After Oz - Love Story

One of the best short film love stories I've seen on Youtube so far:

After OZ: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=f1lkEgKzix4

Anyone that can depict a life/love story in a couple minutes or less, using tin people and no words is cool.

Each scene is well thought out and brings several messages to twist and make life of a typical and common everyday story.

Without giving away the short, its ironic that the characters are made of tin - who are not supposed to have any hearts, but in this case, they do, to further emphasize the message.

Go Vancouver Film school :-)

Shane Acker's "9"

I watched Shane Acker's "9" short film on youtube.com and thought it was genius. They are now making the short into a feature length movie with Tim Burton - more on that here.

In an interview with Shane Acker on AnimationTrip.com, if you scroll half way down -Acker starts talking the symbolism that is used in the short film.

The part that stuck out to me when he was talking about why he chose the number 9 as the main character:
"But my basic philosophy or idea behind the numbers was 9 was about as close as you can get to perfection. You know, let’s say perfection is 10. So I think that we can never achieve that perfection. We’re always flawed – every one of us. And I think 9 represents as close as you can ever possibly get to that perfection. And so that’s what 9 is."

I think that concept can be compared to the human state - one can always try to strive for perfection, but we always will have flaws. Regardless, what matters is that we are constantly striving, inshaAllah.

The coolest part about the movie is the concept of knowledge overpowering force (watch the movie to see what this is all about)

Overall, this "9" has a lot of thought put into it - not just another mindnumbing movie, but one that is interactive with the audience and keeps you on your toes. I look forward to watching the feature length movie in September, inshaAllah!

Re-Focus...

After a short hiatus, I've come to the conclusion to change the direction of this blog, inshaAllah.

My goal inshaAllah is to change the focus of this blog. InshaAllah I will be posting up links to cool short videos that have positive messages or relay a good concept and then asking questions in order to start a discussion.

I will also try to focus more on independent short films - mostly because independent movies usually do not have to stick to Hollywood or mass media audience restrictions of excessive and unnecessary violence or sexuality.

The intention inshaAllah, is to use this blog to give Muslims a database for good independent movies to watch as an alternative to the junk that is out there today.

Here's a good start with a short film on youtube. Really good.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Cbk980jV7Ao

What morals are portrayed in this short film? Can something as simple as Free Parking (or something else?) really change the world? What symbolism is portrayed in the movie?