The EIFF

Before going to the festival I was informed that it was not at all how I'd pictured it; basically the film equivalent to a large music festival in a park with lots of tents and people buzzing about going in to 'the feature tent' or the 'international short tent', etc. It was strange to realize it was just in your average Cineworld, and that there weren't lots of celebs buzzing about on red carpets.

The first film we went to see was Ollie Kelpers Expanding Purple World - from the overly-long synopsis we managed to come to the expectation that it was some kind of time travel, wacky story. This, my friends, was not the case. It was described similarly to Donnie Darko, one of my favorites, yet it was different in the sense that it was not as serious or 'dark' as Donnie Darko. The basic plot was that Ollie, science geek, loses his wife as she dies of a blood clot which sends him in to insane schizophrenia, convinced he killed his wife in the freezer and as a result, the government have planted a chip to freeze his brain. It was sad at parts, sweet at others, and had some absolutely hilarious scenes where he was screaming and abusing his kettle. It was a strange film - the inside of his mind as he spiraled out of control. There were some cheesy bits where it was a large galaxy with his face in the middle of it which I wasn't too keen on, and I found it hard to imagine it being shown in Cineworld as a regular feature. It was fairly slow to start and almost clever in the sense that you weren't actually sure if what was happening to him was real or if he was actually insane. Overall, it was lighthearted then sad, just a little crazy, and most importantly it had me laughing out loud the whole way.

Next, we went to see 'Superhero Me' which was a documentary, not exactly the most exciting music to my ears. However - I really enjoyed it. It was like a real-life Kick Ass, featuring Steve Sale and his quest as he fulfills his destiny as a real life super hero. It was hysterical, providing real life super heros who honestly believed they were saving the world. I couldn't believe some of these people exist, such as MASTER LEGEND, superhero straight out of LA who patrolled the crack houses and dedicates his life to being a real life superhero. Although it was done on a very low budget and some of it recorded on mobile phones, it was very effective and looked as though it was done on purpose. The only annoying thing was that the subtitles didn't fit on the screen so we had no idea what was being said by some Mexican superhero spider. Shame! In general, I really enjoyed the documentary and it shone a different light on them for me as it was funny and lighthearted, and didn't put me to sleep.

I was keen on seeing some short films as for me these are educational - an insight in to what other students are producing all over the world. They were strange, I'll give you that. The first one, Birthday, was absolutely beautiful and the props were gorgeous, along with the music making your mind jump to sinister conclusions. However I felt that it didn't seem to follow any of the rules we are taught by Richard - no in sighting incident, no character development, no general theme. I still loved it though because it was just so pretty and I enjoyed coming up with new creepy theories of my own. The next three were just generally weird - one was about a bank robbery in France which I thought looked more like a re-enactment from a documentary with only a few funny moments. The next, I don't think I've ever been so irritated by a short film or character than I was with this one. I felt the short had absolutely no point to it, it was long and dragged out and the main character had absolutely no interesting or likeable qualities. It looked more like a 16 minute insight in to a boring middle aged americans day-to-day life and I thought it had no good qualities for me. Perhaps the film maker wanted to convey the feeling of frustration and uncomfortableness, which they succeeded in doing.

The weekend at the film festival was interesting, It was good to see what kind of films are being made all over the world and an insight in to what kind of films we can expect to see soon. I was gutted I didn't go on another day to try and catch The Runaways, which I have been waiting on for months. When looking at what was on before we went, I noticed a film called 'Cigarette Girl', which was said to be like a low-budget sin city with an interesting premise of smokers being banned and seen as rebels, set in 2050. Unfortunately, it wasn't on when we went. However, at the Hair of the dog event, the director stopped me and Amelie to ask us if we got the chance to see it and if we liked it. When we explained it wasn't on, he kindly gave us his email address along with his producers in order to access the full feature online! It was good to be approached just for our opinions - something I'm sure we'll all have to do when we go to make our films or even have a rough premise idea as Richard has always said we should be asking random people what they think. In general, it was a fun way to end our own short films and made me feel inspired and excited for the future as hopefully one day we'll be watching something we have made.