The Festival
I recently had the pleasure of attending Exeter Phoenix’s Two Short Nights Film Festival, held on the 11th & 12 of December. There are many different aspects to the festival, screenings include showcasing work from filmmakers around the world, the premiere of six films commissioned by the Phoenix (of which I worked on two) and the madness of the 48hour film contest, which I was part of a team on.
Insite & Baby Bird
These films were part of the six commissioned by the Phoenix. The filmmakers are awarded £500 towards the cost of production. I was the editor and sound designer on Insite and the sound designer and mixer on Baby Bird. Both films got a great response at the screening and it got even better when Baby Bird was announced as the best Short Film Commission. Seeing Red was announced as the audience award winner.
Both Insite & Baby Bird will be entered into other Film Festivals.
48 hour Film Contest
This was the second one of these I have taken part in, where you have to write, shoot, edit & finish a short film all within 48 hours. Challenging, tiring but overall great fun. Earlier in the year I was part of a team in another contest and our film ‘The Lolly Ranger’, somewhat surprisingly won. It can be viewed below here.
For the second film, the brief was that it had to be a myth or legend and was to include a specific piece of music, with the line ‘It’s been so long since I’ve moved to a rhythm’ featuring somewhere.
Song: ‘Strangers in the Making’ by Drunk With Joy (drunkwithjoy.com)
As a group this is what we came with, 48 hour film contests are tricky enough as it is but we made it even harder on ourselves by deciding to film it in ‘one take’. Here is the result. We didn’t win with this one but it sure was a great way of spending 48 hours!
Hauntings of Devonshire with Billy Angora- Exeter Phoenix 48 Hour competition 2014 from Dom Lee on Vimeo.
Top 5 Films
A new feature I’ve decided to include on my future blog posts is a ‘Top 5’, fairly self explanatory and a very appropriate category to start with.
1. The Shawshank Redemption
2. The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King
3. American Beauty
4. Star Wars: The Empire Strikes Back
5. The Prestige
