Saturday, May 5, 2012

Rob Kohr's The Lift (2010) and I Am (2003)


I met Rob Kohr at the MoCCA Festival on Saturday April 28th. He's an animator who's day job is at Nickelodeon making promotional spots for the network. He is a super guy to talk to, making this Tribeca shell shocked person feel less like he was completely out of his depth. He's the sort of guy you want to take to dinner and have him talk about things that are near and dear to his heart.

He is without a doubt one of the most knowledgable people I've ever talked to about how one should finance an independent film. In the course of our tenor fifteen minute conversation he explained to me so many pitfalls that people fall into when making movies that I think he should be teaching a course at film schools. His is a wonderful example about how to do it without maxing out the credit cards or becoming persona non grata with in one's family by draining their bank accounts.

Seriously guys, if you're thinking about making a movie, track Kohr down and have him tell you how not to go broke(r).

The catalyst for the conversation was my purchasing of his short film The Lift. This is a short film that took him four years to make. I had caught bits of the film on an I-Pad at his table. I liked what I saw so I picked up the DVD.

The film concerns a young woman who closes the door to an elevator one evening on an older lady. The next morning she finds herself on the elevator with the lady. Wracked with guilt she tries to return one of the woman's earrings that falls off when the old lady leaves the elevator. Things then spins out into something else.

A nice little trifle of a film this was the perfect antedote for the long films at Tribeca. A beautifully animated film it's clear that Kohr has a real sense how to tell a story and dazzles us with some "Oh Wow moments.

As I've frequently said the problem with short short films its kind of hard to talk about the film without wrecking it for the the audience you are writing for. The film runs six minutes and if I say too much it will remove the fun of finding out. For get what I have to say and just realize that I think you should definitely try the film.

Also worth seeing is one of the extras on the DVD. Its a film called I Am. Its a short film about a young woman, trapped in a room, wondering about what is on the other side of a window. It's nice little film that made it's way into numerous film festivals. Based upon what Kohr has told me about his next film its there are going to be some echoes between the two.

Take a look at Rob Kohr's films at the Kohrtoons Studio website.

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