The Ellington Kid (2012, Dan Sully)
The Ellington Kid (2012, Dan Sully) was definitely one of the more comedic, enjoyable short films I watched. I really loved the parallel narrative this one had, showing the action while telling it. It documents 2 boys sitting down in a fast food shop, chatting about 'did you hear what happened here' in regards to a boy being stabbed by a gang and retreating to the shop. The gang ends up following the boy to the shop, where the owners, shown to be violently cutting slabs of meat with a butchers knife, end up fighting the gang and, supposedly, turning them into burgers. I loved that you didn't know whether it was actually true, or if it was more of a 'Chinese whispers' effect with gossip being spread from person to person.
Throughout The Ellington Kid, there is strong use of sound bridges in regards to the boy telling his friend, while also shown to be 'narrating' what he is describing. The shots we see of the boy being stabbed and the owners fighting a gang are in slow-motion, and so have a very 're-enactment' type feel to them. I really liked this and thought it was effective for the film. Without this parallel narrative, I think there definitely would have been something missing, as the story itself was not gripping enough to make you want to continue watching, unlike Operator (2015, Caroline Bartleet).
I liked that regardless of the film being quite dark in subject matter, it was made really light-hearted in the behaviour and joking of the two boys. There was no real moral message to this film either, and I thought that was also effective; not every film has to have a strong message or meaning, sometimes they can just be light-hearted and funny. This is something I might consider in making my short film, rather than getting bogged down in the idea that my film has to have a strong moral message in order to be enjoyable or meaningful.
Throughout The Ellington Kid, there is strong use of sound bridges in regards to the boy telling his friend, while also shown to be 'narrating' what he is describing. The shots we see of the boy being stabbed and the owners fighting a gang are in slow-motion, and so have a very 're-enactment' type feel to them. I really liked this and thought it was effective for the film. Without this parallel narrative, I think there definitely would have been something missing, as the story itself was not gripping enough to make you want to continue watching, unlike Operator (2015, Caroline Bartleet).
I liked that regardless of the film being quite dark in subject matter, it was made really light-hearted in the behaviour and joking of the two boys. There was no real moral message to this film either, and I thought that was also effective; not every film has to have a strong message or meaning, sometimes they can just be light-hearted and funny. This is something I might consider in making my short film, rather than getting bogged down in the idea that my film has to have a strong moral message in order to be enjoyable or meaningful.
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