Best in Shorts

Introduction
Digital Deli Presents...
Fabian Riggall on Future Shorts

Introduction
Once upon a time, a short film was the filmmaker’s calling card that would allow them to climb the ladder to make a feature. Some, those of Roman Polanski, for instance, or David Lynch, have been rightly recognised as classics in their own right, but for many the short was seen as a means to an end, the first step in what they hoped would be a glittering career.

It is true that the short film remains a director’s/producer’s/writer’s calling card but, thankfully, the short is enjoying a renaissance as a distinct art form. Digital has both reduced costs and increased the tools of the trade, for both production and post-production, allowing more people to try their hand at filmmaking, and to be able to experiment with the medium. Meanwhile, digital projection has made exhibition far more accessible, not to mention satellite channels, and almost anyone with some technical knowledge can make copies of their work readily available.

Across the spectrum of the industry, the short film culture has been embraced by such people as the BBC, TCM, Future Shorts, Talent Circle and Onedotzero. And, in an ever expanding film festival market, a good quality shorts programme will be a main feature of most.

Calling cards? Yes. A serious art form? Yes. It’s not either/or anymore – you can have your cake and eat it. Andrea Arnold was just a former tv presenter from Dartford who, in the well-trodden path of lo-budget filmmaking, managed to secure public funding for her short film ‘Wasp’: it went on to win practically every award on the calendar, including the Oscar, and led to Andrea making ‘Red Road’, becoming the toast of Cannes, and only last month winner of the Sutherland Trophy at the Times BFI 50th London Film Festival. But you’ll remember and keep seeing ‘Wasp’ for a very long time.

‘Best in Shorts’ is a celebration and exploration of the short film. Close-Up has recently joined forces with Digital Deli, a new company which allows creatives to sell their work via digital downloads, receiving 100% of the profits, and together we are delighted to introduce these films and their makers to you, alongside other rising stars of short film, and the supporters thereof.

Digital Deli Presents...

Digital Deli, although still in a beta phase, is rapidly becoming home to some of the best shorts in the business, and profiling the makers.

Recommended this week:

The Bridge (dir. Richard Raymond) Starring Andrea Corr, Leonard Fenton
A haunting, snowy backdrop witnesses a young disgraced psychiatrist (Corr) trying to save the life of an old man as he tries to throw himself from the bridge. However, is he all he seems...?

Tug of War (dir. Gael McLaughlin) Starring Scott Neal, Marsha Thomason, Julie Goodyear.
A naughty, fun film – in the great British Carry On tradition of cheeky film-making. Four college friends enter into a bet to see who can go the longest without ‘self-love.’ Tug of War follows their trials and tribulations as they try to last ten torturous days.

www.digitaldeli.co.uk

Fabian Riggall on Future Shorts

"I think people are going to eat their hats!" Says Fabien Riggall, founder of Future Shorts, midway on his launch assault on the UK for what will be the largest short film distribution network in Europe . Having teamed up with City Screen to bring an eclectic mix of wonderful shorts to your local cinema, he's now talking about the way in which short films are perceived.

There are two schools of thought with shorts. The first is that they are a filmmaker's 'calling card' for that elusive feature, and the second is that you need to chase funding in order to get them made.

"People spend too much time waiting for funding" says Fabien. "You can make a film for nothing, you really can. I know there are filmmakers out there who think it's a bit scary, but rather than spending hours filling out funding applications and not do anything, they should get hold of a camera and just get out there."

Fabien is determined to show that shorts are an artform in their own right, and one which does have an audience. He says:

"Most filmmakers making shorts don't realise they have an audience at the end of it. They just do something like Tarantino or Spike Jonze and hope for the best. I'm trying to put out that every month you can go to your local cinema and see the best short films and music videos from around the world, and it's a point of inspiration; it's a point where audiences can start recognising certain directors and supporting them."

Fabien began his own career as a runner. He progressed to assistant director and then to making his own films. His first 35mm short was sold to FilmFour but he grew frustrated because it didn't seem to be going anywhere. "We sent it to festivals and it did ok, but there was never a real audience for it at the end."

As he met more people, he grew more and more aware that there was a desperate need for a wider way of exhibiting shorts and putting them on a platform. So, "gingerly", he set up a night at a club in Shepherd's Bush that had a projector, and began running the shorts screenings every month.

"We were showing films from wherever we could get them, making sure they were a nice mixture of different things. From there we met some people who were in Brussels and they really liked our concept. We started exchanging films every month so it became a sort of distribution between each of the two sites."

Fabien says he then became "passionate" about the idea of creating a wide distribution, to widen the net for short films. It was at this point he approached City Screen. Between them they launched in Paris , Manchester , Bristol , and another venue in London which shows rock n roll cinema, half film and half music.

"This was the key to creating a bit of a buzz around short films and short content" explains Fabien. "It's short film but it's also music videos, documentaries, etc. It's to try and find the following that follow independent music and [to get them to] follow short film, supporting directors who are just starting off and see them grow up from screenings that we may do, non-theatrical to theatrical, maybe through to features, and to see their progression rather than how it is now. Filmmakers currently don't have that progression - they don't have the ability to be seen by anyone."

He cites directors Stephen Scott Hayward and Alex Kirkland as good examples of filmmakers whose career he has seen progress. The runners of Future Shorts in Bristol have regularly enjoyed screenings of their short Le Cheval 2.1 , in which a man thinks he's a horse. "They shot it for fifty quid on a DV camera, a really lovely short short film and they've come back and made another film - I think it's called Alien Dwarf Love Triangle." They've also made Gash , a mockumentary on social realist flms - how to make them and how to get them funded. "It's very funny, and they've shown to me how they're progressing".

Now, Future Shorts is set to launch at City Screen Cinemas all over the country.

"By creating this network in lots of different cities, it's giving us a source, a kind of way of sourcing films we never could have done. We're launching in Moscow too and I'm really interested in bringing films from Russia back to England and they're very interested in seeing films from England , France , Spain , etc.

"I'm trying to create a worldwide distribution of short films that's independent and isn't governed by national bodies."

If the digital revolution is allowing for more films to be made, then it's also aiding the way in which they are distributed. The best way for Fabien to receive submissions is via email. "It saves packing, saves paper, saves costs" he says "and if they send me an mpeg I can watch it very quickly, and if I like it I can email them back and they can send me a master. The digital revolution is happening now. We're going to be launching in Jordan and I want to launch in Afghanistan - Iran - Iraq . I want to see films you are never going to get if it wasn't for a computer and a little hard drive from which they can just email films to me and I can email films from here. I'm trying to give the opportunity that as a short filmmaker you will get your films seen by the widest possible audience, and you'll get to see films you never thought existed."

As founder of Future Shorts, Fabien can see anything up to 400 films an hour at times. With such a huge amount of material, what is it that he looks for when selecting his films?

"I'm looking for something different - something quirky. Just a simple story that told well rather than something that is way too ambitious. Or I'm looking for 'otherness'. Or if it just works. When I programme the films I put them in quite a specific order, very much like a DJ might mix. I like to mix up the emotions and try to create a theme in an interesting way. For instance, this month we've got a Chris Cunningham music video and before that we have a film called 'Magnetic North' which is documentary experimental. It's shot in Finland in ice, and the feeling of it with the ice and the sound of the ice, it has a similar feeling to the Chris Cunningham video but it's not themed up. I'm not into themes but I am into putting them into an interesting way."

With over a dozen launches taking place throughout April and May, it must be difficult to choose personal favourites from the programme. Fabien thinks for a moment then jumps in with " Lift . It's a documentary about a guy who sits in a lift for a week, filming people coming in and out. It's shot on a PD150 in the East End of London. He gradually gains their trust as people come in and finds out all these stories. It's a very moving film and very entertaining.

"Jo Jo in the Stars is very beautiful. It's an animation that won a BAFTA and has sound and music to it. But they're all good - a very strong bunch."

Fabien and Future Shorts - who also play at music festivals such as Glastonbury - are ready to take on the world. With plans afoot to create a label - "like a music label" - that puts out DVDs and distributes to shorts to broadcast, they may just change film as we know it.

The future of shorts has arrived.