A while ago we put on a film making competition together with our partner, IdeasTap. The winner, Samuel de Ceccatty, created a wonderful short film called Dave's Wild Life using our wildlife sounds as his inspiration. On the back of this, we thought it might be nice to do a little research for you to come up with some of the best film making competitions that are out there and open at the moment. I’ve only listed some of them below but there are so many out there, but a couple of good places to start looking for competitions are on IdeasTap, Sheffield Doc/Fest, Rushes Soho Shorts and ShootingPeople. If you're particularly interested in mixing science with film, the Wellcome Trust has some great funding competitions. So, if you are looking to break into the film industry, entering competitions is a great way to get some exposure and you could win a pretty great prize at the same time. Take a look at our blog about how the Library can help filmmakers and get creative.  

Virgin Media Shorts
Now in their sixth year, the Virgin Media Shorts competition has discovered young filmmakers like Luke Snellin, Jason Wingard and Jennifer Sheridan. It's a great opportunity for aspiring film makers and has one of the biggest prizes available, including £30,000 worth of funding for your next film, mentoring from the BFI and national screenings. Entries should be two minutes twenty seconds or less (to be precise) and the closing date is July 18th 2013.



The Grierson Awards
Established in 1972, the Grierson Awards are in honour of the pioneering Scottish documentary filmmaker John Grierson, famous for Drifters and Night Mail and the man widely regarded as the father of the documentary. With Grierson there's more opportunity to win an award due to the number of categories, including arts, history, science and contemporary theme, as well as for first time and student filmmakers. The closing date for entries is Friday 31st May.



UK Film Festival
This year, the UK Film Festival will run from 13^th to 16^th November. The Festival aims to celebrate the cultural diversity of films made in the UK and also welcomes films from all over the world. The categories include, best short film, best music video, best animation, best documentary, best student film and best feature film. The deadlines start from 27^th May to October 7^th>, depending on your category and your submission fee.



Encounters Short Film and Animation Festival
Encounters is a great place to meet other people from the film industry and all the creative industries in general, it's not just about screenings it also offers discussions, workshops and other interactive events throughout the festival. Encounters accepts films from all over the world, which are under 30 minutes in length but can be from any genre (animation, live action drama, documentary, experimental, music video). Deadlines range from June to July. 



The London 48 Hour Film Project
Filmmakers from all over the London area will compete to see who can make the best short film in only 48 hours. The winning film will go up against films from around the world for the title "Best 48 Hour Film of 2013". The competition is likely to take place in September 2013 but other cities will be taking part throughout the year.

Earlier in our blog we showed you the winning film for our Spring Festival competition, inspired by our wildlife sounds. Here are some of the finalists’ films, inspired by our wildlife sounds.

Maya Avidov is a filmmaker who works in both London and Tel Aviv, Israel. She took our wildlife sounds and turned them into a film called ‘The Natural Habitat’ which shows readers in a Library coming to life in a choir based on our wildlife sounds.


The Natural Habitat from Maya Avidov on Vimeo.

Produced by Ellie Ragdale, the Animal Arkhive is a short film which shows how libraries can make the world around us come to life. After a library closes, the books take on a force of their own, with animals and nature emerging to play among the shelves.

The Animal Arkhive from Ellie Ragdale on Vimeo.

Ciaran Lyons’ film was made in partnership with Iban Perez. It takes you on a journey through a barren asphalt landscape. As the camera continues its journey, the footage begins to flicker and glitch, revealing glimpses of a parallel digital world occupying the same space.

Iban Perez - "Intrusion" from Sea of Lyons on Vimeo.

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See our winning short film inspired by our wildlife sounds: Dave's Wild Life

You might remember back in October we launched a competition, together with IdeasTap, for filmmakers, photographers and animators to come and access our ridiculously extensive wildlife sound archive here at the Library. We asked entrants to come up with a concept for a short film which placed the sounds at the centre – it was all about the imagination and originality. In January 13, we short listed ten entrants who were given a cash prize to create their shorts. Finally, during our Spring Festival we announced the winner of the competition (drum roll please): Samuel de Ceccatty, with his brilliant short, DAVE’S WILD LIFE.

Samuel trained as a graphic designer before becoming a filmmaker, and now writes, directs and edits all of his films. Together with his producer and friend, Manon L. Ardisson, de Ceccatty set up Cat&Bear PICTURES, a London based production company, focusing on short films and music videos. Samuel has had his works shown on Vogue’s website, at the London Short Film Festival 2013, Rushes Soho Shorts Festival 2011 and won the ENO trailer competition organized by Mike Figgis.

As the winner of our competition, Samuel received a cash prize and had his film screened at our Spring Festival at our Future Shorts film event, and we hope to support him in his future endeavours.

His film is about a young guy who’s never given up hope of being a wildlife presenter (the next David Attenborough) and manages to see wildlife all around him in urban London. It’s really funny, innovative and original, which is exactly what we wanted. Congratulations to Samuel and we hope to see you and other filmmakers making use of our great and surprising resources at the Library.

Check out Dave’s Wild Life above and let us know what you think! You can also read our blog on how we can help filmmakers.

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It's the start of the Spring Festival!

See our winning short film inspired by our wildlife sounds: Dave's Wild Life

Good news! A new database is being added to our free resources here at the Library and it’s one that I know I’ll be making particular use of.

The Entertainment Industry Magazine Archive 1880-2000 is an exclusive database containing trade, press and fan magazines, which cover film, music, theatre, television and radio. This means that the titles don’t just discuss what’s happening in the different industries in terms of business and economics but also reviews, interviews with major artists, photographs and illustrations, all in their original context and format.

Some particularly famous titles that can be accessed are The Stage, from 1880 – 2000, Melody Maker, from 1926 – 2000 and Picturegoer (1911 – 1960). You can access a full list of the publications and their dates on the database website, which can be accessed on site at the Library.

It’s not just for research from an academic or professional point of view; I found it really interesting to see what the entertainment industry was like in previous years and how it’s changed. You can see how something in the industry was received at the time rather than how we think of it now. I might even swap my new weekly copy of NME for one of the originals!

Anyone who has a Reader Pass can see the database in our Reading Rooms at St Pancras. Find out how to get a Pass.

Many children’s stories have been getting a revamp on screen in the last few years and today saw the release of one of the most iconic – The Wonderful Wizard of Oz, but not as we know it. The latest rendition, produced by Disney, has been named Oz the Great and Powerful and acts as a prequel to Lyman Frank Baum’s 1900 book. The famous 1939 film, The Wizard of Oz was produced by Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer and starred the wonderful singer and actress Judy Garland as Dorothy. Keen to not be seen as a mere remake, the new film does not have a Dorothy, instead, we are introduced to Oscar Diggs, played by James Franco, who is to become “the Great and Powerful” Oz. There are still some familiar characters such as Glinda the good witch, played by Michelle Williams and the wicked witch of the west, named Theodora, played by Mila Kunis. The film is to be released in both 2D and 3D and I for one cannot wait to see it!

I did a little digging here at the Library and have come across some great illustrations of the story of the Wizard of Oz that I’ve included below.

Today is finally here. The big day! It’s the first day of Spring Festival 2013, and we’re kicking off tonight with our LATE at the Library: Fashion Flashback.

Julie Verhoeven artwork

Tonight we will be celebrating music, fashion and fun inspired by the Library’s collections. If you remember our blog from a couple of weeks ago that showed Central Saint Martins' students' sketchbooks, you’ll finally be able to see their finished products at the paper fashion show tonight, demonstrations by collectors, inspiring workshops, costume drawing, pop-up stalls and talks by GQ editor-in-chief Dylan Jones, fashion illustrator Tanya Ling, fashion academic Iain R Webb and writer Camilla Morton. To create our party atmosphere DJ Princess Julia and Jeffery Hinton will be spinning the decks.

Christopher Kane

Earlier today we had a fashion trends talk, by Insider Trends – our Business & IP Centre Innovating for Growth programme success story and on Saturday we will be having a screening of this season’s award winning Future Shorts Festival films. The screening will show the winner of the Sound Edit competition, you can see the finalists on a previous blog. We gave readers the chance to go through our wildlife sounds collection and create a short film inspired by the audio. 

Central Saint Martins print student work

The Spring Market will be taking place all day Monday 4 March on the St Pancras Piazza. The stall holders were the winners of our competition and their great products together with a bit about them can be seen here. Also on Monday will be a lunchtime talk from Julie Verhoeven, the artist behind our Spring Festival artwork. On Tuesday, Sarah Warsop, our jewellery designer in residence is giving an intimate informal talk about her work and time here at the Library. Finally, the Folio Society and Will Gompertz (BBC Arts editor) will be giving a talk about how to illustrate books. We will also have live illustrators demonstrating their skills that have been inspired by some of our classic novels. 

Nette' Leather Goods

Sarah Warsop jewellery

You can find out more at www.bl.uk/spring

As part of our Spring Festival, we’ll be showing the latest set of films from Future Shorts (full programme below). You can book your ticket for our event on our site.

There will also be a screening of the winning film from our wildlife sounds competition with IdeasTap. We set filmmakers the challenge to create a short film or animation in response to our weird and wonderful wildlife sounds, from a haddock under water that sounds like a snare drum to bats that sound like human beatboxers.

Fishing without Nets
Director: Cutter Hodierne
Kenya – 2010, 17 min
A story of pirates in Somalia told from the perspective of the Somalis. Winner of the Grand Jury Prize at 2012 Sundance Film Festival.

Marcel, King of Tervuren
Director: Tom Schroeder
USA – 2012, 6 min
The rooster Marcel survives the bird flu, alcohol, sleeping pills and his son Max. Though blinded in one eye, he remains the King of Tervuren. Greek tragedy as acted out by Belgian roosters. Marcel, King of Tervuren is in competition at Sundance 2013.

We‘re Leaving
Director: Zachary Treitz
USA – 2011, 12 min
Rusty and Veronica have to move out their home and try to find a new place to live with their teenage alligator, Chopper. We’re Leaving is a tender glimpse at one couple’s quest for small triumphs in an uncaring world. Jury prize winner at Woodstock Film Festival and receiver of an Honorable Mention
at Philadelphia Film Festival.

The S from Hell
Director: Rodney Ascher
USA – 2010, 9 min
Short documentary-cum-horror film about the scariest corporate symbol in history -The 1964 Screen Gems logo, aka ‘The S From Hell.’ Built around interviews with survivors still traumatized from their childhood exposure to the logo after shows like Bewitched or The Monkees, the film brings their stories to life with animation, found footage and dramatic reenactments.

Candy Girl
Director: Lucy Luscombe
UK – 2012, 3 min
A surreal coming-of-age short in which a young gymnast in competition begins to see the world differently. Candy Girl explores the transition we make from idealistic childhood through the somewhat more murky world of the adolescent. Underwire Festival Winner of the Outstanding work by female practitioner aged 15 – 25, supported by BFI Future Film.

Lovebirds
Director: Brian Lye
Czech Republic – 2010, 7 min
Love Birds is a short film that sees humans acting as birds. A male and a female bird meet and fall in love. An egg is produced and all is happy in the nest until their love is tested and fate comes knocking. A humorous love story that reflects the similarities between avian and human life. Best Film at Primavera Film Festival, Leichhardt (Sydney) Australia.

Slitage (Seeds of the Fall)
Director: Patrik Eklund
Sweden – 2009, 18 min
Middle-aged couple Rolf and Eva live in a passionless relationship. They wear and tear at each other and Eva begins to feel sexually frustrated. One night she tries to seduce Rolf. He dismisses her but then something happens that will change their relationship forever. Special Jury Mention and the Audience Award at the 2010 Prague Short Film Festival from the Oscar nominated director Patrik Eklund.

We’ve now announced the ten finalists for our Wildlife Sounds short film competition with IdeasTap. We set filmmakers and animators the brief to create a new short film inspired by our weird and wonderful wildlife sounds. All is not what it seems: a haddock sounds like a snare drum, or bats sound like a human beatboxer.

Here are the ideas we loved the most:

Joe Kroese
His film ‘Someone Else’s Life’ explores the social mobility of farmers and their ties to nature and the land. It tells the story of a Northumbrian teenager filmed in silent, except for wildlife sounds: their father's Land Rover is sounded by a haddock drumming; their dubstep is played by the echolocation of a bat. Joe works as a filmmaker for Northern Stars Production in Newcastle as well as creating documentary work for his company, I See Productions.

;

Grace Harper Brighouse
Her film will use the sounds to get visual responses from members of the public. She will take the sounds to different places of wildlife in the UK and film the people that live and work in these places, imitating the animals that they imagine the sounds are from. Working with Tom Rosenthal to turn the sounds into a song she will set the sounds of animals against the faces of the people that live amongst them, with the backdrop of natural landscape.

Samuel de Ceccatty
His film will tell the story of Julian, a 30-years old man who never gave up his dream to make wildlife documentaries. Though working in a shop in London, he uses his prolific imagination to turn every minute of his prosaic life in an adventure, imagining wildlife animals from the noises that surround him combined to the sounds he remembers from his favourite documentaries. He is a 23 year old filmmaker and part of Cat & Bear production company.

John Maloney
Office drone Will uses nature recordings like narcotics, transforming the stress of urban existence. With headphones he smothers ringing phones and traffic with birdsong and waves. But after he's attacked in the street, animal noise merges into his heartbeat, birdsong mutates into ominous police sirens: his private soundworld is infected with menacing reality. He is a 26 year old filmmaker, musician and producer now living in London and working as a digital content producer at BAFTA.

Maya Avidov
This video’s starting point is a musical composition created by Assaf Gidron that transforms the sounds first into a soundscape, and then into a captivating rhythmic texture. The composition will then be interpreted into a video showing a choir performing (lip-synching) the composition.

Ciaran Lyons
The camera travels through a barren asphalt landscape – a disused airstrip. An incongruously fertile accompanying soundscape begins to build. The visuals remain devoid of life. As the camera continues its journey, the footage begins to flicker and glitch, revealing glimpses of a parallel digital world occupying the same space.

Katherine Blakeney
In her animation, our wildlife sounds will be reinvented as the voices of endangered library books expressing their essence. Their peril comes from the midnight invasion of a burglar. As he opens each book it speaks to him in its own voice revealing a vision that symbolizes its contents. 

Michael Daye
A group of teenage girls camping on the edge of a wood wake up in the middle of the night to an orchestra of bizarre noises. To keep each other comforted throughout this cacophony, they begin to perform a demented clapping game with one another, drawing the sounds of nature into a short, rhythmic song.

Elena Ruth Simpson Ragdale
For this project she will depict animals that are visually fused with instruments: for example, a frog that is also an accordion, or a bat with wings built from drum skins. The British Library will be the setting, with the animals emerging from books.

Luke Rodgers
‘The Lost Explorers’ is a gripping slice of adventure that sees twin brothers overcoming their differences in the face (or should I say sounds) of far greater dangers. Nothing is more scary than a threat you can't see and when Mattie and Ollie escape their parents while walking in the woods their imaginary exploring mission becomes very real. Now they must work together to overcome the unseen menace and get back to the safety of their parents. One of Luke’s films was premiered at the 56th London Film Festival.

You can find out more about the competition on the IdeasTap website.

The winning film will be screened during our Spring Festival in March 13.