![]() ![]() The internet is a massive and complex technological marvel. If you are looking to join the internet’s elite, however, that’s a different story. For better or worse, we are the ones who are going to get to see the results. We are all on the internet, so it seems like only natural that we should want to know as much as we can about how it works. It changes our lives and our relationships with each other so much more than most people imagine. If something, this is a good post to remember that in filmmaking we, ideally, should choose lens, depth of field and sliders or jib movements in order to convey an idea or an emotion.not just repeat over and over the same formula.The fact is that the internet is a massive and complex technological marvel. I have some filmmaker friends who use rack focus and shallow depth of field in EVERY shot and they just tell me i like my images like that. Reversing the order will make every other short film look similar. Stories are first, production values are second. ![]() And this is wrong because when you asume all you need is good production values and you dont make efforts to find a great story then it gets boring, banal. Thats a tricky path we are taking as add agencies now believe they can do an epic emotional short bio doc about everything. In my opinnion, what this short doc highlights is that we are reaching a point where content/story/characters/research are becoming a secundary role less important than production values, which in the case of the contemporary short doc are evolving into a stereotype. Not only did he capture the essence of the contemporary documentary short, but he managed to craft a portrait of perhaps the most undeserving documentary subject ever - a man named Phil. ![]() With that in mind, our friend Jim Archer, a filmmaker based out of the UK, put together an affectionate parody of the style. Which is fine, but when you couple that with a story about some LA skater trying to find meaning in his life for 15,000th time, it gets a little boring. When you watch one or two, you think "Wow, these are really well made," but then you watch a few more you realize they are almost all made the same way. However, as filmmakers it's important for us to be aware of dominant trends and styles in our craft so that we can avoid being trite, or even cliché with our own work. And it's proven to be an effective marketing tool as well (a good portion of these shorts are generated by advertising agencies). That's not necessarily a bad thing, as the style has proven itself to be an effective way to craft brief, yet informative and occasionally-moving portraits of an individual. And for the most part, all of these films look and sound identical to one another. They're practically everywhere these days, documentary shorts about artists, athletes, activists, artisanal-food-purveyors, and any other profession you can conceive. These are the hallmarks of the contemporary documentary short, and the basis for Jim Archer's hilarious parody.Ĭhances are, if you're a frequenter of the internet, you've come across a short-doc in the aforementioned style. ![]() Copious amounts of silhouetting and backlighting. Slow motion shots of a character doing random, mundane tasks. ![]()
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