LESSON FROM A STRANGER (2011)

This delightful short film by Mahmut Akay shows what can be achieved with a KISS (Keep It Simple Stupid!) approach. A basic premise, two characters, one location and the story plays out in only five minutes. It is wonderfully economic but great to look at and superbly acted with a lovely little twist at the end.

THE DOUBLE BLIND (2014)

The Double Blind by the collective The Double-Blind Experiments has been very successful on the film festival circuit picking up several awards. It has a very loose narrative around a scientific experiment but then uses a multitude of visual techniques and plenty of post-production effects to create a bizarre mash up involving a goat! The visuals are incredibly strong throughout and the final film is a though provoking piece.




Link to A DOUBLE BLIND MAKING OF

LA HUIDA (2013)

La Huida (The Runaway) is a wonderfully entertaining Spanish short by Victor Carrey. It is witty and genuinely funny and examines the coincidences and objects that link together an as of yet untold story. It uses inventive visuals and graphic representations alongside live action to piece together a series of random objects, events and people that contribute to and eventually form the narrative.

PART 1: WHAT ARE YOU (2014)

What Are You is an interesting experimental short film by Kira Bursky mixing live action with stop frame animation. Inspired by Halloween it metaphorical look at the effects of warped body image and media on the stability of a teenage girl. The visuals are strong and the clever use of sound really adds to the mood and tone of the piece.


Link to PART 1: WHAT ARE YOU

BRUNO (2012)

BRUNO is a short Spanish film by Alvaro San Hose. It is dialogue free and makes heavy use of strong visuals and a really inventive and atmospheric sound-track to tell the story. It seems to blur the past and the present and perceptions of memories that shape us. In particular the cinematography, strong mise-en-scene and fantastic grading are worth a mention.


Link to BRUNO

UN CHIEN ANDALOU (1928)

Un Chien Andalou (An Andalusian Dog) is a highly influential surrealist experimental 1928 short by the Spanish director Luis Bunel. It was a collaboration with the surrealist artist Salvador Dali and it has no conventional plot jumping around in narrative in a dreamlike and often nightmarelike manner. Some of the visuals are striking and highly memorable, look out for the eye and moon graphic match cut sequence in particular.

THE PHONE CALL (2014)

The Phone Call by won the Oscar for best live action short film in 2015. Written and directed by Suffolk born and bred Matt Kirkby the film centres around a shy woman (Heather) who works in a crisis helpline call centre and a phone call that changes her life forever. Delicately touching and heartbreaking and with a very basic premise it keeps the audience dangling from the beginning to the end. It is a great example of the style fitting the substance and less sometimes being more.