I'll be honest and say that I am not target audience for this and in many ways my slightly negative views will for sure not be the opinion of many others – primarily because, aside from issues of personal opinion and taste, the film is professionally made, does what it needs to do and delivers the goods to the viewer, which is pretty much all you can ask of it.
The short follows Brad O'Neal who is a professional motocross rider we are told, and he has had a dream for many years to build a ramp big enough so that he can go high enough so that he can basically base jump from the apex of his trajectory. It is a very specific goal and one that, to be honest, left me on the outside and not really able to reach beyond it and get to the 'life lesson' which is not 'let's all jump off bikes', but rather about living life, making the most of it and not letting fears hold us back from what we want to do. It probably doesn't help that the very American spirit of optimism both inspires me and grates on me – and this spirit is very much the focal point of the film (although it is not presented as a national trait here).
We see this recently when the US fought in the World Cup; the attitude of "of course we can win" will be seen as arrogance by some but on the other side it produced a wonderful fighting spirit in the team, and belief and cheerfulness in the fans, both of which in stark contrast to the typically more downbeat (realistic?) English fans. So for me the message in this short sort of grated as much as it engaged. Technically it is very well put together, very nice clear shorts, good use of the GoPro cameras on the bike and Brad, but I did have an issue with some aspects of the film which appear to come with the genre.
The 'go, live your life to the fullest' genre of shorts can be focused on people living on boats abroad, people skating in slow motion or all sorts of things, but generally they seem to touch on similar approaches in music, shot selection etc. With Follow Your Fears it does feel like it is made in kit form, with everything unpacked and done as per instructions for making a genre film in this way. The music is the best/worst example of this – from the start it says "live your dreams" and it continues throughout. I would love to play the soundtrack stripped of video and other audio and see what type of story is being told here – I would guess many people would guess very close to this genre. This feeling isn't helped by the use of 'stare off into distance' shots and other images like being on a beach at sunset etc – it started to feel just too generic as a style.
Like I say, I think a lot of this is personal taste because there will be many more people punching the air with joy and inspired zeal, perhaps wiping away a tear inspired by the music. For me it didn't do this though and, while I see the message and appreciate the professional and technical levels with which it is delivered, it really felt too obvious in what it does, with a genre and pre-packaged feel throughout.
The short follows Brad O'Neal who is a professional motocross rider we are told, and he has had a dream for many years to build a ramp big enough so that he can go high enough so that he can basically base jump from the apex of his trajectory. It is a very specific goal and one that, to be honest, left me on the outside and not really able to reach beyond it and get to the 'life lesson' which is not 'let's all jump off bikes', but rather about living life, making the most of it and not letting fears hold us back from what we want to do. It probably doesn't help that the very American spirit of optimism both inspires me and grates on me – and this spirit is very much the focal point of the film (although it is not presented as a national trait here).
We see this recently when the US fought in the World Cup; the attitude of "of course we can win" will be seen as arrogance by some but on the other side it produced a wonderful fighting spirit in the team, and belief and cheerfulness in the fans, both of which in stark contrast to the typically more downbeat (realistic?) English fans. So for me the message in this short sort of grated as much as it engaged. Technically it is very well put together, very nice clear shorts, good use of the GoPro cameras on the bike and Brad, but I did have an issue with some aspects of the film which appear to come with the genre.
The 'go, live your life to the fullest' genre of shorts can be focused on people living on boats abroad, people skating in slow motion or all sorts of things, but generally they seem to touch on similar approaches in music, shot selection etc. With Follow Your Fears it does feel like it is made in kit form, with everything unpacked and done as per instructions for making a genre film in this way. The music is the best/worst example of this – from the start it says "live your dreams" and it continues throughout. I would love to play the soundtrack stripped of video and other audio and see what type of story is being told here – I would guess many people would guess very close to this genre. This feeling isn't helped by the use of 'stare off into distance' shots and other images like being on a beach at sunset etc – it started to feel just too generic as a style.
Like I say, I think a lot of this is personal taste because there will be many more people punching the air with joy and inspired zeal, perhaps wiping away a tear inspired by the music. For me it didn't do this though and, while I see the message and appreciate the professional and technical levels with which it is delivered, it really felt too obvious in what it does, with a genre and pre-packaged feel throughout.