Short Film of the Week: Marshmallow Fellows

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_OCw03AX128

We thought eating marshmallows was a fairly self-explanatory act. It turns out we were wrong - dead wrong.

The above short film is the first of a series of short films that we want to showcase on JOE through this new regular feature, ideally if it also offers the best that Irish minds can produce with just a few minutes and a YouTube account.

In 'Marshmallow Fellows', Fionn Mulholland treats us to an odd and completely unexplained Harlem Globetrotters-style ditty as an accompaniment to the most creative marshmallow eating we have ever seen.

"It literally started with boredom in work," explained Fionn of his and collaborator Ryan Lake's clip. "Myself and Ryan just started trying to catch each other out, pelting marshmallows at each other while going about our day in the cafe, giving each other as little time as possible to prepare for the catch - and making sure no customers caught us at the same time of course."

"I recently moved back to Australia from Ireland, and have known Ryan since I was three," Fionn told us. "He was able to get me an interview to work in the cafe he manages, 'Barre' on Hay Street in the middle of Perth. It seemed to fit well with the video idea so we just started shooting stuff after work.

"Its only been online a few days, but the response has been great. Friends are sharing it all over the place, and a few radio stations are even helping us out with plugs on YouTube and Twitter and the like. Even the theatre our cafe is attached to wants to put it on their site, although we hadn't their full consent at the time of shooting. But the risk paid off."

So was every marshmallow catch or did Fionn and Ryan employ a little visual trickery? "We got every shot first time!"

"Nah, some of them took a few takes to get right," admits Fionn. "But they are all genuine catches - we promise! I'll admit the one where Ryan throws three in the air and catches them may have used more than 3 marshmallows but that’s all I'll say...

We had to ask Fionn whether we can expect a follow-up to his incredible feats of marshmallow eating and he told us that there's quite a few projects in the pipeline.

"We have a lot of ideas for short films buzzing around," he says, "but I guess a follow up to 'Marshmallow Fellows' is on the cards.

"Whether or not we do some of the other ideas we have in between we're not sure yet. And there's one or two almost completed sketches that are still to see the light of day.

"We may use 'His Majesty's Theatre' to which our cafe is a part of - it would be a pretty epic back drop to have. Another idea is "Marshmallow Fellows on their days off from work".

"There's no shortage of people that want to help us out on the next one. This one just involved the two of us (apart from the cafe head chef Neil's music suggestion), with myself doing the editing. So we might not change things too much, it seemed to work pretty well this time around."

We agree, as we have no idea why any of the above footage is quite as entertaining as it is but it results in two minutes and two seconds of pure joy. Also, it may make you hungry for marshmallows, so you might need to grab a bag beforehand...