Short Film Research

I watched a few more short films a while back and tried to pay extra attention to the cinematography and storytelling.  I think I'm slowly beginning to notice more when I watch films.




Where Do Lilacs Come From from Matthew Thorne on Vimeo.


Where do Lilacs Come From is visually stunning and well told, especially with such a difficult topic.

Cinematography wise this film was stunning.  The transitions between reality and memories and between different scenes and characters was really well done and looked carefully planned out.  I wasn't impressed with the swirling abstract VFX brain moments, not because they weren't stunning but because I didn't really feel that they added anything- they seemed to me to be like a fullstop, simply there to separate two scenes. 

I would think this was a difficult topic, and the narrative approach which almost showed the film through to points of view was interesting.  If the film was taken  in a different direction I think that the two POV narrative could have been pushed further to show the untrustworthiness (is that even a word?) and instability of memories.    

Unfortunately I did have a moment of being pulled out of the film, because of one point of implausibility.  The camcorder.  Would an adult still have the same camcorder that he had as a child?  The film shows that this character must have a passion for recording his own life as he has continued for so many years, surely he would have worn it out, dropped it, broken it or upgraded by that point? 

Just a small point- but it did bother me regardless.