A very delayed and late review of some short film in 2011 Best of First Takes! I shall not delve into plenty of excuses such as I was away for a short break in Dec and being overly caught up with Christmas, NYE, and now CNY for that matter. Better late than never!
10 short films have been selected for the Best of First
Takes
They are:
- I make T Shirts
- Summer and its rain
- Trio Dekil 1
- Trio Dekil 2
- Movie Star – Sleeq (Opening Reel)
- Epiphany (Read Jeremy’s review of Epiphany here )
- Skate
- Complacency
- An Unconventional Love Story
- Yours Truly
There are some good ones, but alas with predictable
storylines that have been shot again and again such as An Unconventional Love
Story and Skate. Some have pretty interesting I have picked 3 of out of the 10
short films to review. Not necessarily the best, but the films where I have the
most ranting to blog about. They are:
- I Make T-shirts
- Complacency
- Yours Truly
I make T-shirts
(IMDb link here)
Director and writer Stephanie Bousley shows off her talent
in writing dialogue in this short I make
T-shirts.
It is a fictional biography of Rick Shamus, who designs and
prints the ridiculous T-shirt designs like iPood etc. I especially love the
interviews, the voiceovers. The dialogues are extremely well written, and
delivered by the actors who made it believable.
Actors played off each other really well too. Chi Laughlin,
who plays Rick Shamus was great. Rick Shamus clearly believes wholehearted in
his business of designing T-shirt slogans that would sell. And he portrays to
the camera that he works hard in thinking of designs to put on a T-shirt.
Like Watson is to Sherlock to make any Sherlock detective
stories work, we are introduced to Shivani, the intern who provides a more in
depth perspective of Rick Shamus. Shivani, who was duped into the internship
was stuck with him internship because she had to fulfil her credits and also,
not to go crawling back to her family to complain about her situation. Through
the character Shivani, audience is introduced to the other side of Rick Shamus.
Humans usually like to think of themselves as hardworking, sensitive, sociable (insert
other positive adjectives here.) However, with Shivani, we are introduced to
Rick Shamus, the deluded slob who is utterly blindsided by his faith in his
designs.
What I love most is how tight the directing was. Paired with
cocky dialogue from Rick and the emptiness
in the scene like at the meeting with the investors (there was only one.)
showed the irony and the sad, sad world Rick Shamus leads.
I am really looking forward to more works from Stephanie!
Complacency
In light of the success of The Artist and the come back of
silent film, I thoroughly enjoyed Complacency.
Although lacking the finesse of The
Artist, Complacency embraces what
was so special and unique of black and white silent films then. The storyline
was absurd (how do you find a wooden well in the middle of a plain field in
Singapore? And also, such a husband who’s aim in the short was to please his
wife?), but comical. The exaggerated acting? Check. The cut to the frames and the text? Check.
Great attempt at exaggerated acting. This is one of my favourite scene as the husband tries to pull himself out of the well.
And the wife is still not happy he nearly died in the well trying to find out what she is satisfied in life.
However! There are still plenty of modern slipups in the
short. For instance, the scene is set in modern Singapore, where the 5 Cs
(Condo, Credit Card etc) are still prevalent. The fonts and the presentation of
the text are very modern. It irks me to see the text roll out alphabet by
alphabet, kind of like a Powerpoint Presentation.
Personally, I wished that they could have put in more editing effort to make it more “realistic” even if the setting of the short is in modern times. You can also see slipups in the take as well, like when the well moved, you can almost see a hint of a pair of human feet as the make-shift well lifts up. I would appreciate a little more directorial effort to make it more seamless.
What was also clearly modern in this short was the movement of the camera. In those days, the camera was still while the actors moved within the frame. Closeups were never gradual as the technology were not to advanced then. But it is refreshing to see how the director played it up to their advantage to tell the story.
Personally, I wished that they could have put in more editing effort to make it more “realistic” even if the setting of the short is in modern times. You can also see slipups in the take as well, like when the well moved, you can almost see a hint of a pair of human feet as the make-shift well lifts up. I would appreciate a little more directorial effort to make it more seamless.
What was also clearly modern in this short was the movement of the camera. In those days, the camera was still while the actors moved within the frame. Closeups were never gradual as the technology were not to advanced then. But it is refreshing to see how the director played it up to their advantage to tell the story.
Overall, good effort in attempting at a black and white
film. Now, excuse me while I reload Charlie Chaplin's Modern Times on Youtube to reminiscence the good old era of B/W silent films...
Yours Truly
Yours Truly is a short directed by Kevin Chan. Set in Australia it
tells a devastating love story between Chris and Rachel. Ladies from Singapore
might be familiar with the actor playing Chris. He is Desmond Chiam, winner of
Cleo’s Eligible Bachelor in 2011.
The film shows mature editing and directing, utilizing cuts,
stills, close ups to tell the story. However, the short film reminds me too
strongly of this Korean music video “Kiss – Because I am a Girl” that I watched
many moons ago.
Of course, the
music video was not copied entirely. I chose to review this film because though
it did remind me of the music video, it was not as grossly self-sacrificial.
What I found in this short a kind of personal redemption
from the utterly ridiculous plotline of Because
I am a Girl. A brave take to another parallel universe of what
might-have-been. Although it still follows a cheesy pick up at the beginning of
the short where boy meets girl and they fall in love, they try to use a more
realistic take to what could have happened for the girl to lose and gain back
her sight.
The editing of the film however, falls back into a mini
music video where Chris discovers Rachel has tragically and very irresponsibly
left him via a letter in a box. The stills, edited into black & white, in
my opinion played no significance to the scene. Perhaps it could have been done
to play tribute to the music video it copied, or just done so to amplify
Desmond’s looks.
See what I mean? But anyway, somebody just offer this guy a role in some major Korean drama already! This fella literally eats up the camera. And I guess the director also realizes this and decided to milk it for all its worth. Hopefully in his next short he can explore something else rather than tragic romance. It's already overplayed in many Korean dramas for that matter.
That’s all for Best of First Takes 2011, and this is to a
very huat Dragon Year to all Sindie readers!