Twitch Looks At Alex Ferrari's Cyn

Cyn is only a five minute short so it gets only a brief synopsis. The entire story takes place in a small room, what looks to be disused storage space in some industrial complex, a woman bound to a chair with a burlap sack over her head and her armed captors standing nearby. What begins ominously for the woman quickly turns as she casually reverses the situation.

Produced as part of the On The Lot competition Ferrari shot Cyn in a total production time of six days from start to completion on a budget of only one thousand dollars. What he's done in that time with that money is remarkable. First, he's simply got a great eye - one that extends beyond cinematography and into composition and editing. He shoots spare, lean film that doesn't waste a frame. Second, he's got both ambition and the smarts to tailor his ambitions to what he can not only accomplish but accomplish well. Rather than being frightened by time and budget limits he finds ways of accomplishing what you would only expec to see in larger productions, in this case including a choreographed fight sequence, gun play, an explosion and a simply stellar high-style credit sequence of the sort you expect in a bond film - all silhouettes, layered images, and smeared drops of blood. Which brings us to point three: the man showed a remarkable ability to blend practical and high end digital effects in his previous short Broken and he continues to demonstrate that skill here. The composite work is seamless, the elements playing together near perfectly.

It's not a perfect film, the time and budget limits do turn up from time to time. Most notably the picture could use some improved foley work to give the fight sequence a little extra oomph and it is very obviously a small part of something larger rather than being a contained story in itself but it's got a strong central premise, solid character work and more than enough technical whiz-bang to be a compelling little piece of work.

Cyn Website