Perhaps this official description sums it up best: “Turbo is a high adrenaline short film in the tradition of The Karate Kid and Tron.”
The Karate Kid and Tron. Uh, where do I sign up?
However you spin it, USC film student Jarrett Conaway’s epic 23-minute short film is an incredibly ambitious and thoroughly entertaining MFA thesis. Born from his loves of gaming and kung fu, Turbo is a sci-fi action flick shot through with impressive vfx work and an interesting interactive gaming concept at its core.
Conaway also managed to snare some decent talent for the short, including Justin Chon (the annoyingly chipper guy from the Twilight movie).
There’s much more information on the official site, as well as a cart load of goodies for sale.
Thanks to Nathan Boyd for the tip on this one!
You might want to hit mute for this one, but this behind-the-scenes video gives you a couple nice glimpses at the level of production that Conaway achieved. Impressive. He’s sure to find his way onto a major studio’s set soon.