#mark renshaw

credits below cut

“In a post apocalyptic world where the air is toxic to breathe and oxygen is a precious resource, a young boy embarks on a perilous supply run to obtain water and medicine for his ailing mother. With just his toy robot as a companion on his journey, he faces many obstacles, but the real danger is waiting for him back at home.”

I will be reviewing one short film a month, beginning with ‘The Survivor: A Tale From the Nearscape.’ The film has seen some success during its continued festival run, winning Best Sci Fi at the Festigious International Film Festival, and Best Sci – Fi at the Top Shorts Film Festival.

I’m always interested in watching movies, and with short films it is always interesting to see how the filmmakers compress the story in such a small amount of screen time.

Below is the full short film, which can be found on Vimeo and Youtube, its runtime is 11 minutes and 53 seconds. Check out my review for it below the link, followed by a Q&A with the film’s director Christopher Carson Emmons.

The Survivor Short Film – Saga Flight Entertainment

Cast & Crew

The director of The Survivor is Christopher Carson Emmons, who has worked on numerous other short films, as well as 3 full length films, and several series. Emmons also has an upcoming short film called ‘Roebling’s Bridge‘ that is mentioned in the interview with him below.

Written by Mark Renshaw who has previously written other shorts such as ‘No More Tomorrows’ in and ‘Surrender’, he’s also written a television series in called ‘So Dark’ that will be premiering soon.

Nick Kordysh as Billy – Source: Saga Flight Entertainment

The cast of The Survivor includes Nick Kordysh, Valerie Dewie Lighthart, Sam Kozé, Anna Kordysh, Alida LaCosse, Tawnie Thompson, Carl Chopp, Zach McLain, Martin Doordan, Rodney Craig Dukes and Matthew Nichols.

Review

I found that the music in the film which was done by Zaalen Tallis, was futuristic yet familiar. I really enjoyed the ambience and hectic feel that it brought to the film. It enhanced the movie, just as music is supposed to do. I did find that the music was a little loud in some points of the short, however that could just be my preference and my inexperience with short films and their style. The acting in this short was well done, especially the young Kordysh, who portrayed the main character, Billy. The other actors while doing a good job with what what they were given, had too little screen time to get to know them as well as you might like.

This slideshow requires JavaScript.

The quality in the story for The Survivor was really thought provoking and made you fear this dystopian future. We don’t have to worry about aliens or vampires or zombies in this movie, but each other. The humans in this film are what’s horrifying about this future, where people are capable of killing another human to use as food. At another point the cops are about to shoot Billy because they don’t want to have to deal with the paperwork that would be involved if they brought him in.

Roy killed Billy’s father because he wanted his mother, that is something that is reprehensible, and it makes you wonder in what kind of society would that be acceptable. It’s also telling of Roy’s character that he doesn’t acknowledge Winny anymore since she’s been sick, even going as far as turning his back to her and focusing on the television instead of trying to take care of her and lessen her suffering.

Another point that I might be misreading is at the beginning of the film, Roy is zipping up his pants after coming into the room with Billy, whatever that is supposed to imply is potentially even worse than killing the father to be with the mother.

I enjoyed the way in which Billy killed Roy with the rat poison that he had grabbed at the shop, when I first watched it, I thought it was just a comedic effect in the film to have a bodyguard be afraid of mice, but when the flashback happened, everything clicked together, and I appreciated that they didn’t show that part the first time around.

Matthew Nichols as Preacher – Source: Saga Flight Entertainment

I believe that this short has potential as full length film one day, as it sets up the world really well, and makes you want to know more. Who was that woman that saved Billy from the other cops? What organization is she with? What happens to Billy and his mother after the death of his step father? What disaster lead to the drastic change in society? These are all questions that I would like to see addressed if ever it would be turned into a full length film, which I hope it does.

Officer – Source: Saga Flight Entertainment

Overall, I feel like this film definitely deserved those awards that it has won, and I’d love to have this film adapted as a full length motion picture. I think that the story was simple, yet displayed a world that had been shown in many works of science fiction beforehand. The acting in the film was good, especially Kordysh, as from what I understand this was his first acting role.

The music in the short was really well done, as well as the cinematography which was done by Nate Haban. I loved the futuristic feel of the film, and every single part of the film was relevant to the overall story and world building. Based on other shorts that I’ve seen, I have to say that it told the story that it wanted in the limited amount of time, had great music, the visual aspects of the film were beautiful, and had a good message / warning for the audience to take from the film. I’m giving this short film, a final score of 8/10.

What did you think of the short film? Did you enjoy it? What are your opinions on the genre? Let me know in the comments below!

What movie do you want me to review next?

Thanks for reading,

Alex Martens

Q&A with Director Christopher Carson Emmons

What inspired the style and tone of Survivor? What nobody ever tells you about the phrase “ignorance is bliss” is that it has an expiration date. Ignore any problem long enough, it’ll make itself known to you in a way you can’t ignore. So this is a look at the world we’re hard at work on leaving for our grandchildren.

The theme I tried to zero in on during every decision made from pre-production through post-production was abuse of power. I tried to touch on many abuses of power within the context of the film’s short runtime, chiefly the continued burning of fossil fuels due to special interests we know still drive legislation, and if you watch closely there are three manmade earthquakes as a result of fracking in the film. The film also delves briefly into police brutality, child abuse, mass surveillance, and religious fanaticism. I tried to address these issues while still providing what was hopefully an entertaining narrative.

  Are there any other projects that you are working on that you can talk about? Yes, I have a project called “Roebling’s Bridge” coming out that I’m very excited about. It’s about the family that created the Brooklyn Bridge. And then there’s that mountain of yet to be produced screenplays I’ve written

  I know that Mark Renshaw was the writer for the film, but I’m curious about whose decision it was to not have Billy speak until the the very end? Mark Renshaw, the writer, made the decision to keep the lead character, Billy, mute until the very end of the film, which I absolutely loved. I’m the first to admit some of my earlier work was very talky, as if it would be the last time I could ever have a character speak to an audience so I desperately needed to seize it. Film is a visual medium, so what better way to receive information than through a protagonist who does not speak and we just see what they see? If you look at children who are living through wars or famines, they rarely emote or speak, and their eyes look like those of an elderly person, spare a few wrinkles. Our lead actor, Nick Kordysh, did such wonderful and subtle work in really capturing that.

What message or feeling do you want people to experience after watching the short film? If you listen to the words that the mother sings in the opening of the film, that really sets the stage for what it is about. She sings “The Black Snake comes, comes for the water, for our sons and daughters, the sun sets on the world.” She’s referencing the Lakota prophecy about the Black Snake, which in recent history was linked to the Dakota Access Pipeline.

Also if you listen carefully to the words in the video with the sunrise graphic that takes over the TV set twice in the film, which are “the sky is ablaze from the evils of men, survival’s for naught if not do we rise, to oppose those who oppress the very hope of sunrise,” you get a sense of what’s at stake. This is the chant from a resistance group in this world that is trying to change things around before it is too late. One of the members of this group is shown in the film, she poses as a cop and blows her cover to save the lead character’s life. This group’s chant points to something I think is important, the idea of survival for survival’s sake, vs. survival for a purpose. Consider the idea of a massive power outage in a large city. Do you want to live in a world where the power going out takes away the distractions we think give us meaning and purpose and we all go crazy, or do we want to live in a world where the power goes out and that has no effect on us because the human race shares a common united goal that is clear and Earthbound?

I’d love for us to get off the track we’re on so that this film isn’t anything like our future. When the candidates put forward by any given country’s left and right are both basically Scrooge McDuck with different catch phrases, you’ve punctured the condom on the phallus of inequality and hatred. Issues that literally threaten our species’ existence need to be dealt with immediately in a non partisan way. Or we can keep fracturing into smaller and smaller tribal sub groups as we are now and choose to finally consider the bleak options that remain later, as our major cities are underwater, and the remaining land above ground faces constant quakes and fires. Maybe as the ship sinks, we’ll watch the water rising to our throats, then look one another in the eye, and realize how beautiful we were.

Deep Thoughts: TdF ’14 Stage 6

The most exciting part of the day was waiting to see if any crosswinds would split the peloton! Sadly (from the viewers perspective, anyway!), the crosswinds weren’t strong enough to bother anyone except those dangling off the back.

The Invisible Man was visible today! Andre Griepel has been mostly MIA recently- but today the Gorilla was back! It was good to see him mug again. Although, I’ll…