Aesthetica Short Film Festival - ASFF York 2014

As part my degree, I want to take advantage of every opportunity outside of Lectures that comes my way, in order to gain experience and knowledge. Film Festivals are something which I have always been interested in but never had the chance to attend before. You can imagine my excitement then, when we were given the opportunity to visit the Aesthetica Short Film Festival (ASFF) taking place in York from the 6th to the 9th of this month.

The festival showcases some 300 short films from all around the world, spanning genres as diverse as Drama, Comedy, Music Video, Fashion and Experimental. The Festival also features a number of masterclasses featuring talks with Industry Professionals in various fields. It was amazing and inspiring for me to be able to hear these pros talk about their experiences.

The first masterclass that I attended features 3 camera operators who have worked on films such as SkyFall, Gravity, and the Star Wars series. One of them had just finished working on the new Star Wars film and we were given a fierce warning not to ask him any questions about it! These guys talked about how the way they worked, explaining it requires a combination of physicality and creativity. You get to discuss with the director, make the decisions about the correct composition and camera movements for a shot, but situations such as chase sequence where you have to run along with the actors require you to keep in shape as well. We also got a description of the StediCam and how it can be used. They said it weighs about the same as a rucksack you would carry around with you, so it is quite comfortable to film moving shots with it. We were shown an incredibly complicated tracking shot from Joe Wright's 'Anna Karenina' and they talked us through the incredibly grueling process by which it was filmed, using a moblie phone clip that had been captured the filming. This was incredibly useful for me to gain further insight into tracking shots, such as the famous one in Martin Scorsese's  'Goodfellas'. What I took away was to keep stuff happening in the shot all the time, don't shot die, otherwise the audience will wonder why you haven't cut yet.

The next masterclass I attended was on Editing, and featured Lisa Gunning, who recently edited Seven Psychopaths for Martin MacDonagh. She is incredible passionate about what she does and that really came through, which made this a highly enjoyable masterclass. She talked about getting into the business through adverts, moving onto shorts, and then feature films. She talked about the relationship between editor and director, and that she has always had heated disagreements with every director she worked with. Ultimately however, this is because they are both highly passionate about what they do and want to make a good film in the end.

This was an incredibly enjoyable and helpful weekend and I'm so glad that I went. I hope that I will more opportunities to attend events such as this one.