New technology has put a camera on everything- your your laptop, cell phone, and even your new Ipad2. Have you ever wondered what the potential of these cameras are? The Disposable Film Festival is here to let you know that those tiny cameras have big potential. The festival kicks off at the Castro Theatre on Thursday night with a competitive shorts program. This festival stands out among the rest due to the fact that all films are created using nonprofessional equipment. Yep, you can make a pretty entertaining film on that little camera on the other side of your cell phone. I recently had an opportunity to chat with Matthew Lessner, a judge at this year's Disposable Film Festival. Below is a bit of our conversation.
Diane Davis; So, tell me the idea behind the festival.
Matthew Lessner: Well, the idea, as far as I understand it is to provide a proper platform for films that are made in approachable ways... In the last 10 years cameras have sort of popped up on everything- phones, little gadgets and instead of viewing those sort of cameras and films as sort of throw away this festival kind of looks to embrace those films and showcase them in a proper festival light. I think it is a pretty exciting idea. There are so many silly cats falling down the stairs on YouTube and they are looking for something a bit more artfull, more thoughtful.
DD; So this is a cheaper way to make films?
ML; Yeah, I think cheaper is a part of it. I feel like the idea is that these are cameras that most people can get their hands on. Which is certainly something that is different from 10 years ago, even a consumer grade video camera was pretty expensive and not something you could just go and get your hands on easily. I think another part of this whole thing that I see in watching the work is the fact that the cameras are so cheap, I guess, allows certain risks to be taken with them. Which allows a certain amount of experimentation and you're seeing people do things with these cameras that you really never would do with a camera previously because you would be too worried about damaging it or losing it. You know, so people are sending their cameras beyond the stratosphere, and there are people that are swinging their cameras around on ropes, tossing their cameras off of things and creating these really interesting images that I don't know would be possible with old forms of cameras and I don't know if people would necessarily take those same risks.
DD; So are people, in an artistic way, being almost reckless with the equipment because it doesn't cost as much?
ML; Certainly, some of my favorite stuff in the program this year I think are examples of just that. You are kind of seeing these images that you have never seen before because people are taking these risks and doing these things and moving these cameras in ways that you just can't move traditional cameras. Or again, people would be afraid to because of cost.
DD; You've seen the program and have done your judging?
ML; There are four judges that watch the entire program that the festival staff has already programmed, and then I basically give my notes, thoughts and rankings on the films that have already been chosen. Three other judges do the same and the scores are tallied and awards are given based on those.
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