Short films, deep understanding

After watching a few of the Hilman Curtis short films I think the most successful thing he achieves through the film is the portrayal of the messiness of reality. This occurs with his shooting style, character development, and acting style. The blending of shooting techniques gives the overall character of the film both a polished and rough feeling all at once. There are a good mixture of shots, including closeups of hands, faces, and objects that wouldn’t normally be shown in mainstream films. Hillman has also successful used focusing and unfocusing as a technique to direct the audience to whats important in the shot and create this feeling of honesty through the more raw aesthetic of the technique. In addition to the shooting style, the characters are not necessarily introduced, you are just thrown into their lives and left to figure out what is going on. In addition to this the actors seem less polished than what you would find in Hollywood, but somehow this adds to the greater feel of this being like reality. Their acting style is much more so that of what you find in mocumentaries or the like, minus the comedic elements.

Even though all the short films are just that, short, they still convey big themes in that small amount of time. They also have a quality that inspires the viewer to watch the films more than once to try and understand them better. Overall the films’ quality are excellent, they portray a real, raw feeling of reality, and get across complex emotions and ideas in creative and believable ways. Very successful series.