Shortie Awards Youth Film Festival

Hollyn Randolph just mailed me in about the forthcoming Shortie Awards film festival.

The Shortie Awards film festival will be held June 5, 2011 in Arlington, VA a suburb of Washington D.C. The Shortie Awards recognizes original short film productions created by student filmmakers, ages 7-18, and their teachers.

This year we have entries from 26 states and 14 countries and India has 36 entries which is the largest number from outside of the US.

Apparently the last date for submitting the entries was April 1, 2011. But we can look forward to the screenings and the winners. Those who live around Arlingtom and Washington DC should attend the event!

Short Film: Damn Your Eyes

David Guglielmo, an alumni of School of Visual Arts, New York emailed me his short film titled Damn Your Eyes.


Damn Your Eyes a Spaghetti Western-influenced revenge film shot on the Sony EX1 digital camera in the NY Metropolitan area for $5,000. It has been successful at film festivals and recently won two awards.


WINNER: "Best Student Film" at Royal Flush Festival '09
WINNER: "Best More Than Horror Short" at Buffalo Screams Horror Festival '10

I liked the visual quality of the film: the lighting, the locations, set, framing, composition etc. The DoP used the Sony EXI camcorder given to him pretty well. Most of the actors did a really professional job and that took the movie experience a notch higher. The screenplay could have been written better. Some of the moments in the movie were clichéd and boring but on the whole it is a decent production. What do you think of the movie? Please watch and comment (feed subscribers will need to visit the blog to watch it).

David Guglielmo must be congratulated for doing his excellent direction. Considering he is relatively new to this profession, he has done a laudable job that commands appreciation.
 Digital filmmaking is indeed growing from strength to strength.

Latest Web startups for filmmakers

As the author of the Digital Filmmaking Blog I often get emails about the launch of a new film camera or filmmaking scholarhip or film training program requesting to get featured on this blog. Often I find those things overtly promotional and commercial and decide to ignore them. But I would like to list a few good web startups for filmmakers:

1. Tyro TV: tyrotv.com is a website that's intended for emerging television and filmmakers. They are sponsoring a new kind of online film festival/contest. According to the site owner,

We give young filmmakers a topic and everything they need to create their own movie -- video, music, and sound effects. Then let them create the best short film they can using these materials. Because everyone's using the same "building blocks," contestants will be judged not by their budget but on their creativity and storytelling abilities.

Their first competition is called "The Marijuana Mash-Up." For this contest, they are asking contestants to “mash up” (that is, creatively condense and re-edit) an hour’s worth of hilariously dated drug education films from the 50s and 60s to create a short campaign commercial that convinces people to vote for or against legalizing marijuana. The contest is motivated by the California initiative that'll be on the ballot this fall, but young filmmakers across the country have passionate views on this issue, to say the least! Finalists will be named late in the summer and a winner just before the election.

2. Fleetflicks: FleetFlicks.com is trying to revive the short film as both art and entertainment. It's a place for filmmakers to expose their work to an international audience. The site hopes to spread the word to a diverse viewership and combat the stigma that the short film is only for crotch-punch and cat videos. The site has been up for a few months and has gathered a lot of followers, many of whom have uploaded their short films on the site.

3. Student Film Makers of India: SFMI is a site for student film from India where they can upload their films, make their profile and network with other film makers. The website has a decent design and has got quite a few members already who have uploaded their short films and animations there.

The 3MM Digital Filmmaking Contest

The Seattle Times newspaper in United States has invited readers to submit entries to the 2009 Three Minute Masterpiece digital-film contest.

The Three Minute Masterpiece (3MM) digital-film contest works like this:

Use your digital-video camera to make a film on any subject you like, as long as it's suitable for a family-newspaper audience. (No sex, violence or bad language, please.) It must be 3 minutes or less.

Here's how you enter: Make your movie. Upload it at www.seattletimes.com/3mm, and your movie will be added to their youtube playlist

Very important: If you use music, you must have permission.

Special category: Filmmakers under 18 are eligible for the J. Michael Rima award for young directors.

That's it. When you upload your video, make sure you include your name, phone number, age (if under 18) and movie title. If you are selected as one of the finalists, you will be contacted about providing a higher-resolution version of your film.

Winners will be shown on The Seattle Times Web site and at the Seattle International Film Festival. The grand-prize winner will get two full-series passes to this year's film festival. The J. Michael Award will be a special prize presented by the Rima family. Entries must be e-mailed to us by 11:59 p.m. April 20.

Source: Seattle Times