Hello ladies and gentlemen, Muldoon here with this week's round up of kickass shorts. This weeks we've got everything from animated goodness to a pretty interesting doc. Do you have a short? Feel like screening it for the lovely AICN audience? Shoot it at me.
Shoot me an email at "Mike@aintitcool.com"
In the subject line include:“SHORTS” + “Your film’s name” + “The film’s genre”
Then, in the body of the email, please include a synopsis of the film and any contact information you might think I need [EX: the film’s website or a funny story involved with getting the film made…] (You can find my original call for shorts here)
Please don’t feel the need to submit multiple times. I swear to each of you I truly check every email I get, and sending the same short a few times just makes it a bit messier.
So now that the fun submition info is all good to go, let's hop on into some kickass shorts. Grab some popcorn, silence your cell phones, and remember the creators of the shorts just might be in the row in front of or behind you, so after the screening remember to keep your manners about you. If you perhaps didn’t care for a short, that’s okay, it’s your opinion and you can absolutely express that. However, being a jerk about something really isn’t cool and doesn’t have a place here. So ladies and gentlemen, please take your seats so we can begin the program.
Let's kick things off with PINHEAD from Matt Lee.
"An abusive CEO and his hapless assistant go to war with voodoo dolls. For anyone that's ever had a tough day at the office, your day has come!"
"My inspirations for this short : Spy vs. Spy; Working a job with overbearing supervisors and the voodoo doll antics of the LucasArts "Monkey Island" games."
Simple concept, but beautifully executed. I think everyone at some point has felt like the poor fellow in this short.
Next up: HOME, a"Zom Com" from Cameron McCulloch.
"Home was made in Victoria Australia "its a Rom Zom tells the story of a lone surviving woman, stuck in the middle of nowhere surrounded by the undead, trying to hold on to the last of her humanity."
What a gorgeously shot eerily fun film.
And now for a kickass animated music video. While I do want to focus primarily on narratvie shorts, a few of you guys have shot me some damn interesting music videos, so here's ony of my personal favorites: Mishkin "Good Day To Die."
It's about A Butter God is commanding the grim reaper (Craig) to carry out his sick and twisted deeds because of a rough history between Butter God and Mr Toast. Grim unwillingly carries out his orders until eventually he snaps and decided to rid the city of the filthy cretins that dwell within it.
It took 8 months to make, was created by 2 people (Ben Daure and Tom Box).
So that last video's got me in the mood for something musical. Fortunately Devon Lyon has that covered with his musical horror film THE TELL.
"This non-traditional horror short film tells the story of two demons playing poker for the life of a beautiful captive."
Now for a complete 180, let's get a taste of Chinatown in Mark Hayes's doc called CHINATOWN FAIR.
"Tucked away on a narrow sidestreet in Lower Manhattan lay Chinatown Fair, one of the city’s (and the country’s) last independently owned video arcades. Home to a loyal group of gamers, the arcade was the pinnacle of the East Coast fighting game scene. When it suddenly closed in February 2011, the players were left to find a new home.
Combining interviews with crowdsourced footage, Chinatown Fair tells the personal story of the connections that were formed at the arcade and how they can survive after a shared space no longer exists."
I'll admit, documentaries rarely grab me and Hayes's little slice of Manhatten video game culture did.
This next short stood out to me as a filmmaker truly thinking outside the box.
"VIGILANTE explores the conflicts a father faces following the death of his son. He seeks revenge for those responsible, but takes it beyond the realms of self-moral justification, until eventually his actions catches up with him."
Sorry ladies and gentlemen, but that’s the last show of the day. Next week we'll be screening some hardcore genre fun with werewolves and crazy psycho killers.
I’d like to thank everyone who has and is continuing to shoot their shorts at me. As I mentioned above, just because you didn’t see your short today, it could pop up next week or the week after that! Keep them coming!
- Mike McCutchen
"Muldoon"
Mike@aintitcool.com
