Wednesday, October 27, 2010

Horror Short: Helping Hand


This is a graphic horror film. It's not intended for young children. If you are under 13, do not watch this before discussing it with your parents! Seriously. Also, you should probably not watch it if you are at risk from sudden fear, anxiety or shock.

A woman answers the phone late at night and does not recognize the voice on the other end.

This is my own contribution to the specific horror genre exemplified by the series of Saw movies. It also has some of the qualities of the moral warning fairy tales in which awful things happen to innocents because of relatively minor errors in judgment.

It's really fun to make a hardcore scary little movie for Halloween! I've wanted to make a horror film for quite a while and just never had the perfect opportunity. It's a very simple film but it can really give some people a bad scare.

I set out to make a horror short the way I might have done it as a twelve year old. In fact, the film pretty well sums up my thoughts on what horror films really are, how they build suspense and anticipation through a series of ordinary events and actions viewed as slightly askew.

Of course, horror should always have some kind of payoff.

This was filmed entirely without digital effects. It's all analog like the old days! Lots of fun. I love horror shorts and will try to make another one soon.

Enjoy and have a Happy Halloween!

Thursday, October 14, 2010

Film: Prénom Ernesto


Marvelous movie! Prénom Ernesto was made by Gabriel Dib and it stars Ernesto Salles as Ernesto and Debora Gaspar as Anna K. It's in Portuguese and I don't understand more than several words of it but I don't have to. It's a wonderful film that is inspired and heavily influenced by the work of Jean-Luc Godard. The filming of traffic at the beginning of the film is a Godard signature, the gunshots on the soundtrack, the sudden on-screen titles and the quote from Godard that goes, 'All you need for a movie is a girl and a gun.' That's essentially what this film is about. It's shot with that casual sense of people interacting with objects that Godard perfected in the early sixties. Dib has made a very careful and productive study of Godard's technique and uses it in a way that shows how fresh and modern it still is.

Wednesday, October 13, 2010

Bike Parked in Fake Snow

Looks just like a real bike parked in real snow. But it's a trick. A horrible trick.
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Friday, October 8, 2010

Samuel Beckett's Play, 'Krapp's Last Tape', Starring Harold Pinter

The late British playwright, Harold Pinter, stars in the Royal Court Theatre production of Samuel Beckett's play, Krapp's Last Tape. It's about a man listening to himself.