Friday, 5 February 2010

Sundance

The Sundance Film Festival is a film festival that takes place annually in the state of Utah, in the United States. It is the largest independent cinema festival in the U.S and has been running since it was founded in 1978 by Robert Redford and the then govenor of Utah Scott Matheson.


Sundance has grown over the last 40 years to become arguably the biggest film festival in world. The festival showcases the best in american and international films. The intital goal of the film festival was to showcase strictly american films and to hightlight how big independent films could be if they were showcased in the right light. Sundance is most known for its dramatic and documentry films although they do showcase work from a number of genres. Two of the biggest comeptions at the film festival are the US documentry comeptition and the US Dramtic competition. Because of sundances growth over last 40 years or so, it is now a very classy and well respected amongst the film indusrty. Meaning that all of the work is of extrem quailty and rarely created by amitors.

4 Talent

4 Talent, is a section of channel four which speicalises in giving young teenagers between 14 and 19 years old expreiance within the media indusrty. One of the events 4 talents events is the channel 4 inspiration week. In which young teenagers attend the channel 4 studios and take a master class in there chosen subject, which could be Marketing, Advertising and a number of others. Channel four also run a internship programme which is called Generation Next.

Telling Lies

Telling lies is a short film, the film consists of only sound and text to tell the story. Telling lies was made in 2000. Telling Lies is a film that highlights how offten people lie to each other. The short consistis of a number of telephone converstaions, as the lies are told the truth appears on the screen in white text.

I feel the main issuse behind the film is that everyone lies, even the people closest to you. Although you can always trust your mum. throughout the coversataions the mother is the only person not to lie, even though the her son is lieing to her. I really like the idea behind the film, i feel that this film highlights what we all think is happening when we're on the phone.

I feel that the structure of the narrative allows the audience to pick whos side they are on. I also feel that the narravtive is the foundations of the idea, as it creates an interesting story which the audience can relate to. I think that the use of text channenges the auduience to create faces for the charcters and create the scene there talking about. I feel because of this the film is very creative and the idea is genius. Although the idea has recently been popularised by the show the phone jacker.


Thursday, 4 February 2010

DepicT!

Depict is an international short film competition which challenges filmmakers to create super-shorts of under 90 seconds. It has been running since 1998 and is a part of Encounters Short Film Festival.

Depict believe that creating an engaging and imaginative short in such a small amount of time. Challenges its filmmakers ability and pushes there skills to the limit. Depict have a partnership with British film festival encounters in which they have there own exhibit for the luck few film makers which get shortlisted. Depict see this as a go way to promote and show case there film makers. Winning films have generally gone on to be shown all over world at a number of film festivals.

Atom

Is a video sharing website which specialises in comedy. The website is an award winning broadband network offering short subject films and animations. The company was founded in 1998 in Seattle by Mika Salmi, until it was the subject of a buyout by MTV in 2006. One of atoms biggest names was the independent series called angry kid, which has a huge online fan base. After the buyout atom joined a partnership with comedy central to have a weekly show, which would showcase the best of short films and animations on the website.

Atom shows a mix of both mainstream and indie media although the company originally specialised in indie media, but ever since its buyout by MTV the amount of indie media has began to shrink. Atom films have been around for over ten years looking for amazing comedy. Atoms formula for creating amazing shows is simple “Find talented people, make them famous across the Web and beyond, and pay them well”. Overall I feel the website is a good way to showcase comic work. The website has a number of followers and fans both on it twitter and facebook pages.

BBC Film Network

The BBC Film Network, is a website which is run by the bbc and showcases short films from aspiring directors. The website allows people to watch and comment on the short films which are shown on the website. The web site shows a number of short films, from a number of genres. Which include Drama, Animation, Comedy, Music, Documentary and artist's moving image.

All of the videos which appear on the web site have been funded by a number of companies and because of that they are of very high quailty. Most of the videos are between 3 and 15 miniutes in duration. The website also has a lot of inforamtion on how to produce a short film, with pages of on how to find funding to how to submit your final piece. The website also has a number of interviews with big hollywood actors about how they got to where they are and talking about there new films. Many of the films on the website have won awards.

Tuesday, 2 February 2010

How to cope with rejection

Is a Scotish short film, which tells the story of a man who tires to win his ex grilfriend back by getting a Nija to beat up her new boyfriend. The short film was produced by channel 4 ideasfactroy back in 2005.

In the opening of the short film you see a number of pictures showing the main character and his ex girlfirend. From these shots you think that the main character is missing his ex girlfriend, this is shown with the next shot showing the main charcter knocking on this ex's door. When you look at the main character you see that he looks childish with scurffy blond hair wearing a grey hoodie with a bright yellow T-Shrit with a big picture of a teddy bear. After i nocticed this i began to think, was this the reason she left him in the first place. This is summed up, when the main character resorts to hiring a Nija to beat up his ex girlfriends new boyfirend.

Overall i really enjoyed the film, i felt that the film tock a very depressing subject and showed the funny side of what you could do if you wanted. I also liked the way that the main character who is played by
chris Waitt is also the director of the short film. I feel the main reason the film works well is the length, i feel that the film is just the right length and it allows the audience to relate with the main charcter. I like the way the film has been written as it doesnt dwel of certian scenes and allows the audience to relate and get on the main characters side.