The Last Farm

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Call Register

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Call Register is a British short film made in 2004. The film starts at the point where Kevin, played by Martin Freeman, is planning to call a girl- whom he met in a party-for a date. He uses his buddy Julian’s cell to call because Kevin wants to play safe. Julian’s cell recognizes the number as Amanda’s number and Amanda happens to be Julian’s old flame with whom he had broken up and Kevin didn’t know that! From here on starts the plot building, back and forth phone calls among all three characters. The film might seem predictable towards the end, but twist in the tale is not the point here. The film scores primarily on the brilliantly written dialogues and on the wonderful performance of Martin Freeman. Especially towards the end, when Kevin wrongly smells victory, his gloating is extremely funny and real. The film is about how one seemingly trivial decision- in this case deciding to call from a friend’s cell -could seal the fate of one party and rekindle an old relationship of another. Or perhaps this wrong call was just an excuse, and sooner or later things would have gone that way in any case. Perhaps the wrong call was a blessing in disguise for Kevin, even though he doesn’t realize it now.

The short also proves once again that if the story, the acting and the dialogues are really good, the whole film could be shot in one room with great results!!

Guerilla Casting..

I was in this pub tonight with some friends and this gorgeous bartender-who could be either French or Eastern European- is serving us. Apart from her pretty face and toned body, I see that there is this very natural charm in her smile and in her other mannerisms. As we while our time there, I notice her talking and gesturing with other people too. I tell my friend sitting with me, ‘buddy, this girl has an actress inside her…look at the way she talks and gestures..not only her eyes, but her whole body talks’. My friend finds her even more beautiful and goes as far as to say that this girl could match any beauty in the world!! Anyways, she keeps visiting our corner and I do some small talk with her now and then.

Now here is what’s going on: Since past few weeks, I’m trying to find a young, pretty girl to play one of the characters in my short film. She is not one of the main characters, but still an important one. I have already tried one casting agency to find an actress for this role, but from the picture album which agency manager showed me, I couldn’t find anybody suitable in terms of the character’s age and look requirement.

Our Time is Up.

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Our Time is Up is a very clever short film. What I found really interesting in this short was that even after the main character encounters the tragic news, and the story shifts entirely, the tone of the film remained the same till the end. Also, notice that how well this short demonstrates the character arc for each character in the film. Not only the doc, but every single character in the film changes. The central theme of the story, that how impending death can change an emotionally cold person, was not really very novel for me. But, the short still worked for me because of the way the story was told. Each of doc’s patients was an interesting character and I think the dialogues were crisp, very funny and insightful. The production standards and the lighting enhanced the tone of the film. I have always believed that good films are about few moments which work so well that they always stay with you. In this short, the Asian girl’s predictament about how to wash the soap which washes the main soap to remove bacteria was one of those moments for me.