Straight 8 at SFL

If you enjoyed the vicarious trials and tribulations of last year’s SCI-FI-LONDON 48 Hour Film Challenge, apart from being able to do it all over again this April, ,we have teamed up with Straight 8 to give all you filmmaking masochists something else to get your creative juices flowing.

Forgetting the time constraints of the 48 Hour Challenge, working with digital is a breeze. You can shoot as much as you want, edit to your heart’s content and when it all goes a bit wrong – “fix it in post”. Straight 8 is a completely different proposition. First of all you are shooting on Super8 film (which is the easy part), but you are sent a numbered cartridge (colour or B&W), that’s three minutes and twenty seconds for you to tell your story. The challenge is you have to shoot everything on that cartridge, without retakes or editing or fancy digital effects, then send the undeveloped film back to Straight 8 who process it. If you want to add a soundtrack (music or voiceover) you upload that to their website – bearing in mind you haven’t seen the finished film, so lip-sync dialogue is pretty much out. Now you just wait for Straight 8 to call you and tell you when you can see your masterpiece, such as the special screening at Cannes.

Unlike the 48 Hour Challenge you are free to do whatever you want in your three and a bit minutes. It can be stop-motion animation, sci-fi, fantasy or a mixture of any genre. It is just good old-fashioned filmmaking with in-camera effects and no sound. Have a look at the Straight 8 website for some of the brilliant entries that have been made over the last decade.

If you fancy a real challenge, SCI-FI-LONDON will be picking the best sci-fi/fantasy entries from this year’s competition to show at the SFL Oktoberfest 2009. We will also be showing a selection of genre films from previous years’ Straight 8s at SFL8.

Time is running out, so go straight to the website, register and get your film back to them by March 30. Who knows, it may even show at Cannes as well. Entry fee is £80 to cover the cost of film, processing etc.

Here’s a tip, although a pretty obvious one, shoot rehearsals on DV to make sure you have your timings exactly right, and any in camera effects are working before committing to film because you don’t get any second chances.

Good luck, and we look forward to seeing your films.