Perennial Media Entertainment | Press
 

DIY moviemakers have 24 hours to complete short for Apple film festival
By Alexandyr Kent
Louisiana Movies Blog - Article Link

  

DIY moviemakers earn nothing but my respect. College students who spend their student loans on making short films are endearingly nuts. They call in favors for locations, "borrow" music for soundtracks and usually shoot on public streets without permits.

What they do bleeds passion, guts and attitude.

Sure, there are a lot of crappy, undisciplined DIY projects -- have you ever seen anything remotely interesting on YouTube? -- but Chris Lyon (right) and Luke Lee (left) don't make them.

They meet a nice standard for young DIY filmmakers. Their most recent shorts are atmospheric, sharply shot, well lit, tightly edited and just plain fun. And their obsession with murder, mortality and symbolism is, well, definable. That's more than most DIY filmmakers can say.

On websites like theirs, you can watch taste and sensibility develop. They get better each time out, and it's casually fun to chart their progress.

If you want to see a sample, download "Snapshots of a Death." Don't worry about that title.

  


From left, Chris Lyon, Luke Lee.

Starting at 5 p.m. today, Lyon and Lee will lead a team of moviemakers participating in Apple's Insomnia Film Festival. They have to make and submit a short film (one to three minutes long) within 24 hours. Whatever they make will compete against lots of entries from around the country. I'll post a link when it's live.

"We’re given specific instructions, and we don’t know if they are going to give a genre or a specific prop or a specific line. We have a few cooker cutter ideas of how we can do it," Lyon said.

Their film will be judged by you, me and Dupree until Dec. 3. After that official judges will determine the best of the top 25 and dish out some Apple schwag.

Good luck. I at least want an Apple sticker.
 

  
© 2007 Perennial Media