Do judges have a short attention span?

A forum for sharing views on the art of film, video and AV sequence making as well as on competitions, judging and festivals.
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Ned C

Do judges have a short attention span?

Post by Ned C »

One of the problems faced by anyone who makes films longer than 15/20/30 minutes
is that most amateur Festivals have these time limits and very few accept
anything longer. Thanks to the BIAFF for being an exception. One suggestion
I have seen is that the judges watch the first 15/20/30 minutea and then
make their decision - I cannot say that I am happy with this suggestion but
it is better than being excluded. It would also seem that judges expect brisk
pacing and any scene setting of a story is seen as slow, do they ever go
to the cinema I wonder?. Any suggestions?

Ned C
atta chui

Re: Do judges have a short attention span?

Post by atta chui »

If a judge is any good then s/he probably has a good judgement on whether
a film is worth the while to watch. If a film cannot capture the viewer's
attention in 15/20/30 minutes then the film probably has some faults anyway.
Not that I encourage impatient judges to fast rewind or stop anything they
don't like. If a judge is any good, s/he should be more open to different
types of films compared to a general audience, should know how to look for
and appreciate a film's strength, and therefore whether there is a rule to
say s/he has to watch the whole film is irrelevant.

Ideally film festivals do not need to impose length restriction. If you cannot
fit a long film into your programme, you can still give an award, say thank
you and don't show it. On the other hand, there may be a reason for length
restriction. Just like in the writing world you cannot compare novels to
poems, you may want your festival to concentrate on a particular class of
films, namely, short films.

I make long films myself and feel the pain of my films going nowhere too.
However I cannot argue that every film festival must accept long films. It
is up to the organizers to decide what kind of festival they want to run.
However if a film festival is aimed to attract a wide range of films, then
lifting the length limit is very welcome indeed.

Atta
Ned C

Re: Do judges have a short attention span?

Post by Ned C »

"atta chui" <atta.chui@ntlworld.com> wrote:

If a judge is any good then s/he probably has a good judgement on whether
a film is worth the while to watch. If a film cannot capture the viewer's
attention in 15/20/30 minutes then the film probably has some faults anyway.
Not that I encourage impatient judges to fast rewind or stop anything they
don't like. If a judge is any good, s/he should be more open to different
types of films compared to a general audience, should know how to look for
and appreciate a film's strength, and therefore whether there is a rule
to
say s/he has to watch the whole film is irrelevant.

Ideally film festivals do not need to impose length restriction. If you
cannot
fit a long film into your programme, you can still give an award, say thank
you and don't show it. On the other hand, there may be a reason for length
restriction. Just like in the writing world you cannot compare novels to
poems, you may want your festival to concentrate on a particular class of
films, namely, short films.

I make long films myself and feel the pain of my films going nowhere too.
However I cannot argue that every film festival must accept long films.
It
is up to the organizers to decide what kind of festival they want to run.
However if a film festival is aimed to attract a wide range of films, then
lifting the length limit is very welcome indeed.

Atta
Interesting, but I can think of only two amateur festivals that do not have
a time limit, BIAFF and Estonia. Short films are fine but why should every
amateur festival (limited exceptions) be dedicated to them? AMPS is 30 minutes
this year but we would like to open it up to unlimited next year. Does anyone
know of other unlimited Festivals?

Ned C
>
Dave Watterson

Re: Do judges have a short attention span?

Post by Dave Watterson »

Some judges may have short attention spans, others do not. A good test is
to find out which ones ever go to the cinema or watch commercial feature
films on DVD.
Michael Slowe

Re: Do judges have a short attention span?

Post by Michael Slowe »

"atta chui" <atta.chui@ntlworld.com> wrote:

If a judge is any good then s/he probably has a good judgement on whether
a film is worth the while to watch. If a film cannot capture the viewer's
attention in 15/20/30 minutes then the film probably has some faults anyway.
Not that I encourage impatient judges to fast rewind or stop anything they
don't like. If a judge is any good, s/he should be more open to different
types of films compared to a general audience, should know how to look for
and appreciate a film's strength, and therefore whether there is a rule
to
say s/he has to watch the whole film is irrelevant.

Ideally film festivals do not need to impose length restriction. If you
cannot
fit a long film into your programme, you can still give an award, say thank
you and don't show it. On the other hand, there may be a reason for length
restriction. Just like in the writing world you cannot compare novels to
poems, you may want your festival to concentrate on a particular class of
films, namely, short films.

I make long films myself and feel the pain of my films going nowhere too.
However I cannot argue that every film festival must accept long films.
It
is up to the organizers to decide what kind of festival they want to run.
However if a film festival is aimed to attract a wide range of films, then
lifting the length limit is very welcome indeed.
Atta is right to point out that the quality of the film is what counts.
We have all seen dire ten minute films and fantastic thirty minute ones (not
many I agree) but it is up to the judge to judge. The obvious solution,
and I am surprised no one has mentioned this, is to have longer time limits
but if the film wins to only show an extract(s). The maker should be asked
to cut a ten or fifteen minute sample of the film which he should be well
capable of doing since he knows it so well. Movie Maker, when running the
old Ten Best, did this and it worked very well to everyone's satisfaction.

Michael Slowe.
Atta
Dave Watterson

Re: Do judges have a short attention span?

Post by Dave Watterson »

I'd love to show extracts from some films at festivals - especially when the
winner of an award cannot be fitted into the gala show for one reason or
another - Length / balance / X-certificate - but I have always been told
that this is a huge no-no. I understand that there was a fierce row about
it at some time in the past.

When video first arrived for amateurs, festivals feared 3-hour "My Holiday"
movies. It never happened.

Few amateurs can make a long movie because of the immense commitment of time
and energy involved.
But among those who do are some of the best ... I believe the world's best
amateur for the last few years is a Spaniard called Jan Baca whose works
are often about 30 to 45 minutes long.

Successive IAC competition organisers have put me on the panel with the long
entries - not as a vendetta, but because they know that through my film society
interests I am used to watching long movies. Over the years I have seen just
three amateur movies over 70 minutes long in the competition: poor, middling
and stunningly good.

It is not beyond the wit of organisers to manage the judging of such entries
- even if they have to be pre-selected so that the final panel only see any
that are really worth it.

Ideally all winners should be shown at a festival but if this is impossible
then extracts are the next best thing.

I do not believe there is a tidal wave of long movies out there. The vast
majority of amateur movies are around 11 minutes long. I don't see any harm
in including them in festivals with the warning on entry forms that they
may not be shown in full if they win.

Dave (long man) Watterson

PS Those who passionately advocate 7 and 8 minute movies might care to try
a 4 hour Portuguese historical epic that I sat through on hard seats in a
lecture hall one evening ... without subtitles ... but surrounded by people
from the Portuguese Embassy who loved every minute of it.
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