Coinciding with the DVD release of Living Arrangements (read my review), Astrix Home Video has released a step-by-step series of videos to help you in preventing werewolves from invading your home. It is safe to say that these videos are freaking fantastic, and I can’t oversell them enough. I’m embedding the first one but be sure to head over and check out all of them. You won’t regret it.
Straight from Pepin, WI, Andrew from Row Three and I sit down and record a quick review of the Flyway Film Festival’s opening night Film, Ink. A fantasy epic sure sounds great, but will it hold up under an Indie budget? Survey says ….
Andrew and I hope to get a couple more micro-podcasts recorded throughout the Festival, either reviewing films or pulling aside some of the directors in attendance and having them talk about their films and the Festival itself. And if we are lucky, perhaps the enigmatic Jay Cheel of the illustrious Film Junk will join us for some of these as well. That is, if we can get some poutine in him before he goes into withdrawl.
Growing up I was always a huge fan of short stories. I was a voracious reader and they helped make me feel like I was getting more bang for my buck (or my parent’s buck as it were) when I read compilations. But even besides the fact that I could read more stories, and thus go on more adventures, I loved how they provided small snap shots into the character’s lives. They allowed me more freedom to come up with a continuation on the narrative, allowing me to fill in the gaps and construct worlds that only I would experience.
But while short stories have allowed authors to flourish, short films seem to be a slightly different animal. Too often festivals focus only on the ultra short films that have to rely on ironic or O’Henry style endings to drive the film, resulting in an all to often seemingly manufactured and formulaic genre.
Thankfully, the Flyway Film Festival cares not about running times, preferring instead unique tales and wondrous characters regardless of if the film is three or thirty minutes. Because of this, it is the audiences who benefit if they decide to attend this festival.
for very long, but ever since I first saw the trailer for it I knew this was a film that I had to watch. By hook or by crook if need be. Sure the trailer doesn’t explain single thing, or seem coherent in the slightest, but the visuals are so compelling that I knew at the very least it would be a visual marvel. Then when you toss in the fact that this is an Independent film, and clearly a low budget one as well, makes the effects even more stunning.
Now lets focus on the effects for a paragraph or 100 words, whichever comes first. They most certainly are eye catching, what makes them even more spectacular is that they are so obviously working with limited means. But rather then use that fact to limit the creativity of the special effects, director Jamin Winans has turned it into a creative boon that is fascinating to witness. The fight sequences in particular are stunningly impressive as Winans uses darkened hallways and spotlights to cover the potential weaknesses of the choreography by simultaneously highlighting the visual stylization.
But Winans doesn’t stop there. The visual look of the film is hard wired into the story, thus providing an easy explanation for the seemingly odd look. These characters exist in a dream world that parallels our own, so it makes perfect sense that the world these dream warriors live in would be slightly off center from our own. Because of this brilliant story point, any visual flaws or quirks that might be caught by the viewer during the course of the film are easily accounted for by this story element.
But before you start thinking that the visual effects don’t hold up well outside of the three minute trailers, let me make some thing clear, the visuals in this film are truly outstanding and gloriously innovative. In particular I’d like to highlight the Incubus, who are truly one of the most disturbingly inventive villains ever captured on film. You’ll be hard pressed to scrape them out of your brain anytime soon. And just when you think they can’t get any creepier, Winans cranks them up to eleven in an all out effort to scare the socks off his audience. And to bring this whole thing full circle, the Incubus are bringers of darkness, which explains why the fight sequences are in total darkness, except for the glowing eyes of the Incubus. All this simply reinforces the fact that Ink is brilliant not for how complicated or technically innovative it is, but because of its relative simplicity.
But while the visuals are so eloquently connected, the story is a vastly different matter. Normally I do a short summary of the films I review but have decided to slightly alter from that because Ink is a difficult film to sum up. But if you really want it I’ll do my best. Ahem! A young girl is kidnapped from the really real world by what appears to be a human Skeksie called Ink who has plans to sell the girl to a group called the Incubus, who are the bringers of nightmares, for the return of his soul. The forces of good, powerless to prevent the kidnapping, are hurriedly tracking Ink in the hopes of saving Ink from his own demons, and the girl from the clutches of the Incubus.
That actually turned out much more coherent than I thought it would.
But what does complicate the narrative is that there are multiple stories being told that exist in multiple timelines. It doesn’t so much complicate the story as it attempts to confuse the viewer, and not nearly to the effect that Winans is probably hoping for. The true narrative is fairly obvious, and while this form of trickeration doesn’t harm the film, it doesn’t help it either. There is enough story elements in the film that it doesn’t need to rely on an overly complicated narrative flow to keep the audiences interest.
But while I my not like the flourishes in the narrative, I have nothing but praise for the world that Winans has created. This world is compelling, fascinating and aching for more stories to be told about it due to its rich atmosphere. I want to know more about the Incubus, the storytellers and the souls they are fighting over. These creatures are fascinating and I know I would be in Heaven if this world is revisited by Winans at another date. While the trailers for Ink wet my appetite, the film itself is both a meal and a first course in a singular expressive and beautiful package.
Ink will play as the Opening Night film for the upcoming Flyway Film Festival on October 23rd. Tickets are available for purchase here.
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