It’s a Wrap! Digi SPAA finalists announced
November 3rd 2007 21:57
Digi SPAA Grand Finalists narrowed to two!
More than 400 delegates flocked to the Paddington Town Hall and Chauvel Cinema last weekend to commune at SPAA Fringe, a forum for emerging Producers to gain knowledge, be inspired and evoke innovation within the film industry. Held over two days, SPAA Fringe included interactive workshops, key note speakers, roundtables, one-on-one’s and obligatory networking festivities such as Opening and Closing night drinks.
SPAA Fringe Director, Gaylee Butler deemed the conference a huge success:
“The sense of excitement inspired by meeting new people and gaining useful contacts was palatable. The only negative feedback was that people couldn’t attend everything on offer so I’m pleased to say that 95% of the sessions are available online from today.”
Thanks to Metroscreen, Skills1 and Viocorp sessions can be downloaded at www.spaa.org.au/fringe
Highlights from SPAA Fringe included AVID Fast Flicks, a short film competition in which four teams competed against the two day clock to produce, edit and live stream their short film. The proud winners of AVID Fast Flicks Sean Lynch, Christopher Baker and Damien McDermott who wrote, produced directed and edited the movie Aime Filmez Equipage walked away with prizes totaling in excess of $10,000 and including Avid Media Composer Software for MAC or PC valued at $7430 and a return airfare to QLD plus SPAA conference registration valued at $1800.
Garrick Simeon, Marketing Manager at Avid Australia, was impressed by the commitment and community spirit which resulted from this initiative:
“Four teams, four cameras, four Avids and only two days! The enthusiasm and passion shown by the Fast Flicks finalists was incredible – turning around a short film in such a short space of time was an amazing effort by everyone involved. Congratulations to the Fast Flicks finalists and SPAA.”
Who will win the inaugural SPAARTAN Award?
SPAA also screened the finalists for the 2007 Digi SPAA Feature Film Competition:
• 'Beautiful' - Producer Shaun Newcombe (VIC)
• 'Boxing Day' - Producer Kristian Mliere (SA)
• 'Men's Group' – Producer John L Simpson (NSW)
• 'Rats & Cats' – Producer Jason Byrne (VIC)
Once again Executive Director, Geoff Brown was on hand to praise the finalists stating, "There is a new Australian Cinema and it's revealing itself through DigiSPAA. These are new filmmakers using their imagination, craft and writing skills with the new digital technology to achieve outstanding results outside of the mainstream".
2007 Digi SPAA received 13 entries in 2005, 17 entries in 2006 and 19 entries in 2007. The judging panel included Melanie Coombs, producer Oscar winner Harvie Krumpet, Antony I. Ginnane, President of IFM World Releasing Inc., Geoff Brown, Executive Director SPAA; Daniel Scharf, Producer of Geoffrey Wright's AFI Award-winning Romper Stomper; and Colleen Meldrum, Program Director, Movie Network Channels.
The four Digi SPAA finalists were screened at this year’s SPAA Fringe conference on 26 and 27 October at the Chauvel Cinema in Sydney. From the four finalists, the two grandfinalists were announced at SPAA Fringe Closing Night. The two lucky finalists will now head to the Gold Coast where the Grand Prize winner of Digi SPAA’s inaugural SPAARTAN Award, will be announced at the SPAA Conference in November. The winner will be made available at the SPAA Conference to prominent international and local delegates, so they will have lots of exposure to the top dogs of the industry.
Digi SPAA is a creative project of the Screen Producers Association of Australia (SPAA) an industry body that represents Australian independent film and television producers on all issues affecting the business and creative aspects of screen production. Digi SPAA is proudly supported by Movie Network Channels which is distributed via subscription TV platforms FOXTEL, AUSTAR, Optus, SelecTV, and Neighbourhood Cable.
For further information go to www.spaa.org.au
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SimonC
