Short Films

I watched three of the short films by Hillman Curtis: Roof, Soldiers and American Spirit.  This is also the order in which I watched and enjoyed the films. I think I liked Roof so much because of the angles it was shot in and the range in characters.  I loved that almost the entire first minute was shot on closeups of two of the characters’ faces.  I began to think that the entire film was going to be shot just looking at the face of the man with the hood.  My theory was that he was blind and that’s why they were looking over the roof for him and I thought it would have made sense to film just his face and not be able to see anything else so you would feel like him in a sense.  But I was wrong; however, there was definitely something strange going on with him.  It seemed like he was extremely paranoid about the situation, which is understandable, but his other friends were the exact opposite.  The dynamic between the three friends was interesting.  There was the paranoid friend, the calm and optimistic friend and the sarcastic we’re all going to die friend. The angles that the film was shot in really added depth to the storytelling.  By not showing below the roof it allows your imagination to run wild about what New York City would look like with a biblical flood.  I also thought jib-like motion of the camera was a nice touch going from each friend towards the end and they would come in and out of focus.  My only complaint is the ending.  I wanted there to be more to it than them just listening to a song.

I enjoyed “Soldiers” because it made sense, but it was too predictable.  You could tell as soon as he walks up to the grave that it was his and he was like a ghost looking down at his mother.  The main character, who is in just about all of these videos, did a great job in this one.

“American Spirit” was probably my least favorite just because I wanted the story to tell me more.  I understand the whole “out with the old, in with the new” approach, and Curtis really pulled it off by going from black and white to color and older guys to young kids.  It also seemed like the transition could have symbolized winter (black and white) turning into summer (color).  I just didn’t understand the significance of the cigarettes and being lost in the city.  Actually, the more I think and analyze this film, the more I like it.  I’m moving it up to my second favorite of the three.  The editing and film-making choices of black and white to color was a really cool idea that worked well.