Big Gamble will hopefully pay off for the 2008 Weekend Film Challenge!

Several folks told me last year that with the deluge of contests that ask filmmakers to create content in a short period of time, their teams had started to become burned out and they were finding it harder and harder to get people excited about being involved.  I have to admit that after several years of taking part in the 48 hour film contest, National Film Challenge and Weekend Film Challenge, a bit of the novelty has worn off on the whole idea of grabbing a camera with a few friends and making a movie in one hectic weekend, even for me.  Not to say that I think that these contests are on their way out.  I try to go check out the 48 Film Contest every year (our friend Krk is the producer) and there always seems to be a ton of talent producing movies and there are always a few that make it worth my time.  But, the fact of the matter is that filmmaking is labor intensive work and while you can sometimes catch lightening in a bottle, it usually takes time to produce something worthwhile – as my friend Pete Barnstrom once said, “I already know how to make a crappy movie in one weekend”.  But, give a filmmaker too much time and one can get lost in a sea of endless possibilities that never become more than a potentially great film, so deadlines are paramount to helping edge creative types along. 

As digital filmmaking matures, more people do seem to have the “been there, done that” attitude and they are looking for more unique filmmaking opportunities.  I often think that this is a may be more about stagnation than anything and the cause may actually be rooted in how creative teams work in silos.  Making a movie is one of the ultimate team driven creative endeavors.  One of my favorite things is how this kind of work builds strong bonds within the team, but the downside (especially in a contest) is that it pits creative teams against each other.  While competition can galvanize a team, it can lead to filmmakers putting all of their eggs into one creative basket which means many are hitching their future success to others whose priorities may change as their lives change.  I think that this can be especially dangerous as people get too competitive right out of the gate.  While I do think that a competitive fire is important in achieving any kind of success in life, art is one of those strange things that is really hard to quantify and tastes are so subjective that filmmakers should take the results of contests with a real grain of salt. 

So, the question is this:  How do you improve on a format that has gone a bit stale, giving filmmakers the ability to create something with more lasting value, while fostering collaboration between teams without taking all of the fun and competition out of it?  This year Joe Sexton, Chris McBride and I have dreamed up some enhancements to the Weekend Film Challenge that will either make it one of the most unique film events in the country or sink it into the abyss forever.  The gamble is big, but with the teams we have participating this year our confidence is high.  This year, we have lengthened the amount of times that filmmakers have to work with.  Instead of just one weekend to write, shoot, edit and score their films, they have an entire week to write and plan their shoots and another week to edit and score.   We did ask principal photography to take place over the course of one weekend (hence the still relevant Weekend Film Challenge name), but did allow for reshoots, and didn’t really enforce these rules too much.  We also abandoned the prop, punchline and character drawings that usually ended up being things that were just thrown into the final films to appease audiences and made the movies seem dated and relevant only to the shelf-life of the actual contest.  We still asked each team to make a genre specific film, but instead of drawing those genres out of a hat, each team chose their own at a fantasy football style draft held during the kickoff on May 5^th.  In place of those drawings, we added three wrinkles to this year’s contest.  The first two essentially boil down to each team providing a location and one actor from the last scene in their film to the following team that must be used in the first scene in theirs.  We are also saving the credits from each film until the end of all films and the goal is to blend each of the films a little more seamlessly.  It is an experiment for sure, but if it works it will mean that teams had to cooperate a little more, pool resources a bit and should be an interesting audience experience.  It’s also a bit of a nod to the sketch transitions in Mr. Show with Bob and David (one of my favorite TV shows of all time). 

The third wrinkle is our ace in the hole for this big gamble – Moby.  Music licensing is one of the biggest pains in the ass for indie filmmakers.   Most are broke, so there is no point in a record label even bothering to talk to them.  The only “indies” that have a chance getting recognizable tunes for their films are actually studio-indies.  So, when I heard about a collection of tracks that Moby was putting together to help filmmakers cut through the cumbersome music licensing experience called Moby Gratis I was very excited.  We reached out to his management months ago about the possibility of being involved in STIFF and didn’t hear for some time, and to be honest I wasn’t really holding my breath.  Turns out, he was totally into the idea, but just needed to firm up his tour dates to make sure he could be in Seattle.    So, this year each film will use at least one track from Moby Gratis.  Moby will also be playing a DJ Set at STIFF 2008 and he will even be a special judge for the Weekend Film Challenge (each member of the winning team will get a signed STIFF 2008 poster).

For the first year ever, because of the timing of a trip that I had to take to Aruba (I know, poor me) I wasn’t able to actually participate, but I am more stoked than ever for this year’s Weekend Film Challenge.  I am taking advantage of my long flight back to write a little bit about each of the participating teams and for you gamblers out there I will be handicapping their odds to win the coveted audience award.  The films should be finished and are due back in today, but since most of you have probably stopped reading this long posting already, I am going to just post one every day or two.  I really hope you will check back in from time to time to virtually meet the filmmaking teams and come to one of this year’s screenings to see their work and vote for your favorite.

Coming up…  Handicapping the Weekend Film Challenge - Puppet Entertainment Television.