Yep the submission clock has started for 2012′s Vimeo Festival + Awards. The categories have been opened up this time round to include Advertising, Lyrical, Action Sports and Fashion (a DN favourite), all of which could net you a cool $5,000 grant, while the Grand prize once again sits at a hefty $25,000.

There’s a brand new line up of judges – including our animator man-crush, Eran Hilleli – and you have until February 20, 2012 to get your entries in at a cost of $20 (or $5 for Pro/Plus subscribers).

We can’t wait to see you all bring your A-game to the competition.

The 2012 Vimeo Festival + Awards: Submissions now open! from Vimeo Festival + Awards on Vimeo.

MK12 ZeroFilm NYC Open from MK12 on Vimeo.

Part One

I’ve been incredibly quiet on DN this year. Apologies for that, but the reason is I have been studying for my doctorate in cinema and writing a feature screenplay. Let’s just say you aren’t the only people I’ve been neglecting. The past week however saw me leave my relative hermit’s existence to see my short It’s Natural To Be Afraid at the Kerry Film Festival in Ireland, the closest it’s shown to home.

We had heard good things about the festival from filmmaker Declan Cassidy who won there when he was attending one of our last Filmstock festivals, and we leapt at the chance to see the film with the audience there. Justin (director and co-producer) has been on tour with the film for much of the year [MarBelle: including an interview stop here at DN], but this was the first chance myself and producer Steve Clarke had to see it with a crowd, and I was itching to see some shorts and talk to some filmmakers, as I have definitely felt out of the loop.

I arrived on Sunday 30th October, grabbed a quick coffee and then headed straight with the others, who had already been there a day to see some short docs. Of the four two really stood out. Challenging Impossibility, a film by Sanjay Rawal and Natabara Rollosson about spiritual weightlifter Sri Chinmoy. I love the way docs can show the amazing lives of real people you have never heard about and it is a wonderful little film. The best of the session though was Guy Natanel’s Scent of Strawberries. Guy is an Israeli filmmaker and his film is the beautiful story of his 62 year old Mother going to film school and inspiring him to do the same; Guy documents the making of her student project for his student project. It’s much more than a student project though, it is a movie portrayal of family, death, age and perceptions and the catharsis of creative realisation. It was a joy to watch and Guy was at the screening, and the warmth of his personality is reflected in the compassion and humanity of his film.

Challenging Impossibility Trailer from Sanjay Rawal on Vimeo.

The second screening featured a selection of shorts from other festivals, Rushes Soho (a fest we didn’t get into) and Nickel, Newfoundland (a fest we won at). The highlights were Jordan Canning’s realisation of a troubled relationship in animated egg form Not Over Easy which was a local Newfoundland delight. From the Rushes selection the only thing that stood out (and I’m not just being bitter) was the German short Hermann directed by Hana Geissendorfer which was a familiar tale of age and unrequited desire anchored by some nice camerawork and a really strong central performance by Dietrich Hollinderbäumer.

After the screening we went out to dinner, us filmmakers few including Guy and Australian filmmaker Kelly Hucker. Kelly’s film Kwik Fix screened later in the week and we missed it but I have subsequently viewed it and can say it’s a surprisingly ambitious graduation film, full of heart and melancholy. Delicately directed and with strong performances.

A good eat, and some good talk. It felt really good to be a filmmaker talking filmmaking at a festival again.

Monday evening was our screening in the international shorts competition. The film looked and sounded amazing, thanks to some real care from the projectionists Paddy and Niall. Other films that stood out in the session for us were Danaan Breathnach’s Friends of the Earth animation A Love Story…In Milk and the strange and compelling Turkish political film Kirmizi Alarm (Red Alert). Craig Pickles’ Nancy, Sid & Sergio, a rock climbing allegory starring Johnny Harris (This is England ’86) had its moments but a weak opening and a dodgy DVD let it down.

A Love Story… In Milk from Catsnake on Vimeo.

Red Alert – Trailer (2011) from Emre Akay on Vimeo.

From our screening we raced to a special outdoor screening of James Whale’s Frankenstein (it was Halloween after all), projected onto the side of a Windmill. We caught the final few minutes which was good and then headed to a local pub where we caught up with newly arrived screenwriter Paul Fraser (A Room For Romeo Brass, Dead Man’s Shoes) who was presenting his directorial debut My Brothers at the festival. We would miss the screening as we flew back the next lunchtime but Paul invited me to see it close the London Irish film festival instead.

And, following some drinks and some lovely conversation and songs with locals and the dedicated festival team, we walked back to our hotel pleased with how our film had played and been received and having seen some decent work and met some great filmmakers.

Part Two

We knew there were awards for the shorts, and that judges such as Paul Greengrass and Cillian Murphy were presiding, but it still took us by great surprise when we were invited back to the festival for the awards ceremony and told if we could make it back it would be worth our while. The festival supported our costs so we had a good feeling and so, with the blessing of my wife I headed back to Kerry, and the town of Tralee, with Steve unable to travel because of his ill father and Justin out in the States representing the film at the brilliant Indie Memphis fest. Sharing the flight was documentary filmmaker Guy, who also had a good feeling.

Picked up, we headed straight to the ceremony where I was reacquainted with the team and some of the filmmakers I’d bid farewell to not four days before. It was also great to see filmmaker Declan Cassidy there as he was the person who alerted us to the festival in the first place. He was at the festival with his latest short The Bouquet, which I sadly missed. The ceremony unfolded with Guy deservedly confirming his win for Best Documentary for Scent Of Strawberries before heading straight back to London to prepare for the premiere of his new film at the Tricycle Cinema on Sunday. Other awards included Best Animation for Anna Fitzsimmons’ The Life, Death & Suffer Story‘ and Best Irish Short for Bulldog which is a subtle and elegant tale of a young bullied boy and his need but inability to share his trauma. Director Steve Earls was there as was animator Pedro Rivero whose film Birdboy (he co-directed with Alberto Vázquez) received a special mention. Pedro gave me a copy of the film and it’s a haunting and beautifully animated socio-political fable. I personally preferred it to the worthy winner.

The final award of the evening for films was for the Grand Prize; Best Short Film and we won it. It was an honour to receive the award in person. We have had some success with this short, this award was our 6th but it was the first we had all seen with an audience together and the first we could accept in person. The fact it was judged by Paul Greengrass also means a lot to us, a sense of validation on a joyous yet difficult and tempestuous journey.

The film screened beautifully again and the large crowd loved it, they got the nuances and I received some really lovely comments from audience members and attendant filmmakers, which was really heartwarming.

The ceremony ended with the Maureen O’Hara award for achievements in cinema by a woman being presented to Fionnula Flanagan (The Guard, The Others) who described our film as “courageous“. It was amazing to be in the presence of Hollywood royalty in the shape of O’Hara (The Quiet Man, Miracle on 34th Street) and was a wonderful end to proceedings.

After the awards I said goodbye to some filmmakers, had dinner and conversation with others, then headed out to a birthday party at the invitation of co-ordinator Mai and her family. Mai is one of those people that make film festivals so special. Her care for visitors is exemplary and it’s married to a will for her pride in the event, her town and her family to be shared. Being from a large Irish family I felt immediately comfortable and was made to feel like one of the family as we celebrated her brother’s 50th birthday. And the following morning it was her mum and another brother who ensured I got to the airport okay.

The whole team, from director Sarah Smyth down are a credit to Tralee and film festivals and made the whole experience, both parts, so easy, rewarding and so much fun. I can’t wait to go back.

Part Three

On arrival back in England I walked the dog with my understanding wife and then we headed into London for the screening of Paul Fraser’s My Brothers. The film closed the first Irish Film Festival London and is an absolute gem of a film. Beautifully made for a first directorial outing, it’s anchored by beautiful photography and three brilliant performances. I heartily recommend it. And here, following a Q&A with Paul and lead actor Timmy Creed was where my Irish odyssey ended. In perfect fashion.

Some are called, some are chosen but all attempt to work for the greater good of their communities. No it’s not the synopsis for Kick-Ass 2, but rather Michael Barnett’s feature documentary Superheroes which delves into the world of Real Life Superheros across North America. Michael joined us to discuss gaining access to this secretive and camera shy group in our final interview of this year’s London Film Festival.

Truth is just stranger than fiction in this situation.

Showlinks
Superheroes
Superheroes Facebook
Canon EOS 5D

Andrea Segre’s debut feature Li and the Poet tells the story of Shun Li, a Chinese woman working off her debt to a better life in Italy and the forbidden friendship she forms with retired fisherman Bepi. Andrea joined us at the London Film Festival to discuss his move from documentary to fiction and using film to create questions around xenophobia.

I start from the point of view that they are illegal because we decided the world is divided into people who can travel & people who can’t.

Promo – Trailer – Io Sono Li from Jolefilm on Vimeo.

Although I’ve been chasing Robbie Pickering for an interview since seeing his multi-award winning Natural Selection at SXSW, it was the London Film Festival that delivered Robbie for an extended chat, where we spoke about self belief not getting you on the basketball team and the many reasons you shouldn’t believe all the ‘rules’ about Hollywood filmmaking.

Simplicity & concreteness I think is what allows for infinite complexity.

Showlinks
@natselthemovie
Natural Selection Facebook
Red Camera

Alison Bagnall’s The Dish and the Spoon features a woman betrayed, who takes a romantic English teen on her journey through blind rage. Alison and I discuss the creative benefits of forced limitations and why it’s fine to not have all the answers.

I feel like movies are getting better & better because people are not getting into it to make money [...] they’re just really making the movies that they want to make.

Showlinks
The Dish and the Spoon Facebook

I’m pretty sure that Daniel Edelstyn is the only director I met at the London Film Festival this year who’s the rightful heir to a Russian vodka factory. We spoke about connecting with relatives from beyond the grave and working as a film outsider.

I’m still trying to make the world better by using pictures.

Showlinks
How to Re-Establish a Vodka Empire

How to Re-Establish a Vodka Empire Trailer from Daniel Edelstyn on Vimeo.

Based on the famous book Memoirs of My Nervous Illness from German judge Daniel Paul Schreber, Simon Pummell’s feature Shock Head Soul depicts Schreber’s ‘madness from the inside’ through the combined use of live action, expert interviews and animation. Simon and I discussed transmedia and blurring film disciplines into a cohesive whole over tea at the London Film Festival.

Filmmaking’s become one of those things you can dream about even if you’re from outside the magic circle.

Showlinks
Simon Pummell
Shock Head Soul
Canon 5D MKII
Red Camera

Angered by the way he and the rest of us allowed the UK to sleepwalk into the Iraq war, Richard Jobson’s The Somnambulists is a departure for the director which explores the lost lives of 15 service men and women in stark visual style. We discuss collective responsibility and pushing technology and form to serve a story.

It reminded me of being in a punk band again, everything was stripped back & very simple & you weren’t relying on anything other than the performance.

Showlinks
Richard Jobson
Canon 5D MKII
Canon EOS 7D

First up on the Sunday I managed to catch The Whisperer in Darkness. The HP Lovecraft Historical Society is an organisation that seems to have been started for the purpose of live action role playing with a Lovecraftian theme. Since then they seemed to have turned into a mini-industry for the acclaimed horror writer. In 2005 they made their first film, a silent version of The Call of Cthulu. Now they’ve followed it up with another low-budget gem based on the novella of the same name.

University folklore expert Albert Wilmarth (Matt Foyer) is investigating reports of carcasses of bizarre creatures found floating after recent floods in Vermont. He starts receiving letters from a local famer, Henry Akeley (Barry Lynch) describing these creatures haunting his land and harassing the farmer and his son, George (Joe Sofranko).

Wilmarth is fascinated by old legends in a sociological and historical context but is too intellectually detached and cynical to believe the accounts. Wilmarth’s interest grows as the events grow weirder and the evidence gets stronger until eventually Akeley, having apparently made his peace with the phenomena, invites him down to the farm to experience it for himself.

You have £350k. You want to film a science-fiction horror. You want to film a science-fiction horror by an author who is notoriously difficult to adapt successfully. How are you going to pull this off without having the low budget reduce the film to just another schlocky creature feature? The Whisper In Darkness’s trick is that it’s a homage to 1930s science-fiction.

Filmed in black and white and mimicking the pace of the genre, The Whisperer in Darkness builds slowly as we are immersed in Wilmarth’s life of academia. The film’s success lies in its straight-faced approach. Even when laugh-out loud funny, it’s because the deliberately corny dialogue is so in keeping with the period being recreated. It’s faking being dated but in such away that helps rather than hinders the narrative. The first half of the film would feel slow in a different setting, but freed of quick edits and the information overload of modern dialogue, the pace feels relaxed and comfortable.

The supporting cast are clearly having the time of their lives with the script, particularly a malevolently mischievous Stephen Blackehart as the rich kid Charlie Tower who funds Wilmarth’s investigation.

The last act of the film ups the ante with chases and aerial battles that utilise CG effects which seek to resemble authentic models of the monsters rather than realism. This ending is where the film differs most from the source material and whilst first time director Sean Branney doesn’t quite pull it off you have to admire the audacity when a less ambitious climax would have felt more even. It’s far more fun to watch the filmmakers ignoring common sense and come up with something memorably absurd.

In fact the whole film is one gloriously stupid idea. So stupid it’s hard not to be won over.

In his debut feature The Waves (Las Olas), director Alberto Morais explores the conversations we have with history and ourselves through his lead character Miguel’s (Carlos Alvarez) journey into his past. We spoke to Alberto at the London Film Festival about shooting a film which merges the present with memory.

I respect the locations as characters because I think the locations explain a lot about the characters.

In the fifth feature from Spanish director Fernando León de Aranoa, a woman must reconcile dignity with personal necessity after forging a difficult friendship with the elderly, bedridden Amador. We caught up with Fernando at the London Film Festival to discuss his background as a writer and why his characters are his friends.

You have the music of the lines in your head & you wrote that so many times that you’re expecting to listen to that music finally on the set.

Named as one of Filmmaker Magazine’s 25 New Faces of Independent Film, director Mark Jackson has crafted a perfectly balanced portrait of a young woman balancing on the edge of sanity, whilst drowning in the depths of grief in his feature debut Without.

A lot of it is people watching and projecting ideas and backstory on strangers.

Showlinks
Without
Without Facebook
@withoutmovie

After discovering a cache of nearly 85 hours of pristine 16mm film shot by Swedish news reporters documenting the evolution of the Black Power Movement in the black community, director Göran Hugo Olsson brought together contemporary commentators and musicians to bring the material to life and so create The Black Power Mixtape 1967 – 1975. We sat down with Göran at the London Film Festival to discuss the importance of music in his work and why documentary filmmakers should dig in their own backgardens.

This is not a film about the black power movement, it’s a film about how it was perceived in Sweden.

Showlinks
The Black Power Mixtape 1967 – 1975
Black Power Mixtape Soundcloud

The Black Power Mixtape 1967-1975 from Story AB on Vimeo.

In the first of our London Film Festival interviews we sit down with director Nick Brandestini to discuss his feature documentary Darwin; a look at an isolated community of 35 residents who live at end of a weathered road in Death Valley, California.

When we saw there was a ghost town called Darwin, we thought ‘Perfect’! It doesn’t get any better than that.

Showlinks
Darwin
Sony PMW-EX3

Darwin – Trailer from Darwin Documentary on Vimeo.

LFF may have been in full swing for four days already, but I still have a wish list of films I’m dying to see. The undisputed “I will kill someone if I miss it” film is the return of Lynne Ramsay with her adaption of Lionel Shriver’s dark novel We Need to Talk About Kevin; really, I’ve been counting the days until I could see Ramsay return to the big screen after The Lovely Bones was butchered from under her.

(Almost) equally high on my to watch list is Alps from Yorgos Lanthimos (whose strange Greek family drama Dogtooth topped my best of 2010 list), Andrea Arnold’s take on Wuthering Heights and Werner Herzog’s death row documentary Into the Abyss: A Tale of Death, A Tale of Life.

I’m also keeping an eye out for Uncle Kent, the latest from Nights and Weekends director Joe Swanberg and am really intrigued to see how Azazel Jacobs has made the jump from his childhood home in Momma’s Man, to his new John C Reilly comedy-drama Terri. It goes without saying that Steve McQueen’s unabashed Shame would be part of this list if I wasn’t already reeling from Friday’s press screening!

So there we have it, a few hints of the path I hope to take through LFF this year and hopefully there’ll be many interesting diversions along the way. Regardless, I’ll be sure to let you know just where I end up.

onedotzero_adventures in motion 2011 preview from onedotzero on Vimeo.

As usual it was pretty easy for El Vez and I to pick our favourites from the last year, unfortunately cutting that list down to a realistic length for three nights of screenings was much more of a challenge. As always there’s a healthy mix of styles and genres and I’d like to thank all the filmmakers for their generosity. I plan to buy each and everyone of them a beer this weekend whether they make it or not – I’m happy to drink in your honour guys!

Speaking of which, team DN will be at Reading all weekend so drop us a tweet – @WeAreDN, @MarBelle or @kung_fuelvis – if you’d like to say hello or let us know what you think of the selection – you can click on the posters for timings.

For those of you not packing wellies at the moment, turn up your speakers and watch the trailer for the screening; you can also catch all of the shorts by following the links below.

Reading & Leeds 2011 Shorts Trailer from Directors Notes on Vimeo.

__________

Butterflies – Sandro Miller
Butterflies’ is a visual experiment behind the psychopathology of our subject, portrayed by John Malkovich.

Chainsaw Maid 2 – Lee Hardcastle
A sexy French maid fights the living dead.

Chatter – Leo Resnes
Liz launches Chatter and opens a window to a world, where the rules have changed forever.

cows & cows & cows – Cyriak
Surreal bovine choreography.

Cutters – Ahmet Serif Yildirim
Cutters design, cutters materialize. They’re the creators of their own unique worlds. And while making their own, they destroy the worlds of others. By cutting off pieces from them.

DOM: Melbourne – Florian Malak
Music promo for DOM’s Melbourne.

DOM: Rewind – Florian Malak
From LUX girl to…

The Giants Episode 1: Army – Celine&Yann
A Giant wants to be friendly with a little girl.

The Giants Episode 2: Sun – Celine&Yann
The story of The Giant Sun and his lost ray beam.

The Giants Episode 3: Cloud – Celine&Yann
A lonely cloud goes to the beach….

Hello, I Like You – Mixtape Club
What better way to express our happiness than to distill the essence of our craft, to serve up a creamy shot of artistic espresso?

Kerry – Maria Cortese
Kerry has built herself a reputation and is regarded as one of the ‘popular’ girls at school. Sleeping with any boy who makes advances, drinking and smoking are common activities to Kerry all because she has no one at home to care for her, causing her to yearn attention from anyone, no matter how bad it is.

Lovefield – Mathieu Ratthe
Lovefield combines elements of HORROR, SUSPENSE and DRAMA to create a story that takes the audience on a roller coaster ride of emotions.

Mixtape – Luke Snellin
Ben spends his time listening to his Dad’s old 70′s vinyl and making mixtapes on an old double deck tape recorder. He makes a tape to try and woo the girl next door, Lily, the girl of his dreams.

One Minute Puberty – Alexander Gellner
Puberty, the fun and exciting times you had with pimples, uncontrolled new powers, and a thousand things you tried out for the first time.

Path of Blood – Eric Power
When a lone samurai sets his course towards the path of blood, unknown dangers and terror awaits. Will his great swordsmanship be enough to survive the treacherous demon lord and his minions?

Play – Ahmet Serif Yildirim
Who really makes the music?

Röyksopp: The Drug – that go
Röyksopp The Drug music promo.

Soft – Simon Ellis
When a father and son are independently terrorised by the same gang of youths, Dad is forced to deal with fears that he hasn’t had to face since leaving school, rediscovering his fear of confrontation at the worst possible time.

Steel Life – Mateusz Zdziebko & Patryk Kizny
“Steel. Calm, cold, solid, rigid and unchanged. Life. Fast, emotional, harmful and responsive. Have you ever wondered what would the world look like if all objects around got alive? Discover the world of steel and hardware, driven by music and inspired by humanity.

Table 7 – Marko Slavnic
A couple on the brink of a breakup has an intimate conversation in a restaurant, unaware that their every word is being closely monitored. However, not all is as it seems.

Ten for Grandpa – Doug Karr
David Karr: husband, father, White House press reporter, film producer, powerful millionaire, defense contractor, corporate CEO… Soviet agent? A fast-paced look at the life of a most influential ancestor.  Ten for Grandpa’s narrator tries to decipher if Grandpa was a manipulative antihero or simply a victim of a McCarthy witchhunt.

Terminal Bar: Porters, Bouncers, and Bartenders – Stefan Nadelman
Stefan Nadelman returns to his father’s time at the Terminal Bar to tell the stories of the Porters, Bouncers, and Bartenders.

The Black Dog’s Progress – Stephen Irwin
A series of flipbooks tell the sad story of the Black Dog.

The BS of D: Toughest Skin – Niles Heckman
Official music video for The BS of D’s Toughest Skin

The Cyclotrope – Tim Wheatley
Around the hub and rim are dancing loops, tiny cycling figures and breaking waves made of paper and wire and plastic and all seemingly possessed by magic. This is the Cyclotrope.

Train of Thought – Leo Bridle & Ben Thomas
In a world made entirely out of paper, the wistful drawings in a man′s sketchbook are brought to life by the rhythm of a train journey….

Tune for Two – Gunnar Järvstad
An execution takes an unexpected turn…

Wowie – Craig Webster & Florina Titz
Wowie, a delusional postman, spies on his love interest, Carina, while she does an aerobics routine. Later at a party he delivers an awkward performance involving spandex and hip-thrusts to impress her.

Y2GAY – Dan Ilic & James Pender
We all remember how bad Y2K was. Well reinforce your doors and stock up your bunker, because it’s happening all over again. The gays are getting married, and Mick is convinced that everything will change for the worse. There’s always something to be scared of and this year it’s Y2GAY.

Your Lucky Day – Dan Brown
A megaball drawing sends a convenience store spiraling out of control.

Person Pinball- 2011 Animation Block Party ‘Outro’ from aaron hughes on Vimeo.

BAFTA nominated as it is, sitting down to Michael Pearce’s Rite, the thought did cross my mind that short film wasn’t in desperate need of another story of an estranged father attempting to connect with his son, but only a couple minutes into it’s 17 minute running time I’d decided if that was the case, it could do without one of the others because Rite certainly deserved to represent the category.

Pearce’s script is sparse on dialogue and the evils of exposition – a simple “You’ve done well for yourselves,” coupled with a nervous meeting, complete with onlooking mother is plenty to clue us into the fact that father and son are strangers, if not the why of the situation. There’s also a subtle progression of sympathy shift away from father Mike; I initially felt sorry for a guy trying, and failing, to make his son’s birthday special, then through Martin Herdman’s at moments violently explosive performance, came to the realisation that my sympathy was misplace and what the likely reason was for the existence of distance between the two.

Rite deservedly took the Long Form win, I couldn’t find any embeddable clips for the film but cinematographer Benjamin Kracun has a clip on his site you can take a look at.

Hermann is 67 years old and lonely. He does have Gloria – but she is only a budgie. Then he meets Jörg. So summarises the plot of Hana Geissendorfer’s Hermann, which (especially when stacked up against its fellow finalists) feels a little thin on the ground storywise and in desperate need of a duration pruning, especially as at 26 minutes it runs the longest of the three, yet provides the least amount of payoff. There was a point where I thought Hermann was going to fully run with the idea of a love saboteur budgie, which could have potentially added to the proceedings, but instead Hermann (and I) just ended up right back where we’d both began.

Do I have to make the obvious metaphor of tensions building like a pressure cooker fit to bust in Ariel Kleimanthe’s submerged submariners short Deeper Than Yesterday? If I did, I could also point out that those tensions ran across both sides of the camera, with Kleimanthe stating that after filming his Victorian College of the Arts graduation short, the crew “didn’t want to talk to me” (Brad Blanks Sundance interview). Luckily for us, these tensions were honed and distilled in to a taut story of men devolving in the ocean depths.

After three months submerged underwater, the men have become savages. Oleg fears that losing perspective may mean losing himself.

Cinematographer Peter Eastgate effectively translates the physical confines of the submarine, without limiting the film’s visual appeal, while Albert Goikhman puts in a fine performance as Oleg, the lone soul concerned with the disconnect between who they were when they set sail and who they may become by the time they return to their families. The men have so lost themselves within the tiny confines of the submarine that when they discover a ‘miracle’ it becomes a regressive, rather than redemptive moment for all except Oleg. Deep Than Yesterday is a powerful piece of filmmaking that taps into the very nature of man when left unchecked.

DEEPER THAN YESTERDAY- trailer from Ariel Kleiman on Vimeo.

Director Calum Macdiarmi’s film Worship heavily bears the fingerprints of his background in both art and advertising, which is no bad thing when it results in images this richly charged. As Macdiarmi states on his website, he’s a director “concerned with the aesthetics of beauty, light, and liquid,” experimenting with “new techniques to create new effects.”. That isn’t to say that Worship is a structureless, free form Jazz session of a film, based on psychotherapist Dr Derry Macdiarmid’s book A Century of Insight, the short explores the concepts of God, dreams and the the collective unconscious. The dreamlike flow of images makes Worship ripe for personal interpretation and identification which may have been a factor in it’s win of the Newcomer award.

If the still wasn’t enough of a warning here’s a heads up that the clip below is NSFW:

Clip from the film WORSHIP by Calum Macdiarmid from Calum Macdiarmid on Vimeo.

I personally found, Billy Lumby’s God View to be my favourite of the not just the Newcomers but possibly of the entire festival. Following estranged father Philip as he makes his way through the streets of Hackney, East London to his daughter’s birthday party, what initially appeared to be an effective framing of our protagonist and the couple below his balcony, is soon revealed to be the predominant ‘God view’ shooting style of the film.

Unlike the floaty, out of body observation of a film such as Enter the Void, Lumby and Director of Photography Brett Turnbull’s actor linked camera rig from Tony Hill, enables the action to remain a tactile presence onscreen despite our unusual vantage point – not dissimilar to Requiem for a Dream’s SnorriCam. Rig removal was performed by students at CG academy Escape Studios, but for the eagled eyed of you out there (sorry pun intended), Lumby includes an ‘Easter Egg’ shot in the final film (and trailer below) which briefly shows the rig in action.

It feels like a strange compliment to pay an actor whose performance is largely silent and witnessed from the top of his head, but Cornell S John nails Philip’s progression from silently scary to deranged. If you only manage to track down a single film from Rushes Soho Shorts this year (which frankly would be pitiful), God View should be it.

god view – trailer from Billy Lumby on Vimeo.

Originally created by London directors Dan Blacker, John Addis and Matt Bowron under the moniker Tactful Cactus for the Reed.co.uk Love Mondays Film competition, Starcrossed is the story of a lonely scientist’s quest to discover the correct equation to allow him to meet the girl of his dreams.

The team shot Starcrossed over two weekends in and around London, then went to ground for a month to create the film’s many animated elements. As a purely visual piece the effects are well integrated, although the story comes off as more than a little muddled. Initially, I thought the girl was metaphoric for a meteor the scientist was attempting to plot and observe, but then the film’s tagline; Romeo and Juliet for the Twitter generation, Starcrossed tells the story of one couple’s quest to see one another, would seem to suggest otherwise, which leaves the overall film feeling a little too whimsical for me.

Starcrossed from Tactful Cactus on Vimeo.

If you happen to be a kick ass filmmaker/photographer working “in media such as video, 8 to 35mm film, 2D and 3D animation, Stop Motion, photography, illustration, painting, screen printing, sculpture, collage, knitting, holograms, and more…”, and are launching a side project as a musician under the guise of Woodkid, who on earth could you trust to create a video to turn heads? Yoann Lemoine of course, being as he’s you and all.

I was thinking of how best to describe the monochrome, heroic fantasy epic that is Iron and the only word that truly fits is audacious. It’s a promo that feels epic in nature yet never overblown. Now we’re in between Game of Thrones series, I think Lemoine should fill the gap by expanding the adventure of Iron into a full video album.

Woodkid – Iron from WOODKID on Vimeo.

Grey backdrop aside, Peter King and David Procter’s (Agenda Collective) promo for new Matador signings Esben and The Witch’s, Marching Song (which caught our eye back in August) is a completely different beast. The duo introduce us to the band by straight cutting from individual head and shoulders shots of the band members, but with them suffering increasingly severe injuries on each go round as they lip sync through the track. It’s an as simple as can be concept – the only ‘flash’ elements being the shadows and lights playing across the band’s faces – but it’s one that’s a captivating match for Marching Song’s bleak melody.

You could be forgiven for thinking that Marching Song holds more than a passing resemblance to The Scaramanga Six Walking Through Houses promo which predates it, but in the comment discussion over on Promo News, King asserts that the band came to him and Procter with the concept after being inspired by a Women’s Aid domestic violence awareness campaign. In fact Paul Morricone, director of The Scaramanga Six promo weighed in to point out that their promo had itself been inspired by a poster campaign about abuse towards bus/rail drivers. I guess a good idea is a good idea.

Esben and the Witch – Marching Song (Official Video) from David Procter on Vimeo.

Greasy spoons, caravan sites, grey skies, terraced backstreets, bordered-up shops, empty seaside towns and their inhabitants…

Researched for over a month and shot on a mix of Canon 5D and 7D cameras with the addition of a 24mm tilt-shift lens, Aoife McArdie’s Rushes Soho Shorts Music Video winner Isles for Little Comets, gives us a warm three minutes of what it’s like to feel at home on this island of ours; “It’s a film about British Idealism and loss.“

The ultimate praise that any promo director can hope to hear is that their images surpassed the original track by turning you around on a song you had little affection for beforehand, and after watching McArdie’s interpretation of Isles (a song I thought average at best) I’ve caught myself humming the tune whilst replaying her images in my head. Damn you McArdie!

Little Comets ‘Isles’ from Aoife McArdle on Vimeo.

Not many people can say they found their true calling in life after watching The Legend of Bagger Vance, and I’m pretty sure only one can claim the film led to a celebrated career as a professional golfer following a motorcycle accident which took his left leg.

To pull directly from the short synopsis of Peter Montgomery’s Manuel de los Santos, the film is ‘a documentary portrait of inspirational golfer Manuel de los Santos‘. Simple and to point right, but unfortunately that’s exactly what can be said about the film itself. Clocking in at a slender 3:48, Montgomery gives us interviews of Santos discussing his lucky discovery of the game post-accident, intercut with 5D footage of him on the range. To be fair there is a beautifully lit, slo-mo Weisscam shot of Santos’ unique swing which builds throughout (the struck tee spinning through the air looks great), but when it finally pays off I felt sure we’d be hit with the Nike swoosh and ‘Just Do It‘ tagline.

Santos was on track to becoming a professional baseball player, having trained from a young age in his native Dominican Republic: Was it difficult to let go of that dream? Was it hard becoming accepted in to the sport as a disabled black man? How did he develop his famous swing with only able bodied trainers couching him? None of these (or any other) questions are raise or answered, which makes Manuel de los Santos not so much a documentary, but more of an EPK in need of a sponsor.

Manuel de los Santos from Peter Montgomery on Vimeo.

Before I say a single word about Benjamin Wigley’s playful documentary about the mysterious, unwrapped objects Nottingham fashion designer Paul Smith has been receiving through the post for the past 20 years in PS Your Mystery Sender, I have to do the honourable blogger declaration and point out that Ben’s been a personal friend for many years and sometime writer here at DN. OK, now that’s out of the way CONGRATS ON THE WIN BEN! *cough* If I could just regain my composure long enough to say that Ben takes what could have been a straight forward ‘show and tell’ piece to camera and weaves in flights of poetic fancy (voiced by Benjamin Zephaniah), alongside surreal reconstructions to add depth to the unsolvable mystery of Smith’s random objects.

Take a listen to our PSYMS interview with Ben.

Here’s the trailer for PS Your Mystery Sender:

PS Your Mystery Sender: Trailer from Benjamin Wigley on Vimeo.

and some exclusive clips Ben let us have:

Created through the Diesel New Voices scheme, I first heard about Orlando von Einsiedel’s Skateistan: To Live and Skate Kabul when Danni returned from the Underwire festival raving about it. As a piece of documentary film Skateistan hits all the right notes of a great documentary, taking something I felt very familiar with (skateboarding), placing it in a new, unfamiliar context (Kabul, Afghanistan), to reveal truths which aren’t immediately apparent. Skateistan is a film which makes me believe that hope will always exist, even in the must unlikely or grim places, plus the lush cinematography of young hijab wearing girls, skating through ravaged streets is a potently positive image that will stay with me for a long time to come.

SKATEISTAN: TO LIVE AND SKATE KABUL from Diesel New Voices on Vimeo.

On 8/8/08 the Russian Air Force commences bombing Georgian villages. People flee to the Georgian capital, Tbilisi. The fastest way to get to Tbilisi is via Gori. George Barbakadze’s dramatic short Via Gori is the taut tale of a Russian woman and her young daughter making this dangerous journey out of a country under attack, in a minibus full of Georgian women and children. Tensions increase and nerves become stretched as the bombing nears and our fleeing duo attempt to hide their nationality from their fellow travellers. Goga Devdariani’s cinematography is at its best in the claustrophobic setting of the bus, as we not only get to feel every bump of the bus from the well travelled road and every rattle of the bodywork from each nearby explosion, but every inquiring eye suspiciously monitoring this frightened mother and child.

A ridiculously short extract:

The wedding day should be one of the happiest days of your life, although not every wedding day involves being hit by a car and reincarnated as a cockroach. With his dying breath the groom promises to return to bride, a promise she is never expecting him to fulfil, especially as one of the most hated pests in the world. A mixture of live action and animation (imagine a darker version of Roger Rabbit) Luke Eve’s Cockroach is one part Fluke, one part Honey, I Shrunk the Kids and one part Franz Kafka’s The Metamorphosis (there’s a combination I never thought I’d use!). Taking a cartoon approach with the reincarnated cockroach ensured that not only was Eve’s film not in danger of becoming deadpan, but also allowed Ian Dodman and his team to add character to their lovestruck insect. The result is a likeable character and although his quest might seem ultimately doomed, Charlie the cockroach become a protagonist we can encourage in his mission.

If you do get to see Cockroach anytime soon, make sure you admire the imaginative opening titles from Richard Swan and Liz Ellis, They’re some of the best I’ve seen on a short film in quite a while.

There’s also a documentary looking at the making of Cockroach:

With it’s world premier at this year’s South by Southwest festival, Owen Trevor’s Two Laps is “currently going round the film festival circuit to great acclaim“. Combining vivid cinematography and eccentric comedy, this tale of two friends and their highly competitive annual swim race is a short to be worshipped and admired. With the rare mix of absolute engagement, complete watchability and an utter admiration of craft, I dare anyone not to enjoy this playful short. Aesthetically, Hugh Miller’s cinematography couldn’t help but remind me of Jason Wingrove’s Sea Pool at times, but where that more serious documentary stuck to one visual tone, Trevor’s whimsical short flicks between styles with consummate ease. Shot on multi-formats, 35mm, 16mm, DV Cam and Mini DV, the quirky feel of Two Lap’s appearance perfectly compliments the joviality of the story.

Two Laps was the deserved winner of the International Award at the festival, click on the image below to watch film at www.passionraw.com

A rough version of Two Laps can be found on Vimeo, but it doesn’t have the same vigour as the longer, polished festival version:

Two Laps from Nicole Bou-Samra on Vimeo.

Having worked in the animatronic’s department on huge feature productions such as Clash of the Titans, Hellboy II: The Golden Army and Where the Wild Things Are you’d expect big things from John Nolan’s Nolan’s Nuts and it doesn’t disappoint. Compared to the scale of the full length productions he’s been involved in, Nolan’s Nuts is a modest creation, telling the meagre tale of a squirrel on the hunt for its favourite snack. It’s the production values that impress here as you can see the craft and skill that’s gone into the realisation of the hero of this tale, the animatronic squirrel is full of personality and character and ends up winning our hearts and earning our laughs in this darkly comic ad.

Nolan’s Nuts is the sequel to the equally enjoyable Nolan’s Cheddar.

With two films shortlisted in this category, Nexus Productions creative duo Smith & Foulkes have obviously found a winning formula for their work. Their first shortlisted ad was The Chase (featured on DN back in January), a frantic pursuit to advertise Intel’s new Core i5 processor. Using a dynamic mix of live action and animation, Smith & Foulkes used every trick in the action movie book and got some hot insider tips from their DOP, Oliver Wood, of Bourne trilogy fame, to create this thrilling spot. Adam and Alan bring the full force of their animation directing expertise to the piece, with the action taking place in a series of software windows which open at full pelt (synopsis). The Chase almost seems like the perfect advert for it’s product; it’s clever, it’s fast and it’s ahead of its game, if this doesn’t appeal to the kind of people that are impressed with a computer processor then I don’t know what will! Hitting the mark on so many levels, it’s no surprise The Chase walked away with the top prize last night.

The second film from the Smith & Foulkes duo is Unpredictable Life, a mesmerizing mix of volumetric lighting and magical particles, that combine sumptuously to create the magical world in which their spot unfolds. The main premise of the ad, is that life is an unknowable journey and we follow the central character as he travels his own individual path of existence, experiencing the ups and downs of life upon the way, we realise what better way to make this trip than in a Honda Jazz. It’s a concept that’s been done before, ‘life is unreliable, make sure you’re car isn’t', but I think this is the first time it’s been realised with such artistry and panache.

With a style reminiscent of early Micky Mouse, but a story more similar to Ralph Bakshi’s Fritz the Cat, Againstallodds’ Aides Smutley film takes a horny cat and plays with his nine lives to cleverly illustrate the importance of protected sex. Humping his way across our screen in a comic manner, there doesn’t seem to be anything our frisky titular feline wouldn’t try to have unprotected sex with, but behind this highly amusing piece lies a well delivered, serious message. Concluding with the caption “He’s got nine lives, you’ve only have one, protect yourself“, directors Againstallodds have produced a hugely watchable piece, that manages to not take itself too seriously whilst still packing just enough punch to slam it’s message home.

The Coca-Cola brand is one which is recognised throughout the world and here the ad spot Siege carries on their all conquering image, by showing how Coke will overcome all that stand against them. At its simplest this is a story of good and evil (Coke obviously being on the side of good), piggy backing on the increasing popularity of the Lord of the Rings style films and MMO (Massively Multiplayer Online) games such as World of Warcraft, Siege is the story of a castle under attack from a clan of Orc-like creatures and their fire-breathing dragon. Nexus Productions Fx & Mat have created a hugely impressive piece of CGI with Siege and the intricate attention to detail throughout means it will standout against the majority of ads on our screen. However, the Coca-Cola brand and the slogan “sometimes a little happiness is the most effective weapon” just makes it all feel a little too…nice. Surely if that was the Dragon’s first Coke he would gone on a sugar fuelled rampage, burning flesh and snapping bones and generally making this ad a much darker and more interesting piece (although probably not exactly the image Coca-Cola were aiming for!).

Tobias Eiving & Ulrika Axen (collectively know as Koja) creators of the final spot, Earth Lovers, have tapped into the conscience of the Body Shop audience by creating an ad made to appeal to people who really care about the world we live in. With captions suggesting how “Earth Lovers” love to save the planet (travelling together, growing their own), a natural feeling palette and cute animal characters, Koja would appear to have recognised the key qualities of the Body Shop identity and translated them into elements of their film. However, Earth Lovers truly succeeds when you consider its methods of production, made from recycled materials, this stop motion seems to be the perfect calling card for a brand who rely on their Eco-friendly image.

The Body Shop – Earth Lovers from Koja on Vimeo.

Michael Davies’ Love at First Sight may have a plot that feels all too familiar (think Groundhog Day meets 50 First Dates), but a new twist on an old story makes his heartwarming short feel fresh and rewarding. A story of love at first sight set in a retirement home, you know you’re about to witness something pretty special in the world of short film when you spot John Hurt in the opening titles.

Director Davies made his name directing a range of TV series’ including Oz and James Drink to Britain and Tracy Beaker Returns, but he introduced himself to the short film community with his hugely popular 2008 short What’s Virgin Mean?, which has already clock up over 1 million hits on YouTube.

Peter Szewczyk’s imaginative ColourBleed stemmed ”from a memory that the director had of his uncle performing a bit of home surgery, after an accident at a factory“, and developed into an aesthetically pleasing film showcasing the flair of the director and his team. With 67 visuals effects shots throughout its short duration, this is definitely a film reliant on its post-production, but where the film shines in some areas it feels stunted in others. An annoying soundtrack and some average acting ultimately resigns what could have been a breathtaking short into somewhat of a disappointment, leaving you with the lingering feeling of what could have been.

ColourBleed | Trailer from Peter Szewczyk on Vimeo.

If effects driven pieces are your cup of tea, then Szewczyk’s Dark Clouds, a short he made in his “spare time while working on the films Avatar and 2012“, might be something you’ll enjoy.

Dark Clouds | Short Film from Peter Szewczyk on Vimeo.

 

Chris O’Dowd, writer of the final shortlisted film in the Short Film Award made his name in the hugely popular Channel 4 series The IT Crowd before venturing into Hollywood to star in the likes of Dinner For Schmucks, Gulliver’s Travels and Bridesmaids. Director Peter Cattaneo’s Capturing Santa takes us back the earlier days of O’Dowd’s life when he had a bladder problem and an irrational fear of Santa Claus. Full of period detail and a great performance from Robert Donnelly as the young Chris, Cattaneo’s short is a real crowd pleaser, a dark comedy which manages to leave its viewers with that feel good factor.

]]>