Get transported to through portals and adventures with a few peculiar characters.
From the mind of Jakub Nicolas William, this tall of portal jumping through different video games comes from the Productions Spectrum school of filmmaking, one we have covered recently. The film shows a great love for the video games it borrows from and a respect for the style of each, giving each portal jump arrival spot its own style and mood. The direction and creativity here show talent and a lot of passion for gaming and film. This is of course on the lower budget of life, but the animation found here is good and shows that with talent, a good bunch of friends, and some time, a good short film can come of it.
The acting in Portal Masters is decent in terms of fitting the material and giving performances that work with the parts at hand. Each of the three cast members play multiple parts with Jakub Madej playing Freddy Faz Bear and the Boyfriend, Nicolas Dubé-Goulet as Crewmates and Vault Boy, and William Paquin as Red Hot and Sans. This is the cast provided by production, but from watching the short film a couple of times, there also seemed to be a fourth, uncredited performer. The whole performance team here does decent work, giving performances that are on par with many low-budget films/short films, something quite laudable for a team that is not composed of trained actors and are a bit less experienced. Here they show talent and that they understood the assignment.
The film’s look here is inspired by the video games it represents, giving each section of the film its own look and mood, keeping in tradition with the video games and giving them the respect they should. The film has an interesting mix of animation styles and visual effects put together with filmed sequences done in green screen it seems. This coming from a team with the type of means as they had is quite a feat.
Portal Masters is a solid short film that mixes a love for video games with a love for visual effects as well as a short and sweet story to make it all come together. The performances are decent throughout with very few hiccups and some real passion thrown in there for good measure. This may be more of a fan film, but it’s one that is well done nonetheless.
Fantasia International Film Festival 2022 runs from July 14th to August 3rd, 2022