Mobile Phone Camera Film Festival Competition
|
|
TALKING MONEY MAKER: One Minute Mobile Camera Films Net Winners £12,500
In A New Media Minute: Future of Films?
by Bryn V. Young-Roberts
Spielberg and Bay may have massive film crews and colossal budgets under their command, but at least filmmaking and distribution is no longer the exclusive reserve of industrialised practice. The Mobile Film Festival held in France earlier this month set out to prove that these days all you need is a mobile phone and some creativity. Held at the L’arlequin cinema, Paris, this year attracted 380 submissions, more entries than any previous festival. The winning film received a cheque for €15,000 (£12,500) and, more importantly, an opportunity to direct a short film for broadcast on French television. The rules for admission are simple – Your film must be shot on a mobile phone camera, and it must not be longer than one minute in duration.
While it seems easy enough to do, bear in mind that competition is fierce. ‘Filmmaking is a knowledge, experience, a technique’ says Bryno Smadia, one of the event’s organisers, ‘so we don’t want to have this point of view of ‘’Okay you have a mobile, you can be a filmmaker.’’ No! You have to work a lot to get results of film quality’. Since mobile phones are very limited on the technical front, filmmakers have to concentrate even more on telling a story. ‘One minute long is very important because to make a good one minute film you have to think of it very well, write the story, write the dialogue and make it as intense as one minute can offer you’ explains Smadia. He also believes that the competition embodies a true democratic spirit as ‘shot with a mobile… everybody is equal’ allowing for the majority of the world’s 5 billion mobile phone users to be eligible to compete with equipment they already own.
Although mobiles have become accepted forms of footage recording within the news media, some say the film industry has not yet learned to appreciate it. British actor Nathan Willcocks starred in last year’s winning film, A Long Sadness, an intense drama about a couple discussing which dress the girlfriend should wear, that reveals disturbances within the relationship. The film led to a big budget television movie for both Willcocks and its director. ‘People in this business are so cynical’ claims Willcocks, ‘they say ‘’so you’ve just made a movie on a mobile phone? What is that all about??’’ and a year later, having made a film with a budget of €150,000 (£125,000), which is a fair amount of money, their saying ‘’well this is a great idea! This is superb what you’ve done’’ ‘.
This year’s winner, Benjamin Busnel, made a love story that took place in a lift, a couple falling in love and splitting up all within the minute between the doors closing and opening again! ‘I already had this idea of a lift with two people in it, cramped together’ confesses Busnel, ‘I thought to myself, maybe I could try and make everything happen within one minute. The major issue with filming [was] how to choose the timing of the lift so it was one minute, we had to choose the right floor!’
Festival organisers are currently considering a future event to take place in London.
Spielberg and Bay may have massive film crews and colossal budgets under their command, but at least filmmaking and distribution is no longer the exclusive reserve of industrialised practice. The Mobile Film Festival held in France earlier this month set out to prove that these days all you need is a mobile phone and some creativity. Held at the L’arlequin cinema, Paris, this year attracted 380 submissions, more entries than any previous festival. The winning film received a cheque for €15,000 (£12,500) and, more importantly, an opportunity to direct a short film for broadcast on French television. The rules for admission are simple – Your film must be shot on a mobile phone camera, and it must not be longer than one minute in duration.
While it seems easy enough to do, bear in mind that competition is fierce. ‘Filmmaking is a knowledge, experience, a technique’ says Bryno Smadia, one of the event’s organisers, ‘so we don’t want to have this point of view of ‘’Okay you have a mobile, you can be a filmmaker.’’ No! You have to work a lot to get results of film quality’. Since mobile phones are very limited on the technical front, filmmakers have to concentrate even more on telling a story. ‘One minute long is very important because to make a good one minute film you have to think of it very well, write the story, write the dialogue and make it as intense as one minute can offer you’ explains Smadia. He also believes that the competition embodies a true democratic spirit as ‘shot with a mobile… everybody is equal’ allowing for the majority of the world’s 5 billion mobile phone users to be eligible to compete with equipment they already own.
Although mobiles have become accepted forms of footage recording within the news media, some say the film industry has not yet learned to appreciate it. British actor Nathan Willcocks starred in last year’s winning film, A Long Sadness, an intense drama about a couple discussing which dress the girlfriend should wear, that reveals disturbances within the relationship. The film led to a big budget television movie for both Willcocks and its director. ‘People in this business are so cynical’ claims Willcocks, ‘they say ‘’so you’ve just made a movie on a mobile phone? What is that all about??’’ and a year later, having made a film with a budget of €150,000 (£125,000), which is a fair amount of money, their saying ‘’well this is a great idea! This is superb what you’ve done’’ ‘.
This year’s winner, Benjamin Busnel, made a love story that took place in a lift, a couple falling in love and splitting up all within the minute between the doors closing and opening again! ‘I already had this idea of a lift with two people in it, cramped together’ confesses Busnel, ‘I thought to myself, maybe I could try and make everything happen within one minute. The major issue with filming [was] how to choose the timing of the lift so it was one minute, we had to choose the right floor!’
Festival organisers are currently considering a future event to take place in London.
|
|
If you like Talking Money Maker...
|
Back to NEWS
|