Some time during my You Tube browsing, lately after three hours of physiotherapy, I came across DUST, a You Tube channel. Recommended. It features science fiction short films from five minutes to twenty-five minutes or so. Some are quite good, but not all.
The good ones have a story to tell and use some of the conventions of SciFi to do so. Some of the stories are imaginative, though not all. In the imaginative ones the SciFi element is central to the situation, the conflict, the paradox, …whatever.
I have scanned a lot of them, sometimes with the mute on without keeping track of the titles. But some of the good ones were these.
One concerned Nikolas Tesla’s discovery of time travel in nine minutes. Very amusing with the punch line at the very end. There are many films on DUST with Tesla so it will be hard to find. Found it : Room 88.
A second concerned an interminable traffic jam which executes population reduction without discrimination by random harvesting of motorists. Think of the Spit Bridge without warning raising at random times and all the cars and occupants on it are vaporised and you have it. This one I think was Danish. The Bridge?
Third, while most of the shorts are serious, some dead serious, and others worse, I came across one that was humorous, Alientologists. with tap dancing blue aliens. Great fun.
Four, Hashtag about the ephemeral nature of celebrity on social media. This one cuts to the bone.
Finally one concerned two astronauts exploring a dead world only to find skulls. Slowly we come to realise this desolate planet is in fact the Earth and the astronauts, despite the biped appearance and easy banter, are not human. The title is Unearthed.
All of these and many others are far superior to the overblown, CGI trash, incomprehensible, deafening, and pretentious marathons that come from Hollywood starring the same handful of actors. Yes, I am thinking of Christopher Nolan’s oeuvre. Among others.
Most of the dozens of shorts I have scanned lack a story. Many are shoot-em ups of one kind or another, and others are just talk, talk, talk, and more talk. They have the cinematography and the CGI down pat, but they have nothing to communicate except to display the technical ability of the producer. Perhaps they are film school projects. In any event, they are all form and no content, leaving it to viewers to interpret. Beyond the gates of film schools most viewers want the film to do the work of imagination.
Length is irrelevant some of the five minute ones have a story and some of the twenty-five minutes do not. Then there are the two and half hour flightless turkeys from Hollywood. More is no indicator of better.
DUST has an extensive web site for those interested.