Young Film – June 2012: Video Highlights & Testimonies

Posted on June 28, 2012 by Watch Them Fall Down Team

Camera Operators: Sally Abbott & Krys Kamenou

Editor: Kyle Matthew Hilton

Music: “Synthead – Cause It’s Groovy, Now” (Synthead) / CC BY-NC 3.0

On June 12th 2012, Watch Them Fall Down hosted their first ever Young Film event at the Vibe Gallery in Bermondsey (South London). Young Film is all about bringing young, talented filmmakers and actors together to share their work and to connect with like-minded people – free of charge. We don’t believe youngsters should have to pay money just to meet new people or to screen their work, two of the most important things for aspiring filmmakers, like ourselves, to get started in this industry. Without people, collaboration and sharing, we are nothing.

We’ve finally had an afternoon to go through the footage of our first Young Film event at the Vibe Gallery and piece together a little video. It was great watching the night back and hearing what you guys thought of it all.

We cannot thank everyone who worked together to organise the event enough and, of course, many thanks to the wonderful people that joined us at Vibe on June 12th to watch some amazing short films by some amazingly talented young filmmakers, as well as having a drink or three and mingling after the screening. It was awesome meeting you all and we can’t wait to put on another Young Film event so we can fill the room with such talented and lovely people again.

We also have some thoughts on the night from those who joined us:

Thomas Conroy
“I’m glad I came and I hope there’s plenty more of these in the future some time.”

Victoria Valcheva, Emily Aitcheson & Oriel Bathurst
Oriel: “It’s nice to be introduced to young filmmakers, to know that there is a strong network and that it’s so accessible.”
Victoria: “I think that’s what is so important for me really is that it makes me want to start filming and get connections. I think that’s really useful.”
Emily: “It’s nice that people are being creative and doing their own thing and then coming together.”
Victoria: “And that people are sharing big ideas and getting inspired.”
Emily: “It’s been lovely. Thank you!”

Irfan Shamji
“It was a pleasant evening to talk to everyone, to meet everyone. It was good to catch up with what everyone is doing and to see new films. I had a fun time… I had a fun time.”

Luke Thomas
“It was good, it’s really exciting getting young people together… Things can happen… Let’s make it happen…”

Amber Napthine & Catherine Señor Clinton
Catherine: “It’s funny how they’re only short films but I felt really moved by some of them.”
Amber: “They’re only 10 or 15-minute films but you get so much out of them… It was a great event, and well done Kyle and Jade!”

Again, thank you all for coming and we look forward to seeing you all again in the near future.

JADE+KYLE

CODOC at Sir Richard Branson’s house

Posted on June 19, 2012 by Watch Them Fall Down Team

In early May, anyone that is friends with Jade or myself, or even those of you that know our mothers, would have been made aware of the Virgin Media Pioneer’s #VMPitch2Rich competition that would give 4 companies the opportunity to pitch their idea to a panel of business leaders at Sir Richard Branson’s house. This panel consisted of Jamal Edwards (founder of SB.TV), Richard Reed (co-founder of Innocent Drinks), Nigel Gilbert (Chief Marketing Officer at Virgin Media) and Sir Richard Branson, who needs no introduction. CODOC, for whom I am currently interning, were into the semi-finals of the #VMPitch2Rich competition, which would be decided by a public vote to determine the final four that would be able to pitch at Branson’s Oxford home. I was pestering everyone I know to vote and, on the final day, CODOC sneaked into 3rd place with 1,326 votes. To illustrate how close the voting was, the top 5 were separated by only 59 votes and there were only 2 votes between the 4th and 5th placed companies, and ultimately a place in the final.

So to everyone we spoke to and that voted to help CODOC through – THANK YOU! Because of the time you took to click on the box next to ‘Guy Gunaratne – CODOC’, the Willesden Green based company got the opportunity to pitch their CODOC TV layered online video player to the panel and they were awarded £750, as well as catching the attention of the media-based judges, Virgin Media’s Nigel Gilbert and SB.TV’s Jamal Edwards.

To get a peek at CODOC TV, have a look at their 60 second video pitch which helped them progress through the semi-finals.

To see how the day went, check out the video below, which I put together for CODOC (self-plug), as well as the two other videos from Virgin Media Pioneers (shot by TeamCODOC members Krys Kamenou and Tom Cottey) and SB.TV, which features an interview with Sir Richard Branson himself.

I’d definitely recommend that anyone looking to build a new business to check out Virgin Media Pioneers as they are there to support small organisations in difficult economic times. SB.TV is always throwing out great interviews and music entertainment and, of course, visit CODOC. I spent yesterday filming with them (a blog post to come on that soon) and I’m gutted my internship with them is ending soon, as I’m learning a hell of a lot and having a great time with great people.

KYLE

Young Film Event – June 2012

Posted on June 13, 2012 by Watch Them Fall Down Team

Last night was Watch Them Fall Down’s and Vibe Gallery’s first YOUNG FILM screening and networking event and it was a success! We both had a great time and, from the feedback we’ve had since we woke up this morning from a well deserved night’s sleep, those who attended did too.

Firstly, we want to thank Vibe Gallery, namely Mark Bean and Phil Goldie, for giving us the opportunity to host a free event, as we believe it shouldn’t cost young people money just to meet each other.

As we are new to being hosts of an event, it’s fair to say nerves were very present but we had an excellent selection of films to screen and we were pleased that their directors were there to showcase their talent. And boy do they have talent!

The main idea for the event was for us at WTFD and other like minded filmmakers and actors to get together and have a good ol’ chin wag with a glass of whatever beverage suits them. Nowadays, with technology being accessible, anyone can create the film they have their mind and heart set on but the most important part of filmmaking is having a talented group there to create it. This is where the inspiration for YOUNG FILM came from and it worked a treat. We both met some extremely cool people. The evening was relaxed and that’s what we wanted it to be. We also wanted to give people a chance to showcase films on ‘the big screen’ which is becoming more and more difficult for young filmmakers.

We would like to thank the directors who let us screen their work and it was the perfect collection of different styles and genres to show at our first event.

We hope for YOUNG FILM events to continue so, if you’re interested, send us your films to contact@watchthemfalldown.com and get involved next screening and networking event.

JADE + KYLE

Our Topsy-Turvy Site

Posted on June 6, 2012 by Watch Them Fall Down Team

Hello everyone!

Firstly, a massive thank you to everyone that has sent us messages and emails of support in regards to our recent article on the National Youth Film Academy. We’ve been contacted by dozens of former NYFA participants, production companies and filmmakers from all over the country. So, again, thank you!

But anyways, the purpose of this post is to apologise and request a bit of patience with our site. We are having problems with links to certain pages and site media because we recently deleted our original WordPress site. We’re very busy at the moment, with our Young Film event coming up next week as well as various editing jobs that I’m finishing up, but in a couple of weeks we’ll be working hard to sort this site out. We’re also planning a brand new site that we hope to have online by the end of 2012. Can’t wait to break free from the WordPress shackles, even though it has been a superb platform for a web-design-illiterate pair such as ourselves.

Please check out our NYFA article and our new events and opportunities page for information on our Young Film event. We can’t wait.

KYLE

Retraction – The National Youth Film Academy

Posted on June 3, 2012 by Watch Them Fall Down Team

We apologise to the NYFA, its creative director, staff and members for any comments that were, or could be, perceived as defamatory, and we accept that some comments could be seen as such, within the article entitled ‘The National Youth Film Academy’.

We regret any inconvenience or harm caused to the NYFA, its members and associated parties but our intentions were always for good.