I spotted this unusual drama short via Facebook. It was an entry into the ‘Cannes a La Flip‘ contest which challenged Short Film Directors to shoot a Flip movie while attending the 2010 festival.
Brit Jon Bunning got involved with the project and I’ve posted his film above. He takes up the story:
“I’m Jon Bunning a UK graduate of Norwich School of Art and Design from the Visual Studies Ba(Hons) degree
I was in Cannes with a program called called Creative Minds which offers different elements of access to the film festival from movie making to network building.
Though sharing a hotel with other people working on the film making option I heard about the Cannes à la Flip contest and decided to pitch an idea.
It was very last minute and I came up with the premise on the spot. For some reason I remembered back to my friend getting a job by answering a question while being interviewed, in quite a cheeky manner. He was asked if he was a dog person or a cat person, to which he replied “How many times have you heard of a cat dragging someone from a burning building”. His dry wit in that one-liner stuck in the minds of the interview panel and he got the position. I decided to visualise his glib remark and set about filming it in between my work duties.
My initial concept was a cat overhearing two friends chatting about which animal was better and becoming inspired to save someone from a fire to prove a point.
In Cannes the streets are littered with pampered pups so I decided to start shooting on the at every opportunity, collecting snippets of hounds trotting about town. It was so easy with the Flip as you’re up an filming in seconds. This was my first time using the camera so it was great not to have to learn about tricky functions or be burdened with bulky equipment. I kept the Flip in my pocket and was able to get most of the shots I needed in between running errands for my host company.
The cat footage was slightly more difficult to capture, but luckily there was a street performer on the Croisette who fitted the bill perfectly with a performing puss. My accommodation also had a black cat which proved to be lucky.
The hard part came when I had to recreate the daring cat rescue scene. I love making things so improvised some prosthetic cat paws made from some face cloths and spokes from a broken umbrella. My very understanding room mate helped me with his acting and editing skills.
Completing the short film was the best souvenir I could have taken away from my trip.
I’m currently one of just over a hundred people vying for the People’s Choice Award. People can show support for me by becoming a fan on this link:
http://mubi.com/garage/projects/11/films/1148#
Which animal do I think is the greatest? I think I’ll have to remain impartial and say I like Sea Monkeys the best.
My next short is going to be about Ducks.”
John filmed on a Flip Ultra HD and edited on a Mac running Final Cut 6.
If you’ve made a Flip movie you’d like to share please add a comment and a link below.
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Tags: cannes a la flip, flip camera for drama, flip video competition, flip video short, garage digital online filmmaking, jon bunning, norwich school of art
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