About the 15 Second Film Festival
Annoyed with those bladder-straining, buttock-aching movies which often last up to two, sometimes even two and a half hours? Well fear not pilgrim, salvation is at hand in the form of the ‘15 Second Film Festival Experience’.
Toured in a small, but perfectly formed, two-seater itinerant Art-Deco Picture Palace the ‘15 Second Film Festival Experience’ delivers a carefully curated programme of eye-popping, lip-smacking, brain-tickling quarter-minute masterpieces. The brainchild of Peter ‘Magic’ Johnston the ‘15 Second Film Festival Experience’ has been testing the human mind’s capacity for boggling since 2005.
And with notables like Roddy “Fecking” Doyle, Oscar nominee Seamus ‘Atonement’ McGarvey, Shimmy ‘Headrush’ Marcus, Tim ‘World of Wrestling’ Plester, Mik ‘Hitch’ Duffy, Jo ‘The Performance Corporation’ Mangan and Enda ‘Flying Saucer Rock ‘n’ Roll’ Hughes all contributing micro-budget meisterwerks to this year’s showcase of thirty New-Media Viral nuggets, it really is a cinematic experience like no other.
Yes, whether it’s the appalling lack of ATM machines in deep space, the evil machinations of frogs or the grave perils of mixing Tennis with six-guns, no topic is too controversial for our festival.
The ‘15 Second Film CHALLENGE’ - Do you have what it takes?
This project is supported by Queen’s University Belfast, Northern Ireland Screen, Filmbase, Raindance, the Queen’s Film Theatre and Adobe.
Short Documentary on the 15 Second Film Festival from 15SFF on Vimeo.
See - channel4.com/4talent/feature.jsp?id=8487
Why Fifteeen Seconds?
With even most short films lasting over a minute we often get asked why we’ve opted a for a mere 15 Seconds. Some think us mad. Others wonder if it’s an elaborate ruse to save videotape and film stock. So, just to head any future questions off at the pass, here’s ten reasons why fifteen second cinema makes perfect sense.
1. Firstly, both Thomas Edison and The Lumière Brother’s very early films were 15 Seconds long. From Boxing Cats to Strong Men flexing their muscles, screening (using Bioscope Projectors) in a tent, with the “Moth to a Flame” attraction of Electric Light as part of a traveling fair. This period of cinematic spectatorship is referred to as “The Cinema of Attraction”, basically because it was a novelty-type Fairground Attraction. The ‘15 Second Film Festival’, now at the cutting-edge of a New-Media age, refers to itself as the “Cinema of DIStraction”.
2. In a spurious form of Numerology we’ve just invented to pad out this list the conjunction of the numerals 1 and 5 brings great prosperity to all.
3. In the later half of the 20th century cash strapped film-makers often resorted to using the legendary Bolex 16mm camera. Effectively driven by clockwork the Bolex had to be hand wound before each shot. Alas, all that winding would still only leave the camera enough kinetic energy to capture 15 or so seconds.
4. With attention spans now shrinking so short that most of you won’t even make it to the end of this needlessly long sentence there’s something to be said for making very, very short Short Films. As the Bard once put it, “Brevity is the soul of wit.”
5. Though we now have the technology to watch full length movies on our phones and I-pods most films are still too long to comfortably watch on teensy tiny screens. Not so our quarter-minute “Viral” masterpieces. Effectively the fun-size Mars Bars of cinema our films are an ideal length for those portable media gizmos.
6. For film-makers the 15 Second format offers fresh challenges and room for experimentation. Sure, any bozo can tell you a story if they’ve got two hours, but delivering a 15 Second narrative requires the cinematic equivalent of the Right Stuff.
7. For viewers the 15 Second format offers the endless ceaseless variety today’s audiences demand. And, if for some reason you hate the 15 Seconder currently playing, there’ll soon be one more to your liking.
8. Ever tried e-mailing someone ‘The Godfather’ Trilogy? Have you ever wasted precious hours of your fleeting existence waiting for a video file to download? Well, even if you’re Internet connection speed is glacial the compact running times of our films should ensure a relatively speedy delivery.
9. It’s fun. No really. In fact, when scientifically measured using Noimann’s famous Barrel of Monkey gauge, our recent selection of 15 Second shorts topped the scale at a staggering 97.34 Barmonks.
10. For aspirant film-makers the 15 Second format allows wannabes to dip their toes in cinema’s raging sea without losing their feet to Piranhas. And yes, we know that Piranhas can’t actually live in seawater, we’re just not very good at metaphors.
