Scariest 60 Seconds Ever And An Interview with Ignacio Rodó

Scariest 60 Seconds Ever And An Interview with Ignacio Rodó

I’ve been a pretty outspoken fan of short films of late. There are plenty to choose from that are awesome. If Sci-Fi is your dish we got some awesome short films for you. Drama, yup. Comedy, of course. Its all there. I’ve even started writing for FilmShortage.com occasionally I dig them so much. You should catch my recent interview with Chloë Bellande discussing her short film Will of Fortune. Good times. (Between you and me, I really just want to see some of these great directors get more love. But that’s a post for another day.)

But until today I wasn’t really aware there was something called Micro-Short-Films. And then I met Ignacio and he changed all that for me. Here, watch this uber short film – 60 seconds and you will get the concept right away. Oh, and its possibly the scariest thing I’ve ever seen. It’s awesome.

Nice?! Nice. Come on, you wish you’d filmed it yourself. Ignacio does a great job keeping it light, keeping it light, keeping it light… and then not so much.

Taylor – I have never before seen such effective hyper-short or super-short films before. Specifically I am referring to your films Exposure, Rock Paper Scissors and Tuck Me In. They are all very very poignant, and yet, extremely short. How did you begin doing very short films?

Ignacio – One-minute short films, or filminutes are becoming very famous lately. New sections in festivals for this kind of films, or festivals dedicated to this filminutes are have been created recently.

The first very short short film I made was for a 30 seconds film contest in 2012. I was finalist and I became in love with the idea. It’s so challenging to be able to explain a story in such short time. Since then, I’ve made 5 of those (and written another: rock papers scissors). Here you can watch others: http://cargocollective.com/ignaciofrodo/one-minute-films (Exposure is just a trailer, although the film is not that long either: 3 minutes and 30 seconds).

Taylor – Tuck Me In is possibly one of the scariest things I’ve ever seen. And yet, its all psychological and very much a mind game. How did you come up with the idea?

Ignacio – The idea from “Tuck me in” comes from a viral story that has been on the internet for years. A couple of years ago, a user of reddit rewrote it as a 2-sentence story and it went viral. I loved the idea and decided to turn it into a short film. In my credits I acknowledge the reddit user, but the story had already been told before, it just doesn’t have a recognized author.

Taylor – Have you taken any of your short films to any film festivals? They seem like they are the sorts of ideas that would do very very well there.

Ignacio – I’ve been quite lucky to be selected in many festivals since my first short film. “Tuck me in”, though, it’s being the most successful so far. It’s been selected in 122 festivals and has got 12 awards in just a year. So there’s still time for more!

Taylor – Do you have any aspirations for any feature length movies?

Ignacio – As many short filmmakers, my intention is to make a feature as soon as I can. I’m working on several projects. So fingers crossed!

Taylor – Your ideas seem to fit in the mold of Dark Mirror or the Twilight Zone… have you drawn inspiration from movies like that? What other movies do you enjoy?

Ignacio – The Twilight Zone is probably one of the most inspiring things ever. I’ve always been very keen on thrillers and science-fiction, more than horror or fantasy. Polanski, Haneke, Fincher, Hitchcock and Paul Thomas Anderson.