Checking out our investment - the 7th Renderyard Short Film Festival, Logroņo, La Rioja, Spain
Posted 23 November 2011 | 
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1 Comments
I'm about to travel to the 7th Renderyard Short Film Festival, being held in Logroņo, La Rioja, in northern Spain, and thought I'd write some blog articles about the experience, and IP Performance's representation there.
The Renderyard Short Film Festival is an annual event showcasing a rich selection of work from around the world, including documentaries, animations, online series, independent films and new music videos. The festival has actually already started as I write this, but the full seven day itinerary was a little bit much to justify to "The Management", so I will just be covering the concluding weekend, which includes the first public screening of a production with which we have been involved, as the closing item of the event.
This will be my first visit to the Renderyard Festival, so I'm quite interested as to what it's all about. Here's a short video clip, which doesn't really give anything away:
So why are IP Performance, and I in particular, attending a film festival, if not as an out-and-out free-loading junket? IP Performance have, over the last few years, been engaging in the digital media (advertising, TV, film) and broadcast industries, and specifically in post-production, where we have been specifying and delivering various workflow optimisation tools and solutions to a number of top-flight post-production facilities, including De Lane Lea, Molinare, Pinewood Studios and Technicolor. As a consequence, I follow the progress of the productions as they go through the editing process, and have, through talking to the directors, producers and crew, learned of other projects, some low-budget, independent productions. "Makers | Our Story" is one of these.
IP Performance were privileged to be able to contribute towards the production of this film, through technical consultancy on workflow optimisation and collaboration with their post-production partners (IP Performance supplied Deluxe Group, Deluxe Soho's parent company, with switched extender systems and Gigabit Ethernet switching platforms from Avocent and Juniper Networks), and I was able to contribute in my own small way with digital stills photography for the film, as well as for promotional and marketing purposes. One of the reasons for my attendance at the festival, and for following this through to the first public screening, is to ensure that we get our credits on celluloid (or digitised pixels, as the case may be). I think however, that Amadin Ryan, producer and co-writer, may have been managing my expectations when he mentioned that certain "tweaks and edits may be necessary" post-screening... we shall see! "Makers II " is already in the works, so I want to make sure that there are no unfortunate precedents...
"Makers" is an inspirational feature-length documentary about the UK independent film industry, featuring an array of talent from the UK filmmaking community with interviews from award-winning filmmakers and film industry experts. The execution of projects such as this depend on the ability to collaborate, and to utilise increasingly ubiquitous and highly available online resources - file-based workflows, IP networking and the Internet. The Internet and and Social Networking have aided filmmakers immensely as a quick, easy and cost-effective resource to help them collaborate and to empower individuals, not only to make, but also to market and distribute their own films.
As well as using Cloud-based collaborative services over the Internet and leveraging Social Networking sites to broadcast their message digitally, independent filmmakers are harnessing the proliferation of digital technology and equipment, which has transformed the cinematographic process and made filmmaking accessible and cost-effective like never before. With the introduction of the RED camera and the development of the Canon DSLRs, digital technology is bridging the gap with film as a comparable aesthetic medium. Competitors like Arri and Sony have followed suit, introducing more technically-advanced entry-level cameras aimed at the budding cinematographer.
Other themes explored in "Makers" include the current state of the UK film industry infrastructure, UK and International film funding (with specific focus on the recent abolishment of the UK Film Council), and the use of film festivals to promote the output.
Which brings me neatly back to this event, the Renderyard Short Film Festival. Why on earth promote a documentary on the current state of the UK independent film industry at a film festival in northern Spain? Well, I'm assured that there will be some quaffable wine to hand, as Logroņo is the regional capital of Rioja, but that can't be the only reason. As an educational, informational and inspirational documentary, "Makers" is firmly aimed at film schools, film colleges and associated departments in educational instituations throughout Europe, the USA and globally. Renderyard is not only an independent, international short film festival, but also an online digital platform operating as a distribution agency for aspiring and award-winning filmmakers, musicians and visual artists. And so distribution and promotion come together...
So, apart from following the progress of our investment, I will be looking to discover more about the production and distribution process, make new contacts amongst post-production facilities, studios and film schools, and of course photograph and blog about my experiences. Sampling of Rioja Reserva optional....
UPDATE: One thing I forgot to add - I won't be able to blog on the fly. Although I'm assured that the airport, trains, festival venue and hotel are all Wi-Fi enabled, since a hacking attack last year just prior to our ISO27001 audit, our security sysadmin Andy is rightly paranoid. Consequently, administrative access to our web services, including the blog, is restricted to trusted sites, domains, and end-point IP addresses. Which doesn't include the afore-mentioned locations. I shall therefore be deploying my trusty reporters' notepad and biro, and transcribing to my laptop each evening. Diary-entry blogs on my return...
by Pierre | 23 November 2011
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1 Comments
Egypt
December 17th, 2011 at 19:32pm
This "free sharing" of infomrtaoin seems too good to be true. Like communism.