Inspiration and creativity (within constraints)

This my be one of the more poignant, beautiful bits of independent / contest film work I've seen in some time. But I seem to be more sensitive to this theme lately.

The "Porcelain Unicorn" was written and directed by Keegan Wilcox, and was the grand-prize winner for the Philips Parallel Lines "Tell It Your Way" international competition.

What makes this film all the more startling to me is its beauty underneath the contest constraints -- while entires could be any genre, told in any way, they had to follow six specific lines of dialogue from the Parallel Lines films:

• "What is that??
• "It’s a unicorn"
• "Never seen one up close before"
• "Beautiful"
• "Get away, get away"
• "I’m sorry"

Add to that the constraints and successes that get me stoked about the Biz: Wilcox has a small, tight-knit production company in LA, and they put the film above together start-to-finish in under two weeks.

Out of more than 600 entries, films were narrowed down to 10 finalists by a judging panel from Ridley Scott Associates (RSA), British Academy of Film & Television Arts (BAFTA) and Philips (the electronics folks), based on creative and original storytelling, interesting use of the Parallel Lines dialogue, and technical achievement. The film was selected by contest marshal and director Sir Ridley Scott, because "it had a very strong narrative; a very complete story that was well told and executed."

The contest film was inspired by Wilcox's grandfather’s war stories, and the "hero’s journey" of a Joseph Conrad novel.

As a reward for winning, besides being promoted six ways to Sunday by Philips, Wilcox will work for a week onsite at the Ridley Scott Associates offices.

Projects like these take a ton of talent people, so be sure to check the link to recognize those fine folks, and the runners up and People's Choice winner are good films, too.

Fede Alvarez and Ataque de Panico!

Man, I so love to see this kind of thing.

First, Neill Blomkamp with what was "Alive in Joburg" becoming District 9, then Timur Bekmambetov with "9" (which became, uh, 9), now another independent film maker, Federico "Fede" Alvarez -- who's been scrapping through at least 3 previous films since the turn of the century -- gets Hollywood attention for his short trailer, "Ataque de Panico!" (Panic Attack). And, in Hollywood, "attention" means "money".

So Alvarez is now getting recognition outside of his native Uruguay, $30 million, and -- probably most importantly -- a business relationship with caliber production studio Ghost House Pictures (Sam Raimi? Writer of Spiderman 3 (director of all 3)? Director for everything from Evil Dead to Darkman?)

Neat Cinderella story, and it’s so cool to see a guy who’s been working his tail off in film for at least the last 9 years pocket $30M – and better, build a business relationship with someone like Raimi.

Here's the music video version South American rock / punk band SNAKE, if that's more your thing.



And -- quick rant -- I hope I stop seeing Alvarez called an "unknown". Dude's been working hard for nearly a decade. He's unknown to some U.S. folks. But not for long.