Portsmouth Screen '07 - Short Film screenings: Call for entries
 

As part of the Portsmouth Screen '07: Film and New Media festival, SHORTS::CUT is looking for short films. For the past two years we have showcased the work of local production talent as part of the Portsmouth Screen: Film and New Media Festival. For 2007, We are looking for entertaining, engaging and thought provoking films in any genre, from drama to comedy, documentary to animation.

The deadline for submissions is 1 October 2007. Films should not be longer than 15 minutes, including credits.

We are now opening two sections: The first is for the filmmakers in the local area. At least one of the principle cast, or the writer, director or producer should reside or study in Hampshire, West Sussex or the Isle of Wight, or the film should have been produced in this area. click here for more infomation.

New for this year, a second section is open to projects from anywhere in the UK or around the World, though we do request that all films be in English or feature English subtitles. Click here for more information.

Alternatively contact port_shorts@yahoo.com.

--------------------------------------

Portsmouth Screen 07: Film and New Media Festival

Shorts::Cut

Absinthe Film
 

I put this together last year for a class. Its a little meditative (slow) but I had fun making it and despite a couple of mistakes, it turned out pretty well
Forbidden Fruit: The Absinthe Drinker
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AZa5ezt2ojI

thanks heres a link to the hd camera BTS pic

http://i199.photobucket.com/albums/a...der/small1.jpg

http://s199.photobucket.com/albums/a...nder/?start=40

Very, very good! Looked like a big budget Hollywood movie to me.

Trailer Up - Pilot Showing in NYC this weekend (Shot with XH-A1)
 

Hey all,

We have the trailer up for Codeword Secret (www.codewordsecret.com). It is half hour TV pilot that was accepted by the New York Television Festival (www.nytvf.com). We are showing this weekend, Sept 7 and Sept 8. The screenings are free if you RSVP on the web site.

We shot it with the Canon XH-A1. I believe that they are going to put the full pilot on line this week, but I don't know for sure.

Check it out and let me know what you think.

Andrea,

Just finished watching the hd version and to recap what I said earlier "flat out fantastic"!!!! I hope you guys win....please keep us updated as to what happens.

I see the 24 infulence in the cinematography which is a great show. I'll be shooting something similar in a few months and the cinematography is going to be 24/borne ultimatum.... Once again man excellent work!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Joe,
I ran across your film on the Spirit of Baraka website. Wanting to comment on the film, I"m glad you posted on this forum about the film.

I want to tell you I was completely enthralled by the film. The imagery is fascinating and the editing and pacing is spot on. The sequence with the trains had my skin shivering, I've watched it over and over again.

I would absolutely love to buy a full resolution DVD or Quicktime clip of this film from you!
Excellent work

A New Hero In Town
 

Hi,
Hope you enjoy our movie: Kid Scorpion!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dVjXzUI788g

Grab your popcorn :)

Oh thank God, it missed the Isle of man and my home town of peel by about 40 miles!
Nice work!

Icin Furgor - my first 'real' short film.
 

This is my latest film in it's first cut! There is still some things to fix so if you let me know about anything you feel should be changed I will very much so consider it!

You need Divx to watch the video I believe, go to divx.com to download the Divx player if you don't have it already.

http://stage6.divx.com/user/Dronex/v...08/Icin-Furgor

Thanks so much,
Justin

Quick comment before watching. Too long. If you want to have any chance festival play you should try to do shorts between 2-10 minutes, max. I suffer from ADD already, so trying to keep up with ANY movie is tough. Short films are worse cause they should be "short." I.e. get to the point quickly, more like an exercise in your potential. That is really why people make shorts. To gain notoriety and possible finance for a feature, since there is no market for shorts, other than the net and festivals, and no money to be made.

Once you get into 15/20/25 minutes you are getting close to feature films, and if you don't have the proper ingredients then you will lose the viewer.

I'm being tough because you are facing probably one of the toughest businesses out there. Try to get everything you want in the movie in less than 10 minutes. I am 100% that it can be done.

22 minutes? I watched the whole thing. It could have been 8.

Thoughts as I'm watching:
You might want to get people other than friends to play adults. There are lots of them around.

Why was everyone about to laugh in each scene?

Why is this so long?

Does that guy only loan his phone to foreigners?

Why does the German pronounce "w"'s like "w"'s and not "v"'s?

Why did he climb the gate at the airport? He had a ticket.

I don't get understand a lot.

Did he just jump?

He's swimming ... with giant fish ... wow.

The end.

What did I just watch? You owe me 22 minutes of my life back.

I thought I would lend my 2 cents. Is it too long? Yes. I actually saw scenes that show the camera wobbling as if it was being paused. You should definitely cut scenes like that down. The character was off screen and the scene could have easily been made shorter.

The entire thing could have been cut down drastically.

With that said, I still enjoyed quite a bit of it and really enjoyed your sense of humour. You also have a good eye behind the camera.

Keep it up! Just learn from your previous work and keep moving forward.

I would even suggest trying to edit this down to 10 minutes and posting it again.

Mike

Well, it looks like I'm cutting it down! I was afraid that it might be too long to keep the viewer's attention. Though I am also sad to have to cut it from how I like it. I feel that chopping it will rush the short film, but coming from three viewers who all agree it's too long, it's too long.

I'll cut it down as much as possible, now that you guys gave me a shot of reality, I am thinking of scenes that may not be needed or shots the can be cut significantly.

This would be a good idea, except finding an adult to play the roles in my films would be quite difficult at the time. I am in Highschool still myself and hiring adults to play parts is not something I can do at the moment. I could use my parents and neighbours... but that would just be really lame.

That's a good point, I think I will cut the scene where the French guy gives him the ticket and instead have the German guy just exit the car right away.

Well it is a comedy. Maybe it's not you're type of humour. I'm going more for ridiculous/peculiar type film, like something similar of Monty Python. Also, the fish are not huge, it's just because they are closer to the camera. I blurred the fish a bit too to make it look like it has depth of field. Maybe it still doesn't look right?

Thanks everyone for the opinions and honesty. I really appreciate it that you took time to watch this (or parts of it) to give me feedback on how to improve it.

Justin

I think we were all conservative about the time. Try to make it 5 minutes or less. Sometimes you gotta kill your babies, and this is one case of the same. ask yourself what is the point of the movie and then just start showing the se scenes that support that. Most people can't get past the first minute or two in any short film. I had a film that was 17 pages of script and ended up being less than 5 minutes. It can be done, and it will be better.