Colin Marshall

Observer's festival debut

My experimental short Observer just locked in to premiere on the evening of Sunday, July 10 at the Ventura Film Festival. According to the schedule, it screens during the 8-10 p.m. block at the Marriott. (You know, the hotel Little Miss Sunshine shot in.) I’m told a filmmaker Q&A will happen afterward, so feel free to turn up and ask me something. Make sure you concentrate on formless questions about what things “mean.”

Here’s Observer’s trailer, to refresh your memory (and you might even watch the full movie somewhere, if’n you’re nice to me):

I needed my memory refreshed, I can assure. Let me tell you something interesting I’ve found out about the filmmaking life, to the extent that I’ve experienced it: about a year separates shooting a project and hearing back from festivals about it, and by that point, if you’re like me, you’ve waded knee-deep into another project. I’ve already started shooting my next short, the all-Super 8, all-Borges-influenced, equally Polaroid-filled א. More on that soon.

Two girls, one Polaroid

My workload on other projects dropped just enough to let me cut together a trailer for Observer, the short film I shot this summer. (Seems kind of preposterous to make a trailer for a ten-minute movie, I know, but it helps in certain festivals. I think.) Here it is:



The full movie’s actually been done for months, though it’s not publicly viewable. (Again, that’s festival-driven.) If you want to watch it, hit me up for the password.

Observer observed

Posting has thinned out here in the past couple weeks, but only for the ultra-legit reason of the movie. And now it’s finished! Titled Observer at the last possible second, it’s a ten-minute experimental/narrative short about — and this is official — “two Southern California girls, Polaroid photography, labyrinths of sound, and a creeping resonance of unease.”

Since I’m now submitting it to film festivals and will be doing so for quite some time, it’s not yet available for public viewing. But as the moment it’s made the festival circuit, I promise you I’ll get it free for the watching. Until then — and until I can cut a trailer together — please enjoy these fifteen stills, which I think convey the appropriate mood.