Filthy Review - The Collective Vol 3: 10 Minutes to Live

The Collective Vol. 3: 10 Minutes to Live (2012)

Review by Jude Felton

Jason Hoover and JABB Pictures are well aware that there are an abundance of fresh and original ideas out there, just waiting to be filmed. This was quite evident with the releases of The Collective Volumes 1 and 2, entitled The Meat Eater and The Box respectively, two collections of short films that both took one synopsis, which was the title, then let filmmakers run with an idea, just as long as the film was around 10 minutes long. Quite often short films get lost in the ether, only ever turning up online and rarely seeing a release to disc. More is the shame to that, as quite often these short films are quite terrific.

The Collective has been a great way to give these short films exposure, by releasing them on DVD, because for me personally I am not a fan of watching movies online. I’d much rather get comfortable on my couch and watch them on my television. This brings me to the latest release from JABB Pictures; The Collective Volume 3: 10 Minutes to Live. Once again the idea is the same; ten filmmakers take the same synopsis, this time being 10 minutes to live, and then coming up with their own film to fit in with the idea. As you might imagine you get ten very different films, with ten very different ideas.

With Volume 3 though there is a slightly different take, being as though this volume is from the female perspective. The films are either all written or directed by the fairer sex. Rest assured though, they may be the fairer sex, but these ladies have produced some scary and vicious films.

The filmmakers and their films in this volume are Pants Cannon Media (He Who Watches), Karmic Courage Productions (Home Security), Mysterious Mansion Productions (Conclusion), Channenmabelle Productions (The Key), JABB Pictures (The Pact), Toetag Pictures (Stay), One Stepp At A Time Productions (Suffer Well), Death Hug Films (Snapped), Silence in the Dead of Light (Jog) and Spiral Filmworks (Palindromist). Believe me when I tell you that they have all come up with very different tales. Some are more successful than others, I personally felt a two were a little too vague for my liking, but on the whole they deliver the goods.

Subject matter included over the ten films includes murder, revenge, suicide and infidelity and none of them go where you might expect them to.

Personal favorites in this collection, or Collective if you prefer, would definitely be JABB’s The Pact, which is quite beautifully shot by Amy Carmical and stars Dakota Meyer. It is an emotional piece that relies on the visual aspect over any unnecessary dialogue, and it works incredibly well.

He Who Watches, from Pants Cannon Media is another short that really impressed with its twisted tale. Directed by Kate Toomey and Kylee Wall, He Who Watches takes a fresh look at life and death, and really was rather good.

Although I mention these two, all the movies included were impressive, even the couple that fell a little flat with me. It is the ideas that count, and originality is what it is all about here. Jog, with its experimental approach, takes a simple journey and turns it into something horrifying. Toetag’s Stay, directed by Shelby Vogel, is a cruel short movie that managed to get a wry laugh from me with its twisted approach. Palindromist was another film with a unique visual style that impressed me no end.

Overall, whether I mentioned the individual film or not, all the films contained in this collection add something very unique to the original idea, and that in itself is a terrific achievement. It just goes to show that one persons’ take on an idea can be vastly different to another’s’. The Collective Volume 3 is another resounding success for JABB Pictures, and the filmmakers that contributed, and really needs to be seen. Good quality independent cinema deserves to be supported and JABB continue to release the quality.

I can also tell you that Volume 4 is on its way, and I am sure that we can expect the unexpected when that arrives.

The Collective Volume 3 is available now from JABB Pictures.