Sci-Fi Shorts

            It seems science fiction has gone the technological route, which doesn't seem all that surprising given its connection to the evolution of machines.  And as such, it is becoming easier and easier for aspiring filmmakers to knock out a short film in their basement and get the attention of the money-holding men that matter.  It has indeed worked with the horror genre as cheap thrillers like The Blair Witch Project and Paranormal Activity are bought by giant companies and adjusted for mass appeal.  Today’s shorts represent the spectrum of this process.

            The first, for anyone paying attention, should be obvious.  It is Neill Blomkamp’s short that was expanded into the feature length District 9 to mass appeal and a Best Picture nomination.  The aliens are different, and debatably, a bit cooler.  The style was retained in D9 as the faux-documentary that gives the film a unique energy for an alien invasion theme.  Losing the bid on directing a Halo movie, Peter Jackson allowed Blomkamp to do what he wanted and $30 million later we got D9.

            The second is by Fede Alvarez of Uruguay who packed a bunch of people in a bus and told them to run from something while he filmed.  For less than $300 his YouTube video that showcased his talents landed him a similar multimillion dollar almost overnight.  The film reflects a bit of the subjectivity of Joburg in its handheld camera but is not copycatting the documentary aesthetic.

            The third is by Andrea Ricca, whose website promotes the one camera and one computer simplicity of making films.  At the same time, it manages the narrative simplicity not employed in either of the above short films.  Yet like the others, it shows a desire to tell a story visual while acting as a calling card for the filmmaker’s talents.  

          It remains undisputed, though, that the availability of such marketing means that more filmmakers are able to get their work to a larger audience with less hassle.  And many have made the case that the evolving technology has allowed more amateurs to make their masterpieces.  Yet just because the tools are there does not mean the overall work has gotten better.  Just because everyone has a pencil and paper does not mean they are writing novels.  

Life Without Film

Imagine, if you will, for a fleeting and hesitant moment, that films as we know them never came into existence. Suppose that the pioneers that experimented in the earlier days of cinematic exploration had stopped, or never even started. What if, by chance, the Lumiere Brothers, Edison, and Augustin failed to come up with any motion capturing devices? What if the Phenakistoscope, the Zoetrope, the Cinématographe, or even the Electrical Tachyscope had never come to be? Where would that put us now? How would the human race have been affected by the absence of technology that, by today’s standards, is strictly archaic? Compared to the complexity and ability of today’s emerging technology the magic lantern is but a paper airplane. Yet regardless of current technology’s distancing from its predecessors, humans have relied on its presence in every form.

Our world is a visual onslaught from every direction, so much so that we often shut it out, not realizing all that we have experienced. At the same time, though, we intentionally seek out certain forms of stimulation. We want the experiences we are offered. We have come to expect their presence. We are accustomed to what they offer, what they can tell us, and what they can show us. Yet only rarely do we think about their saturation into who we are and how we operate. Only rarely do we realize that because of them we have unprecedented access to years passed. Our forefathers had less opportunity than we do, much the same as our followers who will know more about our selves than we do. Films are transcribing our history, or rather, we are transcribing our history into visually printed form, a record for the future.

So what would become of us without this ability? Would the written word, perhaps the artistic rendition, maybe even the photographic process should I wish to give ample freedom from the above scenario, be enough to capture the existence of our civilization? And with that thought, will the power of film, the recorded image, even be enough? Once we blow the planet to kingdom come, will the DVD’s that goes screaming through space be valid proof of our existence? Hardly.

Film is but one step that satisfies us for the time. Writing did it, painting did it, and photography did it. Film is doing it but even that is beginning to wane. We can no longer trust what we see, nor can we see all that we trust. We know that as long as we live on this planet that gravity will hold us to it. We do not, however, know that future generations will be privy to our actuality. Proof of our being does not last forever; VHS is a prime example. But we do know, whether consciously or not, that for the time being film is more than satisfactory. For the time being, film is a form of immortality. And that should we live in a world without film, we would likely be very, very lost. At least I would.