“Improv Asylum” strikes comedy gold with their parody short “Oscar Winning Boston Movie.” They take advantage of the recent surge in gritty dramas set in Boston, lampooning Good Will Hunting, The Departed, The Town and The Fighter among others. “Oscar Winning Boston Movie” picks on the stereotypes of these gritty dramas and creates a trailer that can essentially be applied to any and all movies set in or around Boston. The script involves the return of a hometown hero, Teddy Owens, and is well written and made even better by the supreme production values of the short.
Like a typical movie trailer, the shots start out longer, establishing characters and plot. The beginning highlights the main character, his friends, enemies and what problems he will have to overcome. Further into the video the pace picks up with faster cuts and more violent and intense imagery before finally slowing down again with a final dramatic line.
The short opens with an extreme long shot of a view of the infamous fluorescent “Citgo” sign across the Charles River. The length of this shot is accentuated by the fade-in and fade-out transitions and the calm voiceover during the shot. From this shot alone, we know our location and we know what time of movie this will be (or at least what type of movie it is making fun of).
Midway through the short, Teddy Owens and his best friend are walking down a street, presumably in Southie or some similar neighborhood. It is a medium shot, capturing the two men from the waist up. A handheld camera is used for this shot, continuing the theme of a gritty drama. From an interpretative view, the handheld camera is also used at this point to highlight the uneasiness and lack of foundation in their relationship at this point in time.
The final shot in the short slows the pace down again with a view of the Prudential Building lit up blue. A quick pan from the building reveals an actor who remarks on the fact that “a storm’s coming.” The shot ends with the actor being in a close up in the foreground of the shot and the Prudential Building out of focus, but still visible in the background.
The short is funny, clever and entertaining. The best part of the short is easily the climatic montage involving gunfights, cocaine and a baby being thrown of a building. Of course, this is all handled in a comic manner, which makes it impressive how it never becomes offensive or anything like that considering the subject matter. “Improv Asylum” really understands how trailers work and what makes the public want to see a movie. They use numerous clichéd tricks to their advantage to achieve the comic effect intended from the short.
There is not much to complain about or critique negatively in this short. The only criticism might be that it is a little on the long side, it is 3.5 minutes when trailers are 2.5 or less in real life. But that is such a minor complaint and a small point to make on an otherwise perfect short.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Hq99S8Euslk
-rbtJR.
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