Limkokwing University recently hosted a special screening of the Short Shorts Film Festival & Asia 2013
Limkokwing University recently hosted a special screening of the Short Shorts Film Festival & Asia 2013.
The event, which was held at the Limkokwing University Hall of Fame, was attended by Tan Sri Aseh Che Mat, President of Perbadanan Putrajaya, German award winning director Jochen Freydank, who won an Oscar for his short film Toyland in 2009, and the festival producers, Yasu and Bea Tanaka. Representatives from the National Film Development Corporation Malaysia (FINAS), industry professionals, and media, were also in attendance.
The Short Shorts Film Festival was established in Harajuku, Tokyo in 1999, as a way to introduce Japanese audiences to the world of short films. The festival has taken place in Los Angeles, Singapore, and Myanmar before, and it has had 7 international tours with more than 140 000 audience members.
The festival has been running in Malaysia for four years, hosted by FINAS for the past three years. This year’s edition is a two-day festival, launched by Tan Sri Aseh Che Mat. The screening was kicked off with Toyland, which was followed by 24 other short film entries over four sessions, with each session screening six short films.
The screened films included award winning entries like British thriller titled ‘Mass of Men’, which won the Grand Prix 2013 award at the festival in Tokyo. Another winning entry was a South Korean drama called ‘She’ which won the Audience Award.
The festival also comprised of industry talks by professionals from different industries, including a lecture by one of the festival producers, Yasu Tanaka, who talked about Visual Storytelling in Short Films. When addressing the audience, Tanaka said it was always important to be visual as a filmmaker.
“The best way to write a script is to show your audience rather than tell, because in that way, your audience can interpreted it the way they understand it,” he said.
His talk also gave students important pointers on what kind of scripts the industry expects, what they should do to stand out in film festivals and scripts competitions, which he says are usually overwhelmed with thousands of students, and exactly what to steer clear of when writing a script to avoid it being discarded at early stages.
Also, during the event, Next Star Production, a Malaysian production house, invited students to participate in the company’s Malaysia Short Film Script competition, where the winner will get RM3000 or stand a chance to have their script produced into a film and sent to film festivals around the world.
Advising the students on filmmaking, Freydank said a good script was the integral part of any film for it to stand a chance in the industry. He also encouraged students to come up with original ideas and avoid plagiarism.
“Writing is the heart of it all; write your script with passion, in your own voice, don’t try to copy other people,” he said.
A Singaporean digital media house, IM Innovations representative also gave a technical talk and a demonstration on the use of Cinema 4D, a modeling, rendering, and animation software.
The festival attendants also got to learn more about Jochen Freydank’s journey in the movie industry through a mini symposium with him and the Tanakas.
During the symposium, he talked about his difficult journey in film making. He said he was rejected from five film schools, subsequently starting his own film production company, Mephisto Film. His short films have went on to win awards from film festivals from all over the world.
One of his short films, ‘Duty’, which is currently being made into a feature film, premiered at the Montreal World Film festival and was shown at more than 40 international festivals, went on to win an Academy Award in the live-action short film category in 2009.
Freydank also encouraged students to be patient and learn to persevere in film making, because the film industry is a ‘difficult, yet not impossible industry to succeed in.’
During the festival, Freydank and Yasu Tanaka were honoured with the title of International Advisor for Limkokwing University. Other industry professionals in attendance were also given a certificate of attendance.
Speaking at the event, Limkokwing University of Creative Technology senior vice-president Datuk Raja Aznil Raja Hisham said hosting the event gave students a chance to learn from industry professionals and see the expected standards in the outside world, so that they can make better films.
“It allows us to rub shoulders with experienced people from the industry and a stepping stone in the right direction,” he said.
At the end of every talk, students got an opportunity to ask the speaker questions and gain knowledge from the experts’ many years of industry experience and knowledge.
Jochen Freydank also answered students’ questions and gave advice and comments on students’ questions and enquires. Students also got a chance to mingle with him, the Tanakas, and industry people present at the end of the event, taking for themselves one on one pointers that were specific to their situations.
