Telstra Mobile Masterpieces 2011 finalist Steve Baker shot his film in the midst of the tragic Queensland floods. Although the rain continued unabated throughout filming and many of the shooting locations were cut off by the rising tides, Steve persevered and his determination has paid off. Tropfest have just announced he is among three mobile phone film finalists shortlisted to screen and compete at the world’s largest short film festival on Sunday 20 February 2010.
Co-finalist Alison Heather, who has a 10 year history of being behind the camera, had her own share of wild weather woes when a lighting strike hit her external hardrive, ruining hours worth of edited shots. Although not affected by mother nature during filmmaking, the third finalist for this year, Reza Baharmed used the stormy emotions of an unrequited love to draw inspiration for his entry.
Telstra Mobile Masterpieces requires filmmakers to shoot their shorts entirely on a mobile phone. With a range of advanced mobile technology available to avid mobile film-makers, Tropfest organisers say the quality of mobile entries proved incredible this year.
John Polson, Tropfest’s Founder and Director says he’s excited to have such a high quality of films entered into Telstra Mobile Masterpieces for 2011. “Although these films are created entirley on a mobile phone, the quality has been astounding. It’s a real testiment to the ingenuity of these finalist filmmakers, that they’ve battled the Aussie weather to produce some great short films.”
The three Telsra Mobile Masterpieces Finalists will compete for $5,000 in cash, courtesy of Telstra, and a VIP trip to the 2012 Sundance Film Festival to meet with international film industry heavyweights.
Mobile films will be shown as a part of the Tropfest festival and be screened live on Sunday 20 February to an anticipated audience of 150,000 at free outdoor public events across Australia. It is also televised LIVE on Subscription TV channel Movie Extra to an audience in excess of 235,000. For the second year in a row, FOXTEL and AUSTAR will be televising Movie Extra’s broadcast live for all their subscribers, so everyone can be part of the action.
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