Tuesday, February 14, 2012

Saluting Shorts

In my opinion, challenge no. 7 (write and direct your own short film and submit it to a film festival) is by far the most ambitious. This one has been looming over me for quite some time, and though I have some ideas floating around in my head, I needed some inspiration. So a few days ago I went to the IFC Film Center to watch the Oscar Nominated Live Action Shorts to get an idea of how high the bar is set.

I thought all five films were strong, though I wasn't blown away by any of them either. Here are nominees (you can read up on each of them here):











My pick: Tuba Atlantic. What I think the Academy will go for: Raju. Best use of a time machine: Time Freak.

For me the challenge of this challenge is not writing a good story. I have enough practice doing that on a daily basis. Where it gets hairy is bringing that story to life. Each of these films had a crew of fifty+ people working to make them great. I have to write a script that's good enough to peak the interest of DPs, editors, actors, sound engineers, etc. and make them want to be involved.

Think I can do it? I guess we'll have to wait and see.

2 comments:

  1. while your goals are ambitious (not surprising), there are film festivals that are a bit more DIY if you want to go that way. we have a 24hr film festival in asheville. you find out the topic, have about 3-5 team members (i think?), and have 24 hours to come up with a short. so maybe you can go this route?

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    1. I didn't think about that. 24 and 48 hour competitions are definitely an option. I want to write a good script first and see how far I can get it to go before I go that route. But thanks for bringing it to my attention. That might be what I end up doing.

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