Inspiration Week.

During inspiration week one of our tasks was to write down a name and job of a male and then to continue it on by passing around your sheet of paper and writing other scenarios etc. this is the story that was given back to me;

'William Patel is a dog groomer,

Gretchin is a boot polisher,

They both met by chance at the annual meeting for the Jack the Ripper appreciation society.

'I cant play with you any longer, it hurts'

She falls over and gets up only to release an unpleasant smell.

She instantly falls in love with him and they live happily ever after...'

I feel that this exercise was useful and helpful because it was a way of getting our imaginations working and getting us in the mood for writing a short story for our short film.

We are the Lambeth Boys.

We are the Lambeth Boys is a free cinema/protest documentary and it presents working class people, back in the 1950’s, living their everyday life’s. Being an experimental documentary following a group of lads, who supposedly weren’t meant to act like they were being filmed, it has inspired today’s documentaries such as ‘The Family’ because its just about a working class family going there day to day life.

Berlin Horse;

The Berlin Horse was one of the first experimental films to be presented to a niche audience. I feel that unless you are in to art and Avant Garde ect that it is very hard to stay focused as its just replayed shots of a horse running round in circles, the only change are a couple of camera shots and the colour which represents the art and the message behind it. However it could be argued that it may have gripped its viewer due to the extent of music and visual footage that didn’t really have any relevance.

Production, Exhibition & Distribution of Shorts.

Like mainstream films, short films follow a structure; Production, Exhibition and Distribution. However because of low budgets and niche audiences the stages aren’t as complex as they may be to mainstream.

Production
Young aspiring directors will browse for a production company that is willing to produce their short film due to the low budget that have to abide by. This is why some production companies specialise in shorts to. An example of this is the production company ‘Silver films’. The short film About A Girl was produced by silver films.

Exhibition
As mainstream feature films are exhibited in cinemas because of large chain deals and huge marketing budgets short films are generally only exhibited at film festivals. There is an advantage to this as any awards the short might gain from short film festivals will be what employees might look for. Directors will also begin targeting smaller festivals with their work in order to use awards from such festivals as a factor to be recognised else where.

Distribution
For mainstream films, distribution is how films will make profits; after box office sale, DVD’s and merchandise sales. The lack of any kind of profitable distribution in short film does not pose any threat to the industry although there is some proof of short film collection DVDs. Short film distribution is through online websites such as Youtube or Vimeo, some sites specialise in distribution of short film such as Depict; a website that showcases only micro shorts (less than 90 seconds in duration).

Video Activism.

Video activism is an opinion of a group of protesters that try to grasp views, interest and shock of the public by creating videos of things such as animal cruelty etc. Video activism came around during the fame of Shorts and was created by a group of protesters that were made to shed light on something they specifically protest against. The idea is to portray things such as animal cruelty in a bad way so that we think it’s a bad thing to and then protest against it. But sometimes things aren’t as bad as they portray them to be.

Film Festivals.

Film Festivals are one of many opportunities for young aspiring directors to show off their work and a place where employees might go to look for such new fresh directors.

Sun dance film festival;

Sun Dance is a film festival dedicated to showcasing new and exciting short films in innovative platforms.

Sundance started in 1978 in an effort to attract more film makers to Utah. The festival takes place annually in the state of Utah in the United States and is the largest independent cinema festival in the USA. It was founded by Sterling Van Wagenen

The festival is held in January (21st-31st) and is a very global event and showcases for new work form American and international independent film makers. The festival comprises competitive sections for international drama and documentary films, both feature length and short films.

You can submit your work to the sun dance festival by filling out an application form on line on their website http://www.sundance.org/applications.html. As this years event is only just over it doesn’t say much else about submitting your entry etc.

Encounters film festival;

Encounters Short Film Festival celebrates new talent in filmmaking and provides a platform for emerging filmmakers to screen their work. Encounters is the title for two of the UKs leading film festivals, now combined. This running festival began in 1995 as Brief Encounters which was originally envisioned as a ‘one off’ event to mark the centenary of cinema. As it proved so popular it is now an annual event.

Encounters takes place in Bristol UK around November time. To submit any entry’s for this film festival you have to sign up to receive their newsletter and then you receive information about when deadlines are etc.

Avant Garde; Maya Deren.

The concept of Avant Garde refers exclusively to marginalised artists, writers, photographers etc. These composers work is not only opposed to mainstream commercial values but often has a social or political edge. Avant Garde is also referred to as experimental film and is a type of film created by film makes who wish to experiment. In some ways they could have been compared to short films equivalent of Fnew wave ’La Nouvelle Vague.’ This is because the innovative ideas and experimental process of making a film are very similar.

The short film industry always struggled to compete with Hollywood mainstream but however unlike mainstream films Avant Garde found a niche audience who regarded the films as art. A well known director the experimental scene was Maya Deren. She was a film theorist as well as an Avant Garde film maker. Deren directed many experimental films in the 1940’s to 60’s and displayed a highly individualistic sensibility towards short films.

Talk about ‘Meshes in the Afternoon’