Illustration: Adeline Pericart
New Filmmaking Competition Offers a Pedestal for Aspiring Irish Filmmakers
1st – 31st March, 2014
Calling all aspiring filmmakers. Get out your cameras, DSLRs or Iphones and get shooting.
“The March on Film Competition is open to everyone” says Kristian O’Neill, shooting director, who returned from New Zealand with the idea for the competition.
The concept behind March on Film is to create a film making contest that will encourage all aspiring filmmakers to get out there, and within a period of a month, make a film from start to finish.
“Along with a film mentorship programme aimed at helping people break into the industry, we have film related prizes and most important of all it will give all entrants the chance to see their work on the big screen.”
Kristian came up with the idea for March On film while traveling in Australia. There they have a similar competition called Tropfest which started small and has expanded into a large national event. In this competition people had a finite amount of time to make a film specifically for the festival.
“What I liked about this concept was that it encourages people to get out there and actually make films. As is too often the case people have good ideas for short films, and may even get to writing scripts, but because they have no deadline they end up talking about finishing their film instead of doing it. So this is the first big goal of the March On Film competition, to encourage people to bring their ideas to life! Whether this is with expensive kit or just an iphone and a laptop, the first wrung on the ladder to film making success is to get out there and do it!
In accordance with this philosophy the organisers have set up a mentor scheme in which aspiring filmmakers who have proven talent, such as the winners of the competition, could benefit from the experience and advice of already established film makers. The panel of Mentors/Judges is made up of film makers who are at the top of their game in the Irish Industry such as writer/director Kirsten Sheridan and cinematographer Tim Fleming.
Teams must be registered, via the website, (www.marchonfilm.com) by the 1st of March, and have until the 31st to submit their finished films. Entrance costs 30 euros per team and is free for 2nd and 3rd Level Students and the unemployed.
On March 1st all registered teams will receive 3 elements (a line of dialogue, a prop and a character name) that they must include in their film. “This way we know that all films were made specifically for the competition and not beforehand!”
All entered films will be screened at the Trinity ATRL in Dublin on the 26th of April followed by an awards ceremony which will include awards for best teen film, best script, best director etc. For a video explaining how the competition works check out the link below
