particular is not comfortable with the song, which provokes the counselor into embarrassing him in front of the others. As the song progresses, the killer from the song shows up for real and murders the only adult. The young rejected boy gains courage, fights the murdered and saves the day… or does he?
What makes this short so wonderful is that most of it is in song. They sing around the campfire, but when the killer arrives, his score and voice sounds right out of a death metal album. When our hero confronts him, he sings to a catchy tune, where his camping buddies sing along and clap their hands to the beat. It wasn’t long before everybody in the audience was clapping along as well. It was great fun from start to finish.
We, Time machines
What happens if you can manipulate time? If you are a guy, you use it to meet women repeatedly to know them and then bring them to bed. What happens when you try this on a lady who can also manipulate time? Your tricks won’t work here! When the man in question discovers a time-travelling woman, they decide to spend their lives together. Things start our wonderfully, but like most relationships, they realize it will get stagnant and won’t always be great. Since they can travel back and forth, they live out their time together until they get bored, and then simply return back to the point before they meet. It is as if nothing happened, but they will still remember everything. Pretty nifty concept for a clever short film.
Myshoes
This one is a bit hard to explain. It starts with a woman waking up in a car with a guy driving really fast. He tells her not to worry and that he [somebody else] will not bother her anymore. Is he the good guy, or did he just kidnap her? We get glimpses of the other man, and we see her text somebody at certain points, but since the movie is not played out linearly, it is a little hard to follow. By the time the credits roll, you think you understand, but you’re not exactly sure. Overall, an interesting experiment.
Abandoned
In this steampunk-ish short, we follow a man who is alone in what seems like an apocalyptic Earth. He is trying to find other humans while escaping scavenging aliens and destructive robots. We don’t get a long explanation on why the world is now like this, but there is a voice over that gives us the necessary information we need to know. Aliens have invaded and humans have created robots to fight back, only that the robots now kill everything, including the humans. It isn’t much information, and it feels more like a trailer than a short movie. That’s not exactly a bad thing though! I found the concept really interesting, and I would definitely like to see a longer fleshed out film on the subject.
Night Fishing
I was wary when I first heard about this short due to the fact it is a half hour long (and it played before a 2.5 hour long movie!). Besides the fact that the director is none other than Chan-wook Park, the other big selling point of this “short movie” is that it was completely filmed with an iPhone! I found myself at first more interested in the limitations of the video format, but soon forgot that it was filmed off an cell phone and found myself entranced in the movie. I don’t really want to give much away, because it gets really interesting, but I will say that it teaches you about some of the culture of South Korea. It was a bit long at times, but in the end was an enjoyable film.
The Dungeon Master
The last short I saw was another that I would love to see made into a full film. It involves two men who decide to play a game of Dungeons & Dragons. They haven’t played in ages, but they know a guy who knows the rules inside and out. The game night arrives and they create their characters. While their Dungeon Master (DM) is taking it seriously, the players are having a lot of trouble getting into character and to compensate, they start making fun of the game and their host. The DM has a few tricks in his sleeves though and he guarantees they will play a game that they will never forget.
This is probably the movie that hits closest to home. As a geek/nerd, I have (and still) play Dungeons & Dragons now and then with my friends. It is a really fun game, but it is one that is easy to poke fun at. I can understand how some people can look at some players and think that they are simply weird and confusing. That said, the DM in this short was not your usual host, and he brought them to a new level of game play. I don’t want to say too much, but I would LOVE to see this get turned into a full length feature film!
- Juggling Mike
