Geoffrey-Fletcher---Imagination-Series-Judging_FINAL

Online film competitions have become a prime source of new talent. Film makers, who in previous years would had few options to have their work seen and judged, have an instant audience of millions.

Bombay Sapphire’s Imagination Series has produced some fine work, and takes its hook from Oscar winner Geoffrey Fletcher whose screenplay provides a direction for each film.

With the same sparse script filmmakers are invited to let their imaginations run wild and the diversity of visions is exactly what the organisers were hoping for.

We spoke to Fletcher last year before the winning entries were announced and we’ve included some of the entries below (the rest can be found here) to show the variety of winning shorts. Room 8, in particular, is a masterpiece.

HeyUGuys: Thank you for taking the time to talk to us. We actually spoke about a year ago when the first round of submissions were coming in. The diversity of vision in the winning entries  is incredible Were you happy or surprised by what you saw?

Geoffrey Fletcher : Indeed. In both years, I’m continually amazed at these interpretations, things I would have never imagined, where people can take these stories to these seemingly far off places, bring them back in, and come up with a story that is beautified and inspired. And what we always hoped was that people would bring their voice and their vision to the projects, and they certainly have, and they’ve done so with great imagination, inspiration, and daring.

Certainly it would be wonderful to discover a new talent, but for everyone who simply thinks about what they might do, whether they enter or not, our hope has always been that they see the possibilities within themselves for creativity and imagination.

[The script] is a very skeletal foundation upon which they can build, but sometimes that’s just the start that people need, and a lot of times I think people want to create and tell stories, but facing the completely blank page can be daunting. So just a starting off point, and people have really invested their sensibilities, passion, points of view here, and every year it’s been remarkable.

 

When you’re writing the script, and when you’re putting together this skeletal outline do you deliberately try to make it as open-ended as possible, or do you think that this is the kind of foundation that anyone can build on?

It is a fine line, because you want something that is very well-structured, but you want something that also leaves enormous room for a person to make it their own and take it in any one of many directions. And with this sort of script every word you add narrows the possibilities, so try to be efficient but minimalist, very structured at the same time.

Every word, you have to think about how much it’s narrowing the possibilities, and how much room it is leaving for interpretation. You’d be amazed at how much something that looks this short, how many times you have to go over it and rethink it in order for it to maintain its freedom.

Year One Winning Entry – Room 8 by James W. Griffiths

The diversity of entries must have been phenomenal. Did you have trouble in narrowing it down, because there were such diverse opinions on how your words could form?

Oh, indeed, and that’s the hardest part on this entire competition, to narrow them down. Every year, I always want to make 10 or 20 of them, so it is a difficult decision, and you lose sleep at night wondering what might have been with some of the other entries that aren’t going into production. But, I really want for us to have an honorable mention to let people know that we thought so highly of their work and for them to keep going. I entered a number of film competitions years ago, in competitions not quite like this, and not necessarily film festivals, but more public competitions, and even though my work wasn’t chosen, I always kept going. But I think that people would appreciate some sort of positive reinforcement just so they keep going, and so I’m really excited that we’ll have an honorable mention this year, as well.

 

 That’s a very positive step, and my last question is tied into that. What did you learn about this new generation of filmmakers from The Imagination Series?

One of the things that I love about this competition is that because it leaves so much room for people to take the story in any direction they wish, you start to get a feel for perhaps who the person is, and I think both years there have been wonderful efforts in all of the genres, from drama to comedy to science fiction to horror. And it seems people are concerned with how we treat one another, with love and loss, hope, loneliness, the apocalypse, the power of laughter and absurdity.

So we have a greater number of entries this year, and we hope to continue to grow that, but it’s inspiring for us seeing the quality and the breadth of interpretation. Before, when we first started, we didn’t know what to expect, and we’ve been overwhelmed in a great way, which is why every year it’s so, so difficult for the jury. It’s always our hope that the entries we choose are not necessarily those that were most polished or familiar, but those that were soulful and inspired.

Year One Winning Entry – The Water Song by Paul Frankl

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