Short Film School

In LA there's a film festival every other weekend. This past weekend it was the Show Off Your Shorts festival at Raleigh Studios. Since that place is a ten minute walk from my apartment and I knew Christopher Stack's An Exercise in Vigilance was playing, I called up Michael and we trucked over there for the Saturday screenings.

And I learned. Oh how I learned.

I learned that shorter is relative. So many "shorts" were waaaaaaaaay too long. There was an animated short that Mike loathed but I didn't mind until it kept going and going until I was squirming in my chair, praying for the end.

There was a short about beatnick homeless people who are awesome because rich people suck. Know how I know that was the point? Because it was beaten into me with a frying pan of obviousness. It was 28 minutes long.

There was a short about an Australian girl who did lots of drugs and screwed up her life. The entire film was told in voice over. There wasn't really a plot, just a girl riding around town on a bus talking about how she wished she could change. And the audio was terrible.

That was a major problem in several of the bad shorts - terrible audio. But there was one short that had terrible audio and really dark lighting and still came out a win because it was only a few minutes and it had a clever, cute story.

Because that's the other problem - too many filmmakers try to make their shit IMPORTANT. There was so much pretension going on in that screening room I wanted to throw things.

THIS IS MY POINT! ISN'T IT IMPORTANT?!!!! is maybe not the best way to go about telling your story.

That doesn't mean every short was bad. There were some really amazing pieces there. One short, Nonplussed, was nothing but two people in car for 13 minutes. The drama between them was so intense and the acting and camera angles were brilliant, so the story didn't feel too long at all. I'm glad I didn't read the logline before I watched the film though. People, if you have some bit of surprise in your story, don't announce it in your logline.

Speaking of surprise, I am relieved to say that An Exercise in Vigilance is awesome. I was a bit worried that I'd have to fake liking it - the way you do, you know - but there is nothing fake about my joy. It gets in, gets out, entertains and has a perfect surprise ending.

Plus, the guy who plays Mark is hot and any time a director can give me hotness to look at things are always better.

Other films were really good. Eli is a sci-fi action story starring David Anders. I was completely riveted the entire length of the film. Confessions of a Slacker was hilarious and did a brilliant job of making a point without shoving it in my face. Bombay Skies was a clever film that tips the American dream on its head complete with Bollywood dance numbers.

I just wish I didn't have to sit through all that crap to get to the good. But then again, I learned from the crap so that makes it good.

All in all, I'm glad I went. I learned from the good films and from the bad. Next film festival on the calendar: The Beverly Hills fest in two weeks, where SoCal Film Group's Children of Scum is playing.