Film Contest Final Ranking and Screening

[gfish]

So, we got 10th. They called it 9th, but two people tied for 8th.

'Die Bugs! Die!!!' was excellent. Great acting, lots of great lines, amazingly high production values. (I would swear they were using a dolly for some shots, if that wasn't so unlikely. Maybe very good steadycam work.) 'Clan Wars' had a muddled plot that didn't really go anywhere, but it had great costumes and settings, played with interesting lighting effects, and generally just reeked coolness.

The other 7... weren't so good. Mostly just a series of cheap laughs, poorly edited together. The first place movie was 10 minutes of people impersonating the Simpsons comic book store owner wrapper around one middling clever idea, a handful of good jokes and hideous production values. (And they were inexplicably mixing Trek, Tolkien and generic medieval fantasy, which offends me much more than the characterization of my social group does.)

Lessons? Humor sells. 'Clan Wars' was the only other top 10 entry that was serious. Capitol-I Ideas don't sell. While I haven't seen a breakdown of the scores yet, I have to assume the judges are interpreting the criteria much differently than I do. Or maybe our fear that they wouldn't know what a passion play was turned out to be well founded.

The righteous bitterness of a misunderstood artist aside, the trip was all kinds of fun, even the wacky ferry mishaps in both directions. We (vixyish, corivax, cow, datavore, ilmarinen, art_geek, myself) all made it in plenty of time, we all got good seats, and we got to wander around the town for a bit. Port Townsend is a great place, and I'm always up for roadtrips with friends. I'll try to post pics later.

Comments

The Lowest Common Denominator

[jhitchin.livejournal.com]

I agree, cheap laughs sell. Lame comedies that I never thought were funny seem to be the big Hollywood blockbusters with equally or sometimes even lamer sequels.

I'm just glad the film made the top ten and that it got screened, and I'm proud to have been part of it.

[sistawendy.livejournal.com]

In the end, it's the Serious Filmmakers who get the respect.

[xiadyn.livejournal.com]

So when do I get to see it?

Xia beat me to it.

[gement.livejournal.com]

Show! Show! I don't care if it takes three hours to drag kicking and screaming over my modem, I want to see Marty tied to a chair!

I mean, your artistic achievement.

Because, unlike the others, your film was not playing to the lowest common denominator. 'Snot my fault I have different factors than the general public.

[shadowblue.livejournal.com]

I completely support the righteous bitterness. Maybe you should have included a note, or something.

"Hey, losers, here's what a passion play is."

But then I guess that probably wouldn't score you points either.

And it sounds like a good time, anyway.