Movie 2000, or the International Film and Video Competition, to give it its proper title, is an annual amateur competition organised by the Film and Video Institute (FVI), formerly known as the IAC (Institute of Amateur Cinematographers). The competition takes place in Britain, but attracts entries from all over the world.
In 2000, the club entered one of our films, The Benchwatchers of Borehamwood, which won a Silver Seal. I entered three of my own films, which were also successful. These are listed below.
The Benchwatchers of Borehamwood |
Silver Seal | Judges' Comments | Script and Stills |
From the Earth to the Moon and Back Again |
Silver Seal | Judges' Comments | Script and Stills |
Six Past Four |
Bronze Seal | Judges' Comments | Lyrics and Stills |
The Capitalist Exploitation of Self-Organising Systems |
Blue Seal | Judges' Comments not yet uploaded |
Script and Stills not yet uploaded |
There were a total of 210 movies entered this year, which received awards as follows:
| International Medallion | 7 films (3%) | Better than 97% of entries |
| Gold Seal | 36 films (17%) | Better than 80% of entries |
| Silver Seal | 59 films (28%) | Better than 52% of entries |
| Bronze Seal | 81 films (39%) | Better than 13% of entries |
| Blue Seal | 27 films (13%) | The film-makers thought it was good enough... |
There is also an award for the best film of the competition, chosen from the international awards, as well as awards for the best film in various categories (best story, best camera work, best editing, and so on). These are chosen from the international and gold awards.
If you add up the numbers, you will see that the number of awards is equal to the number of entries - "No-one goes away from this show empty-handed." The chairman of the IAC remarked on this, and said that it was not because they had juggled the results, but because basic standards are rising. Certainly, using computers to edit videos makes possible a level of technical sophistication that amateurs could only dream of a few years ago. But the falling cost of computer hardware means that this level of sophistication is available to every videomaker, and so the minimum acceptable standard should rise accordingly. No doubt this will happen within a few years.
My girlfriend Breda and I attended the awards ceremony, which this year was held in Buxton in Derbyshire. We saw the international winners and the winners in the various categories, as well as some of the gold and silver winners. I felt that our films had been judged fairly: the silver winners that we saw were of a similar standard to our two silvers, and the golds generally had something that raised them above that standard.
From the Earth to the Moon and Back Again was one of the films that was shown, and it got quite a good reaction. Indeed, several people came up to me afterwards and said how much they enjoyed it.
A parody of documentaries about boring esoteric subjects.
We differed in our reaction to this film, but we all felt that you captured the essential tedium and excessive attention to detail of the genre. There were a couple of good gags, especially the stroking of the mic muffler, but it needed more action and more variety in the shots. The film was Pythonesque, but didn't seem to know how to end.
This is a very good (and ambitious) idea for a movie. Congratulations on doing it so well and achieving a Silver award.
All the judges were extremely impressed by the special effects. The space flight is excellent and seemed every bit as real as the many trips round Norway that we also watched during the judging session.
The music is very good and added to the atmosphere.
Our reaction to the comedy was mixed. I found myself laughing out loud several times. (This is quite uncommon in judging sessions - three judges don't provide the same warm feeling as a room full of people.) The absurdity of some of the scenes (trying to find earth through the viewing window, using the moon landing stills as holiday snaps) appeals to me. The other two judges were troubled by the characters and did not find them convincing enough.
We all agreed that the film is too static. We realise that it is a parody of boring travelogues, but the trick is to make fun of them without actually making one yourselves. The other two judges both felt that some change of camera angles and image size would help and would also make the actors less wooden. Again, I realise that you want them to be wooden but perhaps you succeeded too well and it got in the way of the comedy.
You were asking a lot of your actors to find the fine line between delivering the dialogue clearly while mumbling and arguing with each other.
Nevertheless, you have produced an entertaining and very impressive movie. I hope I get the chance to see it again sometime.
Six Past Four is an enjoyable movie to watch. We all enjoyed the original song.
There was some good creative camera work with well-selected shots, albeit a little static. The movie was well-editing and the sound quality was also good.
However, we were not too happy about the length of time some of the shots were held. Also the uninteresting background to the lengthy shots on the steps outside the office or studio started to become an irritation.
The scenes with the girls were not very convincing, too much of what appeared to be fooling around!
We liked the movie but felt that it lacked sparkle!
Thank you for entering the competition. We hope that you find our comments useful.