Telling Lies & Soft - Evaluation

I watched two short films directed by the same Director: Simon Ellis. The first film I watched is called “Telling Lies” which, judging by the name of the short is about people telling lies. The other short I watched straight after was a short called “Soft.” Now, just by looking and analysing the first film, there wasn’t much to look at, in terms of visuals, apart from animated captions. What this short film was about relationships… character relationships not going well because after Phil (main character) going off with a different woman and leaving his girlfriend in the club, Phil is awoken in the afternoon with a call from his mother and then his girlfriend. Even though they broke up the night before, Sarah is still jealous that Phil went home with another woman. Not so upset, however, that it didn’t prevent her from sleeping with Phil’s best friend, Darren. As the protagonists talk to each other, their 

thoughts are displayed as text on the screen.

What was interesting about this short film is the fact that when the characters talk, we see the animated captions which are in colour of who’s speaking – thus making it clear for the viewer to establish who is who. The amusing thing is, when someone was speaking louder and louder, the text on the screen began to get bigger and bigger and when they were telling a lie the animated caption would be in white text. My overall opinion of this first short was that the whole plot was great and the visuals were perfect, though there wasn’t much to show. Experts said, “Telling Lies” is a difficult film to describe. But if this playful, staccato-paced text-fest happens to pop up at a film festival near you, I highly suggest checking it out. And that’s no lie” therefore giving us the impression that this clever film is making the professionals like and recommend Simon’s productions. For me to really judge a director and his performance, I would have to see something more than just animated text, which brings me onto the other film I watched: Soft. Knowing that it’s the same director, I should still get satisfied by watching the shorts, but not too satisfied as my expectations are pretty high. It needs to impress me.

Soft is about bullying and happy-slapping. The first sequence shows flickering mobile phone video footage of a teenage boy getting brutally beaten up. An inspired opening. A later sequence, now on conventional celluloid, shows the same teenage gang with a swaggering Asbo-type leader, bullying and scaring a grown-up middle-aged man outside a newsagent. A ‘social drama’ short film that has inspired many including myself. After watching Soft it changed my perspective of filmmaking. Looking at that filmed inspired me a lot. Whilst I was watching, and this goes for any film I watch, I always look out for continuity problems, and in this short, it seemed like there were none. None that I had noticed. This short film gave it that edge as if the camera was there but invisible, that’s how good it was. Not a single problem, it was perfect. Looking back at the comment feed, I see people saying it was the best short they’ve ever watched, it was amazing, the lighting, actors, and mark-up really brought the film “to life” and I totally agree with them.

Compared to the first Simon Ellis short film I watched, there are a lot of different things. It is a far more interesting film than Telling Lies seeing as it has more visuals and a better narrative, in my opinion. How I felt whilst watching both shorts is… well, with Telling Lies I felt more of being a spy or eavesdropping into someone’s relationship, which I believe that’s what Simon wanted to viewers to feel and the feel towards Soft was like I was actually there. The feeling was intense that I could actually relate to it, since it’s based off our social society today and that you know things like that are happening in a lot of areas nearby you and you don’t even release it. I believe that it is aimed at our society in London and what some teenagers today are doing, when realistically they should 

be in school trying to get grades.

By,

Anton Lewis