If you really know your entertainment, you know when it comes to movies there is hardly anything “original” anymore. Most movies come from well-known or little known novels and short stories that someone interpreted into a movie. Actually, I wrote a monologue for a class project last year and a friend of mine who also happened to be my partner on the assignment is now transferring it into a script because he thinks it would make a great short film. Most of these scripts end up generally taking this first stop in which after that is the film festivals all around the world where they hope someone will go, “Oh! I’d like to see that on the big screen!” Examples of these type of movies would be The Blair Witch Project and Paranormal Activity. I can’t think of any non-horror that have come from film festivals. Even Tim Burton’s 9 was originally from a film festival, and that’s a creepy movie as well. Not too many people have the resources to go straight to the big screen and those that do are either smart or lucky or both. But most movies either come from a short film adapted from someone’s written work, or just from someone’s written work skipping the whole short film section which is rare sometimes. Most of the time adaptations that go straight to the big screen are from authors that have some street cred or have stirred the population like Nicholas Sparks or Suzanne Collins.
Screentrant.com sees short films differently though, “The casual moviegoer may consider a short film to be anything that plays before a Pixar movie, but the more enthusiastic cinephile understands that short films can sometimes be more exciting, interesting, and have a better story than the average big budget blockbuster film.” And that can be true a lot the time. Sometimes we wonder why haven’t certain short films that get watched get a big budget so they can expand on the story and Screenrant.com writer Paul Young asks us if Chameleon, by director Sam Lemberg could “be the next short film to get a big screen treatment?”
Chameleon is based off the short science fiction story by Colin Harvey and “picks up seven months after a hostile race of aliens have invaded Earth and the government fears that the aliens are modifying their DNA to pose as humans. After military officer Herb (James C. Burns) mysteriously reappears months after being abducted, his wife Emily (Lucy Rayner) is called in to ask him questions only she would know to find out who or what he really is” (Screenrant.com). This short film keeps you guessing all the way up until the end, even if you read the free short story first.
I liked both the story and the film because, as most films do, the story gets twisted a little but in a way that makes it better. But you don’t have to take my word for it; you can go ahead and check it out for yourself. But is Paul Young right, is this another sci-fi big budget waiting to happen, or is it to remain a short film that will be adored by film festival goers until the next film festival? Check out the short story and the movie themselves below and let me know what you think. Until next time, According to Michael III, I would like to see this story get expanded; it has a sort of terminator feel to it if you ask me.
—Michael III
Short story: http://dailysciencefiction.com/science-fiction/aliens/colin-harvey/chameleon
Short Film: http://screenrant.com/chameleon-short-film-pauly-163932/
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