Film

The Internet has become a lot of things for a lot of people, including a preview platform for the works of young filmmakers. At online festivals, they can go up against their peers or even get their movies into real theaters.

Hamburg, Fleethof, May 2000. It is a typical small office: sterile, just serving a purpose, with a window facing the covered inner courtyard. Old movie posters hang on the wall, one of them wrinkly and slightly faded, advertising the Italian version of Hitchcock’s 1958 thriller La donna che visse due volte. Below it is a highly modern computer setup – a video editing station, to be precise, with all of the bells and whistles. “This is the environment we thrive in,” says Peter Lorenz. On one side, the movies, emotions, feelings. On the other, the technology, innovation, the future. “It’s not a contradiction,” says the 33-year-old. Recently, himself and Aaron Koenig, 35, founded Bitfilm AG, Germany’s first Internet portal for digital film.

Into the digital future

2011. The digital future is in full swing, and Lorenz and Koenig want to be part of it. They know digital cameras are getting cheaper and better, and young filmmakers can already edit, animate and create special effects on their home computers. “A new and exciting film scene is emerging, beyond Hollywood and vacation movies,” says Koenig, the creative side of the company. His idea is to forge an Internet-based viewing platform for talented directors. “People who make films also want to show them,” claim the two founders.

YouTube has long since proven that the theory works. The site has millions of films – good, bad, exciting, boring, short, long – and the artistic standard is limited for the most part. YouTube is like the supermarket. Bitfilm or Webcuts (a Berlin Internet film festival founded in 2001) are the gourmet delicatessens for cinematic connoisseurs. They also represent a forum where up-and-coming talents can experiment. “With minimal costs, people can make a movie and broadcast it online to a massive audience,” emphasizes Webcuts programming director Sven Assmann. Every year at the webinale Internet conference in May, his team shows a selection of productions that were either made for the Internet or primarily published on the Internet. Among them are also films for which the producers take full advantage of the medium and work internationally to complete the projects. “The film could be made in Berlin, for example, and edited in San Francisco”, explains Assmann.

Short films are in high demand

It is not always total beginners who get into involved. Assmann knows plenty of established filmmakers who by day work at big production companies and by night work try to make heir own crazy ideas a reality. Sometimes they even achieve fame and glory. One of the winners at the Webcuts awards later received a distinction at the Cannes film festival. One thing is certain: Short films are in demand on the Internet. Courageous, sassy, small productions that are as unorthodox as possible and well beyond the mainstream. And they have to make their point quickly – ideally within three to five minutes. If you need more time than that you are putting viewer patience to the test.

For the creators of Bitfilm and Webcuts, it was clear early on that Internet films need to be on the big screen. At the beginning, the Hamburg duo collaborated with local short-film festivals and ultimately with the Hamburg Film Festival, but since 2006 they have been independent. The concept features showings not only in their hometown, but also in other big cities. Recently it was Barcelona and Tel Aviv, and this year it will be Bangalore. All of the films will be available from October 17th and remain online for six weeks for voting. The winning film will be shown in India’s high-tech metropolis starting on December 3rd. In addition to receiving the Bitfilm award, it will receive support from India’s leading portal for computer graphics as well as the Goethe Institut of Bangalore.

No end in sight for the movement

“Digital film will be normal in 10 years, and the Internet will be something completely independent due to the potential for interaction that it presents,” was how Koenig predicted the future at Bitfilm AG’s founding party in May 2000. He had already seen the merging of globalism and regionalism, saying, “The worldwide network strengthens the regions.” Indeed, people in Ghana, Brazil and Vietnam can now watch short films from Finland, New Zealand or Egypt that no TV channel would ever show.

Juliane Springsguth, a project manager and media specialist from Berlin, also underscores the fact that Internet film has a long way to go before it reaches its zenith. She completed her master’s thesis on short-film festivals and is expecting the increased fusion of traditional and web-based film festivals in coming years. Event organizers Wendland Shorts in Lower Saxony are leading the way: Since last year they have been posting their best short films on the Die Zeit website for discussion and voting.