BFI Film Festival- my experience

On Wednesday, 7^th October, I went with my Media class to watch six new British short films at the BFI London Film Festival. Each film was completely different and I really enjoyed the experience, especially due to the question and answer at the end which was truly insightful.

First we watched Operator, directed by Caroline Bartleet which was a drama about a 999 operator who deals with a huge fire emergency, giving the audience an insight as to what she does on a daily basis. We do not see the emergency, only the operator talking on the phone, allowing us to see the incident from her perspective. The theme of control was highlighted throughout the film in two different ways. Firstly, the operator had to take control of the situation, telling Gemma (the person trapped in a fire) what to do and she was fully aware that she was holding Gemma’s life in her hands. Secondly, the operator had to take control of herself by staying completely calm throughout and not panicking, therefore reassuring Gemma. Next, we watched Otherwise Engaged which was a comedy about Dave proposing to his girlfriend, Megs and how social media affected this event. The main themes of social media/technology really conveyed how much our generations have changed over time and how before smart phones, more people would live life ‘in the moment’ whereas nowadays, many people feel the need to see events unravel through their phones rather than soaking up the experience through their own eyes. However, this message was conveyed in a light-hearted tone and there was a lot of laughter coming from the audience throughout. 

A film which illustrated similar themes to Otherwise Engaged was C.T.R.L, directed by Mariana Conde. This was a drama about a phone app which is used to take complete control over people and it is demonstrated through two people who cross paths on a street. This film showed the power of technology and provided a subtle dystopian future as to what technology holds for us in years to come. It reminded me of the TV series, Humans which also provides the audience which an unnerving future and I believe the purpose of the short film was to make the audience have an awareness of the possible dangers of our technology-driven future. We watched two films in the genre of documentary: Copycat directed by Charlie Lyne and Lines directed by Cecile Emeke. Copycat was about filmmaker, Rolfe Kanefsky and his story, regarding horror films. It was unique because it was put together with clips from his films, with the narrative being told through a voice over in which Charlie interviewed Rolfe but personally it didn’t grab my interest because I found it hard to follow at times. Lines was about the meaning of song lyrics to a variety of different women and it covered powerful themes such as how something as simple as lyrics can impact someone’s life, change their perspectives and inspire and influence them. The final film we watched was Black Sheep, directed by Cristian Cerami. This was a social realism, drama, documentary about two brothers and their opinions and influences of the EDL. During the Q&A, Christian explained that the film was unscripted and these were the boy’s genuine opinions which shocked me because they were quite harsh, especially at their young age but by having this theme of realism, the audience are given a true insight into their lives. There was also a theme of irony because although they showed hatred towards non-British ethnicities throughout, the ending showed Sam getting his hair cut by a Muslim barber, which highlights his lack of maturity in my opinion.

My favourite films were Operator and Otherwise England because they had gripping narratives which held my attention for the whole duration and I did not feel that sense of involvement in films such as Lines. Operator showed me that you do not need numerous locations and characters to make a powerful short film, but instead you need a strong performance and meaningful messages which illustrate your passion for filmmaking. Otherwise England was a great example of how to write an effective comedy, which I believe is one of the harder genres to perfect and I believe that to do so, you need a realistic, current narrative that your audience can relate to and engage with.

As mentioned earlier, I loved the Q&A with the filmmakers because they expressed their passions and ideas behind each of the films and gave us an insight into what the filmmaking experience is actually like, regarding budgets, production time, challenges and achievements. I also found it very interesting when they spoke about the routes they took to get to where they are today, which were all completely different, because I want to be in the film industry when I am older so it was great to see the various routes. The highlight was being able to speak to some of the directors in person after the Q&A and they gave me advice regarding my future as a film-maker which was incredible useful so I am very grateful for that experience.

Although I am likely to be doing print-based media for my coursework, these short films have given me inspiration for my A2 film coursework (which will be a short film) because I have learnt that simplicity is key and storytelling is hugely important. Also, it is vital to perfect the micro features because for example, in Lines, the sound syncing was slightly off which was noticeable throughout and personally distracted my attention from the actual narrative so I have learnt to take careful care during the production of both my media and film coursework.