Treavor (Daniel Hall) and Amber (Kiki Warren) are temporarily staying with their friends Pete (Wes Greeson) and Jenna (Katharine Jameson) when Treavor starts reading a book on how to read minds. As he finishes the book, he realizes that he miraculously indeed did learn how to read minds, and begins utilizing his new skill. When asked how to do it, he admits that he can’t explain it, but if everyone just reads the book, it’ll make sense.
Derege Harding’s It’s As Easy As Riding A Bike takes a simple idea, what if people read a book and learned how to read minds, and executes it expertly within the confines of a short film. Watching this group of couples turn mind-reading into something as common as normal conversation makes the concept even better, as the paranormal becomes hilariously mundane.
And sure, you could run with the idea in more than a few ways; the potential cacophony of mind-reading is presented to be more of a case of enhanced selective hearing (or perhaps only some moments are shared for the sake of the short), but the choices in portrayal work for this piece. On top of a fun concept, the film is just funny, especially when mind-reading becomes as often a culprit in creating domestic problems as any other form of communication.
Overall, It’s As Easy As Riding A Bike is a great example of how to do a short film right. While its concept could be taken to a longer form, the filmmakers smartly had the short story they wanted to tell, and they stuck to it. There’s a true narrative beginning, middle and end, it never loses its momentum, it looks and sounds good and it wraps up in ten minutes. If that’s what you’ve got as a foundation for a short film, you’re in good shape, and this one is definitely fit.
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