DISCUSS BIAFF 2011 RESULTS

[fraught]

Thanks for pointing that out, Michael. I apologise - a simple slip of the brain on my part. It is now corrected.

If anyone spots any other mistakes - or has details of a website associated with a film, of a version of the film online - please do let us know. Jan and I have been trying to get things right but it is all too easy for us to miss something.

Dave

On the Saturday showing of my film 'Limelight' you should have one of those Red Crosses against it, as it does have some rather naughty language in it.

[Howard-Smith]

Well, there we have it. Another BIAFF has come and gone, and it was as ever a wonderful weekend to meet old friends and make new ones ... oh, and to watch a few movies too. I was pleased that my four-star film CASH BACK seemed to go down well on Saturday morning. I was keen to watch the five star and diamond award winning films even more intently than usual to spot what I should do to achieve a higher award next year. What I believe I've learned from the weekend, to help with making my next drama, is (a) make more use of differential focus, and (b) to create more emotional involvement and impact.
The best film of this year for me was the technically superb Czech film ABYSS which I couldn't fault in any way and which gripped me from start to finish. The biggest mystery on Sunday was how and why THE EXCHANGE achieved a five-star award. Can anyone explain to me the story of this film, and why it rated more than three stars? The films I chose to watch on Saturday were generally less memorable than usual, but Phil Martin's A GENTLE WOMAN was well up to his usual standard, a pleasure to watch and the best film I saw all day. Anyway, I can hardly wait to crack on with my next film, and I shall complete my order form for BIAFF 2012 right now.
Howard-Smith LACI

[fraught]

Thoroughly enjoyed BIAFF this year. Was only there for the Saturday, but my faves from the day (my films aside of course!) were 'Marty's Project', 'Happy Cloud', and 'Ich?'.

Roll on the next BIAFF... which will be a little closer to home!

[fraught]

What film won the Daily Mail trophy?

[Dave Watterson]

HELPING HAND won the Daily Mail Challenge Trophy this year. This Korean film is in our Bijou BIAFF cinema (http://www.theiac.org.uk/movies/biaff20 ... ghand.html). Its director Eun Youn Jang (or Chang) attended the festival. A charming young woman, she had come from South Korea, spent a couple of days in London and a couple of days in Edinburgh, then headed for Harrogate. She has very little English but claimed to enjoy the films she saw on the Sunday.

Before I write any more about BIAFF let me say one thing clearly:

The last time BIAFF took place in Harrogate I complained loudly about projection faults at the Sunday show. Let me hurry to say that this year the Sunday show was projected superbly. Thank you NERIAC. (Sadly the Saturday mini-cinemas were not quite so faultless - amazing since the projectionists had had the films a couple of week beforehand.)

See some photos from BIAFF on IAC's Facebook page http://www.facebook.com/#!/pages/IAC-th ... 1271848296

Sleepy Dave - just home from BIAFF!

[Howard-Smith]

Yes, since Dave has brought up the subject of projection problems on Saturday, it was frustrating that in the first session in the Duchy room, both Phil Martin and I had to endure 30 seconds or so of our films (respectively A GENTLE WOMAN and CASH BACK) being projected in the wrong format until we drew the problem to the projectionist's attention. Our 16:9 format was temporarily rendered as some kind of ultra-anamorphic format which resulted in the picture being squeezed vertically, the actors appearing to be short and fat! I had to be particularly insistent on this being corrected, as the projectionist still thought the projected picture was OK even after I shouted, "format"! However, as Dave says, it was good to see no such problems on Sunday, unlike last year.
Howard-Smith LACI

[Brian Saberton]

I've just returned from a thoroughly enjoyable BIAFF. I saw some good films and some great films but the one that sticks in my mind is Dancer which I think is a superb movie and a very sophisticated piece of story-telling with considerable depth to the characters, some exceptional acting, an excellent script and technical proficiency of the highest order. Of all the films I saw it's the one that I think was the best. On Sunday I also enjoyed The Abyss and The New Washing Machine. I'm afraid I wasn't quite so keen on Helping Hand. I could see that it was an accomplished film deserving of diamond status, but I lost the thread of the story in a couple of places and didn't feel much involvement with the characters, though I do agree that the acting award to the young male lead was well deserved. Perhaps a second viewing will clarify things!

[Mike Shaw]

Absolutely agree with Brian - Dancer for me was the highlight of the weekend, superb at every level - and the final scene - an absolute masterpiece of filming. I had it marked as the clear winner of the Daily Mail award, streets ahead of everything else but sadly, again proved my inability to judge - or to agree with the judges. I too lost the plot on the Helping Hand, and also on the Exchange I'm afraid, but the new Washing Machine was another masterpiece - bringing some welcome light relief to the weekend: there was a lot of doom and gloom among the entries - especially in the 'Junior' section - I thought! But nevertheless, plenty of food for thought.

[Dave Watterson]

I'll bet you were not impressed with the final shot in Dancer ...

It is a short sequence showing the best friend approaching a road-side memorial and placing there a pebble which had special significance for her. Using that to end with is one of the very few weaknesses in the film IMO.

What you recall and what ought to be the ending is the penultimate sequence between father and driver.

Dave
PS Congratulations on your well-earned FACI, Mike.

[Mike Shaw]

Grief! I really did miss the last shot in that case - I truly thought it ended with the father/driver scene. I must have turned to my neighbour to pass a 'wow' comment or something. Perhaps it was such a powerful, well acted and well shot scene I just assumed that would be the end and looked away.

Yes. Perhaps they should have run the credits over anything following that scene as a sort of 'the aftermath'. I missed it. Now I want to see it all again!

Thanks for the congrats Dave ... still hasn't quite sunk in.

[Ken Wilson]

I didn`t see the pebble shot either in "Dancer." Perhaps you were recalling a previous edit Dave?

BIAFF was once again a weekend of highs and lows. This time many more lows than usual! I cannot recall so many people complaining during the intervals about the ratings and judging...but first things first.

Saturday mini cinemas were once again plagued by technical problems. Only Michael Gough`s show in the fourth section went without a hitch. Other shows all had format problems and in one show, a disc which refused to play and was abandoned. Daylight came into the rooms as it was once again a bright and sunny weekend. (Can`t blame anyone for that.) A couple of the NERIAC team complained that they couldn`t block out the sunlight in their rooms.

Sunday did go much smoother apart from the Gospel choir service across the corridoor which annoyingly battled for attention with the film soundtracks at the back of the room. The CAIRN apparently couldn`t (or wouldn`t) do anything about it. That hotel is now looking very tired and grubby and shouldn`t be used again in my opinion.

Judging and programming decisions were also very controversial. Why, when many people didn`t get their films shown, were at least 2 films shown TWICE over the weekend, on both Saturday and Sunday? Why were judges allowed also to be competition entrants??? Why were the ratings (even more) unpredictable and erratic than usual. It wasn`t just me who thought so, but also many people who I spoke to. Many will not say so publicly.

A very easy 3 star 1 minute film which was a good joke, but I guess only about 5 shots in total for example, set against the excellent (though admittedly a bit long) docu-drama about Jack the Ripper, "Montague Jack" grossly underated at just 4 stars. I would have been gutted if I had made it, even more than I was with my own 2 star film accompanied by patronising and really silly comments.

Saturday highlights for me were Phil Martin`s "A Gentle Woman", "The Wedding" (though also a bit too long) and particularly "Eric My Freund" by Bruce Partleton.

The mood for me on Saturday was very down with the overall standard lower than most years and the disagreements over the star ratings amongs many of the audience. In my 16 consecutive BIAFFs/ or Movie xx weekends, I have never heard so much dissatisfaction.

We drove home and returned on Sunday. Apart from the religous ceremony, Sunday was a much better day with a lift in the mood. Some films left me cold such as "The Exchange" which I didn`t follow and the winner, the Korean film "Helping Hand." It had good acting but did nothing for me at all. The best films were the superb "Abyss" "The Washing Machine" and the should-have-been winner, "Dancer."

But it`s now time to get to grips with a new judging system. It`s a lottery which panel of 3 judges you get and with time constraints, there is no room for an appeal if your 3 volunteers don`t like your film. Ideally ALL the same judges should at some point see all the films. 200 plus movies cannot be judged successfully in one manic weekend AND JUDGES should be chosen for their skill, knowledge and constructive comments rather than simple availabilty as it seems some of them are now. Yes I know IAC officials will say we cannot afford to run judging over a longer period (as it used to be) due to cost, but we pay quite a bit to enter our films especially if you send a few in as I have done. But it`s time for me and apparantly other film makers who I spoke to, to question the sense in a paying money to send a film in to have it insulted with ridiculous and nonsensical remarks.

It`s time to do more than talk about it. The system needs changing!!!

[Editor: I have started a separate thread to discuss how judging might be better arranged.]

[Mike Shaw]

The plot of the Helping Hand - which also eluded me - is given now on the IAC website, and that does rather put the story in a different perspective (ahh! That's what it was all about!). I missed quite a few of the nuances in the story I must admit - perhaps because the dialog was translated and captioned. I'd have to see it again now, armed with the plot I think, to appreciate it more.

My disappointment with the weekend's films was more to do with the doom and gloom of it all, with very little 'light relief'. And one of the lighter films - Chocolate Moon - I must say I'm rather glad they did repeat - first time I was confused by the inexplicably (to me) unlinked sequences and spent time 'trying to catch up' with what was happening. Second time, knowing there was no link, I enjoyed the humour in it more. (I loved the classic line which went something like, "I am a poet, and completely oblivious of the fact..."). The ratings films get has always been a source of amazement to me - even when one of my own film scored a four star when, to me, a three-star would have been a good 'result', so this year was no different.

I've said this before, but repeat again - judging films is and always will be extremely subjective. Ken mentions a film which he thought should have been rated higher partly perhaps because of the amount of work that went into it: my own view of the same film was that it was at least 15 minutes too long and contradicted itself several times. So an audience's opinions will differ on the merits of a particular film as well, which means judge's decisions will always be suspect among some. Judging, therefore, is a thankless and unenviable task. If only there were a way to judge a film the same way that athletes, for example, are judged - there is one winner, cut and dried, determined purely by being the first past the post or achieving the highest or longest jump and so on. Is the idea worth more than the production value? Is the storyline worth more than the camera angles or the quality of the reproduction?

[Fingercuff]

I was really bowled over by the reception of our film ‘Dancer’. I have seen it with an audience a couple of times now and this has been the best reaction so far. It was great to speak to so many of you afterwards and hear your thoughts about the film including the Rouillard clan, the SAM crowd, Willy Van Der Linden and of course the Wattersons! This will probably be my last time at the festival so it was great to end on a high!

The first cut of ‘Dancer’ was very different to the film you see now. We cut around 8 min’s of footage mainly down to pacing including more on Emily and Sophie’s friendship, and the anger that Emily feels towards the unknown driver. I did consider ending the film at the doorway but felt it was important to show Emily at the roadside saying goodbye to her friend. I wanted it to illustrate that through Jack’s confession of guilt she can get closure on the tragedy and move on with her life. There are other areas of the film I would like to change in retrospect but hey-ho, got to move on to the next film (which is ‘Three’: http://www.vimeo.com/20511187 )

I enjoyed my weekend in Harrogate. My highlights were certainly Chocolate Moon, the 2 animated entries in Sunday’s show as well as Hounds & Huntsman by Michael Slowe (I’ve seen some of his work at other festivals and enjoyed it immensely). I did also enjoy Helping Hand. I liked the way it was shot, the acting was also first class even if I cared very little for them as characters.

I respected the amount of time and work that went into ‘Montague Jack’ however it felt about 30 min’s too long for me (a gentleman fell asleep behind me and started snoring!). There were also a number of visual moments lifted directly from ‘From Hell’ a Jack the ripper film made about 10 years ago. However I found the story interesting enough especially as I’m from Wimborne area originally.

All in all a good weekend!

[Dave Watterson]

Jim - I think it is important to explain that this may be your last BIAFF as a competitor because you hope to go professional ... not because you are upset with the results!

You could not have hoped for a better audience reaction to Dancer, and even if the judges gave it second place to Helping Hand, it must have been a close call. Best British entry for the second time running is a major feather in your cap and I suspect you are even more proud of the Best Story award.

I for one hope that it will not be the last time we see you and Poppaea at a BIAFF - whether cheering on one of Jamie's films or keeping an eye on the up-and-coming movie makers.

- Dave

[Fingercuff]

Yes thank you Dave! I should have pointed that out. The awards are obviously terrific however they can't quite compare to the same feeling you get from an audience watching your film. Thats the real buzz for me. Nothing like it!