Short Films
Student Drama'

Title: Willow Drive
Runtime: 16 mins 43 secs
Directed by: Jakob Rirvik
Synopsis: In a quiet suburb, a boy listens to his father's old records, and a woman faints when she tries to leave her house. A bittersweet romance and a dream of another place.
Black & White for no real reason, this flick is pretty close to 50 First Dates. The woman keeps fainting, having a chat

& then forgetting the boy. That's pretty much it. *Shrugs*

Title: Needlewood Antiques
Runtime: 14 mins 45 secs
Directed by: Naoki Maeda
Synopsis: Welcome to Needlewood antiques, a shop full of characters, a shop full of mystery, a shop full of surprises. Ron and Sive receive an eviction notice and know their business is doomed. They are paid a visit by a mysterious stranger who turns out to be something of an angel.

Between this one and the one below we seem to have
Lock Stock. This one is about an antique store on the verge of being
evicted and a mysterious customer who has no cash & leaves a
painting with the store as a temporary guarantee. Little does the store
know its true worth until ...

Title: Raspberry Ripple
Runtime: 18 mins
Directed by: Patrick Whittaker
Synopsis: Young rock star Des Gilroy suffers a stroke on stage and spends the next forty years in NHS nursing homes as a cripple. He is eventually expelled for a series of misdemeanours and is forced to move in with his brother. An argument with the squatters next door escalates into a full-blown war with neither side preparing to take prisoners.

Alright, the young rock star in multiple repeated
flashbacks falling on the stage I really couldn't care less about. What
did keep me glued is the bitter old bugger he is now & how he
handles the squatters and every other problem he has with his wits,
resources and charm. He maybe on a wheelchair but he's certainly
someone you would not won't to get on the wrong side of.

Title: Unto This Last
Runtime: 29 min 20 secs
Directed by: Laura Schroeder
Synopsis: After her mother's death, Mira finds out that her mother had a lover called Samir and that her father knew about it.

A good look at emotions, conflicts and forgiveness.
Obviously the deceased loved each and every one of the three, the
daughter, the husband & the lover, but can the three come to terms
with it with her no longer in the picture. This is what the film was
about to me. About how the three cope and take things on board. The
father (apart from his hair) & daughter were great, the lover Samir
was a little uneasy & wooden. In the end I think it's the daughter
that end up being the hero in this. Surprisingly this didn'tseem
lengthy, so they definitely got the drama down well.

Thoughts Overall: As a set of shorts, the student ones have pleased me most I think, in that there has been a consistency held between the quaility of them. With some of the previous sets I saw, how good or bad they were was quite erratic, especially the 'experimental' ones, but I can't really dis them for being experiments.

All of the above had some corny dialogue and limitations in their scope, but nothing that money couldn't fix, so I give them all a thumbs up for the future.