straight 8 Shootout Premiere Returns to Cannes
Presented by the APA and Cinelab London, the straight 8 shootout premiere is back in Cannes for the 4th consecutive year.
straight 8 shootout is a company-to-company showdown to produce the best 2.5 minute film on Super 8 without editing or post-production, seeing it for the first time at its premiere in Cannes. straight 8’s rules dictate that every shot is taken in story order on a single cartridge of super 8 film, with no opportunity for retakes or editing. Any visual effects, colouring and titling must be done the old-fashioned way: as part of the shoot, with the camera. Entrants send their exposed film cartridges to straight 8’s partner Cinelab London to process and scan.
Super 8 doesn’t record sound. Soundtracks are made by entrants without actually seeing their film, and must be original. straight 8 lines up each soundtrack with the first frame of each film and the first time that anyone sees even their own work is at the premiere where ALL of the films - good, bad or ugly - will be screened.
This year, 15 teams from creative companies all over the world have all made films with no creative brief, in a bid to win the showdown in Cannes and donate prize money to their selected charity. And they’ve really gone for it!
The lineup for straight 8 shootout at Cannes 2019 is:
Rattling Stick, London, UK
Curious, Auckland, New Zealand
Rankin Film, London, UK
Director’s Guild, Helsinki, Finland
Iris Worldwide (Gold Winner 2018), London, UK
Motherland, Dublin, Ireland
Rock Hound, London, UK
Airbag (x2!), Melbourne, Australia
Taiyo Kikaku (Gold Winner shootout online 2018), Tokyo, Japan
Forever Pictures, London, UK
The Producers (Silver Winner 2018), Melbourne, Australia
British Arrows Doorway, London, UK
Society, Los Angeles, USA
Partizan, London, UK
Check out these BTS shots for a glimpse of what some of them have been up to.
A live vote at the cinema immediately follows the screening and the top three winning companies are announced and awarded the iconic shootout camera trophies made by shootout sponsors, Machine Shop, from defunct super 8 cameras. The audience award goes to the company whose film gets the loudest reaction.
A welcome breakfast for entering teams and ticket-holders will be held from 10am at the cinema - hosted by Madam Films, a long time supporter and first time sponsor of straight 8 shootout. In partnership with charity cycle ride The FireFlies Tour, £5 from every ticket sold for the premiere will go towards their fundraising for Bloodwise.
If you can’t make it to Cannes, the films will premiere in London at Regent Street Cinema: Friday June 28 / doors 9am / films 9.30am / ends 10.30am. Tickets for both screenings are on sale now at straight8.net.
Grant Hunter, executive creative director Europe, Iris Worldwide says: "straight 8 is both exhilarating and terrifying in equal measure...there's no post trickery to save you. It's just you, and your idea, exposed for the very first time on a very big screen in the company of some of the industry's finest."
Steve Davies, APA chief executive says: “We are delighted to be part of presenting Straight 8 in Cannes again this year. It’s the most exciting - because the film makers see their films for the first time at the Cannes screening- and creative- make a three minute film with no editing- event of the week.”
