Bent

I've been following Jason's work for over 6 years, and I'll say that I'm biased because I'm a fan of Jason's work. He's come a LONG way and considering he's in Boston with limited access to professional acting talent and shooting this with virtually no budget on weekends BENT is a fine piece of work. When viewing this, if you are comparing it to any form of Hollywood production it will fall short.

Prepare yourself and say, what could I do with a bunch of friends, an idea, a higher end DV video camera and several months... could you do better? No. Jason has mastered this type of film-making and suffers only from a lack of a pool of richer screen plays and actor talent. His editing and camera work are ready for something great.

Jason Santo is also self taught, he doesn't benefit from UCLA or NEW YORK UNIVERSITY formal training. Factor all of these points in and BENT becomes a wonderful progression show of his self learning. Jason has the guts to produce no budget micro cinema taking massive risks and that should be commended. Sure BENT suffers from poor acting, but so what? It's entertaining nonetheless watching everyday people really TRY HARD to act and read scripts for their paper thin characters (which probably makes the acting worse).

If you haven't tried to produce anything beyond garbage home video's of junior running around with the dog in the backyard, give Jason some credit. Enjoying BENT is all about perspective. If you understood the creative and technical process that Jason went through (he does it all, produces, edits, writes, and even acts) then you will enjoy BENT. There are moments of REAL potential here.

Jason simply needs a professional crew, to exclusively shoot on either 16 or 35 or video 24fps, throw in a professionally written intriguing script with real trained actors and Jason could direct the big indy hit.

For anyone who produces and/or acts in amateur no budget microcinema films or if you watch it understanding it was shot for less than a tank of gas, BENT is a great series that will entertain. The stories are interesting...and production values high.

Talented actor, writer, and independent film director Jason Santo created this eclectic series of short films on virtually no budget. I enjoy his work along with his artistic sense of style and charismatic ways that shine through each piece. I enjoyed watching this series and will list some of my favorites: "Marisa" is a silent film put to music in which you can actually feel the pain, anguish and heartache this young woman is going through dealing with her unfaithful lover. Talented actress Cassie Ross is amazing in this short film directed by Jason Santo. It leaves you with a chilling feeling of how cruel life can be. "The Dinner" is a true work of art. A silent movie put to music and filmed in black and white where I feel Jason is at his best. In this short film he creates a mood that actually draws the viewer in. Beautifully filmed with some fine acting, it makes you wonder... "The Haunted" scared the living ---- out of me. I actually jumped out of my seat a few times watching it. and "Here's Your Man" starring another fine actor, Gene Dante, was very well done and shows how a driven to deranged state of mind person gets his revenge.... Jason Santo definitely has a flair for REAL HORROR. On the lighter side, I really enjoyed watching "More Than Money's Worth" about the facades people put on to fit into a crowd. Too funny. I think Jason Santo did a great job on his BENT series. An unusually artistic and talented director ...I also loved the artsy water takes of raindrops, and waterfalls running through the entire series...and now I have to P.

I'm sorry, but it's a copout as suggested below, that just because Santo's in Boston he doesn't have access to talented actors or screenwriters. I'm sorry I don't buy that for a second. Writing a script and casting actor's really doesn't cost much at all. you don't need to be in Hollywood to get good performers delivering good material...

I finally saw, endured is more like it, all 3 volumes of Jason Santo's series Bent. On the positive side Santo shows some glimpses of talent w/ his camera work. However, the entire series is marred by very poor acting, (it's clear he's using strictly friends and family, not a trained actor in sight.) And with the exception of Marisa every other film (9 to be exact) was way too long, in some cases like His Life and The Haunting and A Sky w/ No Angels even The Aftermath, Santo could have lost 10 minutes on each film easily. There was a lot of redundancy and by the 3rd volume I had my finger on the FF button on every film. The 3rd volume started off great, some fantastic helicopter shots and the look and camera work on the first film Aftermath was just awesome. However, the sound was uneven, and once again hampered w/ poor acting and was way way too long. Here Comes Your Man faired a little better, the editing style was interesting, but once again too long. Also, the story was a bit lame, it's not very often someone w/ HIV develops full blown AIDS that quickly let alone Caposi Sarcoma. In dealing w/ such a serious subject Santo should have done more homework. I've been reading all over the net some very positive reviews of this series so for a moment I thought it just might be me. But, I spent last weekend at The NewPort Beach Film festival and saw a program of shorts and even tho none of them were stellar all were better than the best film in the Bent series. All had professional actors, several recognizable from films and TV, all the films were shot on 35 and 24p, sound was consistently good, and although most were a bit longer than necessary, were fairly engaging. This brought me back to the countless film fest programs I've been to, and even tho there's a lot of crap, thinking back, most shorts I've seen in fests were better than what was offered up here. To wrap it up I can't say it any better than Barry Meyer in film monthly who wrote of this series, "Santo seems so wrapped up in the idea of being a filmmaker, and all the fun stuff that it entails, that he never gets around to talking about the passion involved in telling a good story. And good film-making is good storytelling......I also took into account that the DVD is out on the consumer market, so if he's asking film fans to support his pleasures, then he'll need to get more serious and do some serious work on putting out more worthy products."