Pfizer Film Festival - Production Notes
The Annual Congress of RANZCO will again host the Pfizer Ophthalmic Film Festival which will run continuously for three days during the Congress. Each film should be succinct - a maximum of 8 minutes duration, preferably under 5 minutes. Topics could include challenging cases; surgical complications and their management; new techniques and devices; community ophthalmology, or anything else that is interesting in ophthalmology. Film abstracts submitted will be short-listed for presentation by a panel of judges. Selected films will be screened continuously in a specially designated area of the Congress. Prizes will be awarded in three categories: (1) Community Ophthalmology; (2) Surgical Technique; (3) Ophthalmic Research, with one of these selected as overall winner.
Film submission procedure
- Competitors are to send their film abstracts of 5 to 6 lines direct to margdunn@ranzco.edu by 31 July 2010
- The abstract should include the Title, Authors, Abstract body, and Category under which it is to be judged.
- Authors of Films will need to submit the actual film to the College by Monday 5 October to allow for production of a loop DVD.
- Films of up to 8 minutes may be submitted in widescreen (16:9) or standard (4:3) format, as a DV file or as a DVD. WMV/MP4 and other large compression formats should be avoided if possible.
- Only participants who register for the Congress may take part in the festival.
Notes:
To assist in preparation of the short film, it is helpful to know some relevant facts:
The selected films will be incorporated into a loop DVD, with an introductory “splash screen” for each film with title, authors, and category (taken from the abstract).
Short films with a fast moving and punchy production will be better received by an audience watching the loop than a longer slow film. The whole loop will be over an hour so make your 5 minutes count. Pay attention to sound quality; background music can be helpful in maintaining interest but not at the expense of clarity of the voice-over (if used). Avoid large variations in volume of the voice-over - this can be achieved by keeping the microphone at a constant distance during recording.
It will be presented on a large widescreen TV or projector. Films supplied in widescreen format will take up the whole screen. Films submitted in standard format will be “pillarboxed” ie will have small black bars at each side to maintain the full height and avoid ugly stretching or distortion. There is no preference for either format.
Films submitted as raw DV or on a DVD are preferred. A raw DV file for a 5 min film should fit on a standard CDR, or (DVDR if required). A DVD is also acceptable, but be aware that any menus etc will not be used in the final loop. Only the film will be extracted and used.
In the past WMV files etc have been submitted and have been of acceptable quality, but when compared to higher quality formats as above, be aware the films may compare less well.
The judging is based on 4 basic criteria, each scored out of 10:
- Formal production values (graphics/text/sound/visual style)
- Effective communication of content
- Contribution to the subject/issue
- A general aesthetic response to the work
Good luck and we look forward to seeing your work amongst the films selected for the festival.
To download the Pfizer Film Festival flyer, please visit - http://www.ranzco.edu/news/Pfizer.pdf
   |