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Embrace
(
4 votes)
Solid dramatic films are hard to find on the Internet,
what with so much skit-based humor and animated clips. But
web design guru Hillman Curtis's latest, "Embrace," an
elegantly constructed and emotionally harrowing scenario, shows how effectively
it can be done. It is, quite frankly, one of the best online originals we've
seen in a long time.
Part of a series of videos about crisis moments (there's
also the similarly apocalyptic, though less effective "Roof"),
"Embrace" was inspired by a trip that Curtis took in a single engine
aircraft in a storm from Pittsburgh many years ago. "It was
the roughest flight I've ever had," he recalls, "and my wife said,
'Just say something' to calm them down.
A top digital designer and the head of the 9-year-old New York firm hillmancurtis.com, Curtis has crafted many high-profile websites, music videos, and online documercials, and also is the author of three books: the seminal tome Flash Web Design (translated into 14 languages), MTIV, Process, Inspiration and Practice for the New Media Designer and most recently, Creating Short Films for the Web. It's that last book that seems to have helped Curtis create the pitch-perfect "Embrace," whose success is derived from a solid, simple concept, strong acting and creative use of sound.
With all his design work,
Curtis admits he barely has time to make these personal shorts, nor does he
make an effort to promote them or send them to film festivals. "I squeeze these in
every quarter, and just put them on my website," he says. He also has a
mailing list of roughly 3,500 people that receive updates when he has a new
project. "I like not having any expectations or
associations with ambition," he explains. "That might change as they
get better, but it's just fun to make them and who ever sees them, sees
them." And we're glad we did.
Hillman Curtis
Drama
3:35
$1,000
Brooklyn
Man : Michael Goduti
Woman : Allison Paige
Pamela Laws
Hillman Curtis
Ben Wolf
Hillman Curtis
Music : Code Mogwai ("Come on Die Young")
Sound Recordist : Chad Bryant
