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Online films get sophisticated |
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Wednesday, 11 June 2008 |
Online films get sophisticated
By Allan Hoffman
I have just watched a short film, "The Shock Doctrine," on my computer. The film was about seven minutes long, free of charge, and had nothing to do with teenage hijinks, presidential campaign snafus or the typical fare available at YouTube.
Pretty much everyone knows about online video, but much of the viewing, let's face it, veers between the inane and the forget table. It's amateur, it's quite possibly blurry, and it is often nothing more than a glorified, trendy way to procrastinate. Though the clips at YouTube and elsewhere have their rewards ("Shock," as it happens, is available on YouTube), they're not usually the sort of thing you would find in the short film categories for the Oscars -- or even as the winner of a local film festival.
But the Web's short film offerings include far more than competition for reality TV series and America's dumbest videos. As on line videos grow in popularity, talented filmmakers are turning to the Web to distribute top-notch short films, often for free. Some of these are created for contests, or as a way to show off the filmmaker's talents, while others are essentially promotional vehicles for books, clothing or other movies. Even the latter category includes plenty of movies worth watching.
That's the case with the "The Shock Doctrine" (available at www.naomiklein.org), a film with a political bent that's connected to a book of the same name. The author, Naomi Klein, sent her book to Alfonso Cuarón, director of "Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azka ban," hoping for a blurb for the book.
Instead, she got a film out of it. Though the clip is a promotional tool, it is also a thought-provoking take on Klein's controversial ideas about "the secret history of the free market."
Other leading filmmakers have also recognized the allure of the Web as a way to experiment with short-form filmmaking. Wes Ander son, the director of "Rushmore" and "The Royal Tenenbaums," created "Hotel Chevalier," a 13-minute short film, and released it online; the film, co-starring Natalie Port man and Jason Schwartzman, serves as a sort of prequel to "The Darjeeling Limited," Anderson's re cent feature-length commercial re lease. "Hotel Chevalier" had its premiere at Apple retail stores in New York and elsewhere, followed by its availability as a free download at Apple's online iTunes store. Now, the film is only available in theaters, as a preview to "Darjeeling."
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