|
|
Introduction –
What would you do if your doctor tells you that you have just 1500 words left to live?
Synopsis –
Stanley Franks ( Marcus Garvey ), the protagonist, is informed by his doctor that he has exactly 1500 words worth of life left. It simply means, the day he exhausts his quota of one thousand five hundred vocal expressions he is a dead man. The revelation instantly results in a series of varying emotional flare ups – from outright shock, to anguish, to despair and finally acceptance. Unfortunately, between these upheavals Stanley consumes 95% of his limited quota of words. He’s left with just 47 words.
Back home, he decides not to tell his wife about what fate has decided for him. On the contrary he communicates with his spouse ( Eri Jackson ) through a string of comic and absurd actions such as winking, friendly punches, frequent stares and smiles, and also exploiting facial expressions to make her feel that everything is normal between them.
Nonetheless, his wife, unable to understand the funny and weird behavior of her husband decides to part ways. Stanley walks out of the house and spends the entire day drinking beer in the nearby woods. Finally, he retrieves a mobile number given by his doctor. He’d asked him to call the number the day he was left with just one word. Thus begins his key punching sessions with the Interactive Voice Response IVR phone system.
The climax is interesting. Watch 1500 Words on YouTube or Vimeo.
Analysis –
1500 words belong to the dark comedy genre and therefore we won’t argue with rationalizations
… such as “Stanley could have learnt the sign language” or “simply scribbled on a piece of paper to communicate”. The subject is excellent, the journey of the protagonist interesting, and even the finish is quite remarkable. Nonetheless, we feel it could’ve been even better had the writer, James Menzies chosen a different path to culmination.
Marcus Garvey’s performance is good. Direction complements the demand of the script while cinematography is average. 1500 words had a lot of potential in terms of “Ending” or “Climax”. At Baiscope we truly believe that a radical thought, a redefining finish could have made this short film a true winner in terms of cinematic conquest.
2014 Andrew Chaplin James Menzies 38 Minutes Vimeo | YouTube