Big Mountain Short Film Festival

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The Big Mountain Short Film Festival is a short film festival based in Ohakune, New Zealand designed to encourage and celebrate creative short film making and storytelling. Entry is free and open to filmmakers internationally, who are encouraged to use maximum creativity on minimum budget. In addition to screening short films, the festival also features professional guest speakers offering tips and techniques on an assortment of topics of particular interest to low and no-budget filmmakers.

Contents

[edit] The 2006 Festival

The first annual Big Mountain Short Film Festival was held on October 20-22, 2006 at the Ohakune Cinema on Goldfinch Street in Ohakune.

The festival screened 34 short films from 14 countries, 6 educational interviews with industry professionals, the full presentation of Making Fantastic Short Films, and two live presentations.

[edit] The Films (2006)

The selected films fall into two categories. Program A (Budget) screens films made with budgets of over $1,000 or which are made with professional equipment and crews. Program B (No-Budget) screens films made with budgets of less than $1,000 which are made with home video cameras and personal computer editing systems

[edit] Program A films

  • KUB
Country: Finland
Budget: $2,000
Director: Anastasia Lobkovski
Plot: A couple’s long-awaited baby is born into a wrong dimension.
  • DOMESTIC
Country: Australia
Budget: $13,000
Director: Katie Hides
Plot: It’s crouching lover, hidden agenda when a couple puts their relationship to the test.
Awards: THE BIG MOUNTAIN (Best Short Film Overall)
  • HELL OR HIGH WATER
Country: New Zealand
Budget: $1,100
Director: David Gunson
Plot: A lighthouse keeper’s isolation is broken by the discovery of a shipwrecked sailor.
  • VIOLINIST
Country: Russia
Budget: $3,000
Director: Yulia Payusova
Plot: A man discovers the feeling of life through the sounds of his music.
  • ELEMENOPEE
Country: Australia
Budget: $5,000
Director: Natalia Amoore
Plot: A sell-out writer is terrorized by strange messages on his fridge.
Awards: THE FLURRY (Audience Favourite)
  • MAKE EVELYN SMILE
Country: New Zealand
Budget: $3,000
Director: Geoff Talbot
Plot: A secret competition is run in a 1950’s pub to make Evelyn smile.
  • A FAVOUR
Country: Poland
Budget: $1100
Director: Lukasz Termer
Plot: A brief moment in a pensioner’s life trapped in an isolated bubble of his own choices.
  • CROSSING
Country: USA
Budget: $12,000
Director: Riad Galayini
Plot: A brother and sister learn that sometimes the only way home is to leave it.
Awards: BEST STORY
  • EVILS
Country: USA
Budget: $1,200
Director: Kiera L Faber
Plot: A world recreated from childhood memories where emotional pain combines with visual beauty.
  • THE LETTER
Country: Canada
Budget: $15,000
Director: Martin Doepner
Plot: When a Canadian WWI nurse tends to a German soldier, grief and revenge are awoken.
  • TUG-OF-WAR
Country: Finland
Budget: $2,000
Director: Anastasia Lobkovski
Plot: A lyrical battle between a boy and a girl over time.
  • A QUIET SPOT
Country: Australia
Budget: $16,000
Director: Ashley Fairfield
Plot: A significant memory shapes the life of a professional high diver.
  • TIGHT HEADS
Country: New Zealand
Budget: $1500
Director: Beau Cuthbert
Plot: Two rugby mates become obsessed with a beautiful girl on the sideline.
  • LAST WORDS
Country: New Zealand
Budget: $5,000
Director: Peter Bell
Plot: A man attempts to fake his own suicide but a bum decides to help.
  • BIG BAD WOLVES
Country: New Zealand
Budget: $9,000
Director: Rajneel Singh
Plot: An alternative interpretation of the classic story of Little Red Riding Hood.
Awards: BEST DIRECTOR (Program A)
  • MELODRAMA
Country: Poland
Budget: $10,000
Director: Filip Marczewski
Plot: A rite-of-passage story about a fourteen-year-old boy on the fringe of manhood.


[edit] Program B films

  • THE HIT
Country: New Zealand
Budget: $95
Director: Campbell Cooley
Plot: A street kid is contracted for a “hit” on a gang leader.
Awards: BEST EMERGING DIRECTOR (Program B)
  • THE CONSEQUENCE
Country: New Zealand
Budget: $22
Director: Nat Brunt
Plot: A man learns to think twice when making decisions.
  • ELEGANT DISPOSITION
Country: USA
Budget: $10
Director: Will Forrester
Plot: A visual allegory to challenge mainstream definitions of beauty.
  • WHAT’S THE MATTER?
Country: Korea
Budget: $150
Director: Hyun Seung Hoon
Plot: An artist who is blinded by his own art is in for a big surprise.
  • THE STORY TELLER
Country: India
Budget: $15
Director: Kanishka Singh
Plot: A poetic narrative of two young lovers who have a meeting of minds.
  • COUCOU CLOCK
Country: France
Budget: $80
Director: Francois Cailleau
Plot: Animated battle of kitchen cutlery and a coucou clock.
Awards: THE RUMBLE (Best short film made for under $100) and BEST ANIMATION
  • SOLO SINGER AND THE BLUE CITY
Country: Germany
Budget: $100
Director: Abhaya Simha
Plot: A lyrical collage of a huge and finished city.
  • ONCE UPON A TIME IN WELLINGTON
Country: New Zealand
Budget: $500
Director: Rajeev Mishra
Plot: A wild west cowboy drifts into a Wellington café.
  • AUTO-MA-TON
Country: New Zealand
Budget: $300
Director: Jason Howden
Plot: A lonely sculptor creates a partner from stone who longs to see what’s outside.
  • THREE ON A PERFECT PAIR
Country: Russia
Budget: $15
Director: Migel Mareskin
Plot: Fake blood and cruel tricks have a trio crying wolf.
  • THE SEARCH
Country: New Zealand
Budget: $100
Director: Brendan Schenk
Plot: An alarm clock, a dream, and a man who leaves his flat.
  • WASH, WASH, WASH, OI, OI, OI
Country: Australia
Budget: $15
Director: Rafael Rocha
Plot: A father takes his clothes washing very seriously.
  • JA05 TBO
Country: UK/France
Budget: $100
Director: Thierry Bonnaud
Plot: A man trapped in his car is travelling through time and space.
  • THE LIZARD, THE FLOWER, & THE DOLL HEAD
Country: Denmark
Budget: $150
Director: Emile Brahe, Danny Chr Jensen, Johan Oettinger
Plot: A lonely lizard finds a beautiful flower in a forsaken dumpyard.
  • WATERPROOF
Country: New Zealand
Budget: $10.95
Director: Christopher Haines
Plot: The employees of a charity decide to help themselves.
  • SEA SIDE STORY
Country: India
Budget: $128
Director: Abhaya Simha
Plot: A son must come to terms with his father’s attachment to his home.
  • WISHING YOU WERE HERE
Country: Australia
Budget: $500
Director: Brionny Dunn
Plot: A traveller prepares for the journey of a lifetime -- leaving his room.
  • SHAKING LIFE
Country: Hungary
Budget: $70
Director: Péter Vadócz
Plot: 4500 still images compiled to remind us that life never stops.

[edit] Schools Section

  • Making Fantastic Short Films
Director: Jeff Bollow
The full hour-long presentation of this educational DVD for schools was presented.
  • The 2007 Schools Competition was also announced, wherein schools across New Zealand and Australia will enter the best student-made short films to win a competition with prizes, to be presented at the 2007 festival.

[edit] Interview Segments

Educational segments consisting of taped interviews with industry professionals talking about their jobs were followed by live Q&A sessions. The 2006 industry professionals were:

  • PRODUCING
in the words of
Dale G. Bradley
Film Producer with over 20 feature film credits
  • PRODUCTION MANAGING
in the words of
Susan Parker
In My Father's Den, The Last Samurai, Vertical Limit
  • MUSIC LICENSING'
in the words of
Jackie Dennis
Mushroom Music NZ
and
Tim Moon
Media Music NZ
  • ANIMATION
in the words of
Dylan Coburn
President of Karactaz Ltd
  • FILM EDITING
in the words of
David Coulson
Whale Rider, North Country
  • CINEMATOGRAPHY
in the words of
Alun Bollinger
Heavenly Creatures, The Frighteners, Oyster Farmer, River Queen

[edit] Live Demos & Presentations

  • LOW-BUDGET VISUAL EFFECTS
Zane Egginton of Auckland Unitec presented a live demontration of the technical equipment and software needed to produce powerful low-budget visual effects on a shoestring budget.
  • STORY AND SCREENWRITING
Jeff Bollow filmmaker, founder of Screenplay.com.au and best-selling author of Writing FAST: How to Write Anything with Lightning Speed discussed tips and tricks for approaching the writing process.


[edit] The 2007 Festival

The dates for the next Big Mountain Short Film Festival are set for October 19 - 21, 2007.

Filmmakers will be able to submit their films from February 2007.


[edit] External links