Hello All,
Last night was the latest “Instant Films” screening at Los Angeles Center Studios in downtown LA. I had never been to an Instant Films super short filmmaking competitions and I must say that I was pretty blown away at the level of professionalism and production value in the program. All of the 7 (SEVEN!!) short films screened had 100% original scores and some featured day exteriors, which is astounding when you consider the time constraints.
I’d estimate there were between 800-1000 attendees packing the LA Center Stages theater. The crowd was mostly friends of friends of friends who were connected to one of the productions in one way or another, and even with the visible signs of extreme lack of sleep, there was a serious amount of adrenaline in room as the crowd was eager to see what was cranked out in a mere 48-hours. It ended up a really great weekend for my pal Ben Rock. The short he directed “Shut Up, I Said Shut Up!” took high honors with a sweep of all categories in competition- including Film, Director, Writer, Score and Cinematography! Shut Up, was shot on two Panasonic GH1 cameras supported by Hot Rod Cameras CSH kits and a prototype Hot Rod N(ikon) adapter. Lenses were Duclos modified Zeiss ZF provided by Blacklist Productions.
The end result was astonishing, of all the projects that shot in one form of prosumer HD or another (HVX200, HDV/XLH1..etc) the images in Shut Up! easily looked the best even with the standard definition projection in the theater. Keep in mind, it’s not just me saying this. I overheard comments and discussed the shorts with several people after the event. Over and over people said how Shut Up! stood out for it’s beautiful image quality, well beyond the rest of the program. I made a point not to tell anyone that my technology was used until after they told me what they thought of Shut Up!
Something I feel compelled to mention- there are a lot of the really quick film competitions, and I know that much of the content is pretty rancid. This event really was a pleasant surprise. I confess my expectations were rather low, the last event like this I attended, had a bit of a different set-up- the filmmakers had 30-days, (which isn’t really a short period of time for a well organized production of a 5-10 minute short) the subsequent showcase for the 30-day “finished” projects (some seemed amazingly unfinished) was a terrible 2 & 1/2 hour affair. All of the shorts in this (unnamed) event were on par with a community college film school, or some of the more mediocre shorts found on YouTube. By comparison the program at Instant Films screening is like the Academy Awards of short film competitions.
One final note on Instant Films- I found out why the quality of the Instant Films shorts were so high. You can’t be just anyone off the street to participate as Writer or Director, you need experience, must apply for the job, and it really helps if you know someone and can get recommended. Also you don’t get paid, you fund the movie out of your own pocket and the value of the prizes are probably not much more than what you would spend on the film- so really this is a knock-down-drag out filmmaking competition for filmmaking studs. Bragging rights is really what you are competing for, although I don’t think I heard anyone bragging. It’s kind of like a self-financed version of that TV series “On the Lot” except you don’t have a Mark Burnett production team helping, unless you decided to pay for it. Which would be crazy as the script is finished moments before it’s handed to you, and the cast is randomly assigned. I don’t think any of the productions spent even $1000 on the weekend projects. The budget of one shorts was quoted of being just $4.
Astounding.
BTS photos and more details from Shut Up! are coming soon.