A Rad Looking Short Film I Want To See

 

As I was wandering the internets and looking for cool stuff to post, I happened across an article on Joystiq for a short film called Turbo.  You can see the trailer above.  The film's official site can be found here.  As I said, this is a short film, not a full length feature film.  It's 20 minutes long and it was made by a couple of USC graduate students for less than $100,000.

 

The film is set in the year 2051, where the most popular competitive videogame is a fighting game called Turbo, in which player's fighting moves are motion captured in real time against live opponents as they duel until only one person's game character is left standing.  I can't help but find a lot of the concepts in this trailer interesting as they look like natural extensions of games already in existence.  Turbo looks like a mixing of motion games like Mo-Cap Boxing and Dance Dance Revolution with fighting games like Street Fighter and Mortal Kombat.  The execution of the gameplay in the trailer makes it feel like this could totally be something that would be ruling the arcades (if they still exist) fourty years from now. 

 

The story itself seems to be a teen melodrama sort of like The Karate Kid in which a young new player is moving up the ranks until he comes across the "bad guy" who happens to be the champion who will do anything to win, including resorting to actual violence.  Enter a wise and skillful teacher and throw in a training montage and you have what looks like a cross between the aforementioned Karate Kid and Tron.

 

The special effects, for a non-studio based short film, look exceptional, and the story is a great modern adaptation of a classic style hollywood tale.  And as opposed to other crappy movies that have been based on fictional videogames (do I really have to mention Brainscan here?), this film actually looks good.

 

If you live in Southern California and wish to see the film, there will be a public viewing of Turbo on May 2nd at 3PM in USC's Norris Theater. The event is free to attend, but seating will be "first come, first seated".  There will also be DVD copies of Turbo available for purchase at the showing  for $10 or less.