Wednesday, March 25, 2009

Fischgaard Film Festival


I've recently been collaborating with Aberdeen, South Dakota-based production company Labyrinth Films.  Labyrinth Films is run by Shaun O'Connell (director) and Matt Klundt (DP).  I've worked on (2) 48-hour film festival creations along with a third short and am currently working on a film short as well.  Recently, we participated in 'Fischgaard 2009' a 48-hour film festival-style filmmaking festival in Aberdeen, South Dakota.  
In a 48-hour film festival, you basically have 48 hours to write, shoot, score and edit a film.  The entries are then screened at the festival and various awards are distributed.  In past years each team would randomly select their genre from a hat, a line of dialogue was issued and was to be used somewhere in the film as well as a character and prop.  This year, they mixed things up a bit.  Genres were thrown out and, instead, a line of dialogue from a famous film was drawn.  That line of dialogue was to help determine the thematic material of the film.  It could be literal, figurative, symbolic, whatever interpretive take you wanted to execute.  Ours was from SUPERMAN, 'fighting for truth justice and the American way.'  The result was a tongue-n-cheek look at an individual doing his part as a citizen and living the AMERICAN WAY to the best of his ability.  The result was as is linked below - and we won best film!  Of course, I scored the film within the 48 hour block as well.  Labyrinth Films was a hive of activity during those 48 hours - it's certainly a wonderful exercise - I'd recommend participating to any filmmaker or anyone part of a filmmaking team (composers, this is a true test of the "I needed it yesterday!" scenario).