Do you think you have what it takes to be a filmmaker? Step right up and be prepared for all of the challenges that come your way. Ellipsis in Writing is a pseudo-documentary that chronicles the process behind a student’s struggle with ongoing projects and finds experimental up-and-comer Bobby Sehorn taking a chance on himself and his future.
Through a series of simple stationary shots underscored by a corporate background theme, we follow Robert (Bobby Sehorn) as he looks to progress in his filmmaking journey. While consulting fellow aspiring writer Andy (Andy Nguyen) and his spiritual advisor for Jehovah’s Witness (Eric Ripley), Robert continually applies himself to honing his craft as his past looms large. Drawing from his experiences as a homeless drug addict, Sehorn’s honesty with both himself and those around him adds an endearing quality to the aspirations he lays out. Ellipsis in Writing is like his personal, digital diary, and we are all invited to its unveiling.
There’s just one big, aching problem. Regardless of what advice Robert gets, it never feels like the film is making any meaningful progress. We spend several minutes with him in front of laptop screens, talking about screenplay structures and audience engagement, all while the short ironically neglects the very principles it preaches. Robert and Andy’s conversation serves to frame the story, but even that discourse feels redundant given how the credits and music just casually fade it out. It doesn’t help matters that Nguyen speaks at a pace that’s nigh-impossible to comprehend, and the sound design is all over the place.
Then, we follow Robert as he outlines his strategy for gathering footage for his work, only for the scene to abruptly shift to him admitting that he has deleted said footage. It almost feels like taking one step forward and two steps back, the opposite of what the docu’s trajectory would suggest. On the other hand, this could be an attempt at sharing a life lesson, but it ultimately doesn’t translate well in the context of Sehorn’s vision. There is simply no point to the narrative, and there is nothing for the viewer to latch onto as a throughline.
More of a private video journal than a full-fledged short film, Ellipsis in Writing sorely lacks the essence of what a documentary needs to be. Even still, the mentality it champions could be enough to draw attention to its creator’s unique background.
