Cool Stuff: Four Stories

Yesterday I got invited to the premiere of Four Stories, the result of a world wide competition to give aspiring screenwriters the chance to bring their vision alive and turn their scripts into 10 minute short films. The four winning scripts were chosen by Roman Coppola and a panel of judges from over a 1000 submissions. The brief: each story had to take place at one of the W hotels and Intel’s Ultrabook had to be a central plot component.

Yeah… that doesn’t sound contrived at all. But I actually think they’ve made it all work. The four winning scripts do all feature a W hotel and an Ultrabook, but in almost all of them it does feel as if they belongs and not something tacked on for the sake of it.

There’s also a funny fifth movie called “Die Again, Undead One” which was directed by Roman Coppola and stars Jason Schwartzman, but it will only be released once the YouTube page gets 3000 shares.

Here are the four winning short movies:

Eugene

Eugene was written by Adam Blampied from London and filmed at the W Washington D.C. with director Spencer Susser and actors Michael Govier and Karolina Wydra. This one turned out to be my favourite of the four!

Modern Love

Modern Love was written by Amy Jacobowitz from Los Angeles and filmed at W Doha with director Lee Toland Krieger and actors Robert Schwartzman and Naomi Scott. I really enjoyed this one too, it’s sweet and romantic:

El Tonto!

Written by Ben Saveg from Brooklyn, N.Y., it was filmed at W Mexico City with director Lake Bell and actor Kyle Mooney. I’m not sure I “got” this one. It was funny-ish, but didn’t seem to have a real point to it.

The Mirror Between Us

Kahlil Joseph from Los Angeles wrote and directed “The Mirror Between Us,” filmed at W Retreat & Spa Maldives with actors Nicole Beharie and Dan’ee Doty. I honestly didn’t understand this one at all. Is it just me?