Midlands Review of The Flaming Gazette
midlandsmovies • October 27, 2021
The Flaming Gazette
Directed by Richard Steele
2021
Brunosaurus Productions
A jaunty 1950s-inspired ditty on a gramophone sets the stage of a new 11-minute short called The Flaming Gazette that takes a swipe at social media from the perspective of the past.
A quick intro of sepia-toned barges, train tracks and church steeples invoke a bygone era before we are introduced to a man reading a newspaper at home.
After finishing the daily news, he sits down at a desk and begins penning a letter addressing his thoughts to a councillor about a new road in the area that he’s just read about. The following day he strolls past houses, hedgerows and a steam train (a social media “platform”?) to post his letter in the village post-box.
The slower pace of life in the past is reflected with measured editing whilst an intertitle reminds the audience of the black and white style of vintage cinema.
But a sly nod to the slow delivery of post keeps it very much a gentle local affair. So, 8 days later, our protagonist receives a reply from the councillor who writes to correct his correction.
And after reading, our man immediately sits down again to write a follow up his reply with even more disagreement. And back he goes to post it before an indeterminant amount of time passes and another response is printed in the newspaper’s letters column. And so on.
This film has a terrific central idea that plays with the notion of the inescapable back and forth arguments on platforms such as Twitter. The script is a little on the nose with the voiceovers from the authors of the letters stating lines such as “my opinion is valid and should be accepted just as much as facts – be they right or wrong”.
Steele’s builds upon his previous work where his satirical eye has already taken a wry look at film openings with his earlier short Get On With It (our review) and he again looks at the changing nature of modern media.
A few areas of improvement could be shot and sound quality – although functional, both elements slip up at times. And the letter writing moments could definitely use more variation in shot choices as it’s never the most exciting thing to portray on screen.
The comedy moments increase though as the two writers’ informed debate devolves into petty squabbling and the name-calling of modern trolling. Later on, visual memes also appear around the village too – printed out and stuck to telegraph poles for the public to see. And we see the endless repetition of the whole ordeal at the film’s conclusion as it all begins again with a funny nod to emojis.
In the end, director Steele has gone all in on his idea and this focus on a straightforward conceit we can relate to today can really benefit low budget short filmmakers immensely. And his take on the futility of certain social media interactions (“a pointless ordeal”) is well explored using the context of the slow manual technology of 1953.
With a few rough edges, the short’s charm, heart and social media rebuff mostly absolves the minor technical issues making The Flaming Gazette a fun ride. And no matter what era we find ourselves “linked in” with each other, the short proposes people should maybe think twice about counterproductive nature of eternal arguing.
Michael Sales
On Sunday 26th April Midlands Movies Editor Michael Sales & awards ceremony co-host Ed Stagg (BBC Radio) announced the nominations for the 2026 Midlands Movies Awards live from the Queen of Bradgate Vintage Cinema in Leicester. A big thanks was given to the entire Jury Panel of industry experts who gave up their precious time to watch a huge selection of creative projects and as always, had a difficult time choosing from the excellent number of films from the region. You can read the full list of nominations across all 16 categories below and watch our announcement videos here: Part 1 & Part 2 And please also check out our great awards partner Chrome Video Best Actress in a Leading Role Karendip Phull for Family Kate Bracken for The Lace Rachel Baker for Throwing Fruit Chloe Wade for How Long Sophie Bullock for Ma Prison Best Animated Film Of All the Things by Steff Lee Big Red by James Pyle Statue in the Garden by Qianhui Yu Butterfly by Jacob Christie Best Director Luke Worrall for The Waterline Lily Portman for Quiet Jack Richardson for Daniel’s Room Jonathan Hawes for Sorry We’re Closed Sophia Dall'Aglio for Man from Mars Best Documentary Nothing's Impossible by Jacob Thomas McClean A Birmingham Symphony by Jemma Saunders We Bring Light: Leicester's Diwali Legacy by Kieran Vyas The Sunshine Café by Jill Lampert Through the Viewfinder by William North Best Sound (Editing or Mixing) Neil Evans & his team for Artificial Insanity Alasdair Gretton for Dead on Distribution Deepanjali Patel for Earworm David Hamilton-Smith for The Pause Heidi Wilson for Of All The Things Best Actor in a Supporting Role Devon Junior for Lazar Tim Sparrow for Safety Net Shaiek Ahmed Rana for Family Luke Rollason for Quiet Peter Willoughby for A Story of Spring Best Visual & Special Effects Jake Wesley-Worrall for Soul Trader Steve Askey & team for The Correction Unit Nick Willett, Matt Burkey & Jayne Hyman for Black Goat JaqD SFX MUA, Mind Magic Studios and Ben Harker for Beyond the Witching Hour Jacob Christie for Countenance Best Cinematography Gary Rogers for The Pause Laurence Mason-Guetta for Sorry We’re Closed Ian Snape for Soul Trader Ash Connaughton for Daniel’s Room Duane Adamoli for Surfing (nominations continue below...)
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