lucasw's Journal: Open Mic (Short Film/Video) Night

Every month Seattle's 911 Media Arts Center host open 'mic' night where local video makers can showcase some of their projects and discuss them with enthusiasts and other artists. Like the poetry version, the results span a broad range in quality. I went to a single show several years ago, but my interests in the local film/video community have recently been resparked, so I went again yesterday evening.

One of the most creative shots was a music video involved a camera and tripod (at maximal height) being taped (!) to the roof of a car, for the effect of a following crane shot at zero cost. Years back a friend and I made a music video to a James Brown song, and taped down a camera to the hood of his car to get the windshield (with lots of street light reflections) and driver.

There was a longer piece that was of a high quality (considering the venue) that involved actors doing their thing. The title was "Gin's The Tonic" and I think the director/star was named Ron Gilbert. It was pretty good, but also exhibited a lot of the same symptoms shared with a lot of other short films.

Non-Professionals and Closeups

A small screen is more merciful, but the Media Center has a pretty good projector for a screen about 10 feet across. The thing is, most people don't have faces I want to look at bigger than life for 30 minutes straight. Multiply by this the lack of make-up, and the lower quality of consumer video compared to broadcast cameras or film. Film captures a lot of contrast and detail that video washes out- skin texture usually turns to a flat shade under bright lights. But of course the director wants to have the intense close-up to capture the emotion, etc. (occasionally compensating acting talent with camera work).

Lack of Subtlety, Complexity: The One Note Short Film

This is almost a universal, though to me it seems not entirely natural. A two-hour movie has to have a lot of content, layered plots, involved characterizations, different locations and visually appealing camera movements, or at least a few things from that list. And they say it takes two good ideas to make for a good story. Most are built on one mediocre idea.

'Gin's the tonic' had a pretty effective development: what first starts as a light and inconsequential conversation between two strangers starts to turn sinister (this sense is amplified by the unpredictable experimental nature of some short works). A jukebox playing suitable background music fades out as the one characters starts to vent his anger. There are brief intercuts of pool balls (the setting is a bar) being struck and colliding with other balls.

That isn't entirely subtle to begin with, but it works.

But the show goes on, and what was an effective one-time ploy is repeated increasingly through several climactic moment that ends with the pool balls moving in reverse to the pre-break position. The character also mentions something about 'breaking', and now the audience has had the experience of being hit over the head with with the single technique for accentuating tension.

There were several opportunities to end the film on a sinister but ambiguous note, but the story drags along into a mundane and obvious ending.

Brevity is a Virtue

For most works, the viewer has had some experience with the actors, directors, or something else to work with in regard to their expectations of the work. Short films don't have that luxury, so should always be brief. That goes for individual shots as well as the entire work, as a rule.