Vancouver is a great spot where lots of film shoots come to get their works of art done, but it’s also where locals thrive in making their own content, like Jonathan Rido. A triple threat of a man, Jonathan Rido works thrice with his abilities in filmmaking as a writer, director, and editor on just about all of his films. Of course he does a couple other tasks as well, operating a camera, designing VFX, and even occasionally producing. He comes up with some of the most thrilling concepts as well, inspired by the works of Quentin Tarantino, and most of Jonathan Rido’s stories tend to have plots that twist in ways you could never imagine, like a curvy street that few have driven down. His most recent work is Panoramatic, a short film about two pairs of people who unexpectedly cross paths in the woods.
Deep in the woods, two thieves (Dan Vaida and Fabian Novell) are making their escape from the police and stop for a rest seeing how much they have worth in drugs. As they stop for a smoke break, they discuss the plan to cross the border and find a rental car. But as you may have guessed, they’re not the only ones in the woods. Our second duo in this film are two spoiled siblings whose parents have died. The two brothers, Eric (Evan Stanich) and Lyle (Stephen Huddlestone) Martinez are hiding a crime of their own in the forest, burying a witness’s body after they’ve taken care of it in a messy fashion, according to their mesh outfits covered in blood. What the Martinez brothers did is revealed through spontaneous scene changes that give us the perspective of a pesky reporter trespassing on their private beach in an attempt to get answers to burning questions about Mr. and Mrs. Martinez’s passing. At the same time, the Martinez brother’s dead witness drops in front of the two robbers and everyone meets each other. The duos whisper amongst each other their plans to get away, which makes for a good comedic moment to lighten the tension. One thief eventually gets shot but the other makes his getway, leading to Lyle to chase him down. Eric who has always been unsure of being out there and realizes the first thief is still breathing for a few more moments. Then we are given the most simplistic of picture-mation I’ve seen in a while, revealing the Martinez brother’s backstory narrated by Michael Ducky Archibald. As someone who has animated myself, I can understand how tediously time-consuming it is and can let this particular format slide. But ultimately, the backstory reveals much more than one would expect. Not just what happened, but just how close these brothers truly are. Even more so as the film continues, we learn what the thieves were up to prior and sooner or later it’s all a matter of who gets out of this mess… if at all.
As someone who has also worked with Jonathan Rido on a number of his projects I have seen how he has progressed greatly over these past few years. Panoramatic is a good example of just how much improvement has happened. Well-written story with some intense and unique characters, and so many turns in the story. It’s unpredictable in a good way. A lot of people would point out how simple the locations are given how few we see, but I see it as a creative way in writing around little to no budget. Jonathan Rido is solid evidence that with small amounts of cash or none at all, you can still make edgy stories, no matter where they are. National parks, backyards, even your own apartment. But it’s not just the writer/director/editor, it’s also the fantastic cast members who provide stellar professional performances, making the drama so believable and not over the top like so many other short films out there. Panoramatic is a panorama of perfection, with a cunning concept that will catch you off-guard.
