A son tries to connect with his estranged father via a telephone call in the micro short film After The Beep by Ryan Nunes. Check out our thoughts.
Coming in at under four minutes in length, After The Beep is a very short film, but it manages to tug out our heartstrings in no time at all. Directed, edited by, and starring Ryan Nunes, After The Beep seems to be a very personal film, and I’m sure many other people out there who manage to watch the film would also relate to the material.
A man (Ryan Nunes) uses his mobile phone to constantly ring his father in order to wish him a “happy holiday”, but his call keeps reaching a voice mail service. Through the messages left by the son, we find out that the father has met a new woman and started a new family, leaving the son behind to wonder if he is loved or even wanted. It’s all very moving and relatable, and Ryan actually does really well and is totally believable with his performance of a child desperate for answers and love from a parent.
A minuscule production, with only Ryan Nunes’ name appearing in the credits, the short is set to just three simple locations with even simpler set-ups – a dining room table, a bathroom, and a sofa in a living room. The camera doesn’t move and is obviously locked off on a tripod throughout, and there is no racking the focus, as Nunes’ character doesn’t move within the frame. While all this is basic filmmaking, it actually works well for After The Beep. Nunes doesn’t overcomplicate things, he has a short story to tell and does so well with the limited tools at his disposal, which was obviously a camera, a microphone, and a tripod.
Nunes also uses a black-and-white grade, which was obviously done in post-production, and he pulls it off. The sound was also, surprisingly, crisp, though the music (which played throughout the runtime) was a little distracting and didn’t work as well, I feel.
All in all, After The Beep is a moving and relatable micro short film that showcases Ryan Nunes’ acting more than his directing chops, but it is still something that should be applauded.