Yesterday I presented my idea of producing a short art film, influenced by spoken word poetry and motivational type speeches, on the subject of women's position in contemporary western society and how the identity of the feminine often hinders women's personal growth.
I have a green screen available to me to use so as far as aesthetics are concerned I have pictured the film to consist of me, the performer or speaker, sitting in front of a green screen on which can be played another film. The purpose of this film will be to hopefully reinforce the message, whilst providing interesting visuals that will hopefully set this film apart from other short films focused around social comment.
I am eager to make this film worthy of those seen in short film festivals and the ultimate goal would be to enter this film for a position in this type of competition. As suggested by my tutor, I have looked at several film festivals and the entry requirements. This is what I have come up with:
Encounters Festival - accept films under 30 minutes in length from every genre (animation, live action drama, documentary, experimental, music video), and do NOT have a premiere policy. Films must have been completed after 1st January 2013.
Early deadline: 28 March 2014 (films completed in 2013)
Final deadline: 16 May 2014 (films completed in 2014)
London Short Film Festival - website says that LSFF is now closed for submissions, however entries requirements were as:
We accept drama, comedy, documentary, experimental, animation, lo/no-budget, music videos, or a combination of any or all of the above.
Films must be made by UK based filmmakers
Films must be made after September 2011 to be considered for the festival.
We accept films up to 45 minutes in length
London Short Film Festival does not require premiere status
LSFF requires payment for all entries, earlybird deadline being £15, regular deadline £20 and late deadline £25. LSFF also has this to say of lo-budget films: Have you made a film under 5 minutes long for less than £500? Then submit for FREE via our Lo-Budget form. Simply fill it out and send to us along with a DVD copy of your film. Deadline for entries is Friday 30th August.
Other festival to look at include the Kinofilm Festival which is Manchester's International Short Film Festival, the website is currently under construction. Their blog however states: All categories of short film are welcome, fiction, experimental, animation, documentary, student films and music videos. The maximum length is 20 mins (unless agreed in advance with the festival director) and films must have been produced within 18 months prior to the festival dates. ALSO -WOMEN IN FILM – as always in Kinofilm we present a special programme for the best outstanding women filmmakers. You may submit your film to this category if you wish to be considered for the Women in Film programme. (this could be an appropriate category to enter my film!) As with the others, entry fees are applicable but students can enjoy discounted fees. There also appears to be a category '3 Minute Wonders'.
In general, all festivals seem to have similar entry requirements. There doesn't seem to be a specified minimum on length for the films, having said that I can't imagine my film being as short as three minutes which is the shortest category relating specifically to time. If my film is under the five minute time scale I could enter it to the LSFF for no entry fee, but I won't aim to keep my film within this time frame if I believe more time is needed to get my point across.
I am pleased that all the festivals offer really broad entry requirements regarding the type of film you are able to enter. This gives me a lot of scope, ideal as I am yet to nail what kind of visuals or film style I want to incorporate. I haven't made much progression on the visual front yet. I think it's key that the spoken word aspect at least has a vague framework and real direction before I can begin to add imagery to this. I am continuously visiting various moving imagery for inspiration though, a separate post will be made for this.
Aim for the end of the week is to have a basic framework for spoken word.
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