The Second Annual Big Easy Shorts Festival
Compiled by David Vicari
The Second Annual Big Easy Shorts Festival will take place at Landmark’s Canal Place Cinema on November 15th and 16th. The festival is a great opportunity for filmmakers (from New Orleans and around the world) to exhibit their work.
Among the activities at this year’s Fest is a 72-Hour Film Competition. Starting on Friday, November 7th (at 7 PM), all participating teams will meet, receive the rules, and be given their starting point. Official teams are made up of two people, but you can get as many people as you like to help you during the actual filmmaking process. Each team will be given a genre, a random prop that must appear in the film, and a line of dialogue that must be spoken in the film. Beyond that, the filmmakers will have free rein in creating their short. All films will be due on at 7 PM on Monday, November 10th. A panel of judges will choose six of the films to screen the following weekend at the Big Easy Shorts Festival. Of the six films, the judges will choose the Judges Award Winner (to be announced at the Big Easy Shorts Festival’s Awards Ceremony). At the screening, the audience will also vote on the Audience Award Winner (which will also be announced at the Awards Ceremony). The two award winners will receive 50% each of the 72-Hour contest submission fees. The more teams that enter, the more the prize money will be.
There will also be a seminar: “How to Make and Get a Short Film into Festivals.” Staff from both the Big Easy Shorts Festival, and their sister festival, the Beverly Hills Shorts Festival, along with award-winning filmmakers, will give valuable information on how to produce a short film, what type of films to make (depending on your plans), how to craft a script for a short, how to find the resources (cast, crew, locations, props, etc.), how to schedule your shoot, and tricks on how to get it shown at a festival.
For more details on the Big Easy Shorts Festival or any of the activities go to www.bigeasyshortsfestival.com or e-mail:
info@bigeasyshortsfestival.com.