One of the holy grails of artificial intelligence is teaching a machine how to understand and feel emotions. We’re a very long way from that, but what happens when we manage that milestone? The short film ABE gives us one possible answer…and you’re not going to like it. The answer, that is, not the short. You’re going to love the short.
Directed by Rob McLellan and Starring Sam Hoare, Claire Huskisson and Emily Baxter. ABE started life as a short film entry ‘Love… and all that’ into the Colchester 48 Hour Film Challenge (which you can watch herehttps://vimeo.com/50053207) and evolved into an idea for a live action film. The short film is just the beginning of, what will evolve into, a much larger project… watch this space.
ABE was programmed to love, but he takes it to the point of obsessiveness. He can’t stop loving and he can’t understand rejection. As a machine, his natural reaction is to try and “fix” the people who don’t love him back. This results in a disconnect between emotion and reality for ABE and turns him into a serial killer obsessed with finding love, even if it kills all of his objects of desire.
As the synopsis stated, ABE began as a short film entitled Love…and All That which director Rob McLellan created for the Colchester 48 Hour Film Challenge. McLellan cranked out this original, all CGI short in just 48 hours, which is one hell of a feat and probably required a lot of coffee. To see ABE‘s evolution, as it were, check out the original short that spawned the chilling live-action film.
If you want to hear the director talk about the evolution and creation of ABE in his own words, watch this interview with Rob McLellan by Back to the Movies. McLellan talks about the evolution of the idea, how he settled on the final look for ABE, and how the motion capture was done for the finished product.
Keep checking back with us for future developments on ABE. With the attention and success McLellan’s gotten over this short film there’s a very good chance he’ll catch the eye of some major motion picture studios. When that happens we’ll bring the news to you right here.
Website of Director Rob McLellan
