IAC DISCUSSION FORUMS

I personally have an aversion to videoing with a smart phone in PORTRAIT MODE. I can’t help feeling irritated when people have filmed some event in this way instead of doing the OBVIOUS thing and turning the phone to horizontal. Portrait mode is for still photographs of people or statues or towers. ...

The pace of a film to a large extent depends on the type of story being told and the kind of atmosphere being aimed for. I’m all for punchy, tightly edited films but I’m also tolerant and appreciative of ‘slow cinema’ when it’s interesting and well done. Putting aside whether or not they should have...

Certain BIAFF judges have an aversion to dissolves as transitions in films, arguing that (a) they are old-fashioned and have no place in modern films, and (b) any still taken from the film during a dissolve would not be good, as it would be a jumbled mess. I personally like dissolves when used corre...

Good question regarding holiday films. My holidays usually consist of travelling around France with an old mate of mine. And guess what... I never take my cameras with me. I like to enjoy the holiday, take a break from filmmaking and come back with good memories. If I went with the intention of maki...

In 2009 I made a thriller called PERCEPTION which I’ve recently uploaded to Vimeo. It won an award at the final AMPS and the final Guernsey Lily Festival. This film was quite controversial, featuring as its main character an outrageously racist BNP candidate who murders two young black people who ar...

The 1 star award for the film in question was a unanimous decision. I’m confident we got it right. I only scratched the surface regarding what was wrong with it in my brief references on this forum. I was surprised that it was even accepted, “officially selected”, by so many festivals. I’ve spent a ...

To me a budget of £4000 would be enormous. I’ve never spent more than £100 on any film and that includes my 2008 feature film MADDER running at 87 minutes. Our judges’ appraisal for the 1 star film to which I referred was very tactfully and sensitively worded. It was a well-intentioned film. It was ...

Re: film festival awards and laurels. You might find what follows interesting. Make of it what you will. There's a certain film (which I'm not going to identify here) for which I was involved in the BIAFF first round judging. It runs less than an hour and it's listed on IMDb as having an estimated b...

With regard to Laurels, the only official Laurels issued for BIAFF films are for 5 star and Diamond Award winners. I received mine from David Newman as both white on black and black on white designs. (I think John Roberts is the man who creates them.) I choose not to display my laurels on the actual...

I can’t agree with Geof about the suggestion that foreign language films should be required to be dubbed rather than subtitled. Dubbing destroys lip-sync and usually sounds stilted. What IS essential with regard to subtitling is clarity (white text on black background or white lettering with a black...

I remember the short-lived system Sensurround used for just three films: Earthquake, The Battle of Midway and Rollercoaster. During selected scenes it felt like not only was the seat shaking but the whole cinema building as well. In the early 1960s there was a brief experiment with wafting into sele...

I’m thinking of making a film in which a terrorist inserts an explosive device into a farm animal.
Abominable...

Good post Tim. I always like your tagline “Proud to be an amateur film maker - I do it for the love of it.” I am also proud to be an amateur. I’ve never had any ambitions to be a ‘professional’. If anybody thinks ‘amateur’ means ‘poor quality’ that is an unfortunate misunderstanding of the word. I h...

With regard to future BIAFFs, I will be very disappointed if the decision is made to keep the event online next year. It’s depressing to think that we could just be heading for a ‘stay-at-home’ future, with new films and shows simply being streamed to our homes instead of returning to where they sho...

Willy, you make many excellent points and I can’t spot any mistakes in your use of English or your spelling! There are things I could say specifically regarding ABOUT DEATH but it would be inappropriate for me to do so as I was one of the first round judges for the film. All I will say is this - it ...