Here are two short films that I viewed on Youtube and thoroughly enjoyed. I found Both very clever in their own little way and seemed like a lot of fun. Besides this fact, there are also some deep morales within each short, meaning you always take something away with you from them.
The first is shown below, Black Button;
I found two reviews for this, one small one from a viewer on IMDB;
There is an unimaginably huge flood of Movies in Hollywood, Reality Shows & Soap Operas on TV around today and much of it is a torrent of garbage, but the people adding the crap to the pile are either unaware of this, or are too busy counting the bags of money to care. At least my friend Lucas Crandles has a certain self-awareness. He knows that his Black Button is a minor release not in cinema but on You Tube and will never be a top seller.
He knows that he's unlikely to be the toast of the party, and that there will be no big fuss made.
But so often, the loudest voices at the party are those of crashing bores – all bluster and no substance. It's in the corners where the most interesting people are found, who though quiet have so much more to offer.
In the era of Desperate Housewives, Sex and the City and American Idol and shitty movies like Hancock and Babylon A.D., Lucas Crandles from Australia comes with a short Jaw Dropping Masterpiece called Black Button.
I won't reveal anything about it, just watch the flick and love it.
The Father Son Grubb duo perform brilliantly, and can give Kirk & Michael Douglas a run for their money.
Lucas, the Director of the Short, is an illustrator and an imaginary genius who translates his dark creativity to live-action (a la Hitchcock), Lucas has all the makings to be modern cinema's pre-eminent visual stylist.
Here is the second, found on Shortoftheweek.com
found this week’s film, Black Button, on YouTube where it has become rather popular. That makes sense since it is a good film, but more so than that it is also emblematic of the uniqueness of YouTube and the possibilities for filmmakers there.
Black Button is minimalistic in design and execution, but is the kind of tautly paced, well-written film that really shines in the short format. The film centers around a classic hypothetical and moral quandary; lost and confused in a stark white room the main character, Mr. Roberts, is offered ten million dollars by a mysterious older gentleman to push a black button. The catch? If he does, someone, somewhere will die. This premise sets the stage for a provocative conversation between the two as they discuss the implications of such a choice.
There is a lot to like about the film, the visual aesthetic is stylish; stark and ultra-exposed in order to create the depth-less white set. As mentioned, the pacing is excellent, sucking in your attention and never letting it flag and the shot selection wrings the most dynamism possible out of the limited set. The two strongest aspects though are the excellent sound work and superb acting. Fantastically creepy, disorienting sounds emanate during the payoff that heighten the affect nicely, and quite simply Robert Grubb steals the show with his turn as the elderly gentlemen.
As accomplished a film as it is, especially for a $200 first time effort, Black Button likely would have found success on the festival circuit, but instead on YouTube it has become a phenomena, garnering a half a million views and over 6000 comments. It’s hard to imagine garnering as much exposure or feedback from any other means than the online video giant. But also because of the community-nature of the site, the feedback is often a lot more substantial than other sites. Thirteen video responses have been posted already by fans of the film, and questions generated by the short prompted the filmmakers to post two new “making of” segments to YouTube as well, extending the level of interactions possible between independent filmmakers and their audiences. Now if only YouTube can perfect some revenue sharing…
What I personally enjoyed about this short was the way the meaning was brought across. I love how he was so bothered about someones life, or so claimed he did, then finds out he is now dead as well. Also the person who died due to his selfishness is next in line for the test, another clever twist in the short.
Here is the second, The Black Hole;
A review from the IMDB
"The Black Hole" is a short and deep tale of greed of human nature. It is impressive how the writers and directors Philip Sansom and Olly Williams were able to make a short of less than 3 minutes running time without any line and succeed in transmitting one of the seven deadly sins ( "Avaritia") so perfectly and with right dose of humor. My vote is nine.[out of 10]
These reviews are taken from www.cleancutmedia.com
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Short films require immense creativity and planning because an entire story must be condensed into 3-5 minutes. This piece is well done. Quick Commentary follows.
The Black Hole
Moving Towards Desire
What I find interesting in this short film is how the main character slowly gets more and more tempted to push the limits. He starts off just fascinated with his new discovery. He tries it out on the vending machine and ends up eating his reward. However once he gets a taste of the “power” of his discovery, he then decides to use it to enter a locked office to see what is inside. Then his eyes light up as he sees a safe and uses it to access some cash. Then rather than being happy with what he found, he decides to take it all. Both in his expression and his actions the small steps he takes towards what is wrong only escalates. I believe this is very true to reality.
Flight or Invisibility
Someone asked me recently, if you could fly or be invisible, which power would you like? I would easily choose invisibility, however I also acknowledged how I could imagine myself slowly getting myself into really bad trouble and morally questionable situations if I had that capability. Could you say with confidence you would never abuse such a power?
Getting from Point A to Point B – Subtle Power of Desire
This character probably never intended to steal hundreds of thousands of dollars and if he was told he would, he probably would laugh at the thought. But all it took is the access and slow seemingly harmless steps and there he was stealing the money he probably never dreamed of stealing. This is a short film so the progress went quickly, but we can see this happening in the real world across longer periods of time. No one starts wanting to steal, wanting to murder, wanting to commit adultery, wanting to get drunk, hurting people and betraying trust relationships. How many times have I found myself in point B and wondered how I got to this point. So how do we get from point A to point B? Gradual steps. It would be foolish for us to think we are not capable of doing really bad things (yes even murder!) just because we can’t imagine ourselves getting there. It is the small subtle steps that goes unnoticed that contribute to our moral degradation. It is so important for all people to be on our guard to protect ourselves from becoming insensitive to pushing boundaries and rationalizing what we do.
Whether it is a them or not, there are many morals about greed and this is simply hysterical Karma. The safe in which he tries to steal from ends up being his tomb.
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