With the Covid-19 pandemic affecting England, a man risks it all in order to buy some milk for his morning cup of tea in the silent short comedy Milkrun.
If anything, the pandemic that hit the world in 2020 has forced filmmakers to seriously become more creative. With the lack of funding available, potential locations closed until further notice, and actors unable to travel, creatives have had a serious uphill struggle to continuously produce content. Some have stepped away from the camera for now, whilst others have made short films with what little they have to hand.
Writer/director Alexander Jeremy falls into the latter category. Armed with little more than a DSLR camera, a couple of actors, and a couple of locations, Jeremy has managed to produce a short, sweet, and sometimes humorous little film.
With the Covid-19 pandemic happening, an overly-concerned man braves the outside world. With his face-mask and rubber gloves, he steps out from his flat and risks his life by walking to the local store for a bottle of milk. Making sure he sticks to the guidelines, he distances himself from other shoppers, quickly grabs his milk, pays, and runs home, Only to drop his purchase in the street after narrowly avoiding being hit by a car.
With no milk for his cup of tea, the unnamed man tries to get the milk for a second time. After meeting an old friend in the shop and talking to her without the use of his mask, the man realises he may have been a little over-the-top in protecting himself. He then notices other people trying the best to get on with life- people in the park playing, a younger woman drinking beer on the park bench. This leads to him abandoning his PPE and living his life a little more, including joining the aforementioned younger woman for drinks in a nearby bar, before drunkenly making his way back home with his milk.
Now, what we haven’t mentioned yet, is Milkrun is a mostly silent comedy. We never hear the man speaking, and when he does speak, we only read what he has said with the use of captions. There are ambient noises and a very cool piano score courtesy of composer Harry Bolt, but for the most part, this is a silent comedy much like Mr. Bean.
Whilst Milkrun is well-made and humorous throughout its 12-minute runtime, it does have some slight technical issues, such as certain shots going soft in places, likely due to the film not having the advantage of having a 1st AC, but then again, we should give Alexander Jeremy a pat on the back as he acted as the cinematographer, editor, producer, and director. Normally, having little-to-no-crew is detrimental to a film project, but Jeremy has managed to create something out of nothing, and that something is better than some short comedy films we have seen in the past that had a crew of fifty people involved.
Milkrun is a decent short comedy that is appropriate for these uncertain times. If Alexander Jeremy can create this short film with just £250, a DSLR camera, and a few actors, one can only imagine what he could do if given the opportunity to create with more at his disposal.
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