Yes, this short is pretty damn phenomenal:
[embed]https://youtu.be/vBkBS4O3yvY[/embed]
The set up here is pretty easy. You have a guy who goes straight to a bench with a plan, to get the girl. If you were sensitive to understanding why this is creepy, then perhaps that's one of the many reasons you were intrigued enough to keep watching.
Before you know it, you're caught up in how clever it is before it scoops you up and takes you in another direction, and you're definitely on for the ride.
It's smart and edgy and one of the best short films I've seen in quite a long time. You and I aren't the only one's to get caught up in this, because if you go to the director, Devon Avery's site:
Premiered at the Vail International Film Festival in March 2014 and has since made Official Selection at numerous festivals throughout the world, including the Academy-accredited Show Me Shorts Festival in New Zealand, The Cleveland International Film Festival, and the Seattle International Film Festival. As of May 2015, One-Minute Time Machine has won eight film awards, including Best Editing at the 34th Breckenridge Festival of Film, Audience Choice at the 11th DC Shorts Festival in Washington DC, Best Short Film and Best Editing at the inaugural Austin Other Worlds sci-fi film festival, Best Screenplay and Best Comedy awards at the Love Your Shorts Florida Film Festival, and Best Comedy at the Plymouth Film Festival and Best Short Film at the Norwich Film Festival in the United Kingdom.
That's one hell of a path of appreciation to leave behind and obviously evident as to how good this actually is.
[embed]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4CDevpUgd7Y[/embed]
Practice Makes Perfect was another one that swept up a lot of nominations along the way. Avery certainly has a sense of humor. I have to say that as I cringe during the tongue on glass sequence here.
Look. I really like this guy's work and figured my internet stalking skills were primed enough to see if I could ask him some questions and guess what? I'm not completely delusional!
Zoe Dune: Prior to meeting your own film making standards with Practice Makes Perfect, would you say you were trying everything before you were satisfied with what you had?
Devon Avery: I'm not sure I completely understand this question, so I'll do my best. Prior to Practice Makes Perfect I was still learning what it meant to be a film director, to truly understand the medium for telling stories. When I made Fragged, I was proud of what I had achieved on zero budget, and of the work the incredible cast and crew had done, but it had its flaws. It wasn't a complete story, just a proof of concept. The same for Last Preacher. Both helped me understand my role in story telling, but I still hadn't told a story the way I believed it should be told until Practice Makes Perfect.
Avery is a filmmaker, just as I'm a writer so I'm familiar enough with my writer types and my environment so I was simply curious to ask about his environment and staying sharp.
Zoe Dune: Athletes and people who do what they do as a profession, often find some way to workout. Is there a gym for directors? How do you keep in shape?
At first, I figured this question might also be misunderstood as being about simply working out and not understood within the context of film making as in what he does to keep in shape as far as film making goes?
Devon Avery: When I'm not filming I workout at a local 24 hour fitness gym, when I am filming I'm lucky to get enough sleep to maintain basic functionality, so my fitness level plummets. Not really a problem with short films, more so on a feature film.
Ah! Scheduling. It's clear to me that there's no real gym or technique, I can't imagine someone like James Cameron has a workout like Jackie Chan where he's not so much attacked by a select few at random, but quickly set up to shoot a scene at random, chair, boom men, actors, monologue, then cut, edit and print!
Zoe Dune: It's painfully obvious what makes One-Minute Time Machine so great. The cuts are appropriately quick to convey time-travel, the dialogue is leading the story and doing everything it needs to do, is there something in that end result that you feel could become a signature of your style or something you would like to continue doing?
Devon Avery: I guess if I was going to pinpoint a signature style it would be that I'm really big on efficient storytelling, no waste, no unnecessary shots that aren't propelling the story forward. If there is a pause or a still moment, that moment should have a reason for existing. I've watched a lot of short films in the past 2 years, many of which are shot beautifully, and have great concepts, but 90% of them are too long. Too gratuitous. With too many shots serving the art of the filmmaker and not the story.
Yes. High energy, straight to the point. Wasting time telling a story isn't something I've really had to cut-my-teeth on so much lately, as I try to connect as much action together to get make the tale move. But back to One-Minute Time Machine...
Zoe Dune: The first thing I thought when he went to sit next to her is that this guy was some sort of creep which I guess is part of the effect social media has on me or anyone who starts watching it. It's a good set up to anticipate what comes next. I might be thinking too much into that.
Devon Avery: He does sit a bit close, I agree, however James is just a harmless nerd, so it's not too bad :) I deliberately tried to set up the intro. to lower expectations. It has a slower pace, and I kind of wanted people to think "Oh hear we go another Groundhog Day rip off". Those lowered expectations allow for a greater journey for the viewer and hopefully a bigger reward with the payoff at the end.
And yes, as I mentioned at the beginning of this, that's very much what this does. A success with the payoff!
Zoe Dune: As a director, how much of your decision-making is gripped by anxiety that an idea won't work out? As a writer and a stand up, I've learned to let everything go and just go for it.
[embed]http://twitter.com/Dir_Devon_Avery/status/429809938236329984/photo/1[/embed]
Devon Avery: So far, it's been less about anxiety and more about restraints. Not enough money or time, preventing some element of the story being told correctly, and thus forcing an artistic workaround. I guess I was more than a little anxious when sat down to edit One-Minute Time Machine and I heard how distracting the road traffic noise was. It did force me to teach myself sound waveform editing software, though, so that must be a good thing.
Zoe Dune: As a director you also have a lot of technical stuff to go through to make sure the viewer feels the impact of a scene, such as different lenses, angles, lighting, etc. Does a lot of that often get in the way of telling a story?
Devon Avery: Not really. They're all there to help. A great cinematographer by my side absorbs most of that, so I can concentrate on the essence of the story which comes from the actors and their performance. It also once more comes down to story telling efficiency, I don't think you need lots of angles or lenses to tell a simple story.
This reminds me of the interview with film maker Harmony Korine where he seems to lash out at other film makers who keep the cameras going, gathering footage for more angles. Something that makes the studios happy.
Both of these guys are into keeping things simple.
Zoe Dune: How difficult are actors, really?
Devon Avery: Actors are not difficult at all. They are amazing! My favourite part of being a director is working with actors. It's all about communication. My job is to help them understand the story I'm trying to tell from their character's perspective. I spent a large part of my "Director training" years studying acting and how to communicate with actors on their level. The horror stories you hear about actors are either to do with directors failing to communicate or the actor not believing in the script or they could just be very unhappy with life people, and those kind of people aren't going to be easy to work with in any profession. :)
Zoe Dune: What do you look for in your actors?
Devon Avery: I look into the eyes of actors. I love seeing them become the character, not just reading the lines. Once they become the character, the script is just a guide and I'm fascinated where the actors take things. It's a really exciting part of the filmmaking process for me. You can tell an amazing story with just a single actor in a room, if they have the ability to take you on that journey.
Zoe Dune: Are you ready to shoot your full-length picture? It looks like it to me!
Devon Avery: I actually just shot my first full length feature. It wasn't too different to shooting a short film to me. I wanted each scene to be a beautiful short film that tells it's own story on it's own in some way, whilst still moving the over arching story along and not slowing anything down.
Zoe Dune: Who are some great filmmakers today? We know all the old ones. :)
Devon Avery: Christopher Nolan, Danny Boyle, Sam Mendes, David Fincher. They are just the first few names that came into my head. There are of course many more.
Zoe Dune: Well, I appreciate your time. Thanks for the talk Devon!
Devon Avery: I really enjoyed the questions, so thanks for asking them!
Ya see there? The next Devon Avery film is currently titled 'Synched', a sci-fi Adventuremance. Director of photography Neil Osman has documented some of the shooting in Japan on his page.