Hello ladies and gentlemen, your pal Muldoon here with this week's selection of short films. Hopefully you folks had a great week and are able to relax for a bit and check out some cool shorts, or perhaps you are at work now and simply need a cool way to pass the time - whatever the case, I'm glad you're here and I'm incredibly excited about this week's lineup. The films below don't all belong to a specific genre, but do all feel rather special. It's five teams of folks who all came together to create something to the best of their abilities and I think they've all succeeded at building something rather interesting. There's darkness below (really screwed up situations), humor, action, and suspense - all ingredients for a great time at the movies (or in this case jumping out of your monitor). It's quite literally a smorgasbord of unique delicacies that I'm pretty excited to share with you folks. Thanks again to the filmmakers for sending their work my way and remember: I'm always on the hunt for new shorts, so if you've got something that you feel belongs here, don't hesitate, shoot it over!
Go grab yourself some popcorn, lock your kids in a closet, kill the lights, relax and check out this little weekly film fest we've got ourselves here:
MINERAL
TRT: 4:48
Let's kick this shindig off with one of the more gruesome shorts I've seen in a while, an incredibly bizarre film from writer-director Michael J Marino. "After painfully passing a kidney stone, a slob discovers that a new breed of monster has invaded his home with deadly intentions." It's absolutely graphic and something you might not want to watch at work (and might genuinely need to look away from at times). It's dark, dirty, and direct - a solid splatterfest of a short that will pair perfectly with a viewing of TERRORVISION. Seriously Michael, what other stories have you got up your sleeve? If you want to know more about Marino, then be sure to swing by his website and see what he's got going on!
Mineral - Horror Short (HD) from Mike Marino on Vimeo.
THE CHALLENGER
TRT: 7:58
Boa Tran is back with eight minutes of densely pack kung fu action. "A young Kung Fu fighter, eager to make a name for himself, challenges his hero in an underground match." Tran is currently in prep on his wild kung fu feature and warmed up with this proof of concept. While it's a little light on story, it's heavy on the action with fun visuals and an impressive choreography with two pros, Andy Le and Ken Quitugua. I'm curious to see what he does with a longer running time, ultimately more room for incredible fights and to feel out the characters a bit more. If you're as curious as I am about the feature or just want to check out a few behind the scenes pics from this short, click on over to the movie's website and poke around.
THE CHALLENGER 首战告捷 (Kung Fu Short) from Tran Quoc Bao on Vimeo.
ONE BEHIND
TRT: 13:17
Our next film feels like an experiment, an odd push in a direction most folks wouldn't take their film. It's something that I can see polarizing and I'll be totally honest, upon my first viewing it absolutely took me back. Then I watched it again and something just clicked. Writer-Director Rocky Palladino has made a unique film with a very raw tone and a deliberate storytelling decision that helps push you into the chaos of the main character. "It's a rather dark, experimental thriller with Dannielle Brent (Shifty) as a Mother who's lost her child. And this may sound a little loopy but here it is- the audio plays one scene behind the visuals. It's designed to capture the mother's disorientated state. Plus there's a sting in tail..."
One Behind from Rocky Palladino on Vimeo.
CHARLIE
TRT: 7:25
Directors Jane Watson and Lyndon Horsfall have our next film, a psychological thriller based on a short story from Camilla Kipp. "Aging war veteran Charlie finds it difficult dealing with his post traumatic stress disorder, and must hide his secret from his wife." The best thing I can say going into this film is that it's definitely not what you might expect. It's dark. It's morbid. It's interesting as hell.
Charlie from Lyndon Horsfall on Vimeo.
FRANK & ZED: Official Trailer
TRT: 3:01
Bam! Jesse Blanchard is back with yet another insane puppet project. Jesse and his badass team of puppeteers at Puppetcore have been working on a wildly big project for the past few years, a 30 minute short about zombie puppets, complete with gallons and gallons of blood. "The film tells the story of an undead odd couple, Frank (A classic Frankenstein’s Monster) and Zed (a zombie). They’ve lived together for hundreds of years, relying on each other for survival as their animated corpses have slowly decayed. Just when they are at their most vulnerable, their world intersects with that of the nearby villagers. The result is a balletic explosion of blood, guts, and felt." They're currently running a Kickstarter campaign, but if you simply just want to know more about the film then be sure to swing by their website to get a little info on the project.
That's all folks. I hope you ladies and gents caught a short that you enjoyed that you simply wouldn't have seen otherwise. I'll catch you all next week with another handful of interesting films, but in the mean time, feel free to take a trip to the past with the SATURDAY SHORTS links below:
SATURDAY SHORTS 2012
SATURDAY SHORTS 2013
SATURDAY SHORTS 2014
The Off Season; Why Does My Girlfriend Text So Much?; Landscape; The Magician (1/3/15)
Atropa; Good Conduct; Ulla; Blackouts; Pizza And Bullets (1/10/15)
Vicki; Strange Thing; Kill The K-Cup; The Grandson; The Dark Walk Backward (1/24/15)
Leonard In Slow Motion; A Good Man Is Hard To Findl The Baker; Certified; Chloe (1/31/15)
Old/New; Alexia; The Beating; Temblor; Royal Blood "Out of the Black" (2/7/15)
Hibernation; Good Morning; Refrigerator; Bar Talk; A Lady & A Robot (2/15/15)
Fish Friend; The Outer Darkness (Part 1); Bus Stop; Don't Look There; Valentine (2/21/15)
The Gold Sparrow; The Brain Hack; Blood Drinker; Meet Your Maker; Al Pacino As Han Solo (2/28/15)
The Pavement; Breathe; The Black Rock Mountain; Plain Clothes; Whispers (3/7/15)
Sequence; Teasers; Static; I do; Point Of Interest (3/14/15)
Moonwatch; Robert's Circle; Tongues; No more Tomorrows; Slit (3/22/15)
Terminal; Windscreenwiperman; Ringo; Sunglasses; Sundays (3.28.15)
Trunk Troubels; The Last Time I Saw Richard; One Thousand Years; Tourists; Tides Of Change (4/4/15)
Moments; SBCR | The Grid; If One Plays Music; One In A Million; Don't Hug Me I'm Scared 4 (4/11/15)
Burnt Grass; Manicorn; Dear Friend; L'invitation Au Voyage (4/18/15)
Bad Guy #2; State Zero; No Help; Attack of the Brainsuckers; Super Mario Taken (5/23/15)
Predator: Dark Ages; Imprints; Back To The Fuhrer; Crime And Punishment (5/30/15)
Frames; Crow Hand; Streamline; Good Treatment; Remains; Scorpion Vs. Jason (6/6/15)
Dollar Night; A Modern Marriage; Hideaway; Jurassic World Trailer Parody (6/13/15)
Waterborne; Gotcher; Bloomers; Savage | Like Michael Jackson; A Killer Of Men (6/21/15)
The White Wolf; What You Can Burn; Pedal; Domestic Protocol; Grady Franey - Safe Word (6/27/15)
Meltdown; Blood From A Stone; The Gate; Memorize; Abe; The Visitant (7/4/15)
The Lamp; Time To Kill; Woodchuck City; A Good Fish; The Untrained (7/25/15)
Night Before The Morning Sun; Exit Strategy; DEADline Dawn; Derby City Rollergirls (8/22/15)
Whistle; Becoming; City In Crisis; Las Cosas Raras (8/29/15)
Grand Zero; Gummi; Dave Ruins Wedding; Andras Ostrom - Massive Sonata; Thoughts (9/5/15)
Bookie; Coup Mirage: Destroying The Illusion; Redaction; Wicked Sway; Double Trouble (9/26/15)
Bobby & The Samurai; The Pale Moonlight; Sector Zero 4; Singularity; Valentine Surprise (10/10/15)
If you have a short and think it belongs here or are on the fence about whether to send it in, please do send it in - I'd love to see what you've put together. I've already seen hundreds of fresh new filmmakers' shorts and like any good addict, I need more!
Shoot me an email at "Mike@aintitcool.com"
In the subject line include:
“SHORTS” + “Your film’s name” + “The film’s genre”
Then, in the body of the email, please include a synopsis of the film and any contact information you might think I need or would want published. The more info you send my way, the more info there is to put with your short.
Please don’t feel the need to submit multiple times.
Remember, the filmmakers might still be in the audience, so feel free to share your thoughts in Talkbacks below. (JUST DON'T BE AN ASSHOLE). I picked them, so you know I think highly of all of these, but how about you fine folks? How'd you like 'em?
BY THE WAY: If you've had a short featured here, that means that I personally am a fan of your work, so feel free to shoot me any kind of news on new projects/films/whatever. I can't say I'll be able to help or in what capacity, but I'm interested in your work and am always down to see more! (Keep making cool stuff, everyone!)
- Mike McCutchen
"Muldoon"
Mike@aintitcool.com
