NewsReel 05.09.08

Raindance
Tom Tagholm of Channel 4 Creative Services, who won Best Film and Best UK Short at last year’s Raindance for his ‘A Bout De Truffe’ film, has been charged with the task of creating the trailer for this year’s festival. ‘So I Fell in Love with a Zombie’ brings together the two genres of horror and romance with humorous results. Starring Nathalie Cox and stand up comic Brett Goldstein, the film was shot on a small budget provided by festival sponsors Diesel, but Tagholm was happy working under those conditions, saying, ‘It was a little more of a hustle than usual. It was more like a short film shoot than a commercial - we shot near my flat and used that as a base, and there was lots of zombie make-up crap everywhere. But with that comes a good spirit within the cast and crew and it all came together well, despite no luxuries and a very rainy British summer to contend with.’

The festival runs from October 1^st to 12^th and the trailer can be viewed by clicking here.

Quick on the Draw
Draw Pictures have hired a number of new reps, including a dedicated music video rep on both sides of the Atlantic.

From the 6th of October their new Head of Music Videos & Content in the UK will be Laura Lewis. Laura joins Draw from Sony/BMG where she worked in the video department for many years, bringing an invaluable blend of experience and label insight with her.

In the US, Laure Scott joins with immediate effect. She will take over as New Music Video Rep and will handle all US based requests for any of Draw’s directors.

Kinsale Sharks
The shortlisted work for the 46^th Kinsale Shark Awards is now on their website. The festival will be held in the picturesque Irish coastal town of Kinsale next weekend 11^th to 13^th September. Bookings are still open and can be made via the website.

Short and Sweet
Short and Sweet (London’s only weekly short film evening) will be held at the usual time and place next week:

MONDAY: Cafe 1001, 91 Brick Lane
TUESDAY: AKA Bar, 18 west central street

Films start at 7.30pm both nights and entry is FREE.

NewsReel 01/08/08

As always, please send any news and press releases to sam@thereel.net and we'll do our best to include it here.

The UK MVA's are coming
The deadline for entries to the UK Music Video Awards is fast approaching. All entries need to be received by the 12th August for the awards show that is due to take place on October 14th at the Odeon in Leicester Square. The team behind the event, who also run the BFI South Bank’s highly successful BUG strand, has also announced a People’s Choice Award and a separate award for the best video produced for under £2,000. For more information go to www.ukmva.com.

Shark attack

The closing date for this year’s Kinsale Sharks Awards is only a week away. There will be no extensions for any entries this year due to a significant increase in the volume of entries that need to be processed, so go to www.kinsalesharks.com to join the last minute scramble to enter work.

Short and Sweet
Next week’s Short and Sweet (London’s only weekly short film evening) will be held at the usual time and place:

MONDAY: Cafe 1001, 91 Brick Lane
TUESDAY: AKA Bar, 18 west central street

Films start at 7.30pm both nights and entry is FREE.

This time featuring some great work from the following directors:

Steph Green
Nick Alhmark
Toko Plastic
Karen Kelly
John Williams
Annette Habel
Tomek Ducki

A new wave
Wave Recording Studios has announced its opening of a new office in Amsterdam. Wave Amsterdam’s plush new office is on the Herengracht; a street at the heart of the city’s buzzing media centre. Facing the canal on one side and a central courtyard on the other, Wave is on the 2nd floor of a newly refurbished building and boasts over 600 square metres of floor space.

The ambitious venture for the company that was founded in 1999 comprises of three studios and will service Dutch, Pan-European and UK markets. Warren Hamilton, co-owner and creative director at Wave said of the relationship between the new and original office, ‘The only difference between Wave London and Wave Amsterdam is 500-miles; the two offices will offer the exactly the same service and personality.’

The Amsterdam studios will be helmed by a hi-profile new signing: Alex Nicholls-Lee, who previously worked at Scramble for over a decade, and is both an experienced sound designer and used to working with Dutch clients. He’s worked on Adidas’ ‘Last Man Standing’ and the D&AD winning Pepsi ‘Gladiator’ spots. Joe Mount will also be joining the Amsterdam studio, crossing the North Sea from the company’s London office. He recently won a Conch sound design award for his work on Skoda’s ‘Giggle’.

A call for more smalls
Following on from their recent Paramount and Comedy Central sponsored Comedy Shorts competition, The Smalls has opened their call for entry for their 2008 Showcase and Awards in association with Creative Review and devilfish. The competition and event celebrates small films for small screens – celebrating the opportunities bought about by the internet and mobile phone screens.

A selection of entries will be screened at the London Design Festival on September 17 – 18th and the best entry, as judged by a panel of leading industry figures, will win The Smalls Awards 2008.

The deadline for entries should be up to five-minutes long and submitted by 5th September. For more information go to www.thesmalls.com