I’ve another great little short film to share with you guys today courtesy of the guys over at /FIlm. I find a lot of these great, little nuggets over there and at Vimeo, so definitely check them out. This one is a 5 minute short film in the sci-fi genre. I hope you enjoy it.
The Raven comes to you from the mind of Ricardo de Montreuil and tells the story of Chris Black (aka The Raven), a man whose power could force a change to the current totalitarian regime. The Peruvian film maker won high marks at film festivals in 2008 for his film Mancora, which was also presented at our very own South by Southwest film festival by Elizabeth Avellan, producer of Robert Rodriguez’ Sin City and Grindhouse.
I think the film is another excellent example of how these young independent film makers are completely changing the game with these amazingly low-budget short films. The Raven was shot for about $5000.00. As much as I enjoyed the short, I don’t think there are really any new ideas being presented here in the arena of story or visual style. We’ve seen the super-human pitted against the evil government many, many times before. See The Matrix, Ultraviolet, Star Wars, and The Bourne films for some good and bad examples. The visual style, while breathtaking to behold (especially on such a miniscule budget) isn’t really very original either. And in the grand scheme of things, what really is truly original these days? Just about everything (including the stuff I write) is influenced and guided in some way by what has come before.
For all of that blather, I still fell in love with the film. And I hope this film maker gets the chance to make features, but I think he is well on his way already.
Check out the trailer for MacGregor’s KOR3 (presented here before) that seems to borrow heavily from Neil Blomkamp’s Alive in Joburg (also presented below), which itself borrows from many Japanese anime films and other films like Ridley Scott’s Blade Runner. Alive in Joburg was later picked up and turned into a full length feature titled District 9, and was such a big success on the tiny budget that studios are looking to capitalize on that film’s success.
Check it all out. compare, and discuss below in the comments section.
As an aside, I think that this piece of art by Pavel Elagin is eerily similar to the opening shot of the KOR3 trailer. Aside from the colors, I think the visual comparison is pretty obvious. What do you think?
Kirk out.
