Urgensia » film festivals

Nikon Film Festival Wants A Hero in 140 Seconds

Peter — Fri, 07 Jan 2011 22:05:18 +0000

Nikon recently launched a European short film festival to promote their latest camera, D7000. The company is calling for submissions that describe a vision of a hero in under 140 seconds. Unfortunately it’s only for EU residents, but still it’s worth checking out some of the current submissions on the festival site (there are a few below that were floating around on Vimeo too). Plus, if you do live in Europe, you still have a week left to turn something in! It’s probably good if you speak French, but you don’t have to know what they’re saying to enjoy some of these shorts.

“JE SUIS UN HÉROS !” Directed by WHAAM!

“Pierre” – Directed by Hello Stranger

“Je suis un héros?” – Directed by Jeronimo Acero & Sara Olaciregui

Vimeo Awards Resnap

Brandon — Mon, 11 Oct 2010 15:44:30 +0000

This past weekend I attended the inaugural Vimeo Awards . As a bona fide video nerd, I have to say it was pretty cool. Lots of camera geeks, filmmakers, plaid shirts, beards, plaid shirts, and booze. Hightlights included the awards ceremony, which I was lucky enough to snag a ticket to, but was bummed and stupid for not having watched the finalists beforehand. Even though we were served snippets of the finalists, I was intrigued enough to go back to the site and start watching them all. Ze Frank was a solid host, even though the telemprompter was fucking him up all night. Favorite quote of his from the night, “In 2003, the average length of video people watched online was 7 seconds. Now people watch full length features.” BOOM!

I’m kinda pshyced to see the fest winner “Last Minutes with ODEN” Doc is so in right now. BTW unrelated note… Catfish” was kinda ill right?

Pop Up Film Festival “Special Offer” in NY

Brandon — Tue, 20 Apr 2010 19:41:16 +0000

Stop… drop… open up a film festival. We haven’t heard enough about Damon aka Dame Dash’s Creative Control TV… how is that possible? Dame typically bangs his self-promo drum pretty loudly. CreativeControl.tv is his latest (as far as we know) spinoff post HOVA split. It’s difficult to figure out exactly what it is, but it appears to be a stand alone content channel that features the cool of the cool’s music videos, odd’s and ends, and few cute online video shows. It’s tough also to determine whether this is Dame’s beta test attempt to further himself as digital media mogul, or if it’s sincerely an attempt to provide a platform for artists to retain “creative control” amidst a sea of brand driven content. Regardless, he has uber talented directors Coodie and Chike signed on, so from that stand point, it gets dap.

Also deserving of dap is a nice looking film festival called “SPECIAL OFFER” they’re putting on at Dash’s gallery, (directed by Katrina Lencek-Inagaki) this week. With screenings of people’s work we like, it should prove to be worth stopping by. If you’re in a fly over state and can’t go… sorry.

April 22-25th, at Damon Dash’s gallery in TriBeCa, The Dash Gallery, at 172 Duane Street.

Interactive, Location-Based iPhone “Film” entered into Boston International Film Fest

Henry Goldman — Tue, 20 Apr 2010 17:26:33 +0000

I don’t quite get how this qualifies as a Film and not some sort of game, but I will definitely grant that it is a complete first, especially for a festival entry. Murder on Beacon Hill, and application based around 43 minutes of video premiered at Boston’s International Film Festival. Viewers experience the film as they walk around a planned route around Boston’s Beacon Hill neighborhood.

While film is iPhone based, it played in the Film Fest as regular film, where Festival director, Patrick Jerome, said “We were just blown away at how watchable the story is in a theatrical setting.”

The film was developed by Untravel Media and is the first in a series of Walking Cinema apps the company has planned.

(via xconomy)

LOOSWORLD Presents… Noseferocktu

Brandon — Tue, 13 Apr 2010 00:05:19 +0000

It’s actually happening… believe it. Urgent Content famlay, Looseworld is putting on a pretty uniquely sick event in NYC. They asked filmmakers to submit their work, and paired them with musicians to score the films and perform live. Should be a fun event, with the Street Carnage dudes hosting, and apparently Das Racist performing? Hmmm. We like.

The Creators:

Creative Crew (Filmmaker & Musician):

1. Alex Markman & Frances Rose

2. Chris Mitchell & Ramble Tamble

3. Daniel Brothers & Alex Lowry

4. Ghost Dad & Philadelphianz

5. Jesse Patrone-Werdiger & Isaac Jaffe

6. Stephen Michael Simon & Gene

7. Taylor Toole & Bridget Barkin

The info:

LOOSEWORLD + Silver Sound present:

THE nosfeROCKtu FESTIVAL

GET YOUR DISCOUNTED TICKETS HERE!

Friday April 16th, 2010
8PM
CRASH MANSION 199 Bowery
NYC

A Convo w/ Sundance Nominated Max Joseph

Brandon — Mon, 01 Mar 2010 15:59:32 +0000

Max is a great example of a creator who’s taken his skills and creativity and leveraged it in the web video space to gain serious recognition as a filmmaker. In a web video less world, Max’s vision would not have had the multimillion view exposure that it has, and he’s managed to take the medium and exploit its benefits.

He created the template for the now famous GOOD Magazine videos we have all come to know as the industry standard for infotainment in short web video.

Max recently attended Sundance to support a short film, “Let’s Harvest the Organs of Death Row Inmates” that he and Chris Weller directed.

Max is a friend of Urgensia and creative consigliere to Urgent Content.

The nosefeROCKtu

Brandon — Sat, 06 Feb 2010 08:34:10 +0000

We don’t know how the fuck you pronounce it, but we do know that this event looks to be fresh. For all NYC based musicians and filmmakers, LooseWorld is producing what looks to be a very interesting event. As they describe it:

“nosfeROCKtu is a creative competition that challenges artist to collaborate across mediums to create a cohesive coupling of silent film and live music. The event will benefit ART START (www.Art-Start.org) , a Non-profit Organization that helps nurture the minds of under served children and teenagers through a variety of creative workshops.”

For more info and to participate go here

Oh, and save the date if you’re in NY… Urgent Content and Urgensia Fam will be in the city to connect you live on 2/16. Stay connected on the @UrgentContent twitter feed for additional info. Cristal for the first 2 people that show up.

Slamdance Filmmaker Summit, Live on the Web

Henry Goldman — Fri, 22 Jan 2010 23:44:02 +0000

As an avid reader of indie film blogs, I’ve heard a lot of hype about tomorrow Filmmaker Summit at Slamandance, featuring such luminaries as Steven Soderberg, Jon Reiss and a bunch of other people I haven’t heard of. Basically, it’s dope forum on the future of real independent film (as opposed to major studios ‘independent’ film). For those of you, like us, who are not in park city, you can watch it streamed live here.

Jonze / Absolut “branded” short premieres at Sundance

Kasia — Fri, 22 Jan 2010 01:21:21 +0000

Spike Jonze’ new short I’m Here premiered yesterday at Sundance, which is interesting not because it is a quirky love story starring two robots, but because it was produced for Absolut Vodka.

“This isn’t the first time people have created branded content, but it’s never really been accepted on its own merits. That’s the grey area we’re trying to explore,” says executive producer Mark Figliulio, who is also chief creative officer at TBWA/Chiat/Day. Apparently the agency gave Jonze a theme (creativity triumphs over conformity), a generous budget, and free reign (not including script and shooting approvals).

It’s an interesting strategy– divert the budget from a media buy back into producing high quality, long form entertainment (dare we say art?)– and hope the film stands on its “own merit” such that audiences seek it out at festivals and online. The light at the end of the tunnel could be a harmonious universe where filmmakers can make art and pay their rent while audiences are spared the annoyance of traditional TV spots (a dead medium) and viral videos (soooo 2009).

Will it work? Post a comment if you’ve caught any interesting buzz about the film.

– story in FastCompany

http://www.imheremovie.com/

Pomo Short Film Festival Taking Over Digital Billboards

Henry Goldman — Thu, 14 Jan 2010 00:09:26 +0000

Art By Chance is a short film festival, of sorts. Instead of screening films in theaters, or even online, the fest screens them on over 7,000 digital display screens across the globe.

The screens, which are usually digital billboards displaying advertisements, will be taken over for 30 second intervals to screen the festival’s selected films. Imagine waiting in line at your favorite corporate coffee shop, and instead of seeing an unremarkable digital billboard, catching a 30 second short – hence the name, ‘Art By Chance’.

It’s unclear to me whether the festival makes any revenue, or if it’s a nonprofit, but regardless, this is a really interesting use of the media outlets that surround us. It’s also a cool challenge to filmmakers, to not only tell a story in 30 seconds, but to also craft it in a way that it will grab the attention of someone walking by.

There are 2 months left to submit and this year’s topic is “time.” Mad euro.