Last year, we gave seven IdeasTap members and aspiring filmmakers £5,000 each to make five-minute long films. They're now being entered into some of the biggest festivals in the film industry. We caught up with the directors, and can reveal the films for the first time...
Ronan Glynn – Behind the Light
Behind the Light won the Shooting People film of the month for March, which was great because Nick Cave was on the judging panel. We’ve got it into a few festivals since, including Branchage in Jersey this year.
I’m currently preparing to start work on a new project, about the characters who make moonshine in the north-west of Ireland.
What most came out of the fund was the opportunity to pursue a story that we felt needed to be told. It’s hard being a young filmmaker fresh out of university – it certainly doesn’t feel like a job. The ambition to make a film is rarely rewarded with financial gain, and having the support of IdeasTap gave us the chance to satisfy that need to create and share.
We hope the audience can take something from our film, and that in part it will help preserve something of the legacy that we as a society has now lost.
Rita Ribas – The Museum of Miracles
Since completing my film in January, it’s been screened at the Rushes Soho Shorts Festival and DocHeads, a documentary film night. My work has also been featured in The Pictures, an underground film zine. I'm hoping to screen it at a festival in Portugal so that the contributors can come along and watch themselves on the big screen!
After making Musuem of Miracles, I shot a music video for Buttonhead's forthcoming album 3D Opera Whale, and I'm currently exploring ideas for my next film.
The Short Film Fund has really helped to further my career by developing my skills and giving me the chance to try new ways of working, and has also been a great opportunity to network. Plus I now have some great filming equipment that I can put to good use on my next projects.
Giles Ripley – ’Orrible
The Ideas Fund Shorts scheme was an invaluable resource to me. It both provided the necessary financial resources to produce an industry standard short, while introducing me to an exceptional mentor who continues to support my professional practice to this day.
Thus far ’Orrible screened as a world premiere at the Academy Award-qualifying Palm Springs International ShortFest and has been officially selected by Branchage Film Festival for September. As the cornerstone of my current director's reel, the short has also contributed to me gaining numerous commercial projects since its completion.
Besides the constant stream of commercial work my day job provides, I am currently working on a self-funded short that will be shot by the end of August, a project on which many of ’Orrible's crew will be reunited.
Munir Malik – Jung
The fund has been brilliant in allowing me the opportunity to experience managing a shoot on a bigger scale than I was previously accustomed to - and allowed me to shoot on super-16mm for the first time.
Even though the budget was 10 times greater then any I had worked on before for a personal project, it was still extremely tight and every penny had to be accounted for; it was still very difficult.
I am currently gearing up to shoot a short with friends in a couple of weeks and I'm working freelance with a variety of different production companies in production and development.
Olivia Humphreys – Oneironauts
The fund allowed me to experiment in a whole new medium, animation, which would have been much too expensive for me to try without the grant. I learnt a whole new approach to filmmaking that's very different – much more meticulous and precise – to the way I had been working.
The best thing about the grant was the opportunity to work with an actual budget and pay people for their time.
I am currently entering the film for festivals and it has been screened at the Light and Shadow Salon, London.
Preethi Mavahalli – Heigh Ho the Carrion Crow
Winning an Ideas Fund Shorts award was a fantastic opportunity. Funding for film is hard to come by but IdeasTap gave me the support and freedom that really kick-started my work as a producer. Not only did I get an amazing mentor out of it, but also professional partners and friendships that will last a lifetime.
Tom Chick – The Fisherman’s Daughter
The fund enabled me to make a short film in a way that I hadn't been able to before, allowing me to really stretch my ideas and develop as a filmmaker.
It was recently shown as part of the Edinburgh International Film Festival, where I was asked to speak about short filmmaking to local high school students (including my school), and we’ve just started touring the festival circuit.
Following its making I have been developing another folk story adaptation called Death in a Nut, which has just been commissioned by Creative Scotland in partnership with Scottish production company Digicult.
Ideas Fund Shorts reopens in February 2012. Read about 2011’s winners.
Image: Still from The Fisherman's Daughter © Tom Chick.