Innovative shorts inhabiting Web
It’s a series that’s seen regularly by about 25 million people and whose main character can sometimes be childish and self-absorbed, yet nearly always amusing.
In case you were thinking “Everybody Loves Raymond” or “Seinfeld,” guess again. It’s “The Angry Kid,” a tiny terror from Britain whose temper tantrums in more than 50 minute-long shorts have made him something of a cult figure on the Internet.
“Extremely short content works well in the world of Web snacking, where people are looking for short bursts of entertaining content,” says Scott Roesch, vice president and general manager of Atom Films, a Web site specializing in shorts including the “Angry Kid” series.
A prime example is “This Land Is Your Land,” the 2004 George W. Bush-John Kerry musical parody that became Atom’s most popular short film download.
“It helps if a film is animated, musical and political in nature. There’s a piece that had all three,” Roesch says.
It also doesn’t hurt to know your audience – which, in this case, tends to be predominantly urban men between ages 25 and 39, Roesch says.
As interest in short films continues to mushroom among Web surfers, so does the problem of trying to weed out the hidden treasures from the dross.
Here’s a short take on the best free or modestly priced starting points to search for innovative mini movies:
•Atom Films (www.atomfilms.com): A giant among shorts venues, Atom Films specializes in two- to five-minute films – though slightly longer offerings, including the Oscar-winning short “Harvie Krumpet,” also share the spotlight.
Recognizable faces also pop up in a number of Atom’s films, including Steve Carell in the comedy “Street of Pain,” about a man seeking revenge for a dodgeball incident; and “Prison Break” star Wentworth Miller, who plays, coincidentally, a convict with a surprise admission to his wife during a conjugal visit in “The Confession.”
•Pixar (www.pixar.com): You won’t find a more family-friendly site than Pixar, and while its selection of short films may be, well, short, what’s there is first-rate, including “For the Birds,” a charmer about birds of a feather gathering on a telephone wire, and the classic “Luxo Jr.”
•All Day Breakfast (http://alldaybreakfast.ca): This site, run by a group of Canadian filmmakers, gets its juice from comedy and a taste for the absurd.
If you need proof, just sample a few items from the Breakfast menu, such as “Tchotckes!,” about some snarky gift-shop souvenirs, and “The Secret of Zombie Mountain,” a horror spoof about a university town overrun by the living dead.
•Brownfish (www.brownfish.com): Brownfish also leans toward offbeat humor in oddities such as “The Christmas That Almost Wasn’t,” in which Santa cancels Christmas after learning the awful truth about children; “Magnetic Love Story,” which brings new meaning to the phrase “physical attraction”; and “Return to Purgatory,” which answers the question, “Where do dead celebrities end up?”
•PocketMovies.net (www.pocketmovies.net): Marrying the Internet with the world of portable video, this site offers short films that you can also download to your Pocket PC or Palm.
Mixed in among the many movie trailers and teasers are worthwhile shorts including “The Piano,” in which an elderly man recalls moments in his life while at the keyboard; and the amusing “Le Building,” wherein an old woman finds a novel way to stop her neighbor’s off-key singing.
•ReelMind (www.reelmind.com): A good site for thought-provoking fare such as “Sprawl,” which looks at how urban development is affecting wildlife.