Somebody's Going to Say Bastard...

**asloki** · February 23rd, 2004, 10:09 PM

For all you board regulars, you've probably seen mention of Splinter Pictures on here at some point.

Well, for those of you who'd care to have a butcher's, we now have our first short film in the bag.

You can download it (in either Hi or Lo Res) from www.splinterpictures.co.uk

It's a tiny affair really, running at just over a minute, but we'd welcome any comments or feedback from you.

Cheers,

Andy

**= KA$H =** · February 24th, 2004, 01:14 PM

Er.. Interesting.

Will there be a sequel where you smash up a PC?

**Alan Gesic** · February 24th, 2004, 03:59 PM

I enjoyed seeing your finished piece online, it's heartening to see that not everyone wants to make films about stylish hoods, cons gone wrong, or supernatural horror, but that the more mature subjects can win a place in our hearts. Its subject matter touched me and I'm sure, us all, deeply- as philp larking said "One thing only have I ever understood; time is the echo of an axe within a wood". It's as if he's reminding us that some awful fate awaits us all as our time runs out.

SGtSB's take on time is conveyed with aplomb by the actor who always looks really frustrated; he reminds us all of our human frailties and peers deep into the echoing void of the space time continuum only to have the leering face of a clock grimace back at him. The films subtext reminds us how time is all of greatest nemeses; but the stark shard of hope that pricks the viewers conscience is like a wake up call that hits the viewer like a bucket of iced water -

"yes time is my enemy, but could it not be my greatest ally if I could only learn to use what little time I have for good use?"

The gritty black and white photography with its grainy 16 mm exposures is redolent of early polanksi and summons feelings and realisations that this is an old thorny dilemma, that mankind has always been on the run from father time, ever since he crawled out of the primordial soup and realised days follows nights; ever since isaac newton discovered time.

Bravo Splinter, for daring to go where other production companies daren't, for not abandoning your muse and for putting the ART back into hARTlepool.

We await your difficult second short with interest.

**philipswales** · February 24th, 2004, 07:39 PM

That's one way to look at it.

**Nystagma** · February 24th, 2004, 08:49 PM

Regarding Somebody's Going to Say Bastard - sometimes I remember fondly a poem I wrote many years ago which begans 'Time as a ribbon runs, flecked gold and gray... can;t really remember much other than that, but SIGSB reminds me of the earnestness with which my teenage self viewed the phenomenon of measuring the impact and nature of time upon the human spirit. My heartfelt but poorly crafted poem only found its way onto the back of a friends birthday crad, but the excitement of communication of a universal mystery remains still... the tension and dramatic devices used in SIGSB are