Fantastical Short Films - Updated (Now with sound!)

[Ali]

I've just uploaded three low-budget shorts I directed to YouTube. I know there are some film enthusiasts around, so I hoped you might be interested:

Flapwing & The Last Work of Ezekiel Crumb (10 mins 2005)

An expressionistic science fiction about mushrooms and inspiration.
www.flapwing.co.uk

The Cardiac Oak or a Death in the Darkling Wood (3 mins 30s 2006)

An experimental short about a clockwork tree.
www.cardiac-oak.co.uk

And in a different vein:
Swashbuckle Your Seatbelts (5 mins 2006)

A musical puppet pirate adventure, made in two days, which I've posted here before.

If you find the films interesting, please pass the links on to your friends. If you find them boring and rubbish, pass the links on to your enemies. If you have any feedback or criticism I would love to hear your thoughts.

-Ali.

EDIT: There should now be audio on the films.

[voh]

The sound doesn't seem to be working for me. Though other youtube movies work fine 

Didn't stop me from commenting on the Swashbuckle your Seatbelts though

[OneDollar]

No sound for me either  :'(

[Ali]

Curses! Damn my YouTube novicery. I'll update this post in a few days time once I've uploaded videos with a different audio codec.

Thanks guys.

[Nikolas]

Hem...

2/3 youtube videos need invitation to be seen (unless I'm blind and idiot, which is the case 49% of the times! )

On the first video there is no sound (you've been told that already), but the visual aspect is extra cool

I'll wait 'till you have audio before mentioning anything to all my (Internet) friends and various forums.

[Ali]

I've re-uploaded the films with a different codec, and the sound seems to be coming through now. Thanks for tipping be of about the lack of sound, if you spot anything else, let me know.

[InCreator]

Hehe!
* spoiler warning! *

Crits coming up:


First movie feels really interesting. Once I understood what the experiment is about, I kept on watching with interest. Also, being a wannabe film maker myself, I was quite amazed how so believable environment was put together with simply some junk and clever editing. What came as a disappointment, was the ending. How did it end? I was hoping for some horror or really special thing to happen every second the flapwing was in test... but no, it didn't come. Confusing end... A nice work though.

Second movie was too bizarre to start with. I didn't get it and I guess many won't. It's not important I think. The thing I'd WANT to understand is why those short artsy films must be so confusing most of the time. It won't make them better or anything..?

Third movie feels the weakest, but easiest to digest for casual watcher. I mean the one who don't understand previous two. Its content was funny, as were techniques used to make this. The high competition for stuff like this makes it hard to be as good as it could. I liked it nevertheless.

Overall, in all films, camera work was extremely good, editing superb and being low-budget was almost nowhere to spot. And that's the best that could probably describe short films like this, IMO. Well done.

I'm too lifeless to promote those (no friends  :'() but I would if I could.

[m0ds]

Really really nice Excellent CG stuff too, amazing sets... I expect to see them featured on the front of YouTube shortly!!!

[Ali]

Thanks for the feedback InCreator and m0ds,

InCreator: There is an ending to the first film, but only about 50-75% of people get it. I'm not sure whether you understood it but didn't like it, or didn't quite understand.

Spoiler

Have another look at the TV screen at the end to see if that helps it click.

Spoiler

On the other hand if you did understand, then you're entitled not to be satisfied. I appreciate you're thoughts on all of the films.

[close]

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[OneDollar]

From the bottom up:

I agree with InCreator, the third film was the weakest and most mainstream, but there were quite a few jokes in there that genuinely made me smile and as something that was done in 48 hours it was pretty good.

The Cardiac Oak film started fairly interestingly. The central theme of

Spoiler

clockwork trees and a tree doctor that goes around winding them up

[close]

was quite interesting, but then the film didn't really seem to take it anywhere. Was the

Spoiler

projector bit about the tree using its last bit of life to remember the doctor as a young girl?

[close]

There were lots of good ideas, but they didn't seem to get taken very far. Also, I was a little confused about

Spoiler

the large bags of what I guess were 'tree hearts' that the doctor had. Has she been looking after all these trees from childhood and now they're all dying as her monastery crumbles and she gets older?

[close]

I'm still trying to work a lot of it out

As for Flapwing? I absolutely loved it. The tone, the story, the dash of Myst-like other-worldliness and loneliness. It was brilliant. This was the story as far as I interpreted it... WATCH THE FILM BEFORE READING THIS!!!

Spoiler

A scientist is working on trying to extract energy from different types of mushrooms, using some process to do with sound. He spends his days alone in his laboratory doing his experiments and keeps meeting with failure.

Then the butterfly arrives and he remembers something he read about a butterfly emitting supersonic pulses. He performs some calculations and decides to try the butterfly in the experiment. In actual fact the butterfly places itself on the equipment, and after he tunes the apparatus he gets a huge amount of energy. The experiment complete, the scientist tells his boss of his discovery.

Some time later we see the scientist sitting down watching television. On the TV are images of a huge and devastating explosion, reminiscent of an atomic bomb. Up until this point the themes have been very much to do with nature and gentleness - extracting energy from nature, the scientist is obviously a gentle man, the butterfly flying onto the equipment on its own accord etc - but they are contrasted sharply with this butterfly-shaped explosion, and we realise that the scientist's work has been used to create a powerful and destructive weapon.

[close]

I might not have got it 'right', or missed some other ideas, but that's how I saw it. Really, really liked it

Those are my thoughts anyway.

[LGM]

I agree with the above.. Flapwing was simply brilliant. Well done, sir. I am quite jealous. What did you shoot that with? A DVX?

The work is phenomenal, you are very talented. I would love to see more from you.. And perhaps a hi-res version of Flapwing aswell!

Have you had the chance to catch my film? I don't remember if you made any comments when I posted so long ago. If not, it's in my signature. I'd appreciate a word from you!

I am very impressed.

[Nikolas]

WOW!

I mean WOW!

Ali, can you define "low budget"?

*Acting in all 3 shors (although the 3rd must be you with your girlfriend? ) is most excellent.
*CGI is excellent as well
*production, post production, editing etc are very very clever
*These were not made by 1 person, but by 7-8 in total, each (again except the pirate one).

Either way they were most excellent and will do my best to promote them. Furthermore very well done to you for coming up with such great ideas (I got pretty much what one dollar mentions) and for executing them SO DAMN WELL!

WELL DONE!

[Evil]

Flapwing was great. Took a long time for me to figure out what was going on, but when I got it everything made sense. It was the perfect amount of confusion and understanding.

The Cardiac Oak was alright. Not much of a story, and I wish it would have ended better. I've never been a fan of the faux-tinting and it looks too green to me and not blue enough. Some of the early vignettes aren't subtle enough. Like the hand on the walking stick I think moves in and out of one and it immediately caught my attention.

Loved the Pirate one. Gets sidetracked a few times. Great style, far better than Flapwing which also had an amazing style. It would make a good kid show, if not for the Hell and the odd jokes. The music was too loud at the beginning of the video and I couldn't hear the singing.

But I'm not sure how far your role as director gives you room to change.

Oh, and fantastic 3D work and sets/props. Very professional.

[Ali]

Thanks for all the interesting feedback. I agree that flapwing is the most effective of the three, and I'm not surprised that Cardiac Oak doesn't click with a lot of people. I only achieved part of what I intended with that one.

I certainly didn't make these films alone! I wrote/directed them and created the (non-pirate) CGI. There are full credits at the end of each film and I'm afraid me and my girlfriend aren't the voices of Tim & Jim. I wish we were, those guys are cool.

Low budget means:

Flapwing: £350

Cardiac Oak: £900

Swashbuckle Your Seatbelts: £50

With a lot of equipment borrowing and everyone working for free. Flapwing was a student film, so it was a bit easier to get away without paying for things.

Flappers was shot with a CanonXL with an annoying back-focus problem masking the shot to create a 16:9 aspect ratio. The other two were shot on a JVC HDV camera at standard def, anamorphic 16:9. Both using MiniDV format.

One Dollar, you have it just about spot on for Flapwing and Cardiac Oak. I'm glad!

I'll try to catch your film when I have a spare moment LGM!