It’s that time again for us to get the ball rolling and roll out the imaginary red carpet for the 4th edition of the Loch Ness Film Festival from July 26-28th. It’s more of the same from last year in terms of timetable except with a guerrilla filmmaking afternoon up in the wild country of Loch Ness at Abriachan. Any ideas will be most welcome for making a 2-3 minute film through the powers of social media.
But where it really all begins is back in January when we update the website, open the submissions then hold our breath for the next 4 months to see what comes through the post. I’ll have to admit looking through the submissions, it is our best selection since we began in 2010 with nearly the double of volume reciever despite virtually no advertising, apart from the occasional annoying spams we do from time to time on Facebook and details on festival focus.
This year we noticed one thing from the submissions and especially the submissions from Scotland. As a nation we have found our funny bone again. It’s what we are best at. Being funny and daft and not being depressed alkies. The fact is that we usually struggle for enough comedy to fill a short film block but this year we had nearly enough for two blocks. Alongside local films and entries from the rest of the UK and abroad tell us that maybe things are on the up.
We are fond of all genres here at the festival but our favourite as you can tell is comedy. The genre always seems to go down well with audiences and the closing short film on the Saturday night at the Craigmonie is a 10 minute film called Deep Emotion by Justin Litton from Leeds. I recommend that every budding filmmaker should watch this before they make a film. I beleive it should be the British national template for short films.
We aren’t really fond of the experimental or art house genres. I never seem to get the point and judging by people’s reactions and facial expressions I’m not the only one. I’ve been to other festivals and seen some strange films that were made with real money that have baffled me. Maybe the reason they are chosen is because they had a decent budget despite never using it on the script and idea in the first place. Would you pay money to go to your local multiplex to watch a 2-hour movie of an old depressed man staring at a beige carpet mumbling about his existence on the planet and why he is so fucked up?
I don’t think I’ll ever truly understand the UK art mafia, maybe in their heads they think people will pay money to make and watch these type of films and the general public will have a change of heart and say FUCK Avengers 2, let’s go and see Man on a Bridge (It’s about a middle aged man sitting on a bridge contemplating if he should jump as he isn’t happy with his life, either his wife has left him or he has a life threatening illness or a drink problem or the government is after him or possible it’s all of these reasons why he is sitting on a bridge)
So if you’re submitting to the festival next year, make sure you make a good drama/horror/Thriller/animation or even better make us laugh. Just remember we aren’t to keen or fond of watching strange men staring at FUCKING carpets for ten minutes looking depressed. Hold on a minute, I’ve just had an idea for our guerrilla filmmaking afternoon!
You can find check out the full programme at http://lochnessfilmfestival.co.uk/
- Sweet Hand of the White Rose - August 14, 2013
- Loch Ness Film Festival 2013 - July 20, 2013
