Natural Born Megahertz

Once again, any number of processors have been thrumming and beavering away tirelessly in close collaboration with specialised software tools to enable hardcore devotees of the digital film scene to offer temporary asylum from reality to everyone visiting this year’s International Short Film Festival Hamburg – never an easy offer to turn down.
The international output of computer-generated short films has required various contributing elements to be modelled, programmed, rendered, illuminated, dubbed, flashed, morphed and even – on rare occasions – financed. However, experience has shown that a generous production budget is by no means a guarantee of either quality or entertainment value. In the seven years since it was first introduced, the NoBudget section of this festival has consistently proven that computer animation produced on a shoestring can be as beguiling in its own subtle fashion as its more expensive contemporaries.

In addition to the competition categories and in co-operation with the Internet site of the same name, this year’s bitfilmFestival will be presenting a special programme addressing the phenomenon of the increasing interaction between the worlds of film and computer games.

While the Hollywood studios are falling over themselves to bring out feature films based on popular computer games such as Tomb Raider, Final Fantasy and Resident Evil in order to cash in on their commercial potential, the games-virus has spread through the short film scene as a result of the technical possibilities it offers. Software which was originally intended for use in programming a game – game engine, in short – has increasingly been made available by the manufacturer over the Internet to groups of fans enabling them to push ahead and develop their own variations on existing characters, environments and stories. While this initially led to
little more than products such as Doom and Quake becoming more widespread, a growing number of initiates soon began using the special technique to create their own short films.

Hugh Hancock, founder of Machinima.com and one of the gurus of this new-found digital film sect, will be appearing as a special guest at the bitfilm Festival and will be presenting the very best of the short films created using the game-engine software. Another first for this year’s festival will be the co-operation with the Festival International du Film d’Internet (FIFI) in France. The festival’s founder and president Vincy Thomas will be presenting the highlights of this year’s FIFI and the international Alliance of Digital Festivals – to which the bitfilmFestival (www.bitfilm.de) belongs.



BITFILM COMPETITION 1

Sunday, 9th June 2002, 8.00 pm, Zeise 1
Wednesday, 12th June 2002, 8.00 pm, Zeise 2

1. Fifty Percent Grey
Ruairi Robinson, Ireland 2001, 2'30 Min., 35 mm, color, OV, Dolby Digital, Animation
2. Restless
Therese Jacobsen, Erik Vang, Norway 2001, 4'17 Min., 35 mm, color, without dialogue, Dolby SR, Experimentalfilm
3. Pool_2
Harald Holba, Austria 2001, 4'57 Min., Betacam SP, color, without dialogue, Computeranimation
4. Escargots Couleurs! (Colored Snails)
Gubo gas: Laura Henno, JeanFrançois, Ablézot Morgan Dimnet, France 2002, 3'29 Min., Mini DV, color, without dialogue, Stereo, Computeranimation
5. Home Road Movies
Robert Bradbrook, England 2001, 12'18 Min.; 35 mm, color & b/w, OV, without subtitles, Dolby SR, Computeranimation
6. Doa2
Petra Vargová, Czech Republic 2001, 3'48 Min., Mini DV, color, OV, Stereo, Computeranimation
7. The Lines
Suzie Hanna, England 2001, 3'10 Min., Betacam SP, color & b/w, OV, experimental film
8. El Fantastico al Paraiso
Sophie Estival, Guillaume Joire, France 2001, 3'15 Min., color, without dialogue, Stereo, Computeranimation/Flash
9. Try
Achim Kirsch, Germany 2002, 7'00 Min., S-VHS, color, without dialogue, Stereo, Experimentalfilm
10. Gouille & Gar
Philippe Gamer, France 2002, 2'00 Min., Betacam SP, color, OV m. engl. subtitles, Computeranimation
11. Perception of Self in Virtual...
Peter Green, Amanda Terrington, England 2001, 4'40 Min., Betacam SP, color, OV, Dolby SR, Experimentalfilm
12. Atomnia
E. Greysse/M. Cassagne/F. Corrente/D. Delarve, France 2001, 6'27 Min. Betacam SP, color, without dialogue, Dolby Digital, Computeranimation
13. Universal
Carl Albrecht, Germany 2001, 0'40 Min., CD-ROM, color, without dialogue, Stereo, Computeranimation/Flash
14. Fade into White#2
Kazuhiro Goshima, Japan 2000, 11'00 Min., Mini DV NTSC, b/w, without dialogue, Stereo, Computeranimation
15. Barcode
Adriaan Lokman, Netherlands 2001, 8'00 Min., 35 mm, b/w, without dialogue, Dolby SR, Computeranimation


BITFILM COMPETITION 2

Monday, 10th June 2002, 10.30 pm, Metropolis
Thursday, 13th June 2002, 10.30 pm, Zeise 1

1. Le Déserteur (The Deserter)
O. Coulon/A. Danset/P.Lucia/L. Savonnière, France 2001, 7'47 Min., Betacam SP, color, without dialogue, Dolby Digital, Computeranimation
2. Phantom
Matthias Müller, Germany 2001, 5'00 Min., Betacam SP, b/w, without dialogue, Stereo, Experimentalfilm
3. Myra
Upasana Nattoji, India 2001, 4'45 Min., Betacam SP, color, engl. OV, experimental Animation
4. Yard
Bob Sabiston, USA 2001, 3'06 Min., Mini DV, color, OV, experimental Animation
5. Look out
Ido Vaginsky, Germany 2002, 1'47 Min., CD-ROM, color, without dialogue, Stereo, Computeranimation/Flash
6. 9
Éric Couture, Pierre Gaulin, Canada 2001, 3'10 Min., color, without dialogue, Stereo, experimental film
7. Manifestant Pantouflard
Sylvain Robert, Kanada 2001, 4'00 Min., Mini DV, color, japanische OV, Stereo, Computeranimation
8. Pa Tak
Hanna Nordholt, Fritz Steingrobe, Germany 2002, 3'50 Min., Mini DV, b/w, engl.-french.-german OV w. engl. subtitles, Stereo, exp. Computeranimation
9. Ink'n Go
Filip Haag, Schweiz 2002, 5'00 Min., DVD, color, 2 500 DM, without dialogue, Computeranimation
10. Dear Nelson
Sarah Cox, England 2001, 5'00 Min., Betacam SP, color & b/w, OV, Dolby Stereo, Animation
11. Pan Sonic Koilinen
Lars Künstler, Germany 2001, 5'00 Min., Betacam SP, color, without dialogue, Stereo, experimental film
12. N[eon]
Dave McKean, England 2001, 28'00 Min., Betacam SP, color, OV, Dolby SR, experimental Computeranimation


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