Last week we had the terrific short film Rest. The guys over at Short of the Week, Jason Sondhi and Andrew S Allen, are not only ambitious, but have some great taste. At No Film School we've covered them before with their animated short The Thomas Beale Cipher. If you haven't seen it you should drop what you're doing and watch it, and then come back here and check out this short, Moving Takahashi, that centers around a mover and a suicidal rich girl.
The short is directed by Josh Soskin and there is some NSFW language - just in case you need to know that.
Again, we've got a combination of moving content and good cinematography, something that we should all really be striving in our work (unless that's not your thing). It was shot on Kodak 35mm with Panavision cameras, so if you're wondering why it has such lush colors and great highlight roll-off, that's your answer. 35mm might seem like a huge expense, but when you consider that everyone is moving to digital, you can actually find some great deals on rental cameras which are just sitting on shelves. The film stock is another story, but I know that Kodak has made deals with filmmakers for free film stock in the past to help promote their product. It's always worth exploring those options if you are making a film, because it's always possible you might find a deal somewhere. Figure out what you want your film to look like and find the cheapest option that satisfies that goal.
Link: Moving Takahashi - Vimeo
[via Short of the Week]
Your Comment
11 Comments
Loved it. Man it's easy to forget how beautiful 35mm is! Only criticism is that I wanted more from the actress, I just didn't feel it. I didn't feel she was suicidal, emotionally distressed, on the brink of some sort of psychological breakdown leading her to believe there is no other option but to end her own life, and on the writing side she told him to easily, would have liked it if she said "I'm gonna be dead in 20 minutes any way!" and some sort of pause, hesitation, and then he gets it out of her. Anways it was still outstanding overall.
March 27, 2012 at 5:51PM, Edited September 4, 7:54AM
This short, and some of the shorts on the short film of the week website are nice to look at it, but will we never confront the fact that writers simply don't go into independent film in the U.S.? That these movies get made not because they're mature, well-conceived works of drama, but because folks have access to equipment, are in love with equipment, are in love with other movies, are in love with the notion of being rich and famous, and really wanna direct?
Astonishing, the money, resources and (at times) technical expertise which goes into amateur writing. Folks who would never consider hiring a novice DP or editor are apparently more than happy to commit their lives, their money, and other peoples' money to amateur, unaccomplished writing. Amazing.
March 28, 2012 at 7:46AM, Edited September 4, 7:54AM
There's more than enough bad writing at the professional level, even the 100 million dollar plus level. I've also seen multi-million dollar movies that are just not shot well - just look terrible. What's your point?
March 28, 2012 at 9:05AM, Edited September 4, 7:54AM
His point seems pretty obvious, Joe. Nobody would think to hire an incompetent or inexperienced department head, but we somehow expect that people with no little or prior interest in writing and little or no exposure to literature, will somehow be capable of generating scripts that merit 6 and 7 figure investments, or is capable of learning how. It's also assumed that readers with no proven expertise in evaluating the independent marketplace or literary quality are capable of judging scripts for quality and commercial potential.
And this is the basis of a disastrous business model, but nobody thinks to question it.
Hollywood at least has the excuse that they're making movies for adults with teenage sensibilities, and that literary quality will either go unappreciated or will reduce the box office receipts.
March 28, 2012 at 1:37PM, Edited September 4, 7:54AM
I can definitely see this one both ways. Writing is the poor cousin to all the other crafts often because filmmakers are impatient to get into per-production and a script is the tangible pole you can then hang everything else off. There's a lot of really bad writing around and there's a lot of bad directing but good cinematographer and decent acting can mask all that. Writing tends to be the first thing blamed when it's often a bit more complicated than that. The biggest problem is that a script is not a film and it's not till you've had your words produced, filmed and brought to life by actors that you really get to see whether you're any good or not. That's got to be tough. For the rest of us there's a myriad ways to get hands on experience. It is definitely getting easier for writers to hook upi with young directors and get things made but I guess the point is writers are more exposed more quickly. Not easy. Not excusing bad writing, I just think writers have a rough ride sometimes.
March 28, 2012 at 2:32PM, Edited September 4, 7:54AM
I particularly liked your last blog post ever - my goal is to always try to stay on the positive side of most things. Sometimes the community feels like this Louis C.K. clip: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8r1CZTLk-Gk
March 28, 2012 at 3:03PM, Edited September 4, 7:54AM
It's certainly true that a script is not a film, and material which would be ridiculous on a novel or on stage can, through a magic nobody quite understands, sometimes make for a very good film. But in most cases the failings of the scripts are all too obvious on paper -- particularly in the independent world, where production value and performance won't be able to conceal the failings of the material. Tone deaf dialogue and trite, predictable material are rarely salvaged by the usual under-budgeted indie production.
Meanwhile, thanks to the incompetence, in the narrative realm, of the people making and producing these movies, and the vanity of both directors and investors, the business is unable to correct itself, no matter how much money is lost, year after year.
March 28, 2012 at 4:20PM, Edited September 4, 7:54AM
I think that margin is changing - because making a great quality movie is getting cheaper and cheaper. Making more technicians become available (since there are a growing number in this day an age).
Then there are some iffy producers that meet these technicians. These "iffy" producers probably get minimal funding from the black market, or just know the right people (private investors, nothing wrong with them) and have JUST enough to make a movie
I think what foul_humour is trying to say is that these technicians can't get over the fact that they simply just taught themselves a lot of technical aspects, and that they are really good at it. These techs don't want to be seen as tech nerds - so they try to teach themselves how to write in one sitting and come up with these scripts that the producer will simply produce to make a job for people.
I personally didn't like this short, but others might. Everyone has different tastes.
If it works, it works. I've worked on shitty B movies that are going NO where, but in the end, it gets everyone an ok pay for 2 or so months (that time span is only going to shorten). It seems like the idea is to trick people to thinking the movie will be amazing... because so much work is put into it that even the investors will forget about exactly what the content is.
It's too bad - I would have liked to work on a fantastic feature film but there are so few that I almost feel like I have to do it myself to be happy, yet I'm not really a writer...
ah ha! And then the circle starts ...
March 31, 2012 at 11:06AM, Edited September 4, 7:54AM
oh i didn't realize that this was a thread. I guess you can read my post and hate me if you like
March 31, 2012 at 11:07AM, Edited September 4, 7:54AM
Great Job! Loved It.
April 1, 2012 at 6:54AM, Edited September 4, 7:54AM
Dang. Film will always be more beautiful than film. Its sad that everyone's moving on to a cheaper, more convenient, yet uglier medium.
April 7, 2012 at 12:04AM, Edited September 4, 7:54AM