Emmi Keane is a young designer based in Glasgow. Her designs were recently selected by the Glasgow Youth Film Festival Youth Team for the 2012 brochure after a tough competition featuring all members of Tramway’s Young Artists.  Emmi’s interests lie mainly in illustration.  Her artistic loves include Stabilo fine tip pens, fashion designer Helen Story, Turner-Prize-winning painter Tomma Abts and penguins.  In the near future Emmi aspires to go to art school to further her already promising career as a designer.

60 Seconds with Emmi…

Q. Tell us a bit about yourself?

Ah, tricky question! I moved to Glasgow from Cardiff when I was 9, I am 17 now and I love Scotland! I am currently doing a portfolio preparation course to help me get into art school. I like clothes with animals on them. His Dark Materials are my favourite books and I have a thing for contrasting colours and intricate illustrations.

Q.    How did you get involved with GYFF 2012?

I love the Glasgow Film Theatre and have friends that are involved with GYFF so when my tutor at the Visual Arts Studio told us about the opportunity to design the programme cover and poster, I jumped at it.

Q.    What inspired your design?

After chatting to some of the festival organizers I had an idea of what they wanted out of the design: something that represented youth but still appealed to most people. Picture frames and screens made an interesting medium to exhibit all the film stills that would be shown at the festival. I sketched out how I wanted the frames to be positioned with the intention to photograph real frames and compile them but I liked the sketch and thought the hand drawings would enhance the design.

Q.    How was it seeing your finished design in your hands?

Pretty surreal! Even now I will see the programme or walk past the poster and think, “Hmm, that looks familiar …” before realising it is actually my design.

Q.    What do you plan to do next?

At the moment I am applying to art schools with the hope of studying communication design or illustration. Fingers crossed!

Q.    What film do you recommend seeing at GYFF?

Umm, it’s going to have to be Napoleon Dynamite. I’ve only seen the final dance scene and it’s truly awesome so I can’t wait to see the whole thing on the big screen.

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The Glasgow Youth Film Festival is offering Central Station followers 2 pairs of tickets to see Dragonslayer at the Glasgow Film Theatre on Wed, 15 Feb.

Dragonslayer is an evocative portrait of California’s outsider skate culture, winner of two prizes at the world’s coolest film festival SXSW, last year.

If you fancy winning a free ticket for you and a friend, leave us a message  in the comments below or tweet us mentioning @censta & @glasgowyouth. The deadline for entries is Tues, 7 Feb & winners will be notified by Fri, 10 Feb.

Here’s a bit of a preview to whet your appetite…

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I was motivated to put finger to keyboard after being shortlisted for the GFF trailer competition for which I owe a big thanks to the folks at ISO and GFF for being able to read my handwriting and for seeing some potential in my ideas. I hope once I get together with Mark and Clyde at ISO I’ll be able to push the concept in new and interesting directions.

We just had our first project meeting today where we met the lovely ladies of the GFF and the equally lovely Paul from DigiCult who talked us through the aims of the project and how things would progress over the coming few weeks. We also had the chance to share the ideas that got us shortlisted and to hear what the GFF people liked about them. I won’t reveal any of the other entrants ideas as I’m sure they’ll be posting them themselves here on cSta soon, but I will say that they’re all pretty damn good. I have to say I have my work cut out to be in with a chance of winning this!

So, what is my concept for the trailer I hear you all ask!? Well, in the spirit of this website I’ll post my entire pitch for you to read through.

Concept

Glasgow Film Festival – Film bringing colour to Glasgow / life

Pitch

The Glasgow film festival is a celebration of film. Film brings us closer to events we would otherwise never experience. Film exposes us to emotion, drama, knowledge, excitement and unforgettable experiences; film brings colour to our comparatively limited and boring lives (ie when was the last time you dropped into Charlie’s chocolate factory or boated up the Mekong to take on Colonel Kurtz!?). The trailer I am proposing aims to illustrate this simple concept by showing a series of recognisable views around Glasgow; filmed in high contrast black+white. Over the duration of the 30 second trailer, elements within each view; ie buildings, furniture, people, etc flicker in and out of colour and pattern in time with the soundtrack; increasing in frequency and intensity until the end when the once mundane black and white scenes have become a cacophony of colour and sound amongst which the GFF logo will form along with the requisite text; dates, website and title(with sponsors logos beneath).

I’ve prepared a rough example of one approach to this colour and animation which you can find in the .mov file accompanying this document. I should point out that the music I used was not representative of the style I would prefer for the final work as it’s too much of a 4×4 rhythm; the aim of this was merely to demonstrate how footage could be chopped up and animated. In terms of a stylistic approach, for this example I used the colours of the GFF logo as a starting point which led to the neon colour scheme. .

As for locations, I would propose a mixture of classic Glasgow views (Buchannan St, Central Station, the Motorway, and views of the venues that will be used for the GFF.

Sound

The soundtrack would be positive and uplifting. Beginning from a humble beginning but growing in strength and depth towards the climax. The music of Forss (eg http://soundcloud.com/forss/journeyman) is probably the closest example to the style I have in mind. Electronic, melodic and contemporary.

Technique

The trailer would be created using a mix of live action footage; shot either at normal speed or timelapse, and digital motion-graphics. The graphic elements will be added using the compositing package After Effects. Given the festival is featuring a Japan retrospective, it could be relevant for the graphics to be inspired by Japanese graphic styles/conventions.

Artist Biography

Patrick Macdonald is a CG motion-graphics artist and illustrator specialising in photo-realistic 3d imagery and animation. Patrick trained in both the Edinburgh and Glasgow schools of art as an architect before becoming a freelance artist and animator. Although largely working in the commercial sectors of construction and marketing, Patrick is currently looking for more artistic opportunities in film and broadcasting.

These were the ingredients for Art/Roc/Doc, a fly on the wall documentary that followed Glasgow band Isosceles on an adrenaline-fuelled road trip to uncover the London art scene during Frieze Art Fair 2009.

Along the way Isosceles headlined PLUS, 72 hours of non-stop artists, exhibits and music, featuring Douglas Gordon, Matt Collishaw, Sarah Lucas, Gavin Turk and Sam Hasler.

Members Tom Ducan and Dasha jumped on board to film ad photograph the event, designer Ruth Parker was set with the task of creating a cardboard caravan and together they created a whirlwind short film which premiered at The Glasgow Film Festival 2010.

“…Things got crazy… The event was packed, incredible exhibits abounded  with work from the likes of Tracy Emin and Damien Hirst on show as well as performance artists in-situ, a fashion show, burlesque and the bands.”

“We had a plethora of interviewees and after our diligent producers snagged bit-name artist Gavin Turk we were more than satisfied with the content…”
/ Tom Duncan

“The film managed to capture not only the beautiful journey between Glasgow and London, but between visual art, music and film. Art/Roc/Doc is testament to the potential of the creative sectors working together.”
Patricial Fleming (curator, Volume/PLUS)

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See the final film here
See Dasha’s pictorial here

And here are some blogs to go with the visuals:

Thoughts from Tom [Shooter]:
Art/Roc/Doc
Art/Roc/Doc Day 2
Art/Roc/Doc Day 3
Art/Roc/Doc Finale

Thoughts from Ruth [Set Designer]:
How  to build a cardboard living room in 24 hrs – Pt 1
Pt 2
Pt 3
Pt 4

Thoughts from Andy [Editor]:
Thoughts from  the art/roc/doc chop shop 1
Art/Roc/Doc: The Countdown Continues

Thoughts from Paul [Exec Producer]
Feedback on call for a Shooter

Thoughts from Patricia [Curator, PLUS]
Art/Roc/Doc

I’ve also been shortlisted for the GFF trailer competition for which I’m so grateful as it’s going to kick my butt back into the short film making world. I moved up to Glasgow from Manchester after university and whilst working as a camera assistant up and down the country never had time to find the same contacts and wealth of skilled collaborators to call upon up here, yet seeing constant amazing work come out of every corner of Scotland.

I enjoyed listening to the other 3 proposals yesterday in our first meeting with GFF. All ideas I’d love to help out on when they get through to the making stage (if they need the help!) Also hearing about all the different disciplines they choose to work in and how it differs to my approach.

I learnt in the meeting that GFF actually shortlisted me for my 10 second sting idea rather than my original pitch for the 30 trailer, and would prefer if I worked the idea into the full length trailer. So I’m going to put up my original proposal then add a few further ideas I’m preparing for our meetings with Mark and Clyde, two senior designers at ISO, to help develop the ideas.

Original Proposal:

Straight on, symmetrical shot of a traditional Glasgow tenement building.

The square formation windows, characteristic of Glasgow tenements can be seen.

Within a flat a figure walks towards the window on the bottom left and draws the blind down, filling the frame with a flat purple colour. The same happens in the window diagonally above right to the first window, this time the blind is pink. Another is closed to show a letter.

This process continues until the Glasgow Film Festival logo is complete.

Ta-daaa

The idea was influenced by Avril Paton’s “Windows in the West”, (thanks Kim for reminding me of the actual name!) paintings of tenement building exteriors, where each window has it’s own separate life happening within.

(see the image here:
http://www.avrilpaton.com/paintings/glasgow/windowsinthewest.html)

The evolved idea is going to happen along these lines where the camera is moving between and coming up close to each window. The action that is happening inside was influenced by the Stella Artois ad campaign that came out a couple of years ago that they called the “cinema sudoku”, where there was a normal looking scene of a park or a beach but iconic film images were added into the scene.

(You can find them here:

http://www.guardian.co.uk/uk/2005/jul/17/davidsmith.theobserver)

Each window will have a reference to a classic film, such as a the boy with the red hoodie bringing his bike in the house so it doesn’t get nicked or a man in a wheel chair and a broken leg spying with binoculars. Each character pull down their window blind and the camera zooms out it see the GFF logo made up by the blinds.

This is a brief version of the idea so far, once I’ve spoken to Mark and Clyde about it tomorrow I’ll update me blog on ways that the idea can be achieved.

Check out the other shortlisters yo!:

Kim Stewart, paddymac and Alburt

This is my first blog post for the Glasgow Film Festival Trailer Competition. We had our first meeting yesterday and it was exciting to meet everyone and hear all the great ideas for the trailer! I’m looking forward to my first meeting with Mark and Clyde at ISO Design tomorrow morning!

My idea involves a literal play on the Glasgow Film Festival’s ever expanding presence and growth. With the GFF winning multiple awards (including Best Large Event at The Scottish Event Awards 2009 and the GAGA Audience Development Award), the amount of screened films and events increasing every year, along with rising attendance figures, it seemed appropriate to portray this in my trailer idea.

SYNOPSIS
A young couple walk through Glasgow and enter Glasgow Film Theatre. They reach their cinema seats and are astounded as they look up towards the colossal-sized seats. They strain to sit on them.
Line reads “GFF10… Now Even Bigger.”

SCRIPT

SCENE 1

EXT. GLASGOW SQUINTY BRIDGE – EARLY EVENING

Amazing view of Glasgow’s squinty bridge looking towards the city centre from the Southside of the river. WOMAN and MAN enter screen from bottom left. They walk across the bridge holding hands.

CUT TO:
Side view, WOMAN and MAN walk across screen. Finnieston Crane and Armadillo can be seen in the background.

CUT TO:
WOMAN and MAN walk down Sauchiehall Street. Art Deco Beresford Building seen in this shot.

CUT TO:
WOMAN and MAN enter Glasgow Film Theatre.

SCENE 2

INT. GLASGOW FILM THEATRE – SAME EVENING

WOMAN’S face engulfs screen. She looks up at the camera above her and drops her jaw. She looks utterly bewildered.

CAMERA pans around from her face to reveal enormous cinema seats. The seats are three times the size of the MAN and WOMAN. MAN stands next to WOMAN and both stare up at the seats in amazement.

CUT TO:
MAN assists WOMAN with a leg up. WOMAN struggles and clambers onto giant cinema seat.

CUT TO:
MAN and WOMAN sit on the huge cinema seats and look exhausted.

SCENE 3

TITLE: GLASGOW FILM FESTIVAL 2010

CUT TO:
TITLE: NOW EVEN BIGGER!

Overall Look & Style:

Fun, vibrant colours to reflect GFF10’s style.

Preferably filmed in full high definition quality.

Strong, well-composed shots to advertise and promote Glasgow.

MAN & WOMAN to wear casual stylish clothes.

NOTE:
The 30 second sting will include all 3 scenes.
The 10 second sting will only include scenes 2 and 3.

If you have any suggestions for this idea, please feel free to comment.

In the very early days of Central Station, we asked members within the community to submit their ideas for our GFF Trailer competition. The call was open for one month and we were looking for proposals along with simple sketches, storyboards and materials to support the application.

We, and our partners the Glasgow Film Festival 2010, were delighted with the quality and the number of responses from the network. The shortlist worked with representatives of GFF, GFT and ISO Design, for their commission. They were: Allistair Burt, Lucy Elliott, Patrick MacDonald and Kim Stewart.

All four worked on the development phase on their project ideas with GFF and Central Station’s supervision, at the end of which one proposal was commissioned.

Read these blogs from the shortlisted creatives, find out about their processes and see the winning trailer:
Glasgow Film Festival 2010 – development by Alburt
Glasgow Film Festival… Now Even Bigger! by Kim Stewart
Glasgow Film Festival Trailer development by Kim Stewart
And they’re off by Paddy Mac
Glasgow Film Festival – cinema sudoku by Lucy Elliot
Iso-tonic by Paddy Mac
More GFF trailer development by Lucy Elliot
Glasgow Film Festival trailer…revised script by Kim Stewart
The Barter system by GFT
GFF final submission by Kim Stewart
GFF2010 Trailer – sound and music by Alburt
Gff submission yo by Lucy Elliot
Gff submission by Paddy Mac
Disbelief by Paddy Mac
Friday ramblings by Paddy Mac
It’s a Wrap! by Paddy Mac

I grew up glued to the TV, particularly American cartoons funded by toy manufacturers to flog their products, and playing a lot of video games that didn’t do me any harm. However, cinema was, and will always be, my first love.

Our local cinema was the mythical ABC Muirend Cinema. Designed by William Bereseford Inglis in 1933, the building exterior replicated a Spanish style hacienda while inside the auditorium had lots of Flamenco style motifs, such as balconies, amber lanterns and images of matadors painted on tiles dotted along the stairwells. Looking back as I write this, Muirend Cinema seems a bizarre prophecy of my future; I studied Spanish at Glasgow University and somehow I’ve ended up working for Glasgow Film Theatre as Learning Projects Coordinator for Young People. The range of the films it offered were the standard box office fare but I relished them all regardless. My seminal movie moments included watching Jurassic Park on the opening weekend, my mum convincing the box office grump that I was old enough to watch The Man Without A Face and stuffing my face with the cheaper sweets bought next door in Safeways to the bombast of Independence Day.

Sadly like a lot of old cinemas in Glasgow, ABC Muirend shut down in 2001 due to shrinking audiences that preferred the industrial comfort of a multiplex and the cost of maintaining a building that was well past its prime. Each time I pass it, I can’t help feel a wave of sadness for an important community relic that now functions as luxury apartments for a select few. My memories of Muirend remain but families in the Southside of Glasgow have to travel elsewhere these days for their cinematic outings.

Hopefully some of these families come to the GFT for our free Take 2 family screenings which screen every Saturday morning. I try to programme a range of films that appeal to a wide audience while sneaking in a few classic and foreign gems, like The Boy From Mercury, Mr Hulot’s Holiday and The Belles of St. Trinian’s. Unfortunately a lack of distribution of foreign titles for children and availability of prints makes screening non-Hollywood films a lot harder than it should be.

Although 41% of 15-24 year olds visit the cinema once a month* and are exposed to moving images on a daily basis, young people are often the least catered to by art house cinemas. More often than not, they tend to select films that appeal to older audiences with their youth remit left solely to ‘parent and baby’ screenings. Consequently, children and young adults miss out on the wealth of different contemporary perspectives offered by world cinema and so remain quite happy to settle for whatever is showing at their local Cineworld.

This isn’t helped by the fact that moving image education still struggles to be implemented across schools in the UK. Despite repeated efforts, teachers cite a lack of resources and adequate training to properly implement film into the classroom. As a result, DVDs can often become a babysitter for pupils rather than a key part of their cultural development and awareness. It remains to be seen whether the ambitions of 21st Century Literacy, a consortium set up by the UK Film Council and Film Education among others, can be achieved.

In response to these issues, GFT Learning set up the Glasgow Youth Film Festival to offer young people a chance to help devise, promote and run their own film festival. Programmed by a worryingly cool bunch of teenagers, GYFF aims to reach out to young Glaswegians through their love of movies while supporting their talents and aspirations. This year almost 7,000 young people attended GYFF events; it was such a refreshing sight to see so many young faces in our cinemas. (Previously, members of our Youth Group told me that they felt unwelcome by older GFT patrons who thought they’d only talk throughout the film.) The response we had was overwhelming and encouraging enough to safely say that there’s a youth audience in Glasgow interested in films from around the globe.

Over the next few years for GYFF, I hope to increase the opportunities for young people to talk to people who work in the moving image industries – not just directors or actors but writers, graphic designers, animators and editors who all make a living from their passion for film, TV and video games. Like the rest of the arts, the film industry remains horribly white and middle class, in spite of the occasional tokenistic scheme for individuals from underrepresented backgrounds. Anyone who aspires to work in this industry is expected to intern for free or live off small bursaries. I had to do this for almost 2 years and I doubt that it will change anytime soon, no matter how legally grey internships appear.

There’s more to young movie fans than a lucrative demographic to market blockbusters to. Exhibitors, distributors, not to mention teachers, should encourage young people to look at moving image in a reflective and creative way rather than be passive observers that we often assume them to be. Thankfully youth film festivals such as GYFF, Discovery and Future Film, alongside the exciting developments promised by 8 1/2 Foundation, demonstrate the growing commitment to future generations of cinemagoers. With the falling costs of HD technology and the increasing ease of distributing films online, I’m hopeful that all young people will continue to be inspired by the flickering images around them – from the glow of a TV, the hum of a projector or even the hypnotic whirl of your mum’s dirty washing.

*According to UK Film Council’s 2009 Statistics Handbook

Images of ABC Muirend taken from Scottish Cinemas site

We really enjoyed re-visiting our mentalist PLUS exhibition at the screening in CCA on Sunday. It’s hard to believe it was only last October! Many thanks also to all of the artists, bands Isosceles, The Mutlings, and The Cyclones, the models and the 2000+ visitors who put us firmly on the the London art map during Frieze and Zoo (not an easy task!).

The film managed to capture this energy and not only the beautiful journey between Glasgow and London, but between visual art, music and film.

Art/Roc/Doc is testament to the potential of the creative sectors working together. We are looking forward to seeing the next piece of magic conjured up by Central Station – Paul Welsh is certainly a skilful director, and not just of traffic…

Congratulations everyone.

Patricia Fleming

With the Glasgow Short Film Festival (GSFF) launching TOMORROW (Fri 19th!) at the CCA, we are delighted to have worked with Central Station to present the preview screening of Art/Roc/Doc, shot in London at Frieze 2009 and featuring Glasgow based band Isosceles as they play their way round the country’s best known art fair.

This will be screening alongside the best new work submitted by Central Station members…

Lu Sisi – ‘Digital Analogue’

Craig Wilson – ‘Press That Down/Union of Knives’

Chris Leslie – ‘Paddy’s Market’

Kate Rowles – ‘My Wonderland’

Andy Brown – ‘Storm’

Please join us to celebrate the best of recent work from Central Station members at GSFF at 5pm on Sunday 21st Feb at the CCA, and stick around for a drink or 2 post screening to meet the teams behind the films.

Tickets from www.glasgowfilmfestival.org.uk/shorts

17 days to go until the CCA presses play. Scary.

I have advanced quite a bit since we last spoke and I am now sitting with an almost full timeline begging me to hurry up and finish. In the next week or so, the audio is going away for a mix, we’ve got graphics coming in and might even get some nice folk to do a colour grade too! So this really is the epitome of what Central Station is about, bringing everyone together for one big creative hug! (did i just write that?)

Some interesting footage amongst the ten tapes. From weird art installations (pyramid made out of soil) to people talking about endangered bats, to taking photos in a makeshift bath/shower and asking box office staff out for a dance Art/Roc/Doc is shaping up to be a certified chin scratcher.

Tomorrow I am meeting up with Paul Welsh from DigiCult to fine tune some more sequences… We’re going to work on editing some new bits to music and probably drink lots of tea.I think we have this Sunday pencilled in to tie up the loose ends and lets hope we have an almost-finished-but-lets-export-it-anyway export.

Remember, Sunday 21st February at 17:00hrs inside the CCA.

Have a look at my little portable studio: