“Contingency” Wins Award at the $100 Film Festival – 2012 March 11

They screened my film Contingency Saturday night at the $100 Film Festival.

The screening went well. They had a good turn out. They moved the festival this year. The last few years it was at the Plaza theatre, but this year they had it at the Alberta College of Art and Design in the Stanford Perrott Lecture Theatre. The festival was there several times in the past. My wife thought it was a better location for the festival.

The last time I went to the festival I only met a couple people I knew. This time I met about a dozen. I did some promotion of the film, but I only know of one person who came because of the promotion I did. He got the date wrong and went to the Friday night screening.

After the films were finished, they announced the awards. I was very pleased when they announced that Contingency had won the Best of Alberta award sponsored by Calgary Economic Development. That impressed my wife. I got a trophy designed by George Duncan

The host, Nowell Berg (who hosted the first $100 Film Festival) asked me to give a little speech. I said that I knew that while many in the audience were film makers, many others had never made a film. I challenged them to make a film for next year’s festival. I would really like to see that happen.

After the screening, several people came over to me to say they liked my film. That makes me feel good. I get a screening fee for the film. That makes me feel good too.

I haven’t decided what to do with the film next. Ordinarily I would look into getting some distribution of the film (Moviola showed My Next Film), but that requires I get releases for everything on the screen, and that would be a nightmare to do. I’ve lost touch with some people and I never did know the names of some other people. I haven’t decided what to do with My Next Film either.

I do feel inspired to make another film for the festival.

“Contingency” Update 2012 March 4

I got the picture and sound done for Contingency this week. I used a CD for the sound. It is very hard to get perfect sync with that arrangement, but I think it should be close enough. The projector I used varied between a little fast to a little slow.

I took the film and CD into the CSIF office Tuesday. The festival will screen it as the first film on the Saturday night (March 10). The screening starts at 7:00 p.m. in the Stanford Perrott Lecture Theatre in the Alberta College of Art and Design (1407-14 Ave NW). More information on their website: http://100dollarfilmfestival.org/fest2011/

Melanie Wilmink, who runs the festival, told me she’d like me to record more information about the start of the festival. Back in 2003 (year 11 of the festival), I wrote a short history of the festival for the CSIF’s newsletter. I’ve posted it on my website now http://dynamiclethargyfilms.ca/articles/the-history-of-the-100-film-festival/ Melanie also posted it on the CSIF blog. http://csifblog.wordpress.com/2012/02/28/the-history-of-the-100-film-festival/

Over the next few days I plan to do some promotion of the festival, and my film of course.

“Contingency” Update 2012 February 26

I made good time on Contingency this week. I had it ready to take into the film festival office Friday, but then I got the extra film I shot delivered Thursday. Most of the new shots looked very good, but a few were disappointing. My sloppiness I’m afraid. I got most of what I wanted, so I was happy. There was only one shot I debated about using.

I felt the new shots were an improvement on what I had.

I tried to refinish the film Friday. I got all the new shots in, but the recut film is longer. It was only about three seconds, but I need to adjust the sound a little to make it fit. I didn’t have time to do that Friday.

I asked for an extension to get the film ready and they said I could bring it in early next week. I don’t think I’ll have a problem with that.

They have started to promote the festival and posted a “review” of my film on-line. csifblog.wordpress.com/2012/02/22/more-100-film-festival-reviews-by-tim-zak/ It is only one line long, but he is nice to me.

I showed the film to my wife and she said nice things about it.

I’d reshot my film Some Days . . . as well, but I had accidentally jarred the camera when I was shooting and the image was off center. Other than that, it looked very good. I decided that it wasn’t ready to show. Next year for sure!

“Contingency” Progress Report 2012 February 12

I worked on my film Contingency most of the week. Some of the shots I had in the film were not as good as I would have liked, so reshot them. During the first part of the week, I set up or arranged the images I needed.

Wednesday I went downtown to pick up a camera from the Calgary Society of Independent Filmmakers. They moved their office just before Christmas and it was my first time to visit it. They have far less space now, but I think they have it more efficiently laid out. I believe they plan for this to be temporary. Temporary can last longer than permanent though.

I shot Thursday. It was a long day and slow work. I had to move the camera and tripod around, but fortunately, I didn’t need to use any lights. Even as it was, my cracked rib gave me a lot of pain. I tried to reshoot my other film, Some Days . . . , as well, but I’m not confident I’ll have a final version from that.

Friday I returned the camera. I sent the film to Niagara Custom Lab in Toronto http://www.niagaracustomlab.com/. I hope I get it back in time to get it ready for the festival. The time is tight though. In the past, I knew Rick Doe, who ran the film lab here in Calgary, would give priority to a project if you asked for it, but not for a 100-foot roll.

The $100 Film Festival accepted both Contingency and Some Days . . . this week. I told them that I didn’t think Some Days . . . would be ready. I have a version of Contingency that I feel is good enough to show, so even if the new film isn’t back in time, I can show it.

“Contingency” Progress Report 2012 January 29

Both Contingency and Somedays were accepted to the $100 Film Festival this week. I felt good about that. I’m sure that they accepted the films on the merits and it had nothing to do with my starting the festival. I decided to withdraw Somedays because I was so unhappy with the image quality. I can redo it for next year’s festival.

I made good progress on Contingency this week. I finally got all my clips ready and taped them together. There are a few things to do before it is ready to show. There is one clip that I think I’ll trim down a bit. Otherwise, I think it is about ready. I’d still like to redo some shots, but I’m not sure I’ll be able to.

I want to make a few changes to the sound track too, which should be easier. I want to have short clips of people talking about randomness, uncertainty and so on. I have a few, such as one from Steven Jaye Gould, but I’m having trouble finding more. I plan to add Trudeau saying, “Just watch me”. I watched a bunch of stuff of Marshall McLuhan, but didn’t find anything that I felt fit. If you know of anything please let me know.

“Contingency” Update – 2012 January 22

I made some good progress on Contingency this week. It was slow going because of my back and arm pain. I’ve collected all the shots I need for the film. I still need to trim a couple shots, but the rest are ready.

I found some alternative clips that I think I may want to use. In particular I found some test footage I’d done to convert Weekend in Calgary from Super 8 to 16mm. I only have part of the film, but for the clip I want for Contingency it would be fine.

I am still concerned about the image quality of some of the shots. I don’t have anything that would be a direct replacement, and I’m not likely to get a chance to reshoot them in time for the festival. I have started to consider a recut of the film to eliminate those shots. I’ll need to redo the sound, or add some other images, which I’m reluctant to do. On the other hand, the theme of the film is how random events affect how something turns out, so changes at this stage would be appropriate.

I use an old 16mm movie viewer that I picked up years ago in my editing. Part way through the week the light stopped working. I don’t know if I can still get a replacement bulb. I tried to work around it, but then I noticed that the power cord looked like it might be broken. It was identical to a cord I have left over from an old computer, so I tried that. That fixed the problem.

Most of the equipment I use is getting quite old and nearly impossible to replace. Every time I use them, I worry that it may be the last time they’ll work. I had a similar experience when I did The Fence. Every time I went to take another shot, I worried if the fence would still be there. Someone removed it a few years after I finished the film. They built a condominium on the site. I had an unexpected reminder of that this week when the condominium was evacuated due to flooding.

“Contingency” Progress Report 2012 January 15

I slipped on some ice on January 5 and that really threw a spanner into the works as far as my film goes. Didn’t do much for my arm and back either. I cracked a bone in my arm and a rib. Recovery has been and will be slow. They say it could be six weeks or more.

I don’t have my film Contingency ready to show at the $100 Film Festival yet and with my injuries, it will be difficult for me to get it ready.

I have all the shots I need, but I want to redo some of them because of poor image quality. I’ve asked a couple of people for help, but haven’t lined up anyone yet.

While I wait, I’ll create an edited film version of the movie with the shots I have. At least I’ll have something I can show.

Films Submitted to the 20th $100 Film Festival

This week was the dead line for entries into next year’s $100 Film Festival. I submitted my two films just in time. Somedays . . . is a short one-gag film. Contingency runs longer and is an experimental film about the history of the $100 Film Festival. I hope they are accepted.

I still have some work to do before they are ready to screen. I have until March to get that done. Some of the shots I did turned out poorly and I want to reshoot them.

My plan was to do the 16mm films in the same way that I would have done a Super 8 film, but use the work print. I could still go back to a negative cut or transfer if I wanted to later. Now I’m starting the think it might be better to use the CSIF’s optical printer. That would give me a complete negative of the film, so I could do multiple copies.

I’ve never used the optical printer myself, but I went to a workshop on it. I think I can figure it out, although maybe I need to find someone who has to give me some guidance.

The CSIF is closed until January, so I have some time to plan where I go from here.