I spent tonight watching the sixteen films selected as finalists for this year's Tropfest (a short-film festival). A DVD of these films came free in the weekend paper. Overall, I didn't think the films were particularly good. To be fair, there were a few I quite liked - a couple of them were pretty good - but most of them were disappointing. The festival gets thousands of entries every year and if these were the top sixteen films this year it doesn't say much for the rest of the entries received.
Short films are strange beasts. They can be an acquired taste. Often, they're student films, which generally means they're a little on the experimental side. There's nothing wrong with experimental films but they can be very unsatisfying to watch if you're expecting a classical narrative. You know, a story. If they're done well, experimental films can be quite powerful and thought-provoking but quite often student experimental short films are incoherent, meaningless, and seem almost randomly slapped together in the absence of a real idea or story.
It's not easy to make a short film. A good one at least. Packing a story into ten minutes or less is tricky. I'm by no means an expert but I have some experience in this field having majored in film at university. With each film I saw tonight and disliked, I began to wonder more and more about why I've never bothered to make any of the short films I've written over the years. It's funny, because as hard as I am on myself and everything I do, I've actually written a couple of short film scripts I'm quite happy with. I've also written several others that have potential but the two I'm happy with are, if I may say so myself, pretty good. I don't think I could really improve them much. So why have I both scripts in a drawer for more than five years? What's stopping me from shooting them?
2 comments:
so....what IS stopping you?
i am rather fond of short films although i dont always get them.
my oldest boy and i eagerly await tropfest each year. maybe next year we'll go to the actual festival.
i didnt see all of the films yesterday but saw some and thought they were better than some years.
this week has been a really good one for me & film
i saw Koyaanisqatsi which i would probably rate 5 star (and i NEVER rate anything five star)
and "Perfume" weird but wonderful ****1/2
cheers
k
Fear.
I can relate, I have several songs sitting in my computer, and only until last year did I go out on a limb and attempt to get them out there. What I write is such a part of my soul, that the fear of rejection seems to always stand in the way of giving my talent exposure. But one day, it struck me. My writing isn't going to get noticed on it's own. So I took the inititive last year and entered a singing contest. I didn't win, but they like my original song so much that they wanted me to come back with more and let them hear. I took 6 songs with me to the meeting and they really like 5 of them and are trying to work on recording them with some of their newly signed artists. They told me to rework the 6th one because it had potential and they want me to write 5 or 6 more. I've mannaged to do two more, and rework the other one, but now I have hit a road block and I'm searching for more inspiration. Anyway, good luck with the filming. I hope you decide to shoot them.
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