Short Films
Just as iPods are becoming a source for downloads of old TV shows and satellite radio is a growing outlet for all kinds of music all the time, the Internet is also filling a need for instant entertainment by serving as a desktop theater for short films that run the gamut from Oscar winners to movie trailers.
As interest in short films continues to mushroom among Web surfers, so does the problem of trying to weed out the hidden treasures from the dross.
Here’s a short take on the best free or modestly priced starting points to search for innovative mini movies.
• All Day Breakfast (http://alldaybreakfast.ca): This site – run by Canadian filmmakers Chris McCawley, Craig Macnaughton, Christina Jol and Cathy Gordon – gets its juice from comedy and a taste for the absurd. If you need proof, just sample a few items from the Breakfast menu, such as “Tchotckes!,” about some snarky gift-shop souvenirs, and “The Secret of Zombie Mountain,” a horror spoof about a university town overrun by the living dead.
• Atom Films (www.atomfilms.com): A giant among shorts venues, Atom Films specializes in two- to five-minute films, though slightly longer offerings, including the Oscar-winning short “Harvie Krumpet,” also share the spotlight. Recognizable faces also pop up in a number of Atom’s films, including Steve Carell in the comedy “Street of Pain,” about a man seeking revenge for a dodgeball incident, and “Prison Break” star Wentworth Miller, who plays, coincidentally, a convict with a surprise admission to his wife during a conjugal visit in “The Confession.”
• Brownfish (www.brownfish.com): Brownfish also leans toward offbeat humor in oddities such as “The Christmas That Almost Wasn’t,” in which Santa cancels Christmas after learning the awful truth about children; “Magnetic Love Story,” which brings new meaning to the phrase “physical attraction”; and “Return to Purgatory,” which answers the question, “Where do dead celebrities end up?”
• Pixar (www.pixar.com): You won’t find a more family-friendly site than Pixar, and while its selection of short films may be, well, short, what’s there is first-rate, including “For the Birds,” a charmer about birds of a feather gathering on a telephone wire, and the classic “Luxo Jr.”
• PocketMovies.net (www.pocketmovies.net): Marrying the Internet with the world of portable video, this site offers short films that you can also download to your Pocket PC or Palm. Mixed in among the many movie trailers and teasers are worthwhile shorts including “The Piano,” in which an elderly man recalls moments in his life while at the keyboard; and the amusing “Le Building,” wherein an old woman finds a novel way to stop her neighbor’s off-key singing. |