Should competitions only accept new movies?

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Dave Watterson
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Should competitions only accept new movies?

Post by Dave Watterson »

Looking at competition rules around UK and the world I notice many demand that movies be new or recent ones ... often not more than three years old.

Why?

Granted:
it is likely that older movies may not be of such a high technical standard
it is possible that fashions in film style have moved on and they seem very dated

If so then they simply will not get very far in the contest. What's the problem?

Dave
Michael Slowe
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Re: Should competitions only accept new movies?

Post by Michael Slowe »

Oh David, technically better today? Maybe in picture quality but, as Gershwin wrote, "it ain't necessarily so". I'm not at all sure that we are making a great deal of progress artistically speaking although there are notable exceptions of course.

Your main question as to the acceptance of older films in festivals has to be answered by a common sense approach. If the film is any good it probably will have been seen around for some time and therefore not really acceptable, but if it was say, a couple of years old and not previously circulated to any degree, then I see no harm in it being accepted.
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FILM THURSO
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Re: Should competitions only accept new movies?

Post by FILM THURSO »

Generally yes. But if a film has never been entered there should be the oportunity to enter. I suggest a catagory for 'vintage' movies :D
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fraught
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Re: Should competitions only accept new movies?

Post by fraught »

I like the idea of a vintage category.

I've recently been re-editing all my old films. As i never had a PC to edit on in the original days... just two VHS recorders and the Pause/Rec button! So would be good to see what people think of them, now that i've had a chance to clean them up and edit them better.

:)
Only Boring People Get Bored
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stingman
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Re: Should competitions only accept new movies?

Post by stingman »

I did a Clip film of some of my first DV films. I filmed myself standing in front of my Blue screen and had me waving my hand across the screen. In the final edited version, I was moving different screens across with different films showing. I then pressed a computer generated button with sound effects to select the film clip to be shown. This went down well and at the end (in the normal Ian Gardner Style) the computer generation breaks down and goes wrong!
This could be classed as a `Clip Show`! It had never been done in the club before! It went down well! Oh and I also put a hidden message in the whole film by flashing up letters that spelt out what I wanted to say. Each letter was on screen for One Frame!

So my about film could be seen as a sort of vintage film as all the films had been shown at the club in their full length!

Be good Peeps and keep smiling ;-)
Ian Gardner
Film Maker
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