Many short films grapple with multiple distinct and sometimes conflicting objectives. They are at once both a work in progress, designed to attract the attention of studios, and a final product that is created to be captivating and entertaining. Along with the inherent freedom of cinematography, and the often low-budget, low risk nature of the form, short films have great diversity in terms of their style, characterization, plot, and intent. In contrast, feature-length films are inevitably constrained by a necessity to cater to the populace, making short films a great way for filmmakers to explore and present a concept or idea that may be perhaps more risky and avant-garde.
Style and Genre
Small Deaths (1996) – ‘Joke’ Final Scene
Small Deaths (1996), directed by Lynne Ramsay, is an almost plotless series of vignettes exploring three scenes depicting a small loss of the innocence of childhood. Its scenes are more like sketches and the storyline an abstract impressionism that classifying it as simply in the genre of drama is simply misleading in nature. Similarly, while both Alive in Joburg (2005), directed by Neill Blomkamp, and Sundays (2015), directed are ostensibly in the genre of science-fiction, they are decidedly more experimental, whether in form or plot, than most of their traditional counterparts.
Alive in Joburg (2005) – Opening Shot
In Alive in Joburg, the producers simultaneously capitalizes and subverts the science-fiction trope of a alien invasion through the unconventional documentary style of the film. This effect is accomplished through the non-diagetic voice over of a man – presumably an “expert” on the subject of the alien arrival in Johannesburg- combined with realistic (actual, in fact) interview footage of residents. The unpolished, unchoreographed quality of some of the footage, as many action parts shot at close-up and medium close-up with handheld movement, gives a point of view perspective resembling many shots in Small Deaths. The effect is that viewers are positioned as if they are in the scene as if they are in a first person perspective. While in both films, there is a certain jarring immediacy due to this choice, the effect in Small Deaths is much more intimate due to the sole camera perspective of the girl we are made to consider the scene from.
Sundays (2015)
With much more polished editing, Sundays seems much more familiar with its style firmly in the ground post-apocalyptic science fiction. While still interspersing many of the first person handheld shots like in the other two films, usually from the perspective of the central protagonist, the focus and intent of the film is very much more on world-building, the frequent cuts between locations and perspectives resemblant of that of a blockbuster trailer. Not surprisingly, its rights has been acquired by Warner Brothers for adaption into a feature length film.
Setting and Context
Sundays – Final Scene
While the setting of Small Deaths is an archetypical, but undefined countryside, which shifts to a rough inner-city estate in the final scene, the other two films are set in more recognizable settings- both Alive in Joburg and Sundays are set in large metropolises, which are Johannesburg and Mexico City respectively. However, owing to the documentary style of Alive in Joburg, and the humanization of the aliens that the producer has wanted to create, Johannesburg in this scene is depicted as being fairly naturalistic, with many shots of the actual city, perhaps overlaid with some special effects of the robots and alien mothership. The squalid conditions of the slums and streets, dilapidated and grimy homes and buildings, are actually reflective of some of the conditions present in the city in real life. With aliens and humans living side by side in these appalling, almost dystopic conditions, the unorthodoxy beings to melt away. In contrast, the Mexico City of Sundays sits in the unsettling realm of the uncanny valley. There are many elements which seem familiar – the urban sprawl, the mountains range surrounding the city – yet this is twisted by elements of science fiction on the brink of being supernatural. Yet, these elements are intermingled with the surreal – buildings collapse and reform into a hellish landscape of bent glass and steel, mountains shift to a dream-like metallic landscape of polyhedral solids like Picasso’s impressionistic paintings of the early modern cubism movement. In this way, perhaps, Small Deaths, and even Alive in Joburg, are much more “believable” and thus immersive per se, while Sundays is much more fantastical in terms of its cinematic conception, with elements reminiscent of scenes from The Matrix (1999) and Inception (2010).
Sound and Cinematography
Small Deaths – ‘ma and da’ Opening Scene
Alive in Joburg combines multiple layers of aural texture to create the documentary style of the film. The man objectively describing the events is overlaid as non-diagetic narration over the establishing shots and many long shots of the alien intrusion. Combined with diagetic sounds such as the roar of the helicopter blades, indistinct shouting and explosions which creates a general impression of chaos and anarchy gives many scenes the characteristic style of news footage. Throughout a significant portion of the film, there is also eerie non-diagetic background music which builds dramatic tension, escalating to a crescendo in the end. In marked contrast, there is almost no non-diagetic background music throughout the entirety of the film, whichs creates a ambiguity in the mood and tone of the piece, accentuating the almost random, nonexpositionary nature of the three scenes. (The heavy Scottish accent only contributes to my personal difficulty in understanding the dialogue). The only exception would be the repetition of a Scottish folk tune, “Ally Bally Bee” in the beginning and ending of the piece. Yet with the first voice that of a young Anne-Marie, and the latter being one when she was grown up powerfully reinforces her gentle, perhaps slightly melacnholy longing for her childhood.
Thematic Concerns
All three films, while disparate in style and context, depict uncomfortable situations which the central protagonist (or perhaps human society in general with Alive in Joburg, due to the lack of a clear main character) must grapple with. In Small Deaths, Anne-Marie, a young girl growing up is confronted by the small, but uncomfortable situations involving the “loss” of her father, the “loss” of her trust, the “loss” of her innocence, and ultimately, the loss of a childhood. In Sundays, the conflict of man v.s. society is much more ambiguous and less clear, akin to the uncontextualized scenes in Small Deaths. There is the suggestion of a police state, perhaps a corporatocracy, yet the exact reasons and motives are undefined. The protagonist, an office worker at Lennox, is prompted to search out the truth behind his world that increasingly seems unreal and facade-like, haunted by flashbacks of a past before the solar electromagnetic storm. In Alive in Joburg, the situations seems, in contrast to Small Deaths, a lot more otherworldly and magnified, yet is set in a more familiar environment. The inter(species?) tension between the inhabitants of Johannesburg and the wretched aliens reach a breaking point where violence bubbles over. It perhaps though, functions most powerfully as a metaphor for interracial and interethnic tension so prevalent in the world today. The individual interviews with the inhabitants of the city – which was actually a question about how their view on the Zimbabwean refugees at the time – further cements the idea and provides a stark warning that atrocities and such as genocide and war arise out of individual actions and choices.
Alive in Joburg. Directed by Neill Blomkamp, produced by Carlo Trulli, performances by Braam Greyling, Godfrey Seome, Dawie Ackermann, et al.. Spy Films, 2005. Retrieved June 9th, 2020 from https://vimeo.com/1431107
Small Deaths. Directed and written by Lynne Ramsay. 1996. Retrieved June 8th, 2020 from https://youtu.be/UFCoLbEKoQ0
Sundays. Directed by Mischa Rozema, written by Kevin Koehler and Mischa Rozema, performances by Brian Petsos, Sofia Sisniega, et al. The Panics Film 2015. Retrieved June 8th, 2020 from https://youtu.be/6_cQpwpFFx0