One Day Seminar
- Directed By: Martin Binder
- Written By: Martin Binder
- Country: USA
- Released: 2008
- Running Time: 20 Min
- Links: Official Site; The Tryan Learn Institute
- Comedy, Reviews
If you’ve worked in an office for any length of time, it’s a near inevitability that you will eventually find yourself sent on a course. While some of these courses can be quite useful, many of them aren’t useful at all. One day Seminar is a short film about one of these less than beneficial courses, and the speaker that presents it.
The seminar presenter in question is Benson Mountebank (Tommy Murray) and the film, taking its cue from the sort of fly-on-the-wall comedy so brilliantly embodied by The Office, follows him as he arrives at an anonymous hotel, prepares and then presents a one-day seminar on Succeeding as a First Time Manager.
It quickly becomes apparent that not only does Benson have a vastly inflated opinion of himself, he’s also a pretty inept character whose advice amounts to little more than a collection of empty platitudes. Although I’ve not attended a course quite as badly run as this one, writer/director Martin Binder does manage to sail uncomfortably – and often hilariously – close to reality.
There is much to like in this film. Its humour relies on the sort of gentle cynicism that wouldn’t be out of place in a Dilbert cartoon and the characters that are introduced clearly have a great deal of comic potential.
In fact, my only real gripe about this film is that it is too short. At only twenty minutes long, there simply isn’t enough time to really get to grips with the main characters – not just Benson Mountebank but also the wonderfully realised head of the Tryan Learn Institute, Ted Misanthrope (Grover Silcox). These are characters that really do deserve to be developed further and, although there is a limit to how far a single joke can be stretched, there are certainly enough ideas in here to make for a 60 minute film.
One Day Seminar is a film that is well worth checking out and one that finishes with a superb punchline. But don;t just take my word for it, visit the Tryan Learn website and ask your manager about a course in Fundamentals of Document Destruction.