Philip Sansom & Olly Williams (2008). 'The Black Hole'
https://www.youtube.com/embed/RSmjqss0XKQ
Synopsis: "The story involves a sleep deprived office worker who accidentally photocopies a 'Black Hole'. As a whole new world of possibilities open up, the worker’s greed grows exponentially as well" (Small, C., 2014). Criticism: Despite the cleverness of the film's 'portal/photocopy-black-hole' conceit, the majority of the storyline centres on a protagonist 'setting-up' an eventual 'pay-off' / joke 'punchline'. As in fact, the film's 'inciting event' i.e. the point where the protagonist is forced to act after becoming trapped in the safe: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RSmjqss0XKQ&t=131s is used at the story's dénouement - in effect, the plot terminates as it begins. In this sense, the film's storyline is best understood as a 'one-liner' https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/One-line_joke where everything, which happens before the 'pay-off/punchline' is reduced to 'exposition' rather than plot (because such events aren't centred on a protagonist struggling to resolve conflict that had been initiated at the story's inciting event). This said, the story is short enough to remain engaging and its allegory about greed and selfishness is still compelling. Bibliography: Small, C. (2014). "Shorts Spotlight: 'The Black Hole', directed by Philip Sansom and Olly Williams". Cinema Axis. https://cinemaaxis.com/2014/04/11/shorts-spotlight-the-black-hole-directed-by-philip-sansom-and-olly-williams/ https://www.imdb.com/title/tt1430144/ https://player.vimeo.com/video/70751621
