Emily Brown’s short seems like the most creative way to do the ‘storytelling’ dare. In less than one minute, she presents a story with everything you need, and amazingly enough, it has a catchy ending that will make you laugh and then tell the whole story to your friends.

 

A man finds at his doorstep a note that indicates to another note that is in front of him. Each note hints to another thing, and to understand the whole picture he has to follow the paper trail. He follows this road as if he is in some sort of German mid-nineteen-century kids’ story. To reach the last note he has to walk, and in order to find it, he has to be careful. When he finally arrives and finds the last note, unfortunately the ‘treasure’ is already gone.

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'Paper Trail' is right on point – it has the right amount of drama, mystery, and comedy as well as all the compositional parts a story this simple should have. For its length, it even has a nice score, and so everything seems to be in the right place. As it stands right now we thought it looks very similar to those brit-pop era music videos, or at least we thought it is going to be a tribute.

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One interesting thing about this film is the fact that the main character isn’t presented at all – we do not know his name, what he does, his social status; all we know is that he is intrigued by the quest that opened up in front of him, and he is willing to do anything to find the answer. This short story that tells a lot in just a one minute reminded us of Augusto Monterroso’s very short story called ‘The Dinosaur’ – ‘When he awoke, the dinosaur was still there.’, as both of them aren’t much at a first glance, but when you dive in, the realm they open in front of your eyes becomes purely amazing.

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Written by Vlad A. G