New showcase for Independent movie makers at IFC

[Jason J. Gullickson]

Originally Posted by Marco Leavitt

How did you get listed in the movie database? I didn't know that was possible.

It takes more patience than anything else. First of all, your film has to meet their conditions of "General Public Interest" and "Available to the public". One way to meet this criteria is to have been accepted to a competition or festival, as detailed here:

http://imdb.com/updates/guide/festivals

Then you have to go through the process of submitting the film, which amounts to filling out enormous amounts of form fields and waiting a few months as each bit of info is verified. To get started with this, go here:

http://imdb.com/updates?update=title

(we're still waiting for allot of the info to go through)

[Heath McKnight]

Your movie has to be in film festivals or else IMDb will kick it back.

BTW, I'm a big fan of 3 minute movies, especially a lot of filmmakers are producing these mini-epics at 30-45 minutes these days. Film fests hate those, I've learned (I made a 26 minute short that went nowhere 10 years ago).

heath

[Marco Leavitt]

Sure, I'd rather watch a good 3 minute film than a 27-minute-pile of crap. But there's just not a lot that can be accomplished in a tiny amount of time like that, no matter how well the film is made. I'm not putting down the form. I know writing a haiku can be harder than writing a novel and all that, but I just can't get up a lot of enthusiasm for producing such a short piece. Our current project will likely run a whopping 40 minutes. I know that's festival suicide -- too long for a short, too short for a feature -- but I really believe the story merits it, even if it only ever gets shown locally.

[Jason J. Gullickson]

Originally Posted by Marco Leavitt

I know writing a haiku can be harder than writing a novel and all that, but I just can't get up a lot of enthusiasm for producing such a short piece.

You are dead-on; it takes about 60% of the work to make a three-minute-movie as it does a 20-minute-short, hard to justify if you're not getting much out of it.

We use short films to learn new techniques, test out new technologies, etc. If it turns out to be something we think others might enjoy, we'll show it, send it off to festivals, etc. If that gets us some real credit or street-cred, all the better.

That way we know what we're doing (or at least more so) when we take on a major project, and run less risk of having trouble with new gear, etc.

[Heath McKnight]

http://homepage.mac.com/hmcknight/re...eTheater8.html

Five film fests so far.

heath

[Heath McKnight]

I don't have it up yet, but www.904am.com/3sisters.php (3 Sisters) is a 2:46 short, five film fests, too.

heath

[Josh Brusin]

Originally Posted by Heath McKnight

http://homepage.mac.com/hmcknight/re...eTheater8.html

Five film fests so far.

heath

Woman reminiscing about a failed marriage before hitting the bars?

[Heath McKnight]

Non-linear film about the wife getting ready for the final dinner with her husband.

Interesting take on it, though--I can see that.

hwm

[Jason J. Gullickson]

The competition is open!

They mangled our film transfering it to Flash, so I'm going to blame our rating on that. Now it's fixed, and here's a link for your viewing pleasure...

http://medialab.ifc.com/film_detail.jsp

[Joe Carney]

Originally Posted by Marco Leavitt

I'm curious to know what people think of the shorts that IFC currently carries. It's been years since I've had that channel, but as I recall, their shorts segments were almost without exception, unbearably dull. I remember thinking, who picks these stinkers? Bad, bad, bad. Almost all of 'em. The only one I ever found engaging was "Barrier Control Device," and it was nothing fancy -- just a clever concept with an ironic and humorous ending. (Novel, huh?) Like I said though, I haven't had that channel for a few years. What's the current crop of shorts like? Have they improved? I wonder if maybe this showcase is an attempt to get away from the film school class projects that obviously made up their previous shorts packages. We all know how exciting those generally are.

Marco, they've completely revamped their format. You are right, they used to be something of a staid and very boring channel that didn't even get their content until well after all the other premium channels ran through them.
now..
Better graphics, blocks of themed movies, b horror movies plus the usual 'indy' stuff. They still have the rediculous 'Dinner for 5' segment that proves just how easy it is to waste 30 minutes of everyones time. They also have the independent director interviews among other things.
Overall, they've done a good job and the channel is much more interesting to watch. No more low budget 'artiste' stuff, without selling out. Basically more fun without being shallow. And the shorts have definitely improved.