I am starting with a Bulgarian short film. This is the best short film I have ever seen in my whole life. First of all, I just love the idea about the price of our dreams and what are we willing to do to make our dreams come true. And the director was sending the message that it was worth to die for one’s dreams, thus the frog crying out of happiness before being swallowed. This idea particularly appeals to me, because it has been my view of life always. I believe in dreaming and making dreams come true at all cost. So, on a conceptual level, it is the best movie ever.
Now, beyond the first emotional response, the tacit impression, looking at it from a visually literate point of view, looking at the means used – brilliant job. First, the music is absolutely amazing. It goes so well with the intensity of the moments, it changes with the moods, it influences the viewer without them even realizing it. The fact that the director used animation to get his message across reminds me a little of the fables that I’ve read when I was a child. Fables always use cartoon characters, animals talking, as if they are telling an unreal fairy tale. And it has been known to be more influential to get a certain message across, when you make it animated, cartoon, when the viewers are perhaps not expecting a deeper meaning watching a frog trying to jump to the sky.
It wouldn’t be the same if the author put a real person trying to jump to the sky and getting into the same situations; it wouldn’t be real or realistic. And this movie was not trying to be real or realistic; it was basically a metaphor for the idea. This is why it was animated, because you can’t picture a metaphor with real people. And how do you explain that death is worth realizing one’s dreams without a metaphor? Someone standing in front of you and telling you? It certainly wouldn’t be that influencing.
So, from a visually literate point of you, brilliant work by author and director (which happen to be the same man) and one of the most impressive, important and truthful short films I’ve ever seen.
Father and Daughter
Since I have started with an animated short film, I will continue this way. Another brilliant piece of work. Again, firstly, emotional response. This time it is the idea of everlasting hope which is another genius concept. And from the visually literate point of view, it is the use of animated metaphor again that is making the biggest impression on me and the lack of dialogue. It is just the visual impression that gets the message across. The story follows itself, narrated through the images, and you get what happens and how the girl continues to go and wait for her father even though she has to be aware he is never coming back. The music background is also very influential, generally just creating a sad atmosphere. So, overall, just like the previous one, brilliant means to support the idea of undying hope and deepest affection.
9
Moving on to my third favorite short film of all time, created and directed by Shane Acker, which has continued onto the big screen this year, produced by a very famous Tim Burton. The story is about a rag doll in a post apocalyptic world trying to free the souls of the other rag dolls which have been collected by a mysterious monster. My first emotional response after seeing that was simply “I love it!”. I just fell in love with this movie. It was so simple and yet absolutely complicated.
I think this is one of the best visually creative works I’ve seen in a long time. It was definitely original for me, even though in comments I have noticed people are comparing it to another movie or show, but the visual effects for me were something completely new and impressive. Again it was a short film based on animation and lack of dialogue and like the previous two, I believe, in its advantage. My biggest concern when hearing the film went onto the big screen was that giving the dolls voices, creating dialogue and generally making it “Hollywood-y”, would completely destroy its original influence. Why? It is one thing to get an idea of the story from visual images, it is another thing when there is dialogue relating to the topic. In my opinion, it was a simple message to get, no dialogue or explanation needed, the only thing I hadn’t noticed at the beginning was the 9 on the back of the doll so I wondered about the name of the movie. But after a few times, I noticed that it was the doll who was the carrier of the general idea.
What I think about the idea? First things that pop up to my mind are bravery, sacrifice and creativity. If I try to put myself into the position of that rag doll, it must have been really a brave thing to do, try and rescue my friends’ souls from a monster. Sacrifice is because of the doll’s readiness to die in his quest. And creativity was obviously because of the way he outsmarted the monster and got back the souls of his friends.
In general, perhaps it is not so much of a realistic message, I believe Shane actually relied on something far more emotional and reactive, rather than comprehensive. Which is why I believe he produced it in the way that he did – visually impressive. I really hope they didn’t ruin it transforming it into a feature to fit the Hollywood audience’s eye.
Katedra (The Cathedral)
Yet another animated film to my collection of influences. This is a short film which I first saw about 5-6 years ago on a scriptwriting seminar in Bulgaria. I didn't quite understand the story and, to be frank, I am still a little confused as to the real meaning of it, but for some reason from approximately 50 short films we saw on that seminar, this was the one that captured me.
The music is brilliant, as well as the animation itself. To me, personally, the concept revolves around the idea of death, sacrifice and leaving something behind. As one person described it - "the power of existence and coming to an end - beautiful, magnificent, unavoidable and horrifying, about sacrifices that allow us to last" (from imdb.com). The cathedral is a place that is keeping all these people "alive", even after their death, which leads me to associate this film with the idea of being alive even after your physical body has long died. Living in something small, as an idea, as something you have built or left behind.
Truly amazing CGI and the contrast between light and dark is just incredible. Overall, one of the most influential short films I have ever encountered.
Celuvkata (The Kiss)
The Kiss is yet another Bulgarian production, which I first saw at an Art festival during my first year in university back home. It is claimed to be the most powerful ever produced short film in my country. It is only about a minute long and usually is used as an example of how much could be said in such a short time.
The storyline is pretty obvious with this one, but its influence lies a lot deeper than story. It touches upon the concept of death and love, sacrifice and the other topics, which are present in the other short films that have caught my attention. Here is the idea of eternal love in the face of death and after (the little smirk of the man, even after his head had been severed).
Beautifully done, with no excess of unnecessary music or words. Nothing is left unexplained, though, and this is one of this film's strengths.
