We probably all remember how No Country for Old Men won the
Oscar for Best Picture at last year’s Academy Awards. But if asked
which movie won the award for Best Short Film, most of us would
draw a blank (It was Le Mozart des Pickpockets, just for future
reference). Unfortunately, the short film is a medium that — for
whatever reason — doesn’t seem to have leapt into mainstream
media yet.
What a bloody shame. There are countless short films worth
our attention, and one of them is Craig Watkins and Tim Bissell’s
nine–minute short feature, Frozen Seed.
The duo, inspired to take up filmmaking after taking a class
together at Mohawk last November, originally planned to start a
production company to do advertising, corporate videos, wedding
films and similar things. “But, in the end, we decided [it was a]
path we didn’t want to go down for ourselves,” says Watkins.
“Movies are just as hard so we thought we might as well go with
what we love.”
The pair who — ironically — draw inspiration from the Coen
brothers, set to work on Frozen Seed on a weekend in February.
“Tim wrote the story one day and sent it to me by e–mail. It’s
based on an article he read in National Geographic called
“Norway’s Ark” a while back. I read it and thought it was great so
we just set off to work on it.”
The story is simple. In the year 2045 A.D. two scientists
arrive at their destination after weeks of traveling. They have been
sent to find a food cache that is hidden underground in a forest.
Just as they uncover the box containing various seeds, a troupe of
government–sent agents opens fire on them, causing the mission
to go awry. In a matter of minutes, the film’s co–directors have
managed to set up a story worthy of a full–length feature film.
Bissell and Watkins admit the film was meant as a way to
gain more experience, and didn’t anticipate the success it would
