- The iCM Forum - Come Discuss Movies and Lists
- →
- Forums
- →
- General Film Discussion
- →
- iCMFF: Shorts Programs Thread
iCM Forum's Favorite Movies (Results)
Polls: 1948 (Results), 1987 awards (Apr 25th), Doubling the Canon (Ratings Apr 25th), South-East Asia (Apr 27th), New official lists (Nominations Apr 29th), 1958 awards (Apr 30th)
Challenges: TSPDT, France, 1970s
Film of the Week: Vale Abraão
World Cup: Round 1 schedule, Match 1F (Apr 25th), Match 1G (May 13th)
Polls: 1948 (Results), 1987 awards (Apr 25th), Doubling the Canon (Ratings Apr 25th), South-East Asia (Apr 27th), New official lists (Nominations Apr 29th), 1958 awards (Apr 30th)
Challenges: TSPDT, France, 1970s
Film of the Week: Vale Abraão
World Cup: Round 1 schedule, Match 1F (Apr 25th), Match 1G (May 13th)
| Welcome to the iCM Forum! Click here to register! |
- Pages:
- 1
- 2
| iCMFF: Shorts Programs Thread | |
|---|---|
| Tweet Topic Started: Nov 20 2017, 02:09:29 AM (850 Views) | |
| outdoorcats | Nov 20 2017, 02:09:29 AM Post #1 |
Actor
 ![]](http://z4.ifrm.com/static/1/pip_r.png)
|
Welcome to the 2017 iCheckMovies Film Festival! This is the first annual festival to be held here on the iCM Forum, and the third of its kind which originally started on the IMDb message boards (you know, back when those existed). For the full program guide and a brief explanation of what the festival is, look no further than here. For the unofficial challenge thread, look no further than here. Please rate the films the films you've seen on a scale from 1-10 to help contribute to this year's Audience Award. This is not connected to the Unofficial Challenge and therefore it does not matter when you saw the films in question. Other sections: Main Slate English-Language Independents International (I and II) Animation LGBT Arthouse Documentaries Just Before Dawn This is the thread where we rate and discuss the films in the Experimental Shorts, Narrative Shorts, and Music Videos Programs of this year's festival:
Edited by outdoorcats, Nov 20 2017, 02:23:50 AM.
|
 |
 
|
| RogerTheMovieManiac88 | Nov 20 2017, 10:03:52 AM Post #2 |
Gold-digger
|
Checking in with this marker post. Greetings to my fellow section judges. |
|
|
| Cynical Cinephile | Nov 21 2017, 06:59:41 PM Post #3 |
Oscar Winner
|
I'm assigned to music videos and I'm not sure how objective I'll be able to remain. What I mean is, I'll probably enjoy the video more if I like the song as well. That being said, I'll try to remain as (subjectively) objective as much as I can. I've seen/heard some of these before, but this is a very easy category to rewatch so that's what I'm gonna do. Tame Impala - The Less I Know the Better - 9 I don't think I've heard any Tame Impala song before (I've heard of the name), but that'll probably change. I actually loved the song, first and foremost. The video was great as well, a kind of surreal wet teenage dream (or nightmare), mixing young love, sex, animation and stuff. Ain't gonna be easy to top this one. |
|
|
|
| Cynical Cinephile | Nov 21 2017, 07:11:05 PM Post #4 |
|
Oscar Winner
|
The Dumplings: Kocham Być z Tobą - 8 Seemingly shot in one take, the camera moves through a long hallway, peeking into the rooms where different people do all kinds of different shit. It's nice how the pace of the camera matches the pace of the song, as do the people in the rooms. Nice one. |
|
|
|
| jvv | Nov 22 2017, 11:51:18 AM Post #5 |
Walk of Fame
|
Music Videos Program Tame Impala: The Less I Know The Better - 7.5/10 The Dumplings: Kocham Być z Tobą - 6/10 Plurabelle: Our Fires - 7/10 Grimes: Kill v Maim - 6/10 Arc Iris: Canadian Cowboy - 7/10 Syd Barrett: Effervescing Elephant - 7/10 Joanna Newsom: Divers - 6/10 Amnesia Scanner: Chingy (AS Chingy) - 3.5/10 Data: Don't Sing - 7.5/10 Behemoth: Messe Noire - 7/10 Koloto: Fay - 7/10 Raketkanon: Florent - 5/10 Arca: Xen - 6.5/10 Rihanna: Bitch Better Have My Money - 6/10 Lorn: Acid Rain - 5/10 Lindemann: Praise Abort - 7.5/10 Bo Ningen: Slider - 7/10 Kendrick Lamar: Element - 7/10 Ghost: From the Pinnacle to the Pit - 7.5/10 Lana Del Rey: Shades of Cool - 6.5/10 Repeat Stuff - 6.5/10 Lady Gaga: John Wayne - 6/10 Björk: Notget - 6/10 Turbo killer - 6/10 Edited by jvv, Nov 22 2017, 11:53:03 AM.
|
|
|
|
| Perception de Ambiguity | Nov 22 2017, 03:51:00 PM Post #6 |
you are your faith - lose it and you're not
|
@jvv Any opinion about the music videos selection overall? 
|
|
|
|
| Armoreska | Nov 22 2017, 04:25:45 PM Post #7 |
AWOL student
|
Can someone compile all the IMDb links into an ICM list? |
|
|
|
| jvv | Nov 22 2017, 06:19:45 PM Post #8 |
|
Walk of Fame
|
You did a good job picking out music videos that are visually interesting and/or have some kind of story. I would definitely recommend other people on the forum to check them out. The songs themselves are not really to my taste, but 1. I'm an old fart, who doesn't keep up with current music  2. The kind of music I like usually isn't accompanied by interesting visuals 
|
|
|
|
| Perception de Ambiguity | Nov 22 2017, 07:39:03 PM Post #9 |
|
you are your faith - lose it and you're not
|
Well, while most people probably have their preferences there are many type of music videos and they are all valid, like with the other two short film programs I'd say that I first and foremost tried to have it be a varied selection while also having a certain quality to the invidivual films, which also means that I tried to not just have it be a reflection of my own preferences since that's not what this should be about. Of course if somebody suggested a film that I found absolutely awful I probably didn't pick that one, but rather the one that was in the ballpark of "this wasn't really for me personally but I can see other people digging it". A good performance video is an art onto itself and it may not be visually interesting, nor is a video with an effectively told story necessarily visually interesting. I guess what I'm saying is that good cinema means more than "nice visuals". The music was very much incidental here, again everyone has their own preferences, for music taste this is probably more true than for most anything else, and the song inevitably has some influence on how much you like a music video since it is such an essential part of it. But in this case more important than the quality of the song itself I think should be how well the song and the images go together on the various levels (rhythmically, thematically, tonally, etc.) and how well the images may enhance the song. Not that a great video where you could very easily put a different song to it with the images working just as effectively can't also be a very fine video. But I'd say if the two together are greater than the sum of their parts, that's a pretty big factor of something making a good music video, but in the end everyone has to judge for themselves how important that factor is to them in the scheme of things. >I would definitely recommend other people on the forum to check them out.< That's certainly good to read, so I went ahead and put it bold. >2. The kind of music I like usually isn't accompanied by interesting visuals< Folk music? Edited by Perception de Ambiguity, Nov 22 2017, 07:39:26 PM.
|
|
|
|
| jvv | Nov 22 2017, 07:45:49 PM Post #10 |
|
Walk of Fame
|
guy or girl with a guitar 
Edited by jvv, Nov 22 2017, 07:46:21 PM.
|
|
|
|
| Cynical Cinephile | Nov 22 2017, 10:34:50 PM Post #11 |
|
Oscar Winner
|
Plurabelle: Our Fires - 7 Cool 8-bit style animation...didn't wow me. |
|
|
|
| RogerTheMovieManiac88 | Nov 23 2017, 12:46:01 AM Post #12 |
|
Gold-digger
|
My viewings so far: Experimental shorts Night Vision dir. Jake Fried. 2016, 1 min.  https://vimeo.com/139169629 (My rating - 9/10) The Jungian Thing [Tribute to FULL PLATOON NOW] dir. "Raging Cut". 2016, 3 min.  (My rating - 7/10) https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_qeXxnbYW70 Tu ressembles à moi / You Look Like Me dir. Pierre Hébert. 2014, 6 min. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9IPzGo9WSQA (French version) https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cINLwJArYlE (English version) (My rating - 9.5/10) Wonder dir. Mirai Mizue. 2014, 8 min. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8XMLfoEkbXQ (My rating - 9/10) Narrative Shorts Muxes dir. Ivan Olita. 2016, 9 min. https://vimeo.com/196684590 (My rating - 10/10) Shiny dir. Daniel 'Cloud' Campos & Spencer Susser. 2016, 4 min. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ipmG1HEMvXk&t (My rating - 9/10) Sea Child dir. Minha Kim. 2015, 7 min. https://vimeo.com/184068444 (My rating - 9.5/10) I Am Yup'ik dir. Daniele Anastasion & Nathan Golon. 2016, 17 min. https://vimeo.com/154862986 (My rating - 9/10) Chez moi / My Home dir. Phuong Mai Nguyen. 2014, 12 min. https://vimeo.com/133267312 (My rating - 9.5/10) Dear Mr Shakespeare: Shakespeare Lives dir. Shola Amoo. 2016, 5 min. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=d55GytFubzE (My rating - 9/10) Music Videos Tame Impala: The Less I Know The Better dir. CANADA. 2015, 6 min. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sBzrzS1Ag_g (My rating - 7.5/10) Plurabelle: Our Fires dir. Mattis Dovier. 2014, 3 min. https://vimeo.com/99541639 (My rating - 8/10) Arc Iris: Canadian Cowboy dir. Anne Beal. 2014, 7 min.  https://vimeo.com/90719207 (My rating - 7.5/10) Amnesia Scanner: Chingy (AS Chingy) dir. Sam Rolfes. 2016, 2 min. (My rating - 7 or 8/10; I'll decide later) https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=02k126v3Zu4 Koloto: Fay dir. Sabine Volkert. 2016, 3 min. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FKpA8ILL7Go (My rating - 8.5/10) Rihanna: Bitch Better Have My Money dir. Megaforce & Rihanna. 2015, 7 min. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=B3eAMGXFw1o (My rating - 3/10) Lorn: Acid Rain dir. Pavel Brenner & Julian Flores & Sherif Alabede, 2015, 3 min. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nxg4C365LbQ (My rating - 8/10) Repeat Stuff dir. Rami Hachache. 2014, 5 min. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nt9c0UeYhFc (My rating - 7/10) Lady Gaga: John Wayne dir. Jonas Åkerlund. 2017, 3 min. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=o9iQ8lIfyEs (My rating - 6/10) Edited by RogerTheMovieManiac88, Nov 23 2017, 12:50:30 AM.
|
|
|
|
| jvv | Nov 23 2017, 09:41:47 PM Post #13 |
|
Walk of Fame
|
Narrative Shorts Program Nice variety of shorts: Oma - 6/10 Muxes - 7/10 Shiny - 6/10 Sundays - 5/10 Erlkönig / Erlking - 6/10 Sea Child - 5.5/10 Prehistoric Cabaret - 4/10 I Am Yup'ik - 7/10 Somebody - 6.5/10 Chez moi / My Home - 6/10 The Unfixable Thought Machine: Health Reminder 3 - 6/10 Dear Mr Shakespeare: Shakespeare Lives - 6.5/10 Sarah Winchester, opéra fantôme / Sarah Winchester, Ghost Opera - 6/10 Everything / Everything: Gameplay Trailer - 6/10 |
|
|
|
| jvv | Nov 24 2017, 08:20:06 PM Post #14 |
|
Walk of Fame
|
Experimental Shorts Program This selection of experimental shorts is actually quite "friendly" towards people like me, who aren't really into experimental cinema.  Cruel Optimism - 7.5/10 The Exquisite Corpus - 4/10 Night Vision - 6.5/10 t a r d i g r a d e (Tardigrade) - 5.5/10 The Black Screen - 7.5/10 The Jungian Thing [Tribute to FULL PLATOON NOW] - 6.5/10 Phantasiesätze / Fantasy Sentences - 5/10 Tu ressembles à moi / You Look Like Me - 6/10 Ludi Florales - 7/10 ReflectionVOID - 7.5/10 We hear the distant ring of Saturn - 5/10 Wonder - 7/10 Arrière-saison - 6/10 Voyages dans le temps - 6/10 |
|
|
|
| Carmel1379 | Nov 24 2017, 11:58:36 PM Post #15 |
Nur dein Auge–ungeheuer / Blickt mich's an, Unendlichkeit!
|
The subset of SotDs which are either on the Program or related to a short that is: Experimental: Two others by Paul Clipsons: 1, 2 Another by Jake Fried: http://www.icmforum.com/topic/10130079/ t a r d i g r a d e: http://www.icmforum.com/topic/10253664/ The Black Screen: http://www.icmforum.com/topic/10276402/ Another by Alessandro Bavari http://www.icmforum.com/topic/10255179/ Arrière-saison: http://www.icmforum.com/topic/10231100/ More by Johanna Vaude: http://www.icmforum.com/topic/10137112/ Narrative: Another by Georges Schwizgebel: http://www.icmforum.com/topic/10175902/ More by David Firth: http://www.icmforum.com/topic/10157361/ Music Videos: Lana Del Rey - Shades of Cool: http://www.icmforum.com/topic/10256694/ Repeat Stuff - #69 #OhBo Another song by Tame Impala: http://www.icmforum.com/topic/10209079/ Another song by Bjork - http://www.icmforum.com/topic/10205700 Another directed by Mattis Dovier - http://www.icmforum.com/topic/10224608/ some mentioned here Edited by Carmel1379, Dec 8 2017, 11:22:11 PM.
|
|
|
|
| Cynical Cinephile | Nov 27 2017, 10:08:52 AM Post #16 |
|
Oscar Winner
|
Grimes: Kill v Maim - 7 Joanna Newsom: Divers - 7 Syd Barrett: Effervescing Elephant - 8 Cool video, but there aren't any tigers in Africa. Amnesia Scanner: Chingy - 6 I guess this is what parties in The Black Lodge sound like. I couldn't figure out what I was looking at, though. Arc Iris: Canadian Cowboy - 9 Amazing animation and photography. Data: Don't Sing - 9 Awesome Rihanna - BBHM - 8 I really dislike this song, but seeing Riri is always pleasing.  Having Mads Mikkelsen in there is always a + Edited by Cynical Cinephile, Nov 27 2017, 04:42:38 PM.
|
|
|
|
| Carmel1379 | Nov 30 2017, 03:09:15 AM Post #17 |
|
Nur dein Auge–ungeheuer / Blickt mich's an, Unendlichkeit!
|
Music Videos - Batch 1 Note: "(nth viewing)" refers to ones I have seen many times before, loved, proposed myself, and now rewatched. I'm not going to provide ratings out of 10, but will assign to each music video one of 5 coloured bullets: • • • • • (red ones I don't really fancy, blue ones are favourites). I imagine at the end, as far as jury duties are concerned, I'll do some kind of ranking. Tame Impala - The Less I Know the Better (nth viewing) • The Dumplings: Kocham Być z Tobą (nth viewing) • "I had a dream again / You smash my bones / You’re tearing hair* / Hitting the head* / And I love to be with you" Nightmares about the pain of unreturned love, unconditional love, fear of abandonment, domestic violence, quarrels, masochism. The video quite nicely depicts these problematics - irreversible entropy, the destruction of objects in ones cramped apartment (representing the actual space one inhabits, as well as the mind (dreams, expectations, fears, emotions)), the destruction of relationships, the closed and open doors to people’s lives, lonely awaiting, and the possible healing and reunion. There’s a nice sense of claustrophobia to it, and I adore the gently unsettling flickering. *deliberately left unspecified if he's tearing / hitting her head, or his own. Plurabelle - Our Fires (Mattis Dovier) (rewatch) • A set of many distinctive images (and relations between those images) that I’m sure conjure many different responses per viewer. There’s an occult and natural exquisiteness to this for me. You can get an uncanny fright just by a cut to a cryptic flowing tap. Grimes - Kill V. Maim (nth viewing) • Apparently Grimes referenced Roko's Basilisk in one of her previous music videos, so I'm sure this one is riddled with hidden concepts from the rationalist and A.I. community Yudkowsky would ban. No wonder the blood bath 'Blade' party is going on! I'm sure now this is the hell Yudkowsky's clones are sent to, to energetically originally dance and dress up. "You died." Arc Iris - Canadian Cowboy • I know how instruments look like and how they work! Show me more of the other footage! But I think it’s nice how they suggest the lady playing the piano colourfully fantasises her and her canadian cowboy (partner?), walking together next to the water, amidst the trees and fields. She also imagines other instruments to join in to aid that fantasy for her. I know that I can play pieces which are several minutes long and be completely lost in my thoughts, not even realising quite what or how I’m playing, there was a nice, similar kind of pensiveness conveyed in her case, I think. Syd Barrett: Effervescing Elephant •  Joanna Newsom - Divers (PTA) (didn't rewatch) • Amnesia Scanner: Chingy • "[[]] Meltdown has a place for you as a schizophrenic HIV+ transsexual chinese-latino stim-addicted LA hooker with implanted mirrorshades and a bad attitude. Blitzed on a polydrug mix of K-nova, synthetic serotonin, and female orgasm analogs, you have just iced three Turing cops with a highly cinematic 9mm automatic. The residue of animal twang in your nerves transmits imminent quake catastrophe. Zero is coming in, and you're on the run." Nice discovery. VR with a POV laced on polydrugs and a pumped coefficient of dynamical transmutation of the electro-environment. Data - Don’t Sing (nth viewing) • "Awesome" - of course, Cynical. The nexus of fantasies… I like how the ending car crash is a ‘Donnie Darko’-like “disruption of reality”, which, paradoxically, stirs everyone out of their fantasies and back into reality to bring them together. Edited by Carmel1379, Nov 30 2017, 03:29:31 AM.
|
|
|
|
| xianjiro | Nov 30 2017, 03:34:48 AM Post #18 |
reporting from Kakistan
|
so, what happened to the iCM list for the shorts program - I'm willing to help compile the list of URLs or IMDb tts or whatever will help make that happen, but I can't host another list on iCM so I'd just need to coordinate with someone and then know what format would work best for that person to host the list 
|
|
|
|
| Cynical Cinephile | Nov 30 2017, 04:08:41 PM Post #19 |
|
Oscar Winner
|
Behemoth: Messe Noire - 8 Certainly not my cup of tea musicwise, but the video was great and quite scary. Koloto - Fay - 7 Nice animation |
|
|
|
| Cynical Cinephile | Nov 30 2017, 04:14:04 PM Post #20 |
|
Oscar Winner
|
Yeah, at first I couldn't figure out what the deal was, was I watching multiple moments at the same time or what, but it came together perfectly in the end. It's quite rare to watch a music video with a twist, especially one so well though-out. |
|
|
|
| viktor-vaudevillain | Dec 6 2017, 03:16:14 PM Post #21 |
Supporting Actor
|
Hey there. I'm gonna watch a few from the experimental shorts section, looks like it's a good bunch. t a r d i g r a d e (Eduardo Markoszay, 2016) - 4+ - I would have liked this as visuals for a concert or as a music video, but as a stand alone piece where I only focus on this it didn't do much for me. Night Vision (Jake Fried, 2016) - 6 - one minute spent well. Ludi Florales (Alessandro Bavari, 2015) - 6+ - head banging plants, oh yeah  Cruel Optimism (Paul Clipson, 2017) - 7+ - another great short from the Clipson guy. Edited by viktor-vaudevillain, Dec 12 2017, 10:15:55 AM.
|
|
|
|
| Carmel1379 | Dec 8 2017, 11:44:28 PM Post #22 |
|
Nur dein Auge–ungeheuer / Blickt mich's an, Unendlichkeit!
|
Experimental Shorts Program - Batch 1: Already seen. Cruel Optimism • My favourite Clipson alongside 'Love's Refrain'. The Exquisite Corpus • One of the most dream-like (of the erotic-turned-uncanny variety) films out there for me. Night Vision • Past-self jotted: >Eye of the artist (god, sculptor, creator, architect of the world), different visions, death.< t a r d i g r a d e • See the SotD thread. The Black Screen • See the SotD thread. Ludi Florales • Voyages dans le temps • In cinema, we owe it to 'La Jetée' (and before that 'Vertigo') to associate time travel so heavily with the mind, memory and love. And it makes sense to associate that, of course, we all drift through time and our recollections in a sense are some form of time travel; a scene that occurred in the past is repeated through memory (the question then becomes to what extent is it coloured and fabricated by ourselves). And on another point, it's worth mentioning Kant, who (I was told(?)) wrote(?) that if a time traveler arrived at a different time, that he doesn't really travel in time, because his experience of time would still remain completely linear (this is how we most commonly imagine it, after all). Kant maintained time is an a priori intuition of the human mind and (thus) a (transcendental) condition for the possibility of experience. Hence Vaude's "Voyages in time" are equally "Voyages in the mind", under that philosophical framework (or otherwise, it's just trivial, as said before). The edge of time - the horizon of the world - is the most enduring philosophical question. The uplifting electronic score is quite fitting, it has layers of mystery and (techno-, experiential-) excitement to it. Vaude also doesn't just include time travel like looping back to the past or advancing to the far future - the obscure passage of time as it simply proceeds linearly is also depicted: we get slow-motion and time-lapse (as applied to flowers), perspectives that differ from human sensational rhythms, which themselves can be altered by drugs or just happen to feel weird on a particular day in even relatively conventional situations (Donnie enters his school), etc. Video footage and film as time recording devices are also emphasised. Technology looking increasingly more like magic too. And in the end she of course taps right down to the most extravagant abstract and cosmic levels. Edited by Carmel1379, Dec 9 2017, 12:00:34 AM.
|
|
|
|
| Armoreska | Dec 9 2017, 04:22:48 PM Post #23 |
|
AWOL student
|
Phantasiesätze IS on IMDb http://www.imdb.com/title/tt7219368/reference The Jungian Thing's IMDb non-link is not a t-shirt, don't miss it if you haven't clicked Edited by Armoreska, Dec 9 2017, 04:24:53 PM.
|
|
|
|
| Cynical Cinephile | Dec 9 2017, 05:26:09 PM Post #24 |
|
Oscar Winner
|
Raketkanon: Florent - 4 Am I missing something? I didn't like the video or their (intentionally) awkward dancing. The song doesn't save it either. Arca - Xen - 8 Weird, but cool. |
|
|
|
| outdoorcats | Dec 10 2017, 12:28:07 AM Post #25 |
|
Actor
|
Cruel Optimism - 6.5 Brakhage-esque double exposures convey some meaning (which I expect will be very different for each viewer); though it is fast-paced each individual shot seems carefully chosen and uses focus and color to create striking images. One I remember overlaps the insect world with the high rises of Wall Street. The Exquisite Corpus - 9 Tscherkassky outdoes himself here with some of the most complex imagery he's shown to date, in which an encounter between nudists leads to a visual breakdown and orgy of lust, only for a dreamer to awake and return to their eden like state of innocence. Night Vision - 8 Painter/animator Jake Fried rapidly transforms gorgeous, incredibly detailed superdoodles into other gorgeous, incredibly detailed superdoodles. This one conjures images of mountains, stars, giant baleful eyes, and a thousand other things in about 60 seconds. It's only one minute, if you're not interested in watching the program you should still check this one out. t a r d i g r a d e - 6 Interesting, visuals I hadn't seen before (seems to use decades-old computer programs to design and edit this one) and conflation of technological disconnect and somewhat personal (?) love letters creates a tangible sense of loss. The Black Screen - 5 Would have liked this much more had they picked a better narrator (this one sounded like a bored Patrick Fischler), as it is as much as I like the text of what he's reading it detracts from the images, which maybe would have been better on their own. Like "The Clock" there's an element of "How many films can you recognize?" The Jungian Thing - 0 A Youtube fan edit of famous Vietnam War Movies. Not really into this sort of thing. Fantasy Sentences - 9.5 An achingly beautiful meditative film. I think this is one of the must-see films of this year's festival. You Look Like Me - 4 Great poetry reading, slight visual accompaniment. Ludi Florales - 7.5 The beautiful microscopic world of baby plant life (in time lapse) as a wild rock concert. Reflection VOID - 6.5 Beautiful western nightscape time-lapses like a Ron Fricke film, but with the addition of a man, a magic mirror, and a sculpture. We hear the distant ring of Saturn - 5 Lewis Klahr like mixed-media animated/montage film. Interesting in how its put together, but doesn't really get any meaning across. A lot of the subtitles seem like they were created using the predictive text on somebody's phone. Wonder - 7.5 More excellently animated doodles; this one tonally shifts from peaceful and friendly to quietly unsettling and menacing over the span of 8 trippy minutes. Arrière-saison - 6 Serene views of a park in Japan; regards everything with the flat neutrality of the people sitting on the benches. I still would have liked to see the director exert a little more control over his vision (more effort in composition, diversity in editing choices, etc.) Voyages dans le temps - 3 The music is really bad. |
|
|
|
| Perception de Ambiguity | Dec 10 2017, 02:05:46 AM Post #26 |
|
you are your faith - lose it and you're not
|
To me it's a very focused film without exerting maybe any control over what happens in front of the camera. A bit like the festival's 'Homo Sapiens' (although that one apparently actually required a lot of invisible digital tweaking, not to mention the sound design) it's an experimental film without cinematic experiments. It's a contemplative piece that although it's much more than just a random 24 minute compilation of shots at a park very much leaves it to you what to make of it. And there even is a bit of a narrative with recurring"characters". I mean it isn't 'Playtime' but it does have that element too, that makes it feel like spending a day at the park rather than just watching a collection of unrelated shots. You could look at it as a study of parks. It's an artificial natural environment within, we can assume, a city. Real fake nature, visited by people as recreation for a short while. An escape. Many just walk through because it's the shortest way to their destination. Each person has their own reason to be there. They kind of feel like they are "in nature" but at the same time there also seems to be quite a disconnect with most of the people and their surroundings, they aren't really there because they know that they just need to walk for 10 minutes into one direction and they are surrounded by skyscrapers again. There are all kind of such contemplations that come up for me. Parks are a pretty weird thing if you think about it. To me the film also simply is very meditative, it's very much like I'm in the park myself, and the video format helps in this regard. The green of leaves looks very beautiful to me on HD video. This was the main draw for me in 'Phantasiesätze', too. I'm also fond of Japanese culture or the Japanese way of life and mindset, although one doesn't outright get to experience much culture here and rather just sees Japanese people walking and sitting around, there is a lot here that makes it very distinctly Japanese, I think. Edited by Perception de Ambiguity, Dec 10 2017, 02:56:51 AM.
|
|
|
|
| outdoorcats | Dec 10 2017, 02:23:59 AM Post #27 |
|
Actor
|
It reminded me a little of James Benning, who called his films "looking and listening." Benning tends to manipulate his images of course, especially since he switched to digital. I'm a park person myself, if I'm passing a park by myself and am in no big hurry I might find myself sitting on the bench or on the grass and watching the goings on. It puts you into a meditative state of mind, something I'd find hard to put into words. But it certainly has me worrying a lot less about whatever stressors are going on in my life at that moment. I think the film definitely conveyed some of that. |
|
|
|
| outdoorcats | Dec 10 2017, 06:10:52 AM Post #28 |
|
Actor
|
Oma - 9 A gorgeous, eerie, deeply moving work of mini-art. The animation style is amazing and I'm very interested in seeing the director's future work. Muxes - 8.5 Excellent semi-documentary on the muxes (mixed-genders) of the Oaxaca region of Mexico. Shiny - 8 An original idea for a stop motion film which probably took a massive amount of effort, but looks effortless. 3 minutes worth your time. Sundays - 1 Kind of unfair to rate this as a standalone, since it's more of a trailer for a planned feature (a "proof-of-concept" promotional trailer to entice financers), but if you were to see this as a standalone short, it's pretty much nonsense. Erlkönig / Erlking - 7 Another excellent painted animated short by Schwizgebel, using a small story this time as a framework but still timing each moment to fit tonally with the chords of a piece of classical music. |
|
|
|
| Cynical Cinephile | Dec 10 2017, 11:35:18 AM Post #29 |
|
Oscar Winner
|
I didn't know this was on YouTube (or was it posted just for ICMFF?). The director, Dane Komljen, is a nephew of mine, which is funny since he's 4 years older than me. We kind of grew apart as we grew older; he's situated in France right now, pursuing his filmmaking dream. He used to shoot everything when we were young, I still have videotapes of our vacations on Montenegrin coast and New Years Eve parties and stuff. He made a feature length film as well, which I think is supposed to start circling some festivals and whatnot. Fantasy Sentences is the first film of his I watched (just now) and it really is meditative, as you call it. It has a very serene feel to it, despite being post-apocalyptic in nature (if I'm not mistaken). |
|
|
|
| Armoreska | Dec 10 2017, 11:58:19 AM Post #30 |
|
AWOL student
|
That's crazy. How come you just watched it then??? |
|
|
|
| outdoorcats | Dec 10 2017, 05:01:33 PM Post #31 |
|
Actor
|
@Cynical_Cinephile - awesome! Hopefully we'll see more of your newphew's work (the film I referenced played at the New York Film Festival as well; obviously he's going places) |
|
|
|
| Armoreska | Dec 10 2017, 08:22:02 PM Post #32 |
|
AWOL student
|
tx for including Ludi Florales and ReflectionVOID into the Exp program, but some others were on SOTD therefore unnecessary to me |
|
|
|
| Cynical Cinephile | Dec 10 2017, 08:29:31 PM Post #33 |
|
Oscar Winner
|
Apart from being mentioned in news and online art magazines, his stuff doesn't get exposure around here. There aren't really any venues that show experimental films. And as I said, we kind of grew apart, I don't think I've seen him in over a year (I do see his family, that is his sisters, mom and grandma on a regular basis; as a matter of fact, his grandma lives across the street from me). I don't like bothering anyone, asking him to send me his films to check them out and whatnot. If/when I do see him and possibly spend some time, I'll ask him about his work and what's next and if there's a way to watch his more of his films. If I get my hands on it, I'll share it with you guys. I'm hoping his feature film at least will be shown in our local cinema. We'll see. |
|
|
|
| outdoorcats | Dec 10 2017, 09:32:12 PM Post #34 |
|
Actor
|
Sea Child - 8 Disturbing, very well made charcoal-drawn (?) animated film that tells its eerie story through visuals. Prehistoric Cabaret - 6 A wannabe-Maddin short which actually does a pretty good job as imitation goes. Maddin is much better at the comedic aspect, though. I Am Yu'pik - 8 Excellent sports doc about basketball in the Native Alaskan Yu'pik villages, where teams have to take planes or snowmobiles to play against each other since there aren't any roads. Could be a feature. Somebody - 5 Miranda July is always touch and go for me. It's a clever idea, but the cringe-inducing Latina stereotypes send this way closer to "go." Chez Moi - 6.5 A solid wordless animated short about a child coming to terms with the new step dad...with an avian twist. The Unfixable Thought Machine: Health Reminder (Episode 3) - 7 Darkly funny and anarchic animated sketch about mis-diagnoses...and the meaning of life. Dear Mr. Shakespeare - 5 Interesting monologue about race and "Othello," but the film itself is edited and scored like a pretentious car or perfume advertisement. Sarah Winchester, Ghost Opera - 9 Layered like an onion, self-reflexive, a dadaist prank - Bonello made something all of the above, in this film which at first appears to be a minor work, a documentary on an ongoing opera/ballet production about the 19th century heiress Sarah Winchester. Soon it becomes clear that is only the first step in a game Bonello is playing with the audience in this rich and complex work, which just as the promotional site promises, contains more than most features in its 24-minute running time. Everything: Gameplay Trailer - 8 Might be a trailer or an advertisement, but works very well as a standalone short film, as the viewer switches perspective from animals to insects to plants to atoms, to galaxies and universes which in turn are contained in atoms, as narrated by philosopher Alan Watts and set to a beautiful, relaxing soundtrack. Thoughtful stuff. Overall, fantastic selection on both programs, lots of diversity, great work Percpetion_de_Ambiguity.  Edited by outdoorcats, Dec 10 2017, 09:35:56 PM.
|
|
|
|
| RogerTheMovieManiac88 | Dec 10 2017, 10:10:56 PM Post #35 |
|
Gold-digger
|
Having now viewed all of these shorts and music videos, here are the rest of my ratings. Experimental Shorts Cruel Optimism dir. Paul Clipson. 2017, 7 min. https://vimeo.com/204988243 (My rating: 10/10 and most likely my favourite film of the entire festival) The Exquisite Corpus dir. Peter Tscherkassky. 2015, 19 min. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yx9llnX1bjY (My rating: 8/10) t a r d i g r a d e (Tardigrade) dir. Eduardo Makoszay. 2016, 6 min. https://vimeo.com/155209703 (My rating: 6/10) The Black Screen dir. Richard Misek. 2017, 12 min. https://vimeo.com/220625895 (My rating: 6.5/10) Phantasiesätze / Fantasy Sentences dir. Dane Komljen. 2017, 17 min. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nQBBcRnLqPY (Part 1) https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_bpcQMDhjXM (Part 2) (My rating: 5/10) Ludi Florales dir. Alessandro Bavari. 2015, 5 min. https://vimeo.com/139718620 (My rating: 7.5/10) ReflectionVOID dir. Lance Page. 2017, 6 min. https://vimeo.com/204420014 (My rating: 6.5/10) We hear the distant ring of Saturn dir. Dalibor Baric. 2016, 15 min. https://vimeo.com/189514061 (My rating: 7/10) Arrière-saison dir. Jean-Claude Rousseau. 2016, 24 min. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4N7fq1eYZ_A (Part 1) https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5oQvlqUfG4A (Part 2) (My rating: 6/10) Voyages dans le temps dir. Johanna Vaude. 2016, 7 min. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Xb3dCrqzOR4 (My rating: 7/10) Narrative Shorts Oma dir. Karolien Raeymaekers. 2014, 8 min. https://vimeo.com/164076380 (My rating: 8.5/10) Sundays dir. Mischa Rozema. 2015, 13 min. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6_cQpwpFFx0 (My rating: 4/10) Erlkönig / Erlking dir. Georges Schwizgebel. 2015, 5 min. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lfch3D9KfnU (My rating: 8/10) Prehistoric Cabaret dir. Bertrand Mandico. 2014, 9 min. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pEL2nUpkXkQ (My rating: 5/10) Somebody dir. Miranda July. 2014, 9 min. https://vimeo.com/105285889 (My rating: 6/10) The Unfixable Thought Machine: Health Reminder 3 dir. David Firth. 2014, 5 min. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6-A4zT8wp8E (My rating: 6/10) Sarah Winchester, opéra fantôme / Sarah Winchester, Ghost Opera dir. Bertrand Bonello. 2016, 23 min https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sMvYCWCQrN4 (part 1) https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=v7eZhtubQCI (part 2) (My rating: 5/10) Everything / Everything: Gameplay Trailer dir. David OReilly. 2017, 11 min. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JYHp8LwBUzo (My rating: 6/10) Music Videos The Dumplings: Kocham Być z Tobą. 2015, 4 min.  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CxQeXltiI0o (My rating: 6/10) Grimes: Kill v Maim dir. Claire and Mac Boucher. 2016, 5 min. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=c2EJMd7ZN7w (My rating: 6/10) Syd Barrett: Effervescing Elephant dir. Yoann Hervo. 2017, 2 min. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LULqoeaMPVM (My rating: 3/10) Joanna Newsom: Divers dir. Paul Thomas Anderson. 2015, 7 min. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=48xlgXqQKLA (My rating: 7.5/10) Amnesia Scanner: Chingy (AS Chingy) dir. Sam Rolfes. 2016, 2 min. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=02k126v3Zu4 (My rating: 7.5/10) Data: Don't Sing dir. David Bertram. 2015, 4 min. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=37eEUsd1ASA (My rating: 5/10) Behemoth: Messe Noire dir. Zev Dean. 2014, 6 min. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6eq2wgakP5Y (My rating: 6/10) Raketkanon: Florent dir. Farmboy & Raketkanon. 2015, 3 min. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=m8LU5ACDwJk (My rating: 2/10) Arca: Xen dir. Jesse Kanda. 2014, 3 min. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pcNG-zMlB8Q (My rating: 7.5/10) Lindemann: Praise Abort dir. Zoran Bihac. 2015, 5 min. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QWE_M0CX9So (My rating: 7/10) Bo Ningen: Slider dir. Marie Schuller. 2014, 4 min. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lXXpLHKWlVA (My rating: 6/10) Kendrick Lamar: Element. dir. Jonas Lindstroem & the little homies. 2017, 4 min. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=glaG64Ao7sM (My rating: 4/10) Ghost: From the Pinnacle to the Pit dir. Zev Deans. 2015, 4 min. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6A-IoOEPbUs (My rating: 6.5/10) Lana Del Rey: Shades of Cool dir. Jake Nava. 2014, 6 min. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rJABBmAMXnY (My rating: 7/10) Björk: Notget dir. Warren Du Preez & Nick Thornton Jones. 2017, 7 min. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aWrV8NQnbqE (My rating: 4.5/10) Turbo killer dir. Raphaël Hernandez AKA Seth Ickerman. 2016, 4 min. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=er416Ad3R1g (My rating: 8/10)
Edited by RogerTheMovieManiac88, Dec 10 2017, 10:12:10 PM.
|
|
|
|
| RogerTheMovieManiac88 | Dec 10 2017, 10:46:22 PM Post #36 |
|
Gold-digger
|
As a sort of individual awards touch, I think I'm going to select my top three favourites from each section. A gold, silver and bronze placing, if you will. Experimental: 1. Cruel Optimism - Paul Clipson 2. Tu ressembles a moi - Pierre Hébert 3. Night Vision - Jake Fried Narrative: 1. Muxes - Ivan Olita 2. Sea Child - Minha Kim 3. Chez moi - Phuong Mai Nguyen Music Videos: 1. Turbo Killer - Raphael Hernandez AKA Seth Ickerman 2. Koloto: Fay - Sabine Volkert 3. Joanna Newsom: Divers - Paul Thomas Anderson 3. Arca: Xen - Jesse Kanda This was fun! |
|
|
|
| Carmel1379 | Dec 10 2017, 11:54:42 PM Post #37 |
|
Nur dein Auge–ungeheuer / Blickt mich's an, Unendlichkeit!
|
Experimental Shorts Program - Batch 2 The Jungian Thing [Tribute to FULL PLATOON NOW] (rewatch) • Phantasiesätze • Fantasy sequence[sic] = (fantasy sentences, memories, family, old cat, old forest, modern forest, modern cat, no family, ambient sounds, fantasy sentences) Tu ressembles à moi • Curves and surfaces are bounded by a cephalic region, and vector fields change their boundaries. An abstract head without a face, becoming concrete through the imparting of intuited resemblance - the creation of a face, shaping the flows into material tangibility and uniqueness. Integrating curves and surfaces, fixing time. One slate, one cross-section, one surface, one photograph. ReflectionVOID • We hear the distant ring of Saturn • Enchanting. It describes itself for me: "characters float in and out of the narrative at random, and dialogue is often indecipherable.", "Dreams always starts from the middle. Ending incomplete.", etc. This is quite dreamlike for me, with an unique jazzy "detective(-experimentally scientific)" atmosphere to it. It's almost like an essay film, with an inscrutable subject. It's a patchwork, a simultaneity containing zany, wacky, inconsequential, surreal pieces, and a rich underlying unconscious basis of exploratory, machinic, and cosmic vectors. Wonder • Abstract patterns-metamorphoses-flows "sperm cell" animation is always great. But this one was just too much kindergarten for my liking... I simply can't digest or immerse myself in a "wonder" score with squeezing bath-duck sounds. Arrière-saison • "The act of observing changes the observed. But the observer can be also changed by observing." - from 'We hear the distant ring of Saturn'. And yes, this is great. When I go around a park I also wonder what goes on in other peoples heads, how they arrived at this place, where they're heading, who's going to come next to this particular place, the degrees of connections between people, why someone feels he should make a photograph of this particular place, which branch is going to be cut next, what species some tree belongs to, how old this tree is, what trajectories these birds are going to make, blah blah blah. The man picking branches(?) from the bushes wearing a helmet and surrounded by 3 red cones in the opening shot made me laugh. Is this concern for safety and order something the adjective "Japanese" describes (among other things)? Edited by Carmel1379, Dec 11 2017, 12:00:17 AM.
|
|
|
|
| outdoorcats | Dec 11 2017, 12:39:19 AM Post #38 |
|
Actor
|
Here I try to be objective regarding the music and decide whether the music and video are a good match. Does the video enhance the music? That's mainly what I'm looking for. The Less I Know The Better - 8.5 Tame Impala music videos are always visually creative, but this one outdoes itself (though I have a slight preference for Let it Happen). Kocham Być z Tobą - 5 The whole "tableaux vivants of various people in different rooms who represent exaggerated types of people the songwriter is critiquing" is a...strangely specific idea that's been reused in countless music videos. That said, this one had continuing narratives and a theme of abusive relationships (as I believe the song did) which set it apart a little. Our Fires - 8 The 8-bit animation style is more than just a gimmick, as the images of horror and sex are tonally and rhythmically completely in tune with the music. A great marriage. Kill v. Maim - 5 I like Grimes and this is a rockin' song...but in contrast to the previous one, this video seems divorced from the pulsating rhythm of the music, with the editing undercutting the song's energy. Canadian Cowboy - 7.5 A good, simple video for a good, simple piano ballad, with a nice mix of animation styles. The content doesn't reinvent the wheel, but neither do piano ballads. Effervescing Elephant - 7.5 Fan-made video which easily could have fooled me into thinking it was the real deal. The cute cartoony look matches the tone of the song. Divers - 9.5 PTA is a master at creating feature films, and he is a master at creating the perfect music videos. In this one, he takes one simple visual idea and builds upon it with greater and greater detail as the 7-minute ballads builds to its crescendo. The visuals are cinematic and stunning. Make sure you hit the full screen button for this one. Chingy - 4 Interesting...I'm not even sure what I was looking at, but having the flashing lights be in time with the heavy beat drops was pretty on-the-nose and strangely funny. Don't Sing - 8.5 A violent and dark suburban satire gives what I might have otherwise dismissed as a catchy pop ballad just the right edge to push it into something different. And now I'm invested in hearing more of the band's work. Bravo. Messe Noire - 8.5 Very dark and nightmarish Gigeresque imagery a good match for this type of bleak and hopeless-sounding heavy metal. Fay - 5.5 I like the animation but I felt no connection between video and song here. Rhythmically they're at odds. Florent - 6.5 Amusing study in contrasts. The music is rockin, the "live" performance seems purposefully dorky and folksy, and the discord creates a weirdness which has to be seen to be believed. Xen - 6 One visual idea overused a little, IMO, which made 3 minutes feel pretty long. Bitch Better Have My Money - 8 Riri's epic revenge fantasy about the accountants who ripped her off features all the high production values, changing aspect ratios, and over-the-top visual experimentation we've come to expect in the biggest r&b/hip-hop music videos, proving this area the best artistic playground for up-and-coming video directors. Riri has amazing presence as well, swaggering through every lip sync like she was born for this type of psychotic rage. |
|
|
|
| outdoorcats | Dec 11 2017, 02:10:44 AM Post #39 |
|
Actor
|
Acid Rain - 8.5+ A very dark and haunting music video that's a perfect marriage to the song it accompanies. Excellent. Really got under my skin. Praise Abort - 7.5 An over-the-top, grotesque, and funny video for an over-the-top, grotesque and funny song. Good stuff. Slider - 5.5 It's edited to the energy of the music but it's still just a slightly visually tweaked live performance intercut with some random things. ELEMENT. - 9.5 Kendrick has left conscious rap behind and this song finds him driven to a rage by the provocations of his local and national enemies. It's time to kick their ass just like his dad taught him to as a kid. But Kendrick always doubles back and questions himself - self-doubt is his constant - and if you watch carefully, the same dad we see teaching a young Kendrick to fight is the same one we see lying bloodied on the street. So even as he allows his id to dictate a song, he also knows he's part of a cycle of rage and violence. Meanwhile, Lindstroem makes each frame a painting full of striking silhouettes and angles which play with perspective and dimension like the shots in a Ruben Ostlund film. From the Pinnacle to the Pit - 7.5 Guy Maddin-esque "Metropolis" remake which quite literally embodies the lyric "From the pinnacle to the pit / is a long way down." Shades of Cool - 4 Lana videos often seem more like Lana fashion shoots and this is no exception. The fireworks were perfectly timed though. Repeat Stuff - 5 Hard to divorce the video from the music when they're made in tandem (as in The Lonely Island) - it's sometimes funny, but going after music aimed at young girls using adult standards of music evaluation doesn't make any sense to me. Focus your energy elsewhere. John Wayne - 8 An overstuffed video filled with bright neon colors, manic editing and Gaga's signature choreography. notget - 8 An expectedly gorgeous and unsettling bit of Bjork weirdness TURBO KILLER - 9 This isn't a music video, it's a short action movie with romance, suspense, heroes and villains, and out-of-this-world visuals. Actually, it's a perfect music video. |
|
|
|
| Carmel1379 | Dec 11 2017, 03:07:42 AM Post #40 |
|
Nur dein Auge–ungeheuer / Blickt mich's an, Unendlichkeit!
|
Narrative Shorts Program Oma (3rd viewing) • Ashes to ashes, black goo to black goo. Muxes • Shiny • Sundays • Shorts like these, sped-up science-fiction 'feature films' that aspire... I can't warm up to them. I actually come across many visually similar sci-fi shorts that are usually Kickstarter production and contain grains of ideas that deserve enlargement - "proof-of-concept" shorts, as they're called. I considered proposing them for SotDs on several occasions, but the shorts themselves always felt rather flat and dissatisfying to me, rip-offs of actual feature films, that don't actually do much. 'Sundays' was nice, in that it tried to combine a particular vision of society, ideas and visuals from the 'Agenda Suicide' music video, a lost love, a narrator doubting the nature of reality and his own sanity, simulations, alternate societies, police states, and so on. But... it's never really there.. Erlkönig • Schwizgebel. Sea Child • Prehistoric Cabaret • Tasty. 'I'm saying I liked it.' Somebody • This app probably could exist irl. Smartphones contribute to disconnection and provide proxies to interactions. The rating system reminded me of this 'Black Mirror' episode called 'Nosedive', where everyone representing 'himself' simulated behaviour to be polite as much as possible, creating the 'Demolition Man'-like utopia. Chez moi • The Unfixable Thought Machine: Health Reminder 3 (nth viewing) • Dear Mr Shakespeare: Shakespeare Lives • Sarah Winchester, opéra fantôme • Everything: Gameplay Trailer (nth viewing) • Edited by Carmel1379, Dec 11 2017, 03:24:08 AM.
|
|
|
|
| 1 user reading this topic (1 Guest and 0 Anonymous) | |
|
|
| Go to Next Page | |
| « Previous Topic · General Film Discussion · Next Topic » |
- Pages:
- 1
- 2
| Track Topic · E-mail Topic |
 4:19 PM Apr 24
|