image copyright Aaron Diaz
It’s official; the 42 Essential 3rd Act Twists project has been deflowered, and in wonderful fashion.
The last time I wrote was to remind (read: harangue) everybody participating in the project that the deadline was drawing near, that Kino #32 was soon upon us, that you needed to finish your films and get them to me as soon as possible…
…and the result of that post was a bit…underwhelming, shall we say.
Out of the officially nominated films on the list:
“Unreliable Narrator”
“Unreliable Reader”
“God Did it”
“Vampires Repel Daylight”
“It was a Dream”
“It wasn’t a Dream”
“Toy Actually Magic Wand”
“Wand Actually Handgun”
“Conspiracy Actually Kinda Boring”
“Stolen Identity Not Worth It”
“Autistic Boy Grants Wishes”
“Government is in on it”
“Government is Actually Autistic Boy”
“Dark Lord Reasonable”
I received:
“God Did it”
See, now, you’d think I’d be upset about this result or at least a little disenheartened; but I’m not, and for three very good reasons.
- I never finished my film either (I was planning on doing “Dark Lord Reasonable” but never found the time) so not wanting to be quite the massive hypocrite, I can hardly criticise others for not finishing theirs can I?
- The person responsible for “God Did it”, Ang (with a little acting help from her partner Dan) has created a mini-masterpiece and I couldn’t be happier to have this as the first film in the 42 Essential 3rd Act Twists project. Everything from the missing “Madame Tinklepot” to the Accusing Parlour to the final cameo distinctly (deliberately?) reminiscent of Daren Rabinovitch’s masterful short “Tactical Advantage” makes “God Did It” very very special, and very very good.
- It looks like Ang (and everyone else involved) had fun making it. And without getting too wishy-washy with you here, if you’re not having fun with this project, then you’re doing it wrong. In fact, it’s the only way to get this project “wrong”. So if you’re one of the folks who nominated to complete a vignette and didn’t get it finished (or started) then don’t fret; you’ve the summer ahead of you, Kino’s not on again until February, you’ve probably got a camera lying round somewhere, a couple of friends, a quiet afternoon…
So again, as a reminder if you do get your films finished: the original Diaz image can be found here and the specs that I need for the video file are:
Length: 1-2 minutes (3 if you’re feeling keen)
Compression: H.264
Dimensions: PAL 720×576 4:3
Frame rate: 24fps
Deinterlaced Source Video
Sound at 44.100 kHz, 16-Bit Stereo
The best of luck to everyone participating, and for inspiration you can check out Ang’s film as well as Rabinovitch’s Tactical Advantage below.
