A Fantastically Simple, Hilarious Short Film About Time Travel ~ Cinenus

Thursday, 9 July 2015

A Fantastically Simple, Hilarious Short Film About Time Travel

There are a few reasons that One-Minute Time Machine stands out as an excellent short film. For one, the writing from Sean Crouch is sharp and witty, packing some excellent gags into a story about the kind of technology that simultaneously seems mind-blowing and annoyingly unusable. Going back in time one minute is tedious.

That doesn’t stop a guy (Brian Deitzen) from using the technology to perfect his pick-up pitch to a beautiful young woman (Erinn Hayes). The short film extrapolates the oft-used trope in time travel films by forcing his success down a lot of different, interesting pathways. All of which lead to a hell of a button line ending.

The other standout element is the weird angle on chemistry that the actors bring to it (not surprising for the Children’s Hospital alum, Hayes). This is an awkward encounter that finds a few sweet spots before swinging back and forth, which makes the acting here impressive for the tightrope act on display.

Plus, the short film is a fantastic example of low budget filmmaking that works because of great fundamentals. Writing, performances and editing. The shots are all fairly standard, but the entire experience feels high quality because they got the bedrock right. Filmmakers should take notice. Cameras and editing suites can be pricey, but it costs nothing but time and talent to craft a solid script, and if you have that, a lot of other things can be easily forgiven.

One-Minute Time Machine also makes a nice companion to Time Travel Lover, the very cool Elisha Yaffe short film that shares a few noticeable traits (like time travel, romance, complications and comedy). It’s interesting to see a sci-fi tool meant for perfecting something proven to make situations disastrously unmanageable. There are always seem to be downsides to shortcuts.

Have fun experimenting with time travel, everyone. It’s definitely not dangerous.

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