My first experience with Cucalorus was a long line for the student screening and an anti-climactic rejection. I had already seen a fair number of the films that were to be screening in the student festival so I counted it as only a minor loss.
Learning from my previous mistake I found my way downtown and parked myself in the black box at Thalian and waited. The Cinderella Shorts were thirty minutes from starting and by the looks of it only a few elderly couples were to be my companions. Much to my chagrin the crowd did fill out but only a few minutes before the show began.
Overall the short films were an excellent batch. Each inspired me in their own rite. A few, for the reminder that as long as you put together some effort to actually create something, someone will appreciate it. Too often I think writers don't allow themselves to write imperfect scripts or stories. Obviously there are benefits to a perfectionist mindset, but if it comes at the cost of having no self confidence, then that person is simply a perfectionist, and never a writer.
That said, I felt like many of the shorts had some weak points in dialogue or plot points. I realize no piece of work will be perfect, and I will always be overly critical of my own work, but the important thing is to at least have created something.
A few of the shorts inspired me in a completely different way. They reminded me of the power of good writing. What a few lines of dialogue and the actions of characters we've only known a few minutes, can do to an audience. This power is both fascinating and dangerous. Fascinating because no audience member will leave the theater the same, and dangerous because it can happen without the realization of anyone present.
The last film, "Glory at Sea" was insane. Extremely poetic, almost nonsensical throughout. the production value was obviously generations beyond any of the other films. What inspired me the most however was the music. It was almost overly sentimental, swelling on cue with the action, and romantically composed with an orchestral feeling. It broke from action with sudden cuts that reminded the audience where they were. Refusing to follow narrative norms and attempt to suspend the audience's perception of time and place, the musical interruptions both annoyed and fascinated me.
