Short Film Review Two: OPAL

 

Short Film Review:

OPAL (2020) | Dir: Jack Stauber | Genre: Horror/Musical/Black Comedy | Run Time: 12 mins

“OPAL” is the story of the titular young girl Opal’s curiosity that leads her to a creepy house across the street from her. When she enters the house, she meets three people who share their innermost disturbing struggles. Writer/Director/Animator/Musician Jack Stauber’s second short film was recently released on Halloween of this year by Warner Bros’ Adult Cartoon Comedy Network Adult Swim as a part of their “Adult Swim SMALLS” series, where he also released his previous short film SHOP: A Pop Opera (2019).

Jack Stauber gained notoriety for his short 30-60 second musical cartoons on YouTube which feature his same signature Claymation VHS style seen here. This style helps create the false sense of comfort in Stauber's work. You can see elements of Opal In his cartoons listed below, Cooking with Abigail and Hope, such as the music which masks the horrors of the world surrounding the characters or the seemingly innocent protagonists or their sudden dark outbursts into grim imagery.

                        

Stauber’s Opal is by far his biggest project yet mostly due to it being broadcast on TV, a soundtrack released by Warner bros and its full narrative driven structure. However, this is particularly odd as this may be some people’s introduction to Stauber and it is certainly FULL STAUBER. But I think the more people that see this the better, because Stauber is one fantastic talent.

What really makes Opal, so horrifying is that the situation presented in it is very much a real thing that children have to put up with. The animated setting is also the perfect way to tell the story, doing this in live action would be an ethical and logistical nightmare with a lower budget and the false sense of whimsy it creates is perfect for the fantasy Opal lives out. Also, the animation itself is really well done, live action human bodies are combined with the heads of the clay characters in some scenes and the large scale sets in the opening shots of the film must have taken Stauber a while to make. Especially that of the mothers, what a MESS.

The songs in Opal are fantastic. Catchy, well composed and lyrically dense., It all provides new layers to the three characters we meet along the way and Opal herself. My personal favorite is “Easy to Breath” in which Opal’s chain-smoking grandfather explains to her that everyone on the TV is just like him and loves him. Each song tells the story of all the characters coping mechanisms with the misery of their unhealthy lives. The grandfather indulges in TV to deal with the fact he is unloved and forgotten, The Father doesn’t stop doing himself up for the fear of being rejected by the outside world again and The Mother clings onto her daughter for help and hope as she carries on popping pills and drinking her way to death. Something this bleak should not be as fun as it is.

I personally loved Opal, it’s definitely the best short I’ve seen in all of 2020, a modern-day pitch-black twist on Coraline made for those who grew up with it and others of its ilk. This helps further solidify Stauber as a noteworthy rising talent and with Warner Bros and Adult Swim Backing him, there’s hope that bigger projects are coming from him hopefully sooner rather than later.

5/5 Watched on Adult Swim's YouTube Channel.

CLICK HERE TO WATCH OPAL

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

TV News Project Evaluation

  Project Evaluation: From the moment our group began developing “U2D News” it was unanimously decided that we would be focussing on stories that concerned people in our age group, mostly big issues and sometimes a way to lessen these issues with good alternative mindsets. We decided that the best target audience to target would be the age range of 16-40 years old and we would go for a light and vibrant colour palette, commonly used on quick, digestible news programmes. We then began researching into issues that were targeting our demographic and we noticed that the most relevant and growing story would be that on the rise of spiking’s in the UK and how they have been affecting people. We also decided we needed to focus on a climate change-based story, so we chose sustainable fashion as a subject, a light but still serious story that people can actively engage in. We then began researching the topics and figuring out the structure of the show, influenced by BBC Newsround and online
Read more

Analysis of concept and content of "The Crystal Maze"

Image
Our idea for the live show "The Name Of The Game" is a live game show where generations of forms of gaming are brought together for a half hour of funny, puzzling and exciting entertainment. The Crystal Maze is similar to The Name of The Game in many ways, it does have the previously listed qualities included in it but many more as well.  The Episode of The Crystal Maze I watched was Series 6 Episode 6: "Celebrity Crystal Maze", this episode was first broadcast in July of 2019. The Crystal Maze is a game show where a team of usually 5, compete in different themed lands to complete challenges solving puzzles, riddles and timed trials. Once completing these tests the contestants are given "time crystals" that secure them time in a dome where they must catch gold tickets that guarantee they will go home with the money they've raised through the game. However if they catch more silver tickets than gold, they lose the money. The show is presented by comedia
Read more

Panasonic & Green Screen Workshop Reflection

Image
  Panasonic & Green Screen Workshop: In our Panasonic & Green Screen Workshops we had the chance to really get to terms with some new equipment. In the Panasonic camera workshop, we got taught the basics, where which button was, how the menu works and some important formatting tips. We spent the majority of the workshop setting the camera up before taking it out to test shoot as this is more complicated than any camera we’ve used before. We shot a brief test intro for our news show we have been devising, U2D News. The footage we shot came out well however we shot in front of a predominantly white background which messed with the white balance and lighting. However, we will not be using a background like this when it comes to our final project. The next day we worked on our Green Screen skills, we spent a lot of time setting up and making sure our lighting bounced well off the model, who was also me. We faced a challenge of setting up the lights in a way that didn’t reflect
Read more