High budgets typically mean big productions in the film industry. Feature films are notorious for enormous budgets; spending millions of dollars on stars, sets, and special effects is not uncommon. Short films tell a different story. With much lower production costs, short films offer a unique opportunity for filmmakers to experiment and push the boundaries… Continue reading Short Film Production Costs Enable Creative Storytelling Experimentation
Author: Indie Shorts Mag Team
Mary: Two Kinds of Home Under Threat in this Home Invasion Horror
Alexander Chehrazi’s Mary, co-written with Max Markov,is a 19-minute horror whose twist is actually unexpected. The story of a first date gone wrong, the minimal cast of characters are set within the confines of a living room as truth and lies weave around each other to form a drama of morality. Briana (Lanisa Dawn) and… Continue reading Mary: Two Kinds of Home Under Threat in this Home Invasion Horror
Cycles: Muted Trauma in the Face of Frenetic Violence in a Drama of Performances
Alex Eskandarkhah’s 20-minute Cycles finds one character reaching towards redemption and another discovering the comfort of a stranger offering a safe space, however precarious. When Jerome’s (Andre Kelly) evening at home is disrupted by his wayward washing machine, only to also be betrayed by the bill changer at the local laundromat, Jerome finds himself at… Continue reading Cycles: Muted Trauma in the Face of Frenetic Violence in a Drama of Performances
From Cat Poop to Fish & Chips: Jonathan Hawes On Finding Dark Comedy in the Mundane
In the realm of independent filmmaking, few storytellers can transform the mundane into the magnificent quite like Jonathan Hawes. The Nottingham-born Director’s award-winning short film “Cosmo”—a darkly comedic tale about a man’s obsessive quest to identify the animal defecating on his lawn—has captivated festival audiences worldwide, earning accolades for its comedy, cinematography, and storytelling. Hawes’… Continue reading From Cat Poop to Fish & Chips: Jonathan Hawes On Finding Dark Comedy in the Mundane
Jessica Goes to New York: A Wonderland Where You Get Lost To Find Yourself
John Carmel’s 16-minute Jessica Goes to New York is a self-reflexive coming of age tale about its titular heroine, a young woman who has a wealth of happy-go-lucky vivacity but suffers from an utter lack of purpose. Charming is the word that best describes Jessica Peru (Carmel), but you can just call her Jessica Peru.… Continue reading Jessica Goes to New York: A Wonderland Where You Get Lost To Find Yourself
Largo: Anywhere is Safer Than Here, But Nowhere Else is Home
Max Burgoyne-Moore and Salvatore Scarpa’s 19-minute drama Largo uses the child’s gaze to show the flipside of the refugee coin: the despairing longing for home. Starring child actor Zack Elsokari as the protagonist Musa, the film uses the ungovernability of children as a way to excise reactionary, polarising politics and glimpse messy humanity underneath. Death… Continue reading Largo: Anywhere is Safer Than Here, But Nowhere Else is Home
Curiosity: Space and Time Lose Their Form in This Modern-day Horror
Michael Cooke’s 12-minute Curiosity is a compounded horror of our times, switching out found footage with streaming for a horrific display not distanced by time and barely even by space. A story set in and around the dark web, it features a man who falls prey not to his curiosity but to the morbid tastes… Continue reading Curiosity: Space and Time Lose Their Form in This Modern-day Horror
Sky Colored Grass: Love in the Time of Absurdity
Nicholas Kennedy’s Sky Colored Grass is a 9-minute drama about what it is like to fall in love in an absurd world. Set under the flare of theatrical lighting, this tragic romance uses its minimal tools and leaves a lasting impression. Skye (a charming Cynthia Johnson) and Caelus (Brian Mendoza, enigmatic and then endearing), whose… Continue reading Sky Colored Grass: Love in the Time of Absurdity
The One That Got Away: The Thrill and Heartbreak of (Unrequited) Love in Post-Apocalypse Story
Opening with a sequence of a woman running through the woods while gunshots ring out around her, Scott Talbot’s The One That Got Away seems to give a very different meaning to getting away than what you would infer from the title, but it lets you know within the first couple of minutes that it… Continue reading The One That Got Away: The Thrill and Heartbreak of (Unrequited) Love in Post-Apocalypse Story
The Mistake: A Drama of Sibling Rivalry and What We Do to Be Seen
Artii Smith’s The Mistake is a drama with psychological thriller undertones to it as two brothers clash and meditate on the diverging paths that led them to where they are when the film opens: one a medical student, the other with a dead body on his floor and coke traces under his nose. Matthew (Brian… Continue reading The Mistake: A Drama of Sibling Rivalry and What We Do to Be Seen