you don't know me

you don't know me (2008)
Directed by Sean Melia


Awesome short film. I love how clean and concise it is.

Watch it here.

Image from SeanMelia.com

So Michael, an old college friend is having a party and Neil and his girlfriend Stefanie come over. Neil is trying to become YouTube famous so he's devised a plane to get more views than ever. He plants some Flip cameras around his friend's house, and waits for the party to end.

When it's over and everyone else is gone, Neil goes to get his friend. He tells Michael that there's been... an accident. In Michael's room where Neil and Stefanie went to screw, like Stefanie. She's dead, Neil claims. Calmly Michael goes back downstairs and gets a beer for Neil. Then they talk about how they'll get rid of the body.

Michael gets a saw, a knife, garbage bags, and suitcases. He plans to drain Stefanie, cut her up, and roll her out of the place. Has Michael done this before? They go back to the bedroom. "Neil, what's going on?" Stefanie, alive, asks Neil in a panic. "Stefanie, run!"

A simple plan to scare Michael nuts and get it on camera has revealed that he's not who they thought at all.

Michael goes after Niel first, closing Stefanie into the bedroom. Soon he returns to the door.

"Is this part of the movie?"
"Yes! Yes, this is part of the movie," Michael answers.
Stefanie huddles with the sheets, and a motor of some kind is heard beyond the door...

~~~

Incredibly low budget, but this simple story doesn't call for a huge one anyway. I enjoyed it. I though Michael's (played by Michael Hogan) acting was good. I would have like a crisper picture, cleaner sound, and a little better lighting, but they're not bad in a way that distracts. It's a great short that could be greater with these changes is all. I think this is an inspiration to young filmmakers who are trying to do it all on their own and do it well. You don't have to have amazing cameras or special effects. At the core, it's about a well-said story. A horror movie that didn't show any violence, but got it's fear factor from the implications.

I don't know much about the director, Sean Melia. The IMDB page is pretty barren and there hasn't been any recent talk about him online that I've found. I hope to see his name more though. He seems to be pretty to-the-point in his art, as evident by no superfluous junk in this short, as well as his web site.

Image from http://www.openfilm.com/reviews/videos/meliasean-you-dont-know-me

So yes, very good, very good. Would recommend.

Azureus Rising

Azureus Rising (????)
Proof of Concept (2010)


Swords, guns, mechs, amazing animation and sound?! This has got the makings of greatness!

Image from http://io9.com/tag/azureus-rising

So it's going on 3 years now since Black Sun teased the world with an amazing 5 minute proof of concept which is hopefully being made into a feature length film and game now.
If you haven't seen it already, check out proof of concept.


Amazing, right?
Anyway, like it on facebook and youtube or contact the team at http://azureusrising.com/ to show your support.

There's a big back story to this project, while the short above basically plays out like an action sequence in a longer movie. In case you want to know, our blue (azure?) protagonist is Eric, known as Azureus once he becomes a freedom fighter. From what I've seen and read, this feels like a possible Dune of a new age. And I love Dune, so this is a good thing. You've got your crazy smart, strong, and resourceful rebel leader breaking into a place overrun by military.

Amazing sound, great pacing. I love how you can hear the protagonist's breathing, and how the shots are quick. Not incredibly long ago you could have a single shot go on for a long time, but now shots are kept relatively quick. There's lots of reasons for this, the one you probably hear the most is because it holds the audience's attention better. Regardless of everything else, these shorter shots do hold attention well, which is a big factor in a proof of concept. I could sing the praises of this project all day. I really hope something becomes of it.

Read http://www.3dworldmag.com/2013/02/05/cool-animation-the-making-of-azureus-rising/ for tons of details.

Image from http://azureusrising.com

The Gloaming

The Gloaming (2011)
Directed by Nobrai
Written by Niko Nobrain


A pretty crazy short film
in a good way

Image from http://www.cgmeetup.net/home/the-gloaming-animated-short-film-by-sabotage-studio/

Watch it here http://www.nobrain.fr/the-gloaming-online

It's a lot to put in under 15 minutes--religion, war, politics, and more. This short film has everything from sex to explosion to bulbous hydra human beasts. If that's not enough to draw you on, it's also a mix of many different animation styles.
The Gloaming is 3D, 2D, stop motion, rotoscoping, and probably more that I'm not smart enough to spot. Anyway, just the mix alone is cool, let alone the topic of the film.

So we're in a desert when we meet our protagonist, a sleeping man turned deity. The man awakens, then walks along dunes to find a semi liquid blob on the ground. Upon picking it up it reacts, comes to life, and forms a planet complete with humans.
The man watches his planet progress, and indeed time passes insanely fast on this planet. We go from early man to future enslaved humankind in minutes.
From the beginning of civilization on the planet the man observes how quickly humans take to jealously, greed, and violence, as the first early man covets another's partner so much he kills him just to get her.
Giving up on that part of the world the man spins the planet to find tribes at war. At first when they notice him their war stops to worship, but soon enough they've moved on to destroying each other. The globe spins again and the man observes a civilization more or less something along the lines of the US right now. Families are slaves to processed meat and TV. And on the TV is news about violence.
The man finally comes to a futuristic civilization run by a multi-headed combination of the previous civilization's antagonists. They're harvesting humans for some sort of profit when the man steps in. He crushes one of the mind control satellites only to have another immediately dispatched. The next logical thing is to stop the satellites at the source, so he crushes their dispatch location. This upsets the globular ruler and the man finds himself under attack. He swats at the planet but his arm is stuck. Not only that but the planet begins to consume him! Soon the planet has reverted back to the beige-y blob it started as and it engulfs the man. He's liquified and absorbed, and the blog falls back onto the cracked dry ground it started on. The sun sets.


This film is interesting for a bunch of reasons. Beside the story of the film, the story of Nobrain is interesting too. So you got three homies who worked together in France. They joined forces and created Sabotage Studio. Then they relinquished it in order to take on roles that would allow them more control, from story to style. They became Nobrain, three individual artists acting as one director. Interesting, I'd say.
Also noteworthy is this is a film that transcends language. There's not really any litteral direct conversations between characters. There's grunts and screen and such, and that's all you need in order to understand everything they're saying. Not every wordless film achieves this so successfully.
Favourite scene in my book for this film is pretty much the ending. The man is covered in the sludge and his muffled yell competes against the screeches and screams of the planet and it's dying inhabitants. The rotoscoped look is really fun and intense, and the camera angle is perfect for the action.
Sound team, you're great. Foley is great, music is great. Yup yup.