This year, the Fly By Night Video Challenge returned after an absence last year. 'Fly By Night' is the original 'make-a-film-within-a-weekend' challenge before other similar competitions came about. It retains its popularity for the simplicity of the competition structure. Just one theme and 5 minutes, do whatever you want.
This year the theme was 'Not Too Small'. Here are some selected shorts among the top 10 of the competition.
Bigger than Life
Team 6 : GT Pro
Team members: George Leong, Lim Tee Lip
This team takes the cake for effort. The amount of work needed to put this stop-motion video clip together is mammoth. While there is nothing too ingenious about its story and concept, it delivers the 'toy story' tribute conscientiously with no corners cut (given the short time limit of course). And it's well--thought out too with cute touches like the little 'man' tying up the big man and using the telephone. There is also something about the girth of the man and his prancing style at the end that made me want to say 'Gangnam Style'.
Too Small Singapore
Team 5: Generic Team Name
Team members: Leonard Leong, Ho Wai Yong, Lim Seng Jueh
This bunch of blokes obviously have no regard for the traditional form and rules of film, and quite daringly so. Too Small Singapore is like Sesame Street Singapore style. It takes you on a montage of dining and leisure places across Singapore in alphabetical order with the guys shouting the names of the places into the recording microphone - especially when it was 'F' for 'Filmgarde'. I later found out that Filmgarde was a venue sponsor for Fly By Night 2012. What a bunch of cheeky lads!
Bill Bulge is much bigger than you think. It cannot be handled with just one palm. We are talking about a man getting pregnant. Presented in a CNN style news report, we uncover the story a man who is about to conceive. While the standard news bulletin style presentation (with presenters talking in straight faces about an abomination) is tad too trite, the actual 'live footage' of the man giving birth is quite hilarious. Predictably, it is only in the last few seconds of this video.
Wormhole
Wormhole unfortunately is not putting its clip online because they are considering to submit their works to international film festivals. The style of the poster can tell you why the creators are doing it differently from the other entries. Wormhole is a meditative short film about the earthworms and how they can suck you into a different world with their hissing sounds they emit. The filmmakers liken earthworms to tunnels in an allegorical way and with the drone of the hissing sound, leaves us slightly disturbed.
Ripple
Team 10: Short Attack
Team members: Dinesh Saravvan, Rish Tamilrajan, Lawrence Loh, Kendrick Leow
Here is an example of a film-let doing something as ambitious as the 'Butterfly effect', in which one thing leads to another and a man's being beaten up at the end of the story somehow is driven by another man having a bad day as a teacher in school. It is not difficult to get the drift of the chain reaction which the team must claim credit for being about to pack so much into so little time. And it's economical story-telling too!
Review by Jeremy Sing
This year the theme was 'Not Too Small'. Here are some selected shorts among the top 10 of the competition.
Bigger than Life
Team 6 : GT Pro
Team members: George Leong, Lim Tee Lip
This team takes the cake for effort. The amount of work needed to put this stop-motion video clip together is mammoth. While there is nothing too ingenious about its story and concept, it delivers the 'toy story' tribute conscientiously with no corners cut (given the short time limit of course). And it's well--thought out too with cute touches like the little 'man' tying up the big man and using the telephone. There is also something about the girth of the man and his prancing style at the end that made me want to say 'Gangnam Style'.
Too Small Singapore
Team 5: Generic Team Name
Team members: Leonard Leong, Ho Wai Yong, Lim Seng Jueh
This bunch of blokes obviously have no regard for the traditional form and rules of film, and quite daringly so. Too Small Singapore is like Sesame Street Singapore style. It takes you on a montage of dining and leisure places across Singapore in alphabetical order with the guys shouting the names of the places into the recording microphone - especially when it was 'F' for 'Filmgarde'. I later found out that Filmgarde was a venue sponsor for Fly By Night 2012. What a bunch of cheeky lads!
Bill's Bulge
Team 20 : Lah Lah Lah Productions
Team members: Miguel Tique Barbosa Da Silva, Rosario Martinez, Jimmy Lee, Harsahd Puppalwar
Bill Bulge is much bigger than you think. It cannot be handled with just one palm. We are talking about a man getting pregnant. Presented in a CNN style news report, we uncover the story a man who is about to conceive. While the standard news bulletin style presentation (with presenters talking in straight faces about an abomination) is tad too trite, the actual 'live footage' of the man giving birth is quite hilarious. Predictably, it is only in the last few seconds of this video.
Wormhole
Team 25: House of Bears
Team members: Yeo Siew Hua, Adeline Setiawan,Yang Vicki, Nelson Yeo
Wormhole unfortunately is not putting its clip online because they are considering to submit their works to international film festivals. The style of the poster can tell you why the creators are doing it differently from the other entries. Wormhole is a meditative short film about the earthworms and how they can suck you into a different world with their hissing sounds they emit. The filmmakers liken earthworms to tunnels in an allegorical way and with the drone of the hissing sound, leaves us slightly disturbed.
Ripple
Team 10: Short Attack
Team members: Dinesh Saravvan, Rish Tamilrajan, Lawrence Loh, Kendrick Leow
Here is an example of a film-let doing something as ambitious as the 'Butterfly effect', in which one thing leads to another and a man's being beaten up at the end of the story somehow is driven by another man having a bad day as a teacher in school. It is not difficult to get the drift of the chain reaction which the team must claim credit for being about to pack so much into so little time. And it's economical story-telling too!
Review by Jeremy Sing