Who likes short shorts? A short films thread. • Non-Gaming • Film • Eurogamer.net

localnotail 23 Jan 2012 19:25:08 23,072 posts
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The discussion about the (potential) fall of the Hollywood studio system got me thinking about how the rise of the internet has lead to a blooming in the creation of short films, assisted by the availability of supporting technology.

So, I thought we could have a thread to collect short films that people have found and liked. Especially useful in these times of ever-shortening attention spans.
/SQUIRREL!

For example:

Micro-shorts: Channel 4 have supported this format for a long time, most recently with their Random Acts collection - which has 260 3-minute films covering a broad range of arts.
From this, I especially liked Pockets which is far smarter than the blurb says.

Longer:
Validation - may be too sweet for EG.

Deleted user 23 January 2012 19:55:33

There have been a couple of threads on short films before, but they tend to live about as long as the films they're talking about before disappearing due to lack of interest. I didn't know about Random Acts (bookmarked now), and I enjoyed Pockets, so thanks for that.

I remember tt posting a link to a short called "In God We Trust" a few years ago which was superb, but my attempts to find it again have come to naught (it doesn't seem to be on the site tt originally linked to, and it seems to be a fairly common name for short films which doesn't help). I don't want to give it all away, but I'm always a bit intrigued by stories which start with the protagonist's death. Well worth a watch if you stumble across it though.

Edited by lucky_jim at 19:55:59 23-01-2012

Toonster 23 Jan 2012 20:10:55 6,903 posts
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One of my favourite short films ever, from Paris, Je T'aime

Also, been watching a lot of animated shorts recently. Two that spring to mind are Paths of Hate, animated by a Polish studio. I can't ever recall being dazzled by a dogfight quite like this:

and Love and Theft (NSFW)

Edited by Toonster at 20:19:15 23-01-2012

Fatiguez 23 Jan 2012 21:24:49 8,883 posts
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localnotail 23 Jan 2012 21:48:30 23,072 posts
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lucky_jim wrote:
There have been a couple of threads on short films before, but they tend to live about as long as the films they're talking about before disappearing due to lack of interest.

Yeah, I saw a few threads in the search but they were mostly about a specific short, so I thought I'd start a collective one and see what washed up over time.

They are a really interesting format to me, the under-40 minute film you can give life to ideas without having to stretch them into conventional feature length. A lot of early cinema was filmed in shorts, I am a particular fan of Buster Keaton, I love his short films like One Week

(22 min comedy, 1920)

Thanks Toonster, I will have a look at those when I'm not on my phone. Fatiguez, yours is bizarre. I liked it.

Edited by localnotail at 21:50:29 23-01-2012

Fatiguez 23 Jan 2012 22:21:17 8,883 posts
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It's made by the lead graphics animator for TRON: Legacy

Beetroot_Bertie 23 Jan 2012 22:54:50 400 posts
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An Occurance at Owl Creek Bridge

Thanks for showing me 'Paths of Hate', excellent.

Edited by Beetroot_Bertie at 23:45:33 23-01-2012

grey_matters 23 Jan 2012 22:58:00 4,370 posts
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Neill Blomkamp has a couple of nice ones. Tempbot especially.

chasejamie 23 Jan 2012 23:00:29 826 posts
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American indie director Hal Hartley has some great shorts, Surviving Desire is probably my favourite.

Beetroot_Bertie 23 Jan 2012 23:50:24 400 posts
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Sintel

Deleted user 24 January 2012 00:09:28

I enjoy some of the Channel 4 shorts.

More recently I really did love some of the Portal 2 video competition shorts/music videos. It was also interesting/funny/emotional following Valve trying to pick a winner. (I love this song)

1st Place Winner:

1.00000000001th Place:

2nd Place Winner:

Runner up (Best Use of Legos):

Runner up (Best Ratman Cosplay):

Runner up (Best Turret Story):

Runner up (Best use of Blue/Green Screen):

Runner up (Best Caroline Story):

Runner up (Best "That Band is a Spy!")

Runner up (Best Puppets, Non-Sock Winner Category):

Runner up (Best Master Copy):

Runner up (Best Video Valve's Lawyers Won't Let 'Em Pick)

Edited by Fruit-Salad at 00:12:07 24-01-2012

SG 24 Jan 2012 05:11:12 1,896 posts
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lucky_jim wrote:
I'm always a bit intrigued by stories which start with the protagonist's death.

I'm the opposite; I know what's going to happen at the end, and I love surprises!

I guess others enjoy seeing how something comes together to what they already know is happening.

localnotail 17 Feb 2012 20:47:46 23,072 posts
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Just been watching these 5 short HD films on i-player - some nice ideas, especially 2+2

Deleted user 11 April 2012 09:26:33

Found SPIDER last night on Netflix. Some nice shocks and dark comedy for a 9 minute flick :-)

Deleted user 31 January 2013 10:20:45

This new Disney short is very good.

teamHAM 31 Jan 2013 10:23:38 3,777 posts
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Ah so that's what the strange little film was the other night. I saw one called Little Terry's Dream. Very odd little black and white animation. I'm pretty sure it was part of Random Acts. Cannot find it on Youtube though.

MetalDog 31 Jan 2013 10:32:57 24,080 posts
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Somewhere on my home hard drive I have two animated shorts about zombies. I think it was supposed to be teasers for a full length film that never saw the light of day, but they were rather excellent.

One was a priest typing up a letter to God before being interrupted by a tennis-kit wearing zombie coming through the church doors and the other was a fisherman listening to a song on the radio before accidentally hauling up a zombie wearing concrete shoes.

Can't find them anywhere online - might upload them to Youtube myself once I do a namecheck search from home just to be sure they've vanished off the face of the net. Anyone remember these?

rtk79 31 Jan 2013 11:34:48 510 posts
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Greatest short ever :
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pv2kbm1OTBk

MetalDog 1 Feb 2013 15:17:02 24,080 posts
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Ooh, something to watch tonight by the looks.

Also, I found Stephen King's 'N' fully on youtube - the cartoonised version. Worth a watch.

Alastair 1 Feb 2013 15:28:31 21,933 posts
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Beetroot_Bertie wrote:
An Occurance at Owl Creek Bridge

I remember reading that short story as a child - was too young to really understand it though.

Dougs 1 Feb 2013 15:41:07 85,264 posts
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Mr-Brett wrote:
This new Disney short is very good.

Ha, someone on YT beat me to it, but my first thought was "that's him sacked". Great first impression imo.

MetalDog 1 Feb 2013 22:37:58 24,080 posts
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Found them! Someone saved me the bother of converting the QT files I have (although mine are widescreen and slightly different, so these much be earlier or later releases). These come from a fair few years back, so while they were gobsmackingly cool in their day they've aged a little and we're now in Zombie Saturation Levels - but they still please me a lot, especially the second one.

Gone Bad 1
Gone Bad 2

mal 1 Feb 2013 23:31:39 29,326 posts
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I'm with you there. First part is a bit too cliche-driven in this day and age, but part 2 is glorious!

warlockuk 2 Feb 2013 09:24:05 19,417 posts
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That disney animation is pretty good

Weirdly, people still found a way to take offence to it. Some asshole commented that planes flying into a building will always remind him of 9/11. Can't tell if trolling or genuinely a moron.

RobAnybody 2 Feb 2013 11:29:17 1,541 posts
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Have always loved this creepy little animated short:

Dirtbox 2 Feb 2013 12:35:18 90,212 posts
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Post deleted

Deleted user 10 March 2013 13:37:27

The Perfect Time - A sci-fi drama and contest winner.

Deleted user 2 April 2014 17:16:13

Prospect.

wizbob 2 Apr 2014 17:38:13 891 posts
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Here are some of my favourite oldies;

Powers of Ten

O Dreamland

Invocation of my Demon Brother

Clowny Clown Clown

edited for linkage

Edited by wizbob at 17:40:16 02-04-2014