Delving a little deeper: Wire Cutters

So this week I thought I’d delve a little deeper into one of the short films that I posted about last week and do an entry level analysis of it and what I thought of it, so here goes.

Wire Cutters is a short animated film which tells the story of a robot, solitarily collecting green gems from the surface of a desolate, rocky plain, absent of any signs of civilization or life.  The robot’s existence is drastically changed, however, when it meets another, different mining robot and they begin to work together.

While this film contains absolutely no dialogue, it has excellent characterisation of the robots, utilising the appendages and particularly eyes to convey emotion and meaning effectively. You become emotionally attached to this little metal being, because despite its inability to talk, it seems to have a heart. So the obvious comparison is WALL-E (incidentally, WALL-E is fantastically brilliant and you should watch it ASAP), which is not unfair, in fact both compellingly make you feel something for a mute robot just trying to do their job in a harsh unforgiving world. The difference between the two (aside from length, scope and budget) is Wire Cutters has a dark twist in the tail, with a sobering and depressing ending. I’m not against this though, and I actually think the ending gives a nice impact and gravitas to the subtext of the film, the subtext being failure to co-operate leads to mutually assured destruction.

I think the most impressive part of this whole project, though, is the fact that Jack Anderson did the whole thing himself, as a student. As a solo project, it took him “thousands of hours of love” (Anderson, J. 2015), and the passion for this project is totally evident.

On the whole, I greatly enjoy this short film, and it deserves all the praise it gets.

Watch the movie from here:

Anderson, J. (2014). Wire Cutters. Retrieved from http://www.jackanders.com/wire-cutters/

Quote I got from here:

Anderson, J. (2015). Check out my Student Academy Award nominated sci-fi short about some little mining robots. $0 budget but thousands of hours of love and about a YEAR of rendering. • /r/videos. reddit. Retrieved from https://www.reddit.com/r/videos/comments/3j13r0/check_out_my_student_academy_award_nominated/

A curation of mine.

This week I’m sharing some of my inspiration – namely short films that I enjoy. But it’s not really just that simple, just a casual enjoyment. This list is specifically focussed on short films which use a particular storytelling technique: they all lack dialogue. This is something that greatly interests me, as it forces another level of ingenuity upon the filmmaker, and forces them to rely upon the visuals in this visual media they are creating.

It’s an interesting challenge, and not one that I think is limited to live action films, so some (most, in fact) of these films on this list are actually animations. That doesn’t bother me in the slightest.

I encourage you to watch at least some of these. Well, I encourage you to watch all of these, but give at least some a watch. I hope you enjoy them as much or even more than I do.

 

Wire Cutters (2014)

Wire Cutters is a student film created by Jack Anderson, and regards a solitary robot on a desolate plain in a search for green gems when it meets a different robot, mining for the same gems. The amount of emotion that can be attributed to two characters that can only move their eyes is staggering.

Or watch it on the creators website:

http://www.jackanders.com/wire-cutters/

 

What’s on your mind? (2014)

The only live action short film on this list, What’s on your mind? deals with our online presence, specifically on Facebook, and how things may not always be as they seem. Using Facebook text and picture posts instead of dialogue, this piece uses contradictory images to great storytelling effect.

 

The Maker (2011)

The most highly awarded short film on this list, The Maker certainly makes a strong case for itself as to why this is. Awesome visual, stunning score and a deeply engrossing story make watching this some of the best 5 1/2 minutes you could spend. Seriously. Watch it.

Or go visit the creator’s website:

http://www.themakerfilm.com/

 

Balance (1989)

Directed and produced by German brothers Christoph and Wolfgang Lauenstein, Balance is the story of 5 identical beings trapped on precarious platform which shifts as they move about it, and the day one discovers a musical box. This is the oldest short film on this list, but it is well worth watching for the simplicity as well as the effectiveness of the storytelling.

 

Johnny Express (2014)

Ending on a lighter note, Johnny Express manages to be funny without having any dialogue. Well, almost no dialogue. This one is pushing that boundary a little, with a spaceship which reads out alarms and an alien answering the phone in an indecipherable language. But the main character, a lazy interplanetary delivery man, never says a word. But his actions say a whole lot.

 

References:

Anderson, J. (2014). Wire Cutters. Retrieved from http://www.jackanders.com/wire-cutters/

Higton, S. (2014). What’s on your mind?. Retrieved from https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QxVZYiJKl1Y

Kezelos, C. (2011). The Maker. Retrieved from http://www.themakerfilm.com/

Lauenstein, C., & Lauenstein, W. (1989). Balance. Retrieved from https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1CTesYaduBA

Woo, K., & Kim, J. (2014). Johnny Express. Retrieved from https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cSGZyRBpMBE

 

Future Thinking

This week I have been thinking about where it’s all going. Deep, I know. But the future is something that has always fascinated me. Maybe that’s why I have such a love for sci-fi. On a more realistic level, I’ve been thinking more about the near future, as in the next decade or so, and even on this comparatively small scale the possibilities are nearly endless and hellishly exciting.

Honestly though, I think that the near future is headed in one inevitable direction: integration. What I mean is, in the future the total number of devices we will need to take with us to go anywhere will be one. One device, replacing what we now have as a phone, music player, internet access, contact with the larger world, take photos and videos. “But that’s just a normal phone!” you think to yourself. But the device I am talking about will also be able to take and store notes, be used as official identification, pay for your coffee, store all your textbooks, serve as an external hard drive for storage and file transfer, and be accessible only to you through thumbprint and iris scanners for security. The ultimate idea of this device will be to be the only device you ever need in day to day life.

Some of the more ridiculous seeming functions of current gen smartphones, such as weather sensors or extra load speakers (Dolcourt, 2015) are thought of by some, if not most, as extraneous, unnecessary for phones to have. But these steps towards integrating as many uses or features into a single device as possible is not going to stop. In fact big companies such as Google are already moving in this direction, including more numerous and varied devices into the single device, with the user having the options of removing or adding modules containing gadgets they do or don’t want (“Project Ara”, 2016). And if that doesn’t scream future to you, I don’t know what will.

Dolcourt, J. (2016). Google’s Project Ara phones will be strange, but also a lot of fun (Smartphones Unlocked). CNET. from http://www.cnet.com/au/news/googles-project-ara-phones-will-be-strange-and-adaptive-but-also-a-lot-of-fun-smartphones-unlocked/

Project Ara. (2015). Project Ara. from http://www.projectara.com/

My Media Usage

I, along with everyone else on the planet, consume media on a daily basis, and so, as someone whose aim it is to create new media, I thought it best to reflect on my own tastes and usage of media.

First off, I am a child of the digital age. I use the Internet constantly as a continuous source of media of all types: news, entertainment, learning, shopping, advice, creation. The list goes on. Beyond all these many uses though, I, and many other Internet users, use the Internet for social media. I actually view myself as fairly reserved in this respect, but I still check Facebook nearly daily and Pinterest weekly, plus I’ve newly begun posting on this blog weekly, and I have Imgur and Reddit accounts which see pretty regular use, mostly to store favourites to then forget about forever. So even though, in my head I see myself as hardly using social media, I have 5 accounts that I use regularly, plus 3 email addresses, a phone number, a Skype account and a dedicated Facebook messenger app, and I use all of them to stay in contact with people over the Internet. (I know a phone number doesn’t use Internet, just ignore that oversight for now).

Despite all of these accounts, I see myself as a skittish Internet user, rarely posting on the few accounts that I have. But the fact is, I am barely below the average 5.5 accounts per Internet user. What this does mean, however, is that the average user is consuming even more online media than I am, and my mother is still fairly concerned that I’ll have square eyes by the time I’m 25.

(Globalwebindex.net, 2016)

And these are all just the Internet based media that I use, or could use. I also watch cinema, play games, watch TV, read books, I even occasionally write from time to time. But the Internet is the media producer and outlet that I use most often and cherish the most.

The long and the short of it is, I don’t really see a time in the day where I’m not consuming media, online or off (mostly on), in some form or another. The thing is, though, I don’t really see a problem with that.

Picture from:

Globalwebindex.net,. (2016). Internet users have average of 5.54 social media accounts. Retrieved 4 March 2016, from http://www.globalwebindex.net/blog/internet-users-have-average-of-5-social-media-accounts

Why am I here?

And by that I mean, why am I studying film? I mean, this is a significant undertaking in my life, I should really know the reason I’m doing it.

While I can’t trace my enjoyment of film back to a single source, I can identify the part of film as a creative medium that is most attractive to me, which is how an audience can be swayed, manipulated, taught to see, or feel, or even think a certain way though the power of cinema. I think it’s amazing the power that the stories told through cinema can share with us, and the lasting impact that these stories can have, the emotions they can produce. People watch a movie they connect emotionally with and they can draw lessons and feelings from that viewing which follow them for a long time, even possibly somehow altering their view of the world permanently. Even on a smaller scale, I love when you come out of a good superhero movie and feel like you can take on the world, or come out of a tragedy feeling a loss you didn’t have before.

Aside from manipulating people’s emotions, I also derive great personal pleasure from seeing something I’ve created come to life. I’ve found that projects that I help create bring me no small amount of satisfaction, even pride from seeing the finished product, particularly if others enjoy seeing it. Having other people see and enjoy it is the icing on the cake, and I’m slowly coming to terms with criticism. While historically criticism is not something I’ve dealt with very well, I am getting better with it, and I almost never take it personally anymore. This is an area that still needs work, though.

I realise that this post is nothing special really, but I’ll be getting better at this as the weeks progress.