Micro-Movies to Be Screened at Guild Hall
(11/27/2007) As the public attention span diminishes seemingly with every passing week, new shorter media formats are emerging on YouTube and other Internet venues. Even network television now offers “Webisodes” of micro-length fictional and reality shows that consumers can watch for free on their laptops, iPods, and cellphones. And on the cutting edge of this trend are studios such as Avalon, a multimedia production company in San Francisco that specializes in short-form video, photographic montage, and music videos.
On Saturday evening, Guild Hall is sponsoring the Avalon Micro Film Festival, a free screening of a collection of independent short movies by filmmakers from across the country.
The festival will include examples from various genres, ranging in length from 1 to 20 minutes. Storylines are an eclectic mosaic of narrative voices, from sci-fi, fantasy, action, drama, and more.
“Method of Deception” is a suspense story about two female friends breaking free of their mundane lives by violating a few laws. “Broken Hearts Club” is a romantic comedy about three couples who turn to the same doctor for help in dealing with relationship issues.
“Consumed,” which won a Best Picture award at the San Francisco 48 Hour Film Project, focuses on a man’s struggle with a food obsession. The 48 Hour Film Project requires a team to write, shoot, edit, and score a film in just two days.
Another award-winner, “El Ride,” won Best in Fest at the Austin Women’s Film, Music, and Literary Festival, and was the grand-prize winner of the FilmGenesis Script-to-Film contest. The story finds a young Latina woman, Rosa, home from college for an internship, struggling to cope with stereotypes and perceptions.
The horror genre is represented by two films: “The All-Nighter,” in which an art student painting late into the night faces a suspicious security guard and the appearance of an “odd red ball,” and “Routine,” about a man with a “disturbing appetite.”
An official selection of the Los Angeles Short Film Festival, “Renounced” follows a heroin addict who risks everything to get clean before his wife leaves him.
Avalon Studios was founded by Jeffrey Crispi, an actor, director, and producer. It was named after the mystical lake that replenished warriors in the days of King Arthur, as well as the name of an album by the band Roxy Music. The name stands for “passion, determination, and grace,” according to the Web site of the studio, which hopes to integrate these qualities into all of its productions. Some Avalon films have premiered on Second Life, the online virtual world frequented by millions worldwide.
The screening, in the Boots Lamb Education Center from 7 to 10 p.m., will be followed by a question-and-answer period with Mr. Crispi.