Re: your film in 50 words

From: Ken Bawcom (email suppressed)
Date: Tue Dec 18 2007 - 04:05:59 PST


One reason for asking for a description is to be sure one is viewing
the piece that the artist intended. You would be surprised how often
the wrong piece is sent, and a lot of experimental work doesn't have as
title card on the work. Of course it isn't unusual to still not be
certain, based on the description. But I should think that the main
reason for the request, and for brevity, is for use in the program.

Ken B.

Quoting francesco gagliardi <email suppressed>:

> Hi everyone.
>
> I was wondering how people feel about those calls for submissions that
> explicitly ask only for very short (75 or 50-word) synopses of the
> work. I understand that going through large numbers of submissions is
> very time consuming, but one page (which seems to be a pretty standard
> requirement for most festival that impose limits on the length of the
> work description) doesn't seem to me to be unreasonable, especially if
> the festival is also asking for a submission fee. I understand that
> short descriptions may be necessary for programs and other printed
> material, but that's why some festivals require both a short and a
> more full description.
>
> The very idea of a "synopsis" strikes me as problematic in the realm
> of experimental work, unless perhaps a festival is explicitly devoted
> to experimental narratives. The main problem, however, (regardless of
> whether the requirement is a "synopsis" or, more generically, a
> "description") is that the imposition of such narrow word limits tends
> to encourage standardized, formulaic ways of recasting one's own work
> in terms of established experimental "genres." Aren't there enough
> "meditations on space", "contemplations of lines" and "painstaking
> observations of ordinary time" out there? Why encourage people to take
> those kinds of shortcuts when they think and write about their work?
>
> Francesco Gagliardi
>
>
> PS
> For the record, the first paragraph of this posting has 108 words, the
> second one 103.
>
>
> __________________________________________________________________
> For info on FrameWorks, contact Pip Chodorov at <email suppressed>.
>
>
>

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__________________________________________________________________
For info on FrameWorks, contact Pip Chodorov at <email suppressed>.