Screening Critique Assignment:
I attended a film screening at the Santa Barbara International Film Festival for this assignment. It wasn’t a shorts program like you preferred but the feature was screening with a preceding short film. The feature film was a documentary titled God Went Surfing with the Devil and the short film was titled Goofyfoot. The content of the films both covered surfing but the feature was a documentary and the short was a fiction piece. Many films in the festival were about surfing and were often screen together in similar manners. The most interesting thing that added to the content of the experience is that both filmmakers had a Q&A session after the films. There input made it far more interesting and we got to learn things that are not put into films, through their inside stories and their live emotions as they told them. The of the collar Q and A was my favorite part of the experience. It was shown at Victoria Hall, so it wasn’t really a movie theater but it did have leveled stadium seating so the view wasn’t obstructed at all, that is unless your really short and the person in front of you is very tall. The projector was very sharp but the festival’s intro/ trailer video looked sharper then the other films, but they still looked good. The first floor holds 170 people and the balcony hold another 120, and the festival spokes person said it was pretty much a full house that night. The audience had good reactions during the film, they were more interested in the feature film more then the short during the Q&A. Some thing trick about such a large and open festival is the ticket and admission system. With the system used there many people are turned down and don’t get into the film because several of the pictures fill up completely, they don’t sell individual tickets for each show in accordance to seat, everyone buys pass to any show and its a first come first serve. They gave out “Q” an hour before show time and each as a number that designates when you go in. On top of that there are special VIP passes that bypasses this entirely so they can fill up the theater and the “Q’s” can exceed the number of seats available. It would make some sense to sell specific tickets to each film that sell out in accordance to the available seating. Below is a link to the festival’s web site and the film’s, also here is a picture of the festival program.
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ReplyDeleteComment from Kirthi:
ReplyDeleteChris- you bring up interesting observations of typically film festival programming....pairing a short with a feature to enchance theme and also give exposure to the short. aAlso mixing genres- fiction and documentary.
You also point to what makes a film festival special (vs renting the video, seeing it in a theatre outside the festival context)- which is the Q/A! And also, when it is a "full house" that adds to the excitement and energy of seeing a film (imagine if the venue was empty).
In terms of the Q, yes that is typically and can be stressful if you are trying to see the film and don't know til the last minute. Also when you have to wait in the cold!
Your review is very thorough- my only comment is to write it more like a review and be playful. You don't have to mention the assignment part and you can jump right into- as typical of the festival, the program I saw had a short paired wiht a feature...etc.
Also, when writing blogs, you can hyperlink the film website when you mention the film festival etc...and perhaps try and grab the image and embed.
The above are tips, in case you continue to write blogs about film...which you have an eye/ear for.