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Must Watch: Carl Erik Rinsch's Amazing Sci-Fi Short The Gift

by Alex Billington
April 7, 2010
Source: SlashFilm

You may not known who Carl Erik Rinsch is yet, but you will soon. Rinsch is a filmmaker, currently part of Ridley Scott's RSA team, that has been working on commercials and shorts for a few years and is finally on the verge of breaking out. He's been hired by Universal to direct 47 Ronin as well as the Creature from the Black Lagoon remake. Philips, the electronics manufacturer, has commissioned five directors (Rinsch one of them) to create short films for another cinema series, where we got that amazing robbery short from last year. Rinsch's sci-fi short, titled The Gift, has just debuted online (via SlashFilm) and is a must watch.

Watch Carl Erik Rinsch's short film The Gift below (or on YouTube in HD):

The Gift is part of the Parallel Lines project from Philips Cinema and Ridley Scott Associates that highlights great up-and-coming directors as well as Philips' TVs: "Five short films. Five genres. Five of RSA's hottest directors. One unifying piece of dialogue." Each director was required to use the same bit of dialogue ("It's a unicorn") but beyond that, everything was up to them. Two more of the shorts just debuted on SlashFilm yesterday and the rest will be unveiled on Philips' website tomorrow. This was a beautifully shot short from Carl Erik Rinsch and I'm excited to see what his future holds directing those two projects. I've heard some great things already and I can't wait to see him direct a full-length feature film. Head to Facebook for more!

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Xerxex

it was pretty good, I loved the design of the robot butler.
BobbyM

Looks awesome. Can't wait to see this guy do a feature film!
finch

Awesome short.
Nick

Its cool i hope they make a full length movie out of it because it has a cool story and after watching it made want to see more what happens with the gift what's the point of the gift and what does it look like all that good stuff. Plus this could be like district 9 a short film turned into a feature length film so i hope the gift one day becomes a movie because i'll go see it.
Cody w

The masked police was a total HL2 Combine rip off other than that this was very original and awesome.
http://img222.imageshack.us/img222/2408/blackbabyjesus.gif Crapola

He's done a shedload of commercials. I really loved the setting of that film, more the outfits, the buildings and the mood. The cg was great too, it'd just need tightened up for a feature version. What a crap way of displaying it as a tv within a player, even on full widescreen it was pretty strange looking the tv was terribly rendered.
Jake the snake

HL2?
Hellboy

I agree Half Life 2 rip off. I actually thought it was rather boring.
Dylan

Half life 2 combine soldiers indeed
unknown

The beginning was a lot like a level from the Hitman game. The rest seemed like a combination of Bourne Identity & I,Robot.
Gill

He really knows how to make the scenes have scope. This is who should be directing the Akira movies.
filmfan111

pretty cool. Kind of pointless chase scene though as the butler just shoulda walked back into his owners house. But then that would of been the end of the short i guess.
Syphous

Haha, the soldiers were a total Half-Life 2 rip-off. Pretty cool short though.
http://vimeo.com/10126330 Nick Sears

I agree with 13 - HL rip for sure, but still, great short. Sick action scene too.
xMort

Anyone care to analyze what was that about?
Cineprog

the Robot buttler is about the best thing in this short film the Gift, there is some good SFX work has gone into this short film. Heres a ? I would still love to have seen what was in the box.
smackyou

Would have been cooler if it wasn't just a commercial for Phillips
xan

Amazing how a story like this can be told in under 5 minutes. There should be more films like this...maybe there are, I don't know. Does anyone know of other corporate sponsored films like this?... I know a few years back, BMW had a short film series that was pretty good.
Trey M

I thoroughly enjoyed that!
http://techsidestories.com bryansays

@Cody w and @hellboy you guys beat me to it but you are correct. Soldier masks are a complete rip off of Half-Life 2 combine soldiers.
Phontsolo

That was pretty cool but those soldiers are straight out of Half Life 2 man! They even sound like them. They had to have gotten permission from Valve to use there likeness. If not i see a lawsuit coming. What's up with the tv screen bordering the movie?
Baron the Curse

It was pretty cool, but when a director rips-off source material from another media, in this case Half-Life 2, I loose confidence in their ability for originality. Number 11, really he should be directing the Akira movie? That's a little premature, let's wait an see how he does a full-feature, a much more challenging task.
Xerxex

Hey guys before calling it a rip-off maybe the director is a big Half-Life 2 fan and wanted to pay homage to Valve by placing the Combine Soldiers in the short?
John

This short film was amazing!! I love the idea of a couple of lines of dialogue and see where filmmakers go, Project Greenlight did the same thing for entry into the competition. @xan, yep it was an awesome short series by BMW, called The Hire (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Hire). With Clive Owen as the Driver. The Star and Hostage I reckoned were the two best ones..
http://twitter.com/gimmesumsuga Mathieu

I wish we'd get a couple of short films like this in front of every film we see at the cinema. Gives more value for money, that's for sure, and it's a good way for newer filmmakers to reach a wide mainstream audience, or for established directors to try out something new or offbeat.
Gmorra

WTF are you all saying!!! This short made NO sense. It was well made, but there was no story, just visual bullshit.
Alex C.

@Gmorra I partially agree with you: the short is brilliantly filmed and edited but the plot is quite thin and illogical (why should the robot run away instead of returning the box to the house?). My theory is that the short was more of a showcase for the Director's skills than a well-thought story. Now that it seems his goal is achieved (see http://www.imdb.com/name/nm0727754/news#ni2020302), I'm pretty sure he will make the plot more solid and coherent. @all the "HL2 rip off" guys: It's not a rip off, it's a homage. It's way too litteral (down to the "dialogue" in between Combine soldiers) to be a rip off.
tra la la la la di da

Yes, cause HL was the way before anything else sci-fi that HL ripped off. Kids....it was alright. Clean and nice but could have been a bit longer to explain a bit more. Too much more would have taken away the short film aspect and generally they're short because when they turn into feature films they lose the awesomeness. Reminded of on of the Animatrix shorts.
tir na nog

Wow,thats brilliant,cant wait for film.
Carlo

Competent, if derivative visuals...but limited authenticity, texture and story. Felt super contrived and self concious.
U.G.T.F.O.

Made no sense. Pretentious and uninspiring. I bet Fox will end up wanting a blockbuster from this director.
jake the snake

Does anyone remember the short from last year that was also a total ripoff of Half-Life 2? It was a bunch of soldiers that look exactly these "security" figures chasing some dude through a house and on a bus and it was crazy action. Does anyone remember what that was called or who did it?
Soapdish

For those crying Half-Life 2 ripoff: http://englishrussia.com/images/georgia_swat/3.jpg It is far more likely Half-Life 2 combine soldiers are derivative of the Georgian riot police
xMort

#32 Here you go: The Box test film http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IU_reTt7Hj4
jake the snake

thanks xMort. that's the one i was looking for.