Timebelt

A guy at work lent me a DVD of a show called Timebelt made by some friends of his. It aired online at Channel 101, and consists of eight 5-minute episodes done on a super-low budget. [He knows the creators because they both do improv comedy with a group called Comedy Sportz.]

I really enjoyed Timebelt. It's cute. It's got plot holes, but there is a plotline. It's obviously filmed by people learning how to do film, but it's done honestly and in some places even earnestly. I was surprised because usually I think low-grade sci-fi is awful. But this one actually won some awards for indie filmmaking. I found it kind of inspirational, actually.

If you've got 40 minutes, it's worth a look. These guys pretty much just kludged their way through using their neighborhood and the guy's apartment as the setting, their friends as cast, stuff they could find in the kitchen as props, greenscreening for effects, etc.