A little late to the party this year, but I wanted to shout out one of my favorite film festivals that happens each year, MY RODE REEL. The festival attracts talent of all different skill levels from every corner of the globe, with the only requirements for entry being a short film that’s under 3 minutes, using a Rode product to make it, and doing a behind the scenes video for the short that shows off how you used one or more pieces of Rode gear...and personally, the behind the scenes element has been really useful to me in picking up tricks from other filmmakers.
So, without further ado, here are my favorites of the 2019 My Rode Reel film festival!
CHAPTER 14
Thursday Shoots
As a kid who use to gobble up books on ghosts, UFOs, and the Loch Ness Monster only to grow into a skeptical adult who recognizes that those mythical monsters probably don’t exist (at least, not in the ways pop culture understands them), this story of a jaded paranormal investigator really vibes with me. I want to believe, but I don’t want to delude myself, so I stay a skeptic.
I won’t give too much away about the ending...but that smile the main character gets, when he finally gets to witness something truly weird, I feel that. The soundtrack is brilliantly simple and haunting, and really stuck with me.
DIALOG
Souvik Chakraborty
Speaking of soundtracks, Dialog sets the sounds of the streets of Mumbai to a beat, and follows along with some of the trippiest footage I’ve seen in My Rode Reel. I love traveling to India, the cacophony and the constant energy, the bright colors, the street art, the tuk tuks. There’s a maniacal joy to the editing in Dialog, you’re never quite sure what to expect next...I literally shouted with glee when the talking fish showed up. Special props to composer Ankit Uppal who created the killer track that is the heart of the video...definitely someone I plan to start following on Spotify.
GLIMPSE
Nicholas Acosta
The 2018 My Rode Reel film festival brought us the colorful and wild action short Maneaters, which almost made my favorites list then. This year, Nicholas Acosta and his team went a much quieter, creepier route. It’s a pretty scary little short that takes a few cues from David Sandberg’s (aka ponysmasher) viral short Lights Out, but where this film REALLY shines is it’s behind the scenes companion video. I’m a sucker for things that mess with established formats, and the twist of the BTS had me literally ROFLing.
CHMURKA
Bogusław Wiktorowicz
One of the great things about My Rode Reel is that filmmakers from all over the world participate, so many of the films are little slices of life from places I’ve never been. Chmurka (which translates to ‘Fluffy’) is an adorable science fiction story that takes place on a farm in Poland. But I have a confession to make. Chmurka is not my favorite film this year.
Don’t get me wrong, it’s cute and I like it a lot, but I definitely found the filmmaking part of my brain asking more questions about where they got that giant silver orb rather than getting involved in the plot. So I fired up their behind the scenes video to find out...
...and THAT is my favorite My Rode Reel short from this year. I have to admit, I still don’t know where the hell that silver orb came from (Maybe Kepler 16b?), but using the BTS short to do an even funnier off the wall companion movie was a stroke of genius. God bless the internet.
So that’s this year’s roundup of My Rode Reel 2019! What were some of your favorite shorts that I might have missed?
And also, if you haven’t checked it out, here’s laughing with the storm’s short film BLENDER and its own bizarre BTS short: