MSX "Dirty Dishes"

"Dirty Dishes" is an MSX commercial directed by Rick Wayne, and at twenty three seconds it is the shortest film in the selected commercial work.

Short formats are not scaled down long formats. Twenty three seconds removes the possibility of a second act, which means the film has to establish a situation, land a turn and get out, and every one of those beats has to happen in a shot that is also doing something else. A title like "Dirty Dishes" signals a domestic setup and a comic register, which is a form with very little tolerance for error. Comedy at this length is a timing problem before it is a writing problem.

Wayne's background is directly relevant here. He trained at Second City, and he credits improv with the principle that runs through his sets: yes, and. Build on what is in front of you instead of protecting what is in your head. In a short comic spot, the take that works is very often not the take that was written, and the director's job is to have built a room in which the better version can surface and be recognized in time to shoot it three more ways.

Published in December 2018, this is the earliest film in the commercial selection and the beginning of the visible arc. Wayne's career began in Chicago and expanded in Los Angeles before he moved to Brooklyn, and the films that follow this one over the next seven years move steadily up in scale without changing their approach: Intel and CenturyLink in 2019, Android in 2020, Sharpie and Warner Bros. from 2023 onward, Graco in 2025.

The film runs 0:23.