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Must Watch: Dan Trachtenberg's Awesome Portal-Inspired Short Film

by Alex Billington
August 23, 2011
Source: SlashFilm

Holy crap Portal: The Movie?! Close, so very close, but it's only a short. Debuted on YouTube (via a tip by SlashFilm) today is a short film directed by Dan Trachtenberg (also of the Totally Rad Show, who last directed this short, too) titled simply Portal: No Escape, and yes indeed it features the badass Portal gun from Valve's beloved games in live-action. And it's awesome. The short stars actress Danielle Rayne. I actually caught this 7-minute film at Comic-Con, as he surprised everyone with the premiere of it during their live TRS panel. It's pretty damn cool, I highly suggest watching it (full screen if you can), check it out.

Watch the Portal: No Escape short, directed by Dan Trachtenberg, from YouTube:

The short was directed by film-fan-turned-filmmaker Dan Trachtenberg, who said on Twitter about the release of the film, "1.5 years in the making, it is finally out. Looking forward to hearing what you think!" with the hastag #PortalMovie. Could it be possible? Maybe if this short gets enough views, Hollywood will take notice! The score you hear in it is by Mike Zarin, best known as the composer of the music in the first Inception trailer (see here). If you want to read some more facts about who's behind this, head to SlashFilm. I just think this is was an awesome short, well conceived, well-made, great effects for I'm sure a very low budget, I wish we could see more from this world. Maybe there's some hope for a Portal movie! Thoughts?

Filed under Rumors, SciFi, Short Film, To Watch

From around the web:

Akumared

That was really cool...now I want a movie base on this short film.
- Conker10382
  
  I wouldn't be surprised if we did! This is the stuff Hollywood is made made of...lets just hope the world doesn't end in December 2012 so we can all live to see it. LoL
Fatbaby

I liked it. Imagine the possibilities. I would love to see more.
http://www.facebook.com/people/Christopher-Kenny/726709085 Christopher Kenny

Interesting.
http://twitter.com/lie07 S. Bhakta

wanttt moreee
http://twitter.com/ehurtley Ed Hurtley

Long in the making, indeed. There was an article a year ago about the stunt-woman: http://www.timesleader.com/entertainment/The_ledge_is_smaller_than_her_feet__but__09-26-2010.html
JT

Decent production. It was stupid she found the portal gun in the wall. Basically the short made no sense.
- Richie G
  
  If this was just a demonstration on how they'd tackle the visuals then well done. Other then that its a bit cringe worthy
- http://www.facebook.com/people/Joshua-Ponce/1734060790 Joshua Ponce
  
  Maybe Ratman Was The One That Put The Portal Gun There To Help Her Escape
- Cluminello
  
  She was being tested.
Marty

It felt like a polished amateur film which I'm not sure is good nor bad. But there is certainly a seed for something greater in there.
Richie G

some nice design work, really well done. Got to agree with JT though, if they can't pool enough story together to fill a couple of minutes I hope they don't try to tackle a feature. What it really needed was some CAKE!!!!
- Anonymous
  
  The cake is a lie. I´m sorry, I didn't want to be the one to tell you.
Jedibilly

It's like a really good Outer Limits episode, only shorter
Craig

That was awesome. Someone should find out how much he needs to make a feature length film, and write him a check...
http://www.facebook.com/danielvutran Daniel Vu Tran

Fuck, her muscles.. <3
Marqwest

Loved the music!
http://www.the72pins.com Matt

The CG was nice, but other than that it was just boring. And why have the wall randomly open up for no reason to reveal a portal gun when you could just have the gun sitting in the middle of the room from the start, cutting out the first pointless three-ish minutes. Throw some actual Portal music over that, put GlaDOS in it and you could make something worth watching.
- Jericho
  
  the first pointless three minutes wasn't just there, it was a test to see if she can figure out how to get out of her room and how far she can go. and whats a GLaDOS?
  - Wes
    
    Haha..go play Portal to find out..
  - http://www.the72pins.com Matt
    
    Indeed. Two of the best hours of gaming you can find. Then go play Portal 2.
  - Billybones
    
    Whats a Glados? are you fucking serious?
    - Jericho
      
      i watch movies more than play video games.......
      - Anonymous
        
        "Whats a glados?" HAHA, that was great.
  - http://twitter.com/serke serke
    
    http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=S0qW_EshXlE
Lamar

AWESOMRIFFC!
http://www.facebook.com/mcrorey Michael McRorey

Please give me more.
http://twitter.com/tyrawrrnosaurus Tyler_S

That was ≥ the MK webisodes
zer0limit

now that's what I call "Thinking with Portals"
Cruzer

That was awesome... and the music, Trent Reznor?
- Billybones
  
  Trent Reznor? lol... I dont think so mate. Its very easy to make music like that.
Dom

good effort some dodgy roto and tracking and why did she just suddenly find a door in the wall?
http://www.facebook.com/people/Dee-Railer/100000074967889 Dee Railer

Hi, used to post as "dRailer" all the time, became a lurker when the new comment system went live, lol... But this video is worthy of comment, nicely done. I did see the dodgy stuff at the end, but with the rest of that effort it is certainly easy to ignore.
- Anonymous
  
  welcome back
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9emWB_rrMt0 Crapola

Low budget scifi shorts are the new zombie films. Just kidding. If they actually wrote a script it would have been really good.
- WMDimes
  
  Yeah, this was totally all improv.
  - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9emWB_rrMt0 Crapola
    
    It was good for improv, especially all the flying. I tip my hat to them.
http://www.facebook.com/people/Dee-Railer/100000074967889 Dee Railer

I'm surprised he didn't edit this down and attempt to win the Portal 2 Exile/Vilify contest... I wonder if that's what this was originally for?http://www.thinkwithportals.com/videocontest/
smooth as eggs

She found the door in the wall because she decoded the numbers on the wall that gave her the coordinates for where something (the portal gun) was located. It would have been stupid for her to find it right off the bat. She's being held captive for whatever reason. This was a great short that deserves a movie!
http://www.facebook.com/people/Eric-Wilson/100001127302735 Eric Wilson

Freaking Sweet
Tim

That was awesome...