3rd Film Competition! Great Prizes!! Fantastic Sponsors!!!

As promised here is the third and by far the biggest film competition I have launched so far. 

Here are the guidelines!

First off it is narrative only. That doesn’t necessarily mean dialogue but it has to have a story. Fiction is the obvious path to take but you can make a non-fiction film.

Secondly, it cannot be longer than 3 minutes. There is no latitude to change that. You will need to be disciplined in this as unlike previous competitions I will have to be firm with this! Sorry!

Thirdly, you cannot use any copyrighted images or music. You must have them licensed or be royalty free or of course be your own compositions…

Fourthly and most importantly is the theme. This is where it gets fun. You have to reference a well known movie in some way in the film and I don’t mean just by having a film poster in shot. A line of dialogue, a style of shot, a plot device…you get the idea. Some sort of homage and you need to explain where this homage is in your film and from which movie it came from. Nothing lame like having a character called Roy because Richard Dreyfuss’ character in Close Encounters was called Roy. Be clever, be inventive, points will be given for that!

Now you can shoot this on anything you want, from your own personal IMAX camera down to your Nokia mobile phone. It’s up to you…completely.

There is also a longer time to make your epic than usual, closing date is March 15th 2009. That’s two months to do it. No excuses, that’s a hell of a lot of time to make a 3 minute short!

Exposure Room will host the competition so if you haven’t signed up already, now is the time to do it. There will also be a group on Vimeo so your films can get extra exposure BUT the official place for entry is Exposure Room. Here is the link the the submissions page. Thanks to Peg Futrell for her help with this. 

Due to some slight irregularities with voting last time I have assembled a judging panel of experts to assess the films and to decide the winner. You can read about all the exciting prizes to be won below!

Hopefully the idea of the film competition, the lead time and the incredible generosity of my sponsors will spur you all on to making some really creative, special short films. It doesn’t matter if you have never made one before or if you have an Oscar for best short. This is open to everyone! 

My generous sponsors have donated the following great prizes!

First off Mike Stevens is donating a Sock Loupe. The hugely popular and ingenious solution for turning LCD camera screens into viewfinders. This is it below and you can read more about it here

Next up is another copy of the quite brilliant Magic Bullet Looks from Redgiant Software. Thanks again to Beth Manning for making this possible!

Steve Weiss, the Zacuto genius and all round nice fella has pledged a Z-American arm and mounts, essential for mounting a monitor onto your rig. Thanks Steve!!

Canada’s Cinevate mastermind, Dennis Wood, maker of the fantastic Brevis 35mm adaptor and now all sorts of AMAZING tools for film making has very generously donated a product that is only just being released. The Proteus glider system

and last but not least, my good friend Hien of the Letus Corporation which strangely enough makes the Letus 35mm adaptor has donated an actual Letus Extreme!!! That’s right the whole adaptor. The thing that I shot most of my short films with, from Piccadilly Furs to The Echo. This is a brilliant tool, a great addition to any film maker’s arsenal. 

So there you have it! Thanks to the incredible generosity of my sponsors you have even more reason to get off your backsides, quit the chat and actually make some great films. I for one cannot wait to see what you all come up with. You will be able to upload to the Exposure Room and Vimeo site within the next week if you somehow manage to get something made that fast. But don’t rush it!

Good luck!

 

Philip Bloom Jan 2009

 

Edit: The prizes will be split into two. Letus Extreme goes to winner awarded by judges panel. The rest go to people’s vote, controlled and monitored and by exposure room. Description of the homage need only be in the accompanying blurb for your film.

 

52 comments

  1. Dear Philip Bloom,

    Thank you for the wonderful Letus gift certificate from your last competition. I look forward to giving you another artistic film. The best part of your competition is the fact you can express your creativity freely amongst the masses of filmmakers in the world. Thank you. I too have started a film festival. Please check it out when you get the chance….www.24hourfilm.com In the last contest our film was called Cinema Verite’ (Cinema of Truth). I can’t wait to tell another type of story this time around. Rodger Benner Jr.

  2. What a great contest! I’m in way over my head but planning to submit a movie. Thank you so much for the opportunity.

    About the theme, must the explanation of the homage and the name of the film be discusses within the movie, or in the description accompanying it?

  3. Great Philip!!

    This lights a fire under my *** to put together one of those shorts I’ve got the footage and stills for. Quality won’t be perfect but it’s the story that counts.

    Thanks for doing this again and thanks to the judges and contributors.

  4. Im in…I have no absolutely no experience in shooting a film or using a camcorder properly let alone making a short, but sod it will give it a go its fun after all

  5. Phillip,

    For the reference example, could we pick out a favorite scene in any movie and act it out? or alter it a little but still have the main point? Would something like that work out well?

    I am a bit confused, Can you give me an example? Thank you

  6. Ben, don’t copy a scene. Influenced by a scene sure, but you shouldn’t do a “be kind rewind”.

    It’s an homage so can be as subtle as having an end shot that is the same as John Wayne walking off into the sunset framed by a door from “The Searchers”

    You could have a short film based around a movie character and give them a new story if you really want to.

    It just need to have some recognizable movie reference that you can explain so it fulfills the criteria for entering.

  7. Hi Phil

    Thanks! 🙂 It would be so amazing to get it made. Imagine that ordinary people using the internet. All my time currently revolves around this screenplay. My next step is to make a very high quality opening three minutes {Already storyboarded} I’d need to find a location, audition actors, then a lighting DP and recordist on board. It’s here of course where money stops play.

    I will try to find time to get something up for the comp though!

    Mark

  8. Hello Philip! This sounds like a lot of fun! I am a huge fan of paying homage to great filmmakers.

    Is this open to the world or just the UK? I’m from Pittsburgh (USA) and would love to make something for this!

    Barry
    The world of course!!!

  9. Phillip,

    would sound effects from my imovie work? I am not using any music, just sound effects. Is that ok? Or do i need a license for that as well?

    Explain what needs to be done to get a song copyrighted or liscensed to use in my short.

    And again, if i have no music, can would sound effects work ok?

    Thank you so much for your time.

    sound effects are fine, garageband, apple pro loops etc all good

  10. Phil,

    Cool contest. You mentioned that you can enter as many times as you like, so I entered 2 films. I could not figure out how to add multiple films for the contest on ExposureRoom, so I had to create a second account using another e-mail address. I hope that I am following the rules. If not, I would be happy to get rid of one of my 2 films (THE ADOPTION and 28 MONTHS LATER).

    Thanks,
    Jason

  11. Hi Phil,

    Getting really excited to submit my project, although the competition looks pretty good! (eek!) 😉

    I was wondering when the official submission deadline is? I know it says midnight of the 15th. Does that mean midnight sunday night? Or is that 12:00AM sunday morning (but Saturday night)?

    Also, what time zone does this refer to? I will be posting from the USA, so would you happen to know the time for east coast people?

    Thanks again for making such a fun contest! I’m looking forward to seeing what people come up with!

    Barry

  12. Hello

    Unfortunately I found your contest 2 days ago…
    What do you think about 1 week extension…
    I need more time for my film. Authority permission… You know…
    We’ll be great to do that for as. Give me a chance.
    Anyway… Your idea with this contest is brilliant!

  13. Hi, Hope its okay that I entered another short film under a different name (Penny Offman) as I couldn’t seem to enter an additional film using my current account. Thanks,
    Neil Dankoff

  14. The weather never cooperated with me for my film. It was ready to shoot by the second week but we waited…and waited. Very frustrating.

    We’re going to shoot it anyway, just for fun. I really appreciate the opportunity given here and want to thank you, Phil, for putting on such a great contest. Best of luck to everyone involved.

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