The Gift Is A.I. Meets Children Of Men (Video)
I have seen a lot of short films. And by a lot I mean more than probably 99 percent of the world’s population. I am not sure I have ever seen one quite as amazing as The Gift by Carl Eric Rinsch. I’m not sure if Ridley Scott and Philips Electronics ever thought the Parallel Lines series would produce this kind of sheer brilliance. This film reminds me of so many different classic films. A.I (the look). The Bourne Supremacy (the backdrop). Children of Men (the feel). Hell, even The Lord of the Rings series (the MacGuffin). This is what I, Robot would have been like if it was a Stanley Kubrick script directed by Paul Greengrass. It’s that amazing.
The one restriction for all the Parallel Lines films was that the following six lines of dialogue had to be used, in order…
The Gift is apparently being turned into a feature-length film, a la District 9. If the feature-length film, called Small, is anywhere near as good as this short, it will get an Oscar nom as well. Here’s the film. Prepare to have your mind fucking blown.
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I am down for seeing this flick, that was a great intro
Best film, short or otherwise, I’ve seen this year. These remind me of the excellent BMW series made a few years back.
Really good video.
The police reminded me of Half-Life 2. They look very similar and sound exactly the same.
Not that impressive considering the producers basically had unlimited resources. Independent film making: now there’s a challenge.
Yes the police control is exactly the same in Half Life 2.
Nice critique of the film, Adam (and thanks for linking back to my original post)
I hope people will view the other four films in the project here as well:
http://ifitshipitshere.blogspot.com/2010/04/5-different-films-same-dialogue-and.html
And enter it yourself!
What’s the big deal? A box with mysterious, portentious contents… gosh, we’ve never seen a McGuffin used before.
http://www.essortment.com/all/alfredhitchcoc_rvhd.htm
Looks fantastic but definitely not original – just look at this Half Life 2 video from 2007 http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wmdMWdUwwEc&feature=related . Cheers!
Alive in Joburg (The inspiration for District 9) was amazing because it not only used beautiful computer graphics integrated into film but ALSO because it had a innovative approach to exposing social issues AND was shot in a documentary style for very little money. This just seems like an ad, the idea of robot servants and special boxes that unsuspecting children find is not original. Visually impressive but no worthwhile story here.
Give us more!
There is some real potential here for Oscar winner!
Hmmm… a good video in what way? Seriously unimpressed with this piece of pretentious so called ‘art’
[...] Ever Seen (Video) A.I. meets Children of Men in this Parallel Lines collection masterpiece.Source:http://flicksided.com/2010/04/the-gift-is-a-i-meets-children-of-men-video/ Apr [...]
Couldn’t they have not put it on a television screen? That was really annoying
these comments are hilarious. buncha spoiled babies.
Maybe I’m missing something? Visually it’s ridiculous! Amazing…
Really sweet chase scene…But what the hell is really going on? Just a chase scene? Did I miss something? I guess it’s good because I do want to see more, I want to know more about the box…just a little more…I feel like Oliver…”Please sir, may I have some more?”
Best short ever? It says nothing. It’s vague and meandering with pretense of something grander? No. It’s a collection of disconnected themes with a nebulous ending intended to infer deeper meaning. This is, I’m afraid, one of the worse uses of the McGuffin I’ve ever seen.
Oh, I know! Distilled: if several angsty metaphors met at a hotel for an anonymous, masked orgy, this is the film that would be borne of it.
How was this an amazing video? I want my 5 minutes back.
Didn’t do anything for me. I should have realized it would be lackluster with all the District 9 comparisons.
hilarious. that is _not_ a short film. there is no story.
that is a decently filmed spoiler for something.
i can’t believe such things make it to the digg front page with such a label…
Seriously, how did you not like Children of Men? I don’t expect everyone to adore it as much as I do, but it was insanely well-made and–I thought–really easily accessible.
holy sh!% that was amazing. the 3d artist is insane. just great. i want the whole movie now!
iRobot meets Jumanji, well shot but not an original storyline.
So, this was good…But the purchase brothers did something better with only 500 bucks. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=q1UPMEmCqZo Check that out.
Wow. The comments are way overhyped. The setting was interesting. The plot was non-existent. The themes were cliched. The idea may or may not pan out in a full-length film–there’s too little to tell from right now.
People, control the hype. Not every short film in a sci-fi setting is the next citizen kane or even blade runner.
Like many of the others, cool concept but I wouldn’t call it mind blowing in any sense. If anything I guess it could be a good teaser for the supposed feature length film they plan on making.
To the ill-informed and several of the commenters:
This may or may not be a very great short-film, but this film wasn’t made with intentions to be the best. Everyone has their own opinion. The point of Parallel Lines making films is to show that there are countless ways to tell a story with such little dialogue; they can only use “What is that,” “It’s a unicorn,” “Never seen one up close before,” “Beautiful,” “Get away get away,” and “I’m sorry”. They’ve made a total of 5 different films, using only that dialogue. Some commenter before me mentioned “Blade Runner.” Ironically, one of Parallel Lines’ other films (DarkRoom) looks very similar to just that. See for yourself…
http://www.cinema.philips.com/gb_en/
By the way, for those of you who cried about the television screen and the ambient light around it, this video wasn’t made for Youtube. If you go to their site, the television is the actual video player. Heck, you can even dim or turn off the ambient light.
That’s not what irony is, you twat.
Coincidentally*
People make mistakes, you Farty McDoodle face.
Fun to watch, but definitely not the best thing I’ve seen.
No Script is currently blocking at least seven different sources of scripts on this page. Based on the names, I can’t tell which is the feed for the actual video and which is just pointless security-abusing crud. Which feed do I need to allow through to see the darn video?
Awesome but the story is not finished
[...] can find out more about it here Share/Bookmark var a2a_config = a2a_config || {}; a2a_config.linkname="The Gift – Awesome [...]
[...] Carl Rinsch on IMDB: http://www.imdb.com/name/nm0727754/ Hat tip: Flicksided This entry was posted in Sunday Shorts and tagged Carl Rinsch, competition, Half-Life, Parallel [...]
I, too, wish you all to know that I know what a McGuffin is.
*adjusts glasses and strokes neckbeard*
[...] Read More. [...]
Heresy! “Children of Men” is an amazing movie.
Like atmospheric, dystopian movies? Then I wholeheartedly recommend it. If you don’t trust me, check rotten tomatoes. Critics loved it too.
This is an amazing film…but I saw one the used the same lines that is even better and makes you think!!! Like inception about what the ending really means…WOW!
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eByOHrrsAM8
And watch me, le greenboy, for the Paralle Lines competition. I have to cope with the Dirty Girl!
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tCdjJSRvSaU
What do you think of it? cheers from France!