As i was catching up on my latest blogging habit, my dad walks in handing me a dvd that he was given from a friend. This dvd was like no other dvd i have seen before. My dads friend had let me borrow a dvd that is of 16 short films without the consous knowledge that I LOVE SHORT ARTISTIC FILMS. They are hard-hitting, captivating and eventhough there maybe a sad or disturbing scene, i can worryingly not stop looking. These films were made from the year 1958 to 2001. Before each of these films start, there is a bit of text telling us who made them, what with, sometimes why and who with. I was warned before i watch these, that short film number 1 that is called 'About a Girl' had a very disturbing scene at the end, and after researching it, i found that the last scene involved the girl throwing something into a canal. I had a feeling i knew what it was and that i knew it would be very upsetting if my guess was right, so I was ignorant and wimpish enough not to want to know for certain what this something was so i decided to skip the first and move onto the second.
Short film NO. 1 - The earliest film here and it definitely looks it. Its interesting because Ridley Scott (He is to receive a star on the Hollywood walk of fame in 2011! He also went on to create 'Blade Runner' in 1982 and 'Robin Hood' this year) used his own brother and father to be the cast in this film and borrowed a 16mm camera from his university (when he was studying photography) to film it. This film follows a young boy riding through the streets of Ridley Scott's own area. Ridley (or possibly his brother, we don't know!) is narrating, taking us through the journey of the boys day.
After watching the few first minutes of the next two short films, i came across one that hooked me. It is called 'Eight' and was directed by the Man Steven Daldry who then later created the award winning 'Billy Elliot'. After finding out that this director also created 'Billy Elliot', i can definitely see the comparison. Both are bleak, with strong working-class accents and the lads both have a compelled desire to escape from their industrial backgrounds to escape into their dreams (in 'Eight' characters dream of football and Billy Elliot's dream of dancing). In 'Eight' we follow a young boy who loves football, doesn't have many friends and that his dad isn't around any more. Half way into watching, we find out for certain what happened to his father - he died. All the way through, the boy is narrating to us about his future aspirations of becoming a footballer, his one and only friend and information about what he thinks his dad would have liked to do if he was still alive. He mentions his dad liked football, and most often he would say something about his dad, that connected to what he was doing at that moment. There are a lot of scenes of him walking into a wide space - showing his loneliness and desire to know for certain what his dad was like. He is lonely without him. At the end of the short film, he says 'bye' which made me sympathise with him, it made me feel sorry for him. It showed that he was a friendly but a boy who is lost without his father. This one word at the end makes us feel as if he had been to talking to us personally - and in an slightly embarrassing way, it made me compelled to say 'bye' back.
So here i come to the most interesting, confusing a possible most AMAZING short film i have seen i a couple of weeks! It even made me go WOW at the end. Now that is impressive for my standards. I have even dedicated the title of this post to it. This film is called... 'Girl Chewing Gum'. I am finding it hard to find the words ti describe this film as it was confusing and I'm worried i will write too much in this post. So, this short film was by John Smith (possibly one of the most common names in the United Kingdom) in 1976. Most of the setting is of a London street with people walking past, birds flying and a que to get into an ODEON cinema! A first, it sounds as if John is directing the film from behind the camera telling the people walking past what to do. For example, two young are crossing the road and as we are seeing this, John would say "two young brothers are cautiously crossing the road". We believe these are instructions of what the 'actors' have to do. However, as the instructions become more absurd and fantasied like "two birds fly past" - how can he control when a wild bird is flying past?!?!? We realise that the supposed director is fictional - he only describes - not prescribes what is happening at that moment in the scene. There is also a funny sentence that he says and it makes us wonder how he knows that - "this man has just robbed the local post office and his hand is sweating inside of his pocket". After a while of his describing and us listening, he mentions very unexpectedly that he is shouting in a field nearly 15 miles from the London Street. He then says that what he can see is "a man in a duffle coat with his Labrador". He also goes into much detail telling us that the man has a helicopter in his pocket. The very last shot is of a complete 360 angle of the field he was just describing.
WOW that's a lot of writing, i don't mean to bore! All of these film in this DVD have a natural, bleak, raw and at some points maybe a documentary feel about them. To describe what i mean - think 'Billy Elliot' for its accents and industrial cities without the dancing meets home-movies for the natural and not-always-happy ways. I do love short bleak films that leave you with a message and make you feel slightly sad at the end.
If you want to skip what i just wrote, just read this paragraph! This DVD is called 'Cinema16'. I don't know where you can buy it, but if you see it anywhere - please do! Also, a few months ago i watch a short film that was on channel for and it was one of the 'coming up' series. These programmes are a channel 4 talent scheme where new writers and directors have the chance to make an original film with a guaranteed network broadcast. I have seen a few of these shorts films, some better than others. But the one that i literally NEED TO WATCH AGAIN was - Coming Up : Dip. It stared the cheeky Misfits actor Robert Sheehan. Please watch it, i have left the link at the bottom. Brilliant story, atmosphere and conclusion. ITS A MUST SEE.
http://www.channel4.com/programmes/coming-up/4od#3122514
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