Hello ladies and gentlemen, Muldoon here with this week's cornucopia of awesome - a lovely assortment of shorts that I think are pretty damn good. While last week we screened all comedies, this week is more of a mixed bag with anything from a beautiful animation to a few music videos. So for the next hour or so, sit back, relax, grab some popcorn, and enjoy this little online film fest of ours! Remember, every one of these shorts was made by a fellow AICN reader, so if you dug a certain short, use the Talk Backs below to toss some nice words at them. So let's kick this shindig off, eh?
GROW TILL TALL
Up first we have a rather interesting short from Christopher Downes. "The animated tale of a tree that grows from a seed to the size of the entire planet. Set to Jonsi's song "Grow Till Tall."
SPANK ROCK - #1 HIT
Christopher Downes short was a beautiful blend of image married with a good song and on that note, here's SPANK ROCK - #1 HIT from Allen Cordell. Fair warning, this one's a bit out there - but that's why I like it and think you might too. Plus the song is damn catchy and will get stuck in your head like a starved earwig. Let's do this:
Spank Rock - #1 Hit (Director's Cut) from Allen Cordell on Vimeo.
IT'S A TREAT
Cool, so let's give it a minute to let SPANK ROCK - #1 HIT sink in... Good? Okay, up next is IT'S A TREAT from director Luke Mayze. This little gem won "Best Comedy" at the New York City Short Film Festival in 2011 and recently just picked up an Austrailian National award for "Best Cinematography." It is in fact a treat.
It's A Treat from lukemayze on Vimeo.
BEFORE SUNDOWN
Up next we have a short from director Toby Morris. Here's what Toby has to say:
"I'm a young filmmaker from Sydney, Australia. This is a short film I created as my graduate film for university a few years back. The idea was to create a children's film that was reflective of what kids actually wanted to see. I know when I was younger I loved films like The Matrix and James Bond films, not just films marketed at kids.
The production was a huge undertaking. When I submitted the script to our teacher he thought the idea was neat, but we'd obviously have to cut out things like the car chase and epic battle scenes... We had a great crew of students from Macquarie University, and everybody worked long hours to bring this ambitious project to life. I promised everybody that I knew how to do all of the visual effects aspects of the film, no problem. Then I would spend nights after the shoots going online to find tutorials and figuring out how to use After Effects. But in the end I managed to do them all and I'm really happy with how they turned out."
Before Sundown from Toby Morris on Vimeo.
SCANNED
BEFORE SUNDOWN was a pretty fun/whimsical short that might've gotten you feeling pretty good, so let's turn a complete 180 and see what co-directors Jason Vowell & Wylie Whitesides have in store for us with their short: SCANNED.
"Computer engineer Peter Norton is on a routine business trip to Cleveland when he is randomly selected by airport security for a terrorist screening. Things soon begin to spiral out of control as he is interrogated by an inspector intent on proving he is a threat to homeland security. Just how far will the government go to protect us from the threat of terrorism?"
SCANNED from New Orleans Video Assist on Vimeo.
VINYL WARS, THE BATTLE
Hell yes, SCANNED was all kinds of cool. Sadly, now I must bring us to our last short of the day, VINYL WARS, THE BATTLE. I'm a sucker for claymation and think Rafael Terpins hit it out of the park with this one.
"This is the short film version of Vinyl Wars, The Battle. A Terpins Greco production co-produced by Cartoon Network. It aired in Brazil as a mini-series and it's going around the world as a short film. I've directed it and designed the characters. It took 4 years and a crew of 40 people to bring this to life. I'm still very proud of this work and I firmly believe that it will become an underground classic one day! Long live for Hip Hop!"
Vinyl Wars, The Battle from Rafael Terpins on Vimeo.
And on that note, sorry folk's but the house lights have started to come on. Please take your trash with you as you exit the AICN screening room.
What's that? You yourself have a short that you think should be up here on our weekly Saturday Shorts programming? Hell friend, send it at me - I'd love to check it out. Here's how to submit:
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…]
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.
- Mike McCutchen
"Muldoon"
Mike@aintitcool.com
