The way Thompson created his film provides an insight into what filmmaking was like before the digitised era of doing everything yourself with a “pro-sumer” camera and editing software. You don’t know how lucky you are, youngsters.

“The film started life as a Curtin University project,” Thompson explains, “It went from 16mm film to one-inch tape. The camera broke. This was in the holidays of 1989. Then it was re-filmed in June 1990, I got three quarters of the way through, got nervous and took it down to the film processing lab – which we had in Perth back then – and they told me the camera I was using was also broken and everything was out of synch. Then I shot it for a third time and I got a call from the lab. They told me there was a problem with the print. I went down there and found out they had painstakingly attempted to colour correct my blue-tinted night scene for day.

Then it was transferred onto low-band U-matic for it’s initial edit. That was the editing equipment at Curtin at the time. Years later it was transferred onto SP Betacam tape, so I could do my 1995 redux. Richard Mahony of Toad Hall remastered the original audio elements at that point.”

WILDROOM – THE DESKTOP JUNGLE won Thompson an WA Screen Award for Young Filmmaker of the Year and Best Animation in 1990. It played at the St Kilda Film Festival and Singapore television. However you can enjoy it’s stop motion excellence right now, thanks to YouTube. While you’re there you may wish to enjoy another Thompson animation, THE KITCHEN WASTES.

Wild Room – The Desktop Jungle

This story also appears on the Mr Trivia site.

‘Oh No! You went over the xyz running time!’ – Amičko Films guide to ideal short film time limits

I hate hearing this, and I hear it a lot.

I know a few filmmakers who have been unfairly psyched out by this statement. I also love short films and I think they are under appreciated as an art form and would love to see greater respect for the medium. So let’s get this cleared up.

The main mistake filmmakers make is they don’t have a clear idea of what they want to achieve with the film, and therefore they don’t understand how an audience will interact with their film. Shorts can run to whatever length you like, that is, if you know you’re audience.

Here’s a rough guideline for running times for short short, medium shorts and long shorts. It can be broken down into three simple questions,
Do you want it to go viral?
Do you want to festival?
And/ or do you want to win an award?

The information in this blog is taken from statistic research, industry panel discussions and my general knowledge of film festivals. Please give me your thoughts if you think otherwise.

Please note a film running time includes credits.

Mirco shorts
Less than 8 mins
Statistically the most watched films on Youtube are films which run less than the 2 mins. This medium can access the largest audience possible, far beyond the power of cinemas/television distribution purely as there are now more mobile phones with internet access worldwide than there are television sets and personal computers.

Think about how people access Youtube, what else is fighting for their attention, and are they limited by download capabilities?

For viral seeding think in threes: You have .3 of second to grab someone’s attention, 3 seconds of visual entertainment to get someone to clink on the link, and 30 sec to prove that it’s worth watching the rest of the film. So what are you three 3′s?

General rule is, the shorter the film the more hits it will receive.

Medium Shorts
8 – 20 mins
This is for the filmmaker who wants to have a more developed narrative than in the above category. This is an appropriate length of film festivals, however please note that if you want to festival you cannot Youtube! If you release more than 10% of your film online you may be disqualified from festivals and distribution, so be careful with those trailers.

If you keep it under 20 mins it’s an easy guarantee it will suit the entry rules for most festivals. However here’s an interesting statistic: shorts 20 mins or less are twice as likely to win awards than ones less than 5 minutes, BUT a 35 minute short is more likely to win an award than 5 minute film if they are competing in the same category. Why? The extra time allows for a stronger narrative, regardless of overall production values, narratives win awards.

Long Shorts
Up to 60 mins
I’ve left it open to the 60 mins mark as this has been the longest time limit I’ve seen defined in the rules and regulations of festivals.

This is probably the most feared category and unfairly so.

As we can see below most festivals have pretty gracious running times for shorts, we also know that in order to attached future funding it’s very helpful to have had a successful short. However, the experience of making a Mirco Short is vastly different from making a feature, so I recommend all film makers to attempt making a Long Short to have an taste test of what a feature would be like in both the production and marketing. Don’t worry if you go over the 20 min mark, many festivals will still love to see your work and maybe even give it an award.

Here’s a list of qualifying times for the short film categories at significant short film festivals:

Flickerfest, Australia – less than 35mins
Toronto International Film Festival, Canada – less than 50mins
Sundance, USA – less than 50mins
Raindance Film Festival, UK – less than 30mins
Kurzfilmfest Straubing, Germany – less than 30 mins
International Film Festival Berlin, Germany – less than 30 mins
Clermont-Ferrand Short Film Festival, France – less than 40 mins
Aspen Shortfest, Canada – Less than 40 mins
Krakow Film Festival, Poland – Less than 30 mins

Awards:
BAFTA, UK – less than 40mins
Oscars, USA – entry via winning at accredited festivals

Awards winners and running times:

Oscar 2010
Live action: The New Tenants at 21mins
Doco: Music By Prudence at 32mins
Animated: Logorama at 18mins

Sundance 2010
The Six Dollar Fifty Man at 15 mins

Berlinale 2010
Incident by a Bank at 10 mins

BAFTA 2009
I Do Air at 7 mins

Distribution:
N/A on the running time – they’ll program what is good and what has a proven audience base.

Finally, I would like to state that there is NO POINT in screening at film festivals if you don’t know how to capitalise from them! If you submit to festivals just to add screenings to the list you might need to go back to your producers handbook and have another read… but this can’t be another rant for another time.

Know your audience and then know your limits. Happy Shorting.
______

Amy has worked internationally in film marketing, sales and festivals. She currently lives in Perth and run a film consultancy business Amičko Films, is the only Australian manager for the short film distribution label Future Shorts and runs mirco cinema events at The Moon and other various locations. For more info contact amy@amickofilms.com

“This film was shot way back in 2008, but post-production was delayed and now it’s finally available for people to enjoy.”

Still bloody mint though.

The world’s largest short film label arrives in Australia with a red carpet launch in Perth on Saturday 19th of June at Fly By Night. This is fresh cinema, Future Shorts.

Future Shorts is one of the leading and most innovative short film labels. Since 2003, Future Shorts has created a rapidly expanding network that allows filmmakers the opportunity to have their work seen on the largest theatrical platform worldwide. Passionately believing in getting short films seen and creating a culture around the medium, Future Shorts is recognised by filmmakers, the industry and press alike as the cutting-edge short film label.

On Saturday June 19th, audience members will be greeted by the electronic pop revelry of local Perth act Brash and Sassy, whilst engaging with roaming interactive performance artists. Kicking off the festival will be the world premier of It’s Just Gary, the latest work by Perth’s own award-winning Perrella & Osborn of This is Perth fame. The Future Shorts program for June will then follow direct from London and featuring the finest the world of short film has to offer. Entitled Colours, the program will take audience members on a tour around the globe with an eclectic mix of films from China to South Africa.

For more information: www.futureshorts.com
Tickets: www.flybynight.org

Who are you?
Matt Zappala

What do you do?
Act. Write. Edit. Direct.

What have you done?
I am a partner in the creation of a feature film, working title called “Congoro”. It’s a Action/Comedy about three screenwriters that are trying to write something brilliant in two days and as they come up with concepts the audience is visually shown how it all plays out. We made the film originally as a bit of fun and to see if we could make a “no budget” feature and have it look as hollywood and as commercially acceptable as possible with what was available to us at the time. I acted, Co-wrote and Co-produced that one with Daniel Parry.

Since the finish of Congoro we have had opportunities to sell the film and/or develop it further into a much larger project which is what Dan and I are currently doing, developing it further. With Congoro we had to write the script with very limited resources at hand and a very limited time frame. Now we have the opportunity to make the movie we always wanted too and by golly goshtown we’re going to do just that and film it too. I’ve co-written two feature scripts, three if you include Congoro, while also working on a script of my own.

I’ve worked on a few short films as Writer, Editor and actor such as “Tijuana Sunset” . For me, TJ was something I’ve wanted to do since I started doing this stuff. Grab some guns, go out somewhere, and just shoot the shit out of anything and film it in the coolest way possible. Gotta thank Bender for that one .

I also just wrapped on my first directorial piece. A short film called “Surfaced” starring a very talented and equally sexy Matt Elverd and a crew that if I went without I would not have such good looking footage and happy memories.

What are you going to do?
I am going to continue development of the script I’m co-writing with Dan until it gets made. At the same time I am going to continue working on my own feature film script and develop my skills more as a director with another short film or two before doing something…Bigger.

The short film “Surfaced” was basically a venture to see if I was able to handle directing and I feel that it was a very successful venture and something I very much want to continue doing. I have a goal to achieve over the next two years and one way or another I will achieve it.

I’m also thinking of doing a Zumba class.

Where can we find you?
I troll a lot so you can find me on facebook or you can hit me up at my hotmail mattzappala@hotmail.com

Alternatively you can get a massive 30k spotlight, assemble together a “Z” and point it into the night sky.

Any last words?
Not yet, I’m only getting started

Who are you?
Damien Giglietta

What do you do?
I’m a Director and First Assistant Director

What have you done?
I’ve just wrapped two short films as director in Two Minds and Underscore, I’ve recently made a short horror called Trespass. Underscore was my 7th production as director. I’ve also worked a lot as a First AD.

What are you going to do?
Well I have an interesting year ahead as I’m trying to balance myself between projects as a Director, First Assistant and a Producer, 2010 promises to be a good year as I’ll be making another two shorts before the end and have been attached to my first feature as a 1st AD (Wade K. Savages ‘Playthings’)

Where can we find you?
You can find me on Facebook by joining the Chippy Cha Wah Productions group.

Any last words?
I believe that we have some really exciting times ahead in Perth for 2010, with Wade K. Savage making a feature that trust me on this, will blow people away. I believe the Indie scene in Perth is growing and getting stronger as we develop talent both in front and behind the camera. Coming from someone who has spent over 10 G’s making three films from his own pocket I can’t help but stress enough that people get out there and start making some awesome films, because it ain’t impossible to do it in this town.

FTI are hosting a night of genre flicks and fundraising this week. Check out the line up.

The Dead Wastes – Directed by Wade K. Savage
Love that Zombie – Directed by Wade K. Savage
Bootleg – Directed by Johnny Ma
Trespass – Directed by Damien Giglietta

It’s this Friday at the FTI. Tix on the door. Here is the FB page ——-> A night of inspiring Films, food and drinks.

From the FB page…..

Come join us to celebrate the people and films that are inspiring the next set of film buffs. This event is a fundraiser by film makers for film makers, come along and support your friends and local talent. Mingle and enjoy free food, raffle prizes and donation-drinks.

Who are you?

Johnny Ma

What do you do?

1st AD, Director, Producer…

What have you done?

I have directed 3 short films including “Bootleg”,
shot on 16mm film. I have also directed half a dozen music videos which
have been created with low budgets and love.

What are you going to do?

I am currently pursuing a career as a 1st AD.
Planning on exploring the film market in Hong Kong this year. I will
continue direct my own written content- short film and music videos. I
would really like to direct more music videos as it is a visual medium I
love the most.

Where can we find you (online or off)?

Online- Facebook, www.myspace.com/goodkidvideo.
Offline- Norfolk, sunday flea markets, random outings and stuck in front of this damm computer.

Finish this sentence, Perth has…. a lot of potential and a lot of
talent. Needs to finds it’s own niche and needs a lot more support from
governing bodies and film industry.

Any last words?

always show random acts of kindness.