tell me, cuz l'd like to know...

yknow...shorts...30 seconds, 3 minuts, half hour...something like that. l think 65 minutes + is considered feature length...so less than that, l guess...

l recently saw Signing Off and it's seriously one of the best/my favorite movies ever, at only 15 minutes long. l was thinking about how there are probably so many thousands of good, short films that few people ever see...but that if they did they may really like and waste less time on than 2 hour craps...so, l'm curious. any favorites?


Like l said, mine's gotta be Signing Off, written and directed by Robert Sarkies. It tells the tale of an old radio DJ who is given one last show before being kicked off the air. He uses it to take requests. Upon recieving one, from very likely his last fan, he decides to go against his bosses wishes and grant the old lady's request - to play her late husbands favorite song (which happens to be the one she heard for the first time on his show.) What follows makes the film hilarious and sad; suspensful and angering - in a word, brilliant. It is on the DVD for Cane Toads, if anyone has it and wants to check it out. (dolce :wink: :???: ).

BTW, l put this here because A/ ld imagine most shorts are indies and B, if indie/foreign fans dont have any favorites, l doubt the general audiance will...

Shorts are tricky, I haven't seen all that many. I'm psyched you saw Cane Toads though...one of the best docs ever.

You know that the Oscars runs a two hour film that is a combination of the shorts winners each year, but I always miss it. Their are animation film festivals as well, the most notorious being Spike and Mike's Sick and Twisted Animation.

For me, and under an hour of course there is The Red Balloon. And Bill Plimpton does animation collections. I think he;s hit or miss, but his sktchy style and flat colors are great. The shorts themselves vary and are very interesting if not all of them quite working. You should check them out.

Also a compilation by Marv Newland, amongst them, I'm pretty sure is everyone's favorite, Bambi vs. Godzilla. What a great minute length animated short.

For live short I know alot less. Boxie started a thread here on a Portuegese short Ilsa de Florhes (I might be misspelling it) so he might have some opinions on it. I'll keep my eyes out and let you know if I hear anything. Do you have any suggestions?

Gee, a 30 minute film with a cast, story arc, tone and character development... Our Gang - The Little Rascals comes to mind.. I wish the theater owners-distributors could work out the economics to show shorts, in some way, at theaters... Maybe in groups for two hours or a free one before the many advertisements start on the screen.. Like the old cartoons... Maybe only on Tuesdays.. Maybe all you want for one ticket(dedicated screen at the muti-plex).. Free with a main feature purchase.. You would then have to change theaters and walk pass the snack bar..
It's not an efficent market..

Kypade, just saw this over at IMDB, you might find it interesting.

http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/tg/br ... 55-3861667



So you can check out the shorts regularly somewhere on Amazon soon. I'm going to do it, and comment in this thread on occasion. I wonder what the jury process is? I'm pretty sure some of these are going to be terrible, but there will perhaps be some gems?

They had some on Amazon.com over the Holiday season. I managed to see two of them. One was hillarious (about a fly on the wall), the other one made no sense. Unfortunately I don't remember the names.

cool...thanks, l'll be sure to check out some too.

As for recommendations, unfortunately, l have few. Other than the one l mentioned in my first post (which, if you ever rent/buy/own Cane Toads again, you should watch), l've seen very little. l've seen the Pixar ones, of which Geri's Game, The Adventures of Andre and Wally B. and Red's Dream are all good to great. (all of em can be seen here, btw, which is pretty nice).

Theres one on the internet, called More, that l like a lot. I haven't seen it in quite some time, and really don't know if l'd want to watch it again, though. l seem to remember it being sad, almost depressing, and really weird. It's an Oscar Nom'd short. you can check it out here.

And, Lumiere and Company, which l've mentioned once before, is completly shorts (about 30 or so one minute each). The movie is nothing special, but some of the shorts are quite interesting/good.

La Jetee, a short of about thirty minutes that inspired 12 Monkeys is coming up soon on netflix. Along with whatever other ones are on the disc. Apparently it's really, really good. And it's based on Plato's allegory of the cave, l've heard, which was one of the high points of philosophy. So, we'll see.

and l remember box's thread on ..unfortunately, being Portugese, l didnt understand a word, and visually, too, got very little out of it, too. So.

One final note (after rereading your post). l LOVE The Red Balloon! =D> Well, that may be a little strong a word; however, it's one of my dad's favorite movies, and as such l watched it quite a lot growing up. So l've grown rather fond of it. Which reminds me...maybe l'll watch it again, soon. : )

Cane Toads is hot. I've seen it at least 5 times.

Kypade, run a search on my name and the word "cane," don't restrict the forum. See how many entries you get. :wink: That's how much I talk about Cane Toads.

Maybe I'm thinking of a different Amazon.com short film festival. Does anyone else recall the ones they were showing over the holiday season?