FEATURE FILMS, REDUCED TO THEIR ESSENCE!

Here are a few samples of "Five-Second Films." These comic shorts take a few seconds' worth of scenes from feature films, kind of like an abbreviated film trailer, which itself is an abbreviation. They're just for laughs, but I think they're also a good prompt to think about what's essential in a story. It's a question that's well known to obituary writers, for example, or anyone on Twitter. Having limited space forces you to distill a story or other form of expression to its essence. The first two videos here are by "That Guy With the Glasses" (who has a whole bunch of these five-second films on his website), and the third is by a fan of his, whose YouTube name is Scaraco. They are, in order, "Fargo," "Titanic," and "Mommie Dearest."