Rutgers Super-8 Film Festival - 2005 & 2006

[Alex]

This will be the official Rutgers 2005 & 2006 Super-8 Film Festival thread.

Um, the deadline has just passed for entering the 2005 contest, [img]redface.gif[/img] , I just let it slip by without posting about it, sorry. (However, I did repost this in time for the 2006!)

But I'll update the results as they become available. U.S. Super-8mm & DV Film Festival

<font color="#FFFF00" size="1">[ January 20, 2006 02:39 PM: Message edited by: Alex ]</font>

[Chezdigtlstudio]

Hey did you get to send anything in?

[Alex]

Yes I did! Two entries.

One is called "Peak Oil", the other is called "America the Beautiful".

Peak Oil is tormenting me to this day because I feel it needs a re-edit. I packed in Super-8 footage that I have shot over the past 15-20 years and it's quite trippy seeing all the shoots I've actually done in Super-8.

I ended up getting rid of a really cool sequence of slow motion running of the LA marathon and I ended up using only one shot. The La Marathon has some of my favorite slow motion shots
and I ended up abbreviating it from a 20 second sequence to a 5 second sequence.

----------------------------

Thanks for asking!

[Alex]

Well, the 2006 Rutgers Film Fest Deadline is January 20th, 2006.

I re-edited Peak Oil and also changed the name and have entered it again.

Last year the film was not screened by the regular judges beause it didn't arrive until Saturday rather than Friday.

The other bummer about last year was there were a lot of long films in the festival. I think the total number of films screened was 20, compared to 30 the previous year.

Screening 20 films (and videos) out of 150 entries
probably meant the show was pretty good. Unfortunately, Perhaps 10 Super-8 films actually made the final screening. It must be difficult running a film festival knowing that one feature film included in the screening can knock out ten 9 minute films.

Although when it's a feature length video shot on video that might be knocking out several films made on Super-8 film, then I cringe a bit because to me that is somewhat like apples and oranges, and the festival does seem to feature the name Super-8 in it's title. Still it's cool that the festival still supports Super-8.

Here is a link for those who still might want to enter, the Deadline is January 20th ARRIVAL, not postmarked, but arriving the 20th at Rutgers.

Rutgrs Super-8 Film Festival

[Alex]

This just in!

Outlet for cinema dreamers
Fledgling filmmakers put their hopes in Super 8 competition
Friday, January 20, 2006
BY CLAUDIA PERRY
Star-Ledger Staff

If it hadn't been for digital video, Ivan Velez wouldn't be a filmmaker.

Velez, 35, lives in Belleville. After working for Verizon for 11 years, he took a second mortgage on his house and completed a full-length feature, "Indiscretion," which has been entered in the U.S. Super 8 and DV Film Festival . The festival is part of the New Jersey Film Festival and takes place Feb. 17-19. The deadline for submissions is today at 5 p.m. , and judging takes place during the next two weeks. The hundreds of entrants compete for a total of $3,000 in prize money, and the best work tours other festivals around the world. It's not a ticket to an Oscar nomination ("We're more the mini-Sundance," organizer Al Nigrin says), but it's the strongest stateside festival for this medium.

"If it wasn't for digital video, it would have made the whole process more difficult. I don't know what I would have done without it," says Velez.
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The film, whose title covers more than one indiscreet event, was shot in 26 days in Hartford, Conn. Velez held a screening there for 300 guests and the film was well-received.

Velez made his first splash at the New Jersey Media Arts Center in 2001, when his short film "Bent" was selected for another festival. His cohorts include his wife Rachel, and two other friends.

"I think the quality (difference) is like night and day," Velez says, comparing his 2001 work and his current film. As for "Indiscretion": "The vision of it, the story behind it and the message. I think it will move people."

Liss Platt, who taught at Mason Gross School of the Arts at Rutgers from 1997 to 2002, has entered a Super 8 film, "You Can't Get There from Here." Platt, 40, teaches digital video and new media at McMaster University in Hamilton, Ontario.

"The film is primarily Super 8, but there's some 16 millimeter film and a lot of Kodachrome. Kodachrome is hard to get but I was fortunate to have some."

Platt says she likes Super 8 because of its artistic finish.

"It has a beautiful quality that you can't achieve with digital video. The color saturation and how it looks was especially good for the content of the piece."

"You Can't Get There from Here" is about being 16 in the '80s.

"One of the things I wanted to evoke was the nostalgia of home movies. In the early '80s, people weren't shooting home video. It's a scrapbook about being a teenager then. It's an experimental film, very much bits and pieces of being 16."

Platt says this festival is one of the better showcases for a variety of filmmaking styles.

"If I submit to this festival, I think people will take a closer look to see if the work is a match for what they're trying to do. A lot of people who make short films make them look like Hollywood greeting cards. They're using their short films to audition to make commercial features.

"Super 8 is a very small niche. There are millions of festivals out there. You have to make a choice of where you will submit your work. This festival has a reputation of catering to people who make Super 8. The ($40) entry fee also knocks out people who aren't seriously committed to their filmmaking."

If you want to enhance your knowledge about various aspects of filmmaking, the New Jersey Media Arts Center is offering a several sessions throughout the New Jersey Film Festival. All require advance registration and there are fees ranging from $90 to $325 for each seminar. All seminars take place at Loree Hall Room 024, Douglass College, Rutgers University.