Tonight’s fayre from the 2012 Witney Film Festival was student night. The venue was an auditorium on the Witney campus of the Abingdon and Witney College. This was a comfortable space in which to view nine short films, of varying quality in a mix of genres, produced by film students from around the world.
It is difficult, reviewing student projects, to remain constructive. Spiralling in to a wing-stripping death-dive of criticism should be avoided at all costs, but it is fair to say that one of this evening’s efforts should not have been put in to the public domain.
And yet some of tonight’s screenings should be in television schedules right now.
And that, for me, is the rub. I would ask all of the production teams to answer a simple question: ‘What media have you made this film for?’
Because, with one notable example, they all felt like television shorts. Only one film felt as if it had been made for the cinema.
I would like to highlight, as being leaders of the ‘above average’ category, three of the films screened this evening:
The wonderfully witty ‘Inertia’, by Will Herbert. From the first lines of the opening dialogue, it was apparent that the relationship between the two main characters had been painstakingly constructed/produced by Will and his crew. The actors were comfortable in their roles, the wit sparkled and, revealingly, every shot framed the subjects, neatly containing the viewer’s attention. Inertia is almost sitcom (in a Gavin and Stacey kind of way); this delightful piece of work could be on the BBC3 schedules next week.
Inertia from Will Herbert on Vimeo.
I would also like to single out the technically outstanding ‘Day 83’, by Aled Matthews & Joe O’Connor. These two producers attended the film festival, to introduce their work to the audience. The film owes much to the lineage of computer games footage. Day 83 is a combination of live-action and CGI, and screams a level of professionalism that most film students should be aiming for. This big-screen production had a combined feel of last year’s blockbuster Battle Los Angeles and a Call Of Duty promo.
Also in the excellent category was the understated, yet highly amusing, time-lapsed, ‘Kneaded’, by Jemima Burrill. Put a person in a yoga pose, give two small children carte blanche to do whatever they want to the subject, and film the results on time-lapse. It really is that simple. And also charming. The gentle humour of the children’s actions easily overcame the single technical flaw – over-whitening of the scene, as the sun rose behind the subject.
Kneaded by Jemima Burrill from Jemima Burrill on Vimeo.
It was easy to love and enjoy these three films, even though they are from very different genres. They are above average in any field of production, but as student projects, they are stunning examples of top quality work.
Other films were less good.
One film in particular – the hopelessly dire ‘Concrete Jungle’ by Simon Hill – deserves to live on, but only as an example to other film students of ‘how not to make something that people would want to watch’. Badly lit throughout, inconsistent audio throughout, hopelessly framed action throughout, the film also contained shockingly awful, toe-curlingly trite dialogue – delivered in the most unconvincing manner – and the production values lacked any semblance of love and quality in every foot of filming. Concrete Jungle was almost too embarrassing to watch.
Overall, the high quality of film production tradecraft, for most of the films in tonight’s screening, seems to be firmly embedded in the production/directorial subconscious.
Most of these films were a joy to watch and listen to. Well-scripted productions, where audio and visual events had been carefully produced for a public audience, will always find an enthusiastic audience.
Inertia, Day 83 and Kneaded are no exception to this enthusiastic audience member.