By Geno McGahee
Cindy Maples is an actress and has now turned part of her focus to being behind the camera as well. Her first film is a short called “RANDOM”, and it is very impressive for her to come out the gates in this manner. She put her best foot forward and showed that she can handle a lead acting spot as well as directing, which isn’t the easiest thing to do.
We begin with the happy couple, Nancy (Cindy Maples) and Evin (Rusty James) lying in bed, facing each other and talking about how much they love each other. We get flashbacks of the passion that they have along with visions of the good times they share, leading to a somewhat predictable ending, but I didn’t find it to be a death blow to the film. The work was such quality that a foreseeable ending was not that much of a big deal.
The presentation in RANDOM is very good. The movement used, the lighting, the choice of shots…all pleasing to the eye and setting the tone. Credit to both Joe Atkinson and D.P. Bonnell, the people behind the camera that rarely get mention. I’m mentioning them here. They did a great job in and showed their artistic approaches to this side of the game.
Maples wants the viewer at ease and wants them to grow to like and relate to these characters and that is all easy to do. Both Maples and James come off as genuine and they come off very well in the brief period we get to see them.
RANDOM is a very good short film, shot well, edited well, and done with a great deal of care. The short film, like most other short films, has one message and it is put across well here and the payoff at the end, despite its predictability, was satisfactory. I look forward to what Cindy and her group does next.
Rating: 7/10
