Welcome to “Your Weekly Short,” a LakeFrontRow.com feature that showcases one short from a Wisconsin filmmaker each week, every week. Brace thy face.
In honor of Madison’s 48 Hour Film Project, which runs the weekend of July 19 – 21, we’re spending each week in July singling out a winning entry from years’ past.
Two days doesn’t always seem like enough time to accomplish much, but as the past winners of Madison’s 48 Hour Film Project will tell you, anything’s possible. Now in its seventh year in Madison, the annual contest pits local filmmaking teams in a weekend-long race where participants must incorporate a set of predetermined criteria — think a general theme or a specific line of dialogue — inside an original screenplay, then design, cast, shoot, score, and edit within a time span of only… well, you can figure out the rest.
As an example, pitch me a short film that includes a musician named “Matt Michaels,” a calendar, a birthday or anniversary and the line “Where do you want to meet?” Better yet, let Southern Wisconsin-based company Firmament Films do that for you in their 2011 entry, “The Seven Year Wish.” Every year on his birthday, struggling singer-songwriter Matt (Luke Kraemer) wishes he wouldn’t die, and so every year on Matt’s birthday, Death (T.C. DeWitt) happily grants him that wish, apparently on the sole condition that the two of them spend the whole day hanging out. Sporting sneakers and dunking like he’s in NBA Jam, Death — he prefers the “D” man — is a lonely dude, and if his one Facebook friend didn’t make it obvious enough, DeWitt’s hilarious performance makes him seem a little desperate, too. DeWitt, who co-writes with Kris Schulz, portrays mortality incarnate with pep and overeagerness, and his blend of annoyance and desperation are all the more accentuated against Kraemer’s deadpan despondency.
Apart from long nights of card games and Clue, there’s another downside to spending your birthday with Death every year; Matt’s been shunning his girlfriend Debbie (Jessica Moehr), whose loyalty and commitment come baked in a fresh personal cake for Matt, and with goth friend Heather (Momo Nakamura) to boot. In dealing with its core emotional stakes, “The Seven Year Wish” situates Matt’s personal life at the forefront but sadly pushes some of the fun stuff aside, including a great mini-musical digression where “D” man threatens pedestrians into throwing some cash Matt’s way. Director Jennifer Robers uses baked goods and some rather forward staging to let us know her short has pressing matters on its mind, yet whether its Matt’s crippling depression or just a lack of acting finesse, birthday wishes from half-sisters and surprise visits from the girlfriend don’t have as much zip to their construction as Matt’s bosom buddy moments with the “D” man.
What’s impressive is none of that ultimately detracts from “The Seven Year Wish.” Robers has plenty of directorial style and can coax a pair of charming performances from her leads, so it’s not hard to see why her short took home the 2011 prizes for Best Directing, Best Use of Dialogue and Audience Favorite. Did you want those eggs scrambled?