London Short Film Festival

The London Short Film Festival was created in 2003 by Philip IIson and Kate Taylor. It was derived from a Halloween Short Film Festival which was held at the ICA. Ilson had been continuing with the Halloween festival since 1994. In 2008 the festival was officially named the LSFF and since then has been growing over the years taking on board more films, live music, accredited professional training and hosting at some very reputable locations.

Being the biggest short film festival within London, it lasts over a period of ten days and holds the festival in various prestigious locations throughout central London. Exhibiting over 200 short films, LSFF’s demand is to work solely with mind-blowing filmmakers who are looking to advance into the industry. The filmmakers see their work being screened throughout the ten days at eminent London cinemas, from the festivals home of the ICA, to the rookie Shortwave Cinema. The festival hosts themed nights such as “Midnight Movies and “Lo Budget Mayhem”, and has a history of smuggling insurgents and nonconformists onto the UK film scene.

2010 Facts & Figures

• There are over 200 films screened throughout the festival
• All in all there are 42 events across the 10 days at 10 different London venues
• There are over 6000 tickets to the festival sold each year
• 75% of events are sold out to capacity

“Cannes may have Borat in a thong, Sundance may have condiments with Robert

Redford’s face on them, but only the freakiest film festival in town can offer pole

dancers and a film competition judged by Larry Clark. How d’you like them apples,

London?” - Empire

London Short Film Festival. http://www.shortfilms.org.uk/about-the-festival/. Last accessed 6th October 2010.

Skin Deep

After finding this on the BBC Film Network I was completely drawn to it through it’s complete rawness and relevance to political ideologies within todays society. The color connotations reflect the bleak hard-hitting narrative, this has also given me inspiration on style and color for my short subject.

Alex Winckler

Studying at the prestigious Columbia University, New York, Winckler became an accredited director for his graduation film “Ralph”. It went on to win the UK Film Council Completion Funding and premiered at the Edinburgh International Film Festival. “Ralph” progressed through and was deservingly nominated for a BAFTA for Best Short Film in 2009, showing at the New Orleans, Sao Paulo, New York and London Film Festivals.

After completing directing his half an hour authentic film “Harvest”, written by Richard Bean for Channel 4, in that same year he would be awarded the most life changing award for any aspiring director. Winckler was picked by Screen International as one of their “Stars of Tomorrow”.

Since then Winckler has directed two blocks of Lime Pictures’ Hollyoaks (what a guy) and produced another short film “Thomas”. Not only did Winckler direct the piece he also wrote it, illustrating he is a man of many talents, exactly what you need to succeed within the film industry.

Here is Winckler's most accredited piece "Ralph"

Wasp

I won’t be analyzing this in full detail but I chose to include it in my blog as I thought it was an amazing, beautiful piece of art work. Miss Pemberton showed this to the class at the beginning of the unit and it inspired me with it’s distinctive, gritty style and moving narrative.

The BBC Film Network

http://www.bbc.co.uk/filmnetwork/

Similar to Coffee Shorts, the BBC film network doesn’t let any average Joe upload his video, it has to be submitted and selected and free of copyright infringement ect. The website hosts short films from all genres from avant garde to animation to comedy, the BBC film network caters for all genres of short subjects. It includes 'how to' sections to help aspiring filmakers and behind the scenes footage of productions. 

Coffee Shorts

http://www.coffeeshorts.co.uk/

Coffee shorts is a British based independent film screening website that believes in showing the most quirky, different short films, documentaries, animations, movie trailers and music videos through the internet. They will only upload the short subjects themselves, which sets them aside from other websites such as Vimeo and YouTube, where anyone and everyone can upload their work onto the site. They believe that, because of this rule, they exhibit some of the best work on their website, and I tend to agree with this. The channel is run by Coffee Shorts, an independent film production company.

Short film and The Internet

Due to the development of Vimeo in 2004 and You Tube in 2005, video hosting has germinated the internet, allowing aspiring directors to exhibit their work for free. The “bite-sizeness” of short subjects makes them idealistic for the internet as people at work, school, on their mobile phones or at home can divulge into a short piece of narrative to escape society for a short period of time.

The internet is also a great platform for directors wanting to reach new audiences. The message can be delivered to different cultures, generating new reactions and understandings of the short. This is far more exiting and intriguing to short film directors as some villages on islands with populations of a few hundred may not have access to the cinema, but most certainly have access to the internet.

Even top Hollywood directors are taking a shine to this new advancement in technology. Spike Jonze - director of “Where the Wild Things Are” recently launched his latest short film “I’m Here” on a purpose built website. This illustrates that even accredited directors believe this platform is the way forward in the short film industry, and more effective as metaphorically forcing cinema-goers to pay to see a film they might not enjoy. The argument is that short films should be about delivering a message, whether it is political are completely and utterly stupid, directors should not demand money from people to view a piece that is directly from their point of view.

The most popular video-hosting platforms are YouTube and Vimeo. Youtube receives over 200,000,000 viewers a day, so the possibility that someone somewhere will find your short film in the midst of all the video is very likely. Consequently, this makes it easier for a amateur director or actor to get noticed, for free. With 16,000 videos uploaded daily Vimeo also proves to be one of the top video hosting sites. Many directors prefer Vimeo as it has less adverts (come on, YouTube is owned by money mad Google now) and the HD videos tend to load quicker (also why us lovely BRIT school students use it).

One video that went viral-crazy in 2006 was “Kiwi!”. Created by an animation student it was simply uploaded to so that the creator could easily share it with family and friends by simply copying and pasting the link. Again, this illustrates how easy it is for directors to get spotted and accredited through the internet. Since then it has nearly 28,000,000 views on YouTube, so here is the link to it now:

Amazon Askville. http://askville.amazon.com/people-visit-site-youtube-day/AnswerViewer.do?requestId=24481260. Last accessed 4th October 2010.

"La Lettre" - Michel Gondry

Produced in 1998, “La Lettre” is a French piece and has English subtitles, following the journey of a young boy named Stéphane who is in love with his best friend, Aurélie. The short subject also explores the worries that the French society had of a war breaking out in the year 2000. The whole piece is black and white denoting an environment of cold-heartedness and empty of love. The boys brother, Jeromé is extremely forceful and has no remorse for his brothers shyness, and mocks him about the fact he has never properly kissed a girl. Three to four minutes into the piece, and we as the audience make an initial judgement that this is a serious piece exploring themes of war and a home empty of emotiveness.

As the young boy develops the photo he slips into a short sleep and starts to dream about Aurélie.  Gondry illustrates to the audience it is the day before the year 2000 and the environment is a party, it all seems very surreal as the shots are in slow motion. The non-diegetic music has certain circus connotations running through it, introducing comedic tones to the piece. Stéphane now has a camera for a head as Aurélie is walking around the party as a negative print. This is extremely funny and the initial judgements about the film are starting to be challenged. Stéphane goes to kiss his love and the camera head hits her and knocks her out cold. The music stops and this breaks the original judgement that this is a serious piece and introduces humorous tones to the film. The silence of the fall highlights it in an understated way and we as the audience are allowed to laugh out loud to this. Gondry depicts Aurélie falling to the floor in slow motion then the Eiffel tower falling and a conventional war siren alarm ringing, the boy then wakes up. The fact the Eiffel tower falls in a very abnormal and comedy-esque manor, conveys that Gondry believed this conspiracy of war in the new year is somewhat silly and should not be taken seriously.

Stéphane goes to visit Aurélie before she goes on her vacation to receive a letter she wrote for him. The narrative is coming to a conclusion and we are attached emotively with the young boy. The non-diegetic music is very lighthearted, and the audience is brought to the height of suspense within the piece as she hands him the letter. Contrary to initial judgements, Aurélie is in love with Jeromé. As the lighthearted music continues we can assume it is not the end of the world for the young boy, as he slowly tears her pictures from his wall with stroppy written all over his face. 

An emotional Stéphane tears Aurélie's pictures from his wall

This is one of my favorite short films to date as it completely breaks the initial judgements made by the audience. Also, the way Gondry turns such bleak, dark, serious elements within the piece to a laugh out loud simple story is very effective, creating a highly memorable piece. 

Michel Gondry

Born on the 8th May 1963 in France, Michel Gondry is a prestigious film, music video and commercial director. Gondry has also been accredited Academy Awards for Screenwriting. Audiences are familiar with his work due to his noticeable visual style and manipulation of mise en scéne. Gondry is extraordinarily infamous for his music videos: “Heard ‘em Say” - Kanye West, “Fell in Love with a Girl” - The White Stripes and “Around the World” performed by Daft Punk (shown below).

Gondry also allowed the film industry to advance massively. He was the director to invent the technique of several cameras taking pictures in the same time around the subject. This technique was used for the first time in a commercial for insurance and in Bjork’s “Army of Me” video. Although the technique became infamous in the film Matrix (1999 - Bullet Time). Also, Gondry was a pioneer for the morphing techniques which he developed through “Je danse le Mia” (shown below).

“Sometimes it’s better to have less money [for budget] and more freedom” - Michel Gondry

“Every great idea is on the verge of being stupid” - Michel Gondry

LA Shorts Film Festival

Founded by Robert Arentz in 1997, the La Shorts Fest is amidst the largest short film festivals in the world. With more than 250 film screenings per annual festival, the festival lasts a week in the prestigious city of Los Angeles, California. The attendance figures reach up to 8,000 festival goers, consisting of cinema attendees, filmakers and entertainment professionals. The short films are screened and finally selected by a jury panel who then democratically vote on the final nominated film selections, Ben Affleck once appeared on the judging panel. Previous venues the festival has been held at include the Los Angeles Film School, ArcLight Hollywood Cinemas and Laemmle Sunset 5 Hollywood. 

The desired award, the “Best of Fest” winner will receive a Panavision donated film camera package, available for up to four weeks of filming, and valued at roughly $60,000. The award categories are:

• Best of Fest
• Best Drama
• Best Animation
• Best Comedy
• Best Foreign Film
• Best Music Video
• Best Experimental
• Best Documentary
• Best Creative Commercial