Wednesday, September 03, 2008

6th Annual CATO Film Fest and Reviews

Another year has passe and the Centre of Arts and Technology students have plenty of films to display. Unfortunately, the marketing department and marketing students didn't get the word out well and not many people knew about the film festival until it was too late. Needless to say I rate films on the A+ to F system. Thankfully I didn't have to give any films an F rating. Now on to the reviews. Sadly It's been 2 weeks since the event and some of the films have become foggy, I'll update this post once I've seen them again. How unprofessional of me.

In The Twilight of an Idol - The film opened up with an interview documentary short from Ivan Sampson about his father. It was a long film and did bring the emotional level of the room down. The film had an almost end, but kept going, which brought down the grade of the film. B
Beautiful Bugler - A silent film with accompany sound preformed on stage. Story wasn't anything new, but was still fun to watch. A
A Journey to Silence - A silent film with one of the oldest stories in the book, does get points for variety of locations, but the ending could be seen a mile away. B
Last Man Standing - A 3D piece that felt like a scene more then a short, tried to be cool, but rendering techniques made it look very dull. I was disappointed in all the 3D pieces for their rendering. C
Detail de Peintres - An interesting idea and story, it had two painters in Paris trying to paint the landscape and fighting over the best spot. As I said before, rendering techniques could have made this film even better, for example there could have been animated textures when they got in the paint fight. A
Pooch'd - Winner of the Best Animated Story and People's Choice (by 2 votes), Pooch'd is the story of two dogs fighting over the perfect hydrant. This movie wasn't even rendered and makes me wonder how much better it would be in proper colour, proper lighting and fur effects turned on. A+
A Light Obstical - Winner of Best Animated Film the film is about a young guy trying to cross the street. There were moments of greatness along with confusing spots, but did manage to be entertaining. Better sound, rendering and a better choice of camera location in a scene could make this film an A+. B

Drive Thru Disaster - Best silent film for last I guess. The film featured a man trying to get his drive thru food order right. A
Loose Stools - A gross out comedy about a guy who has a bad lunch and sure enough ends up with the runs. I'll have to admit, I found it entertaining. A-
Inches from Failing - (forgot what this one is about, but I have a C+ rating written down..)
Rendezvous - Oh god... they used "Hide And Seek" by Imogen Heap. *shudder*. Story was good. B+
Times Like These - (forgot what this one is about, but I have a B rating down)
Knock on Ginger - A quick short about domestic abuse, well shot and disturbing. A
One Way Out - 3 tales that deal with poverty, disturbing and well shot. A
Cozen - Chosen as the Best Live Action Film, Cozen is about the cut throat real estate business and how they'll do anything to capture the sale. B
12th and Hyde - Winner for Best Actor in a Live Action Film. I reviewed this film before and gave it a C.

There was a friendly bet running at the film festival. If an animation film won the people's choice award, James Hamilton the third would have to shave his head and Alexander Dmytryszyn would have to wear a dress for a day. If a live action film won, then Franciso Argudin would have to shave his head and Sean Ridgway would have to wear the dress. Below, James Hamilton getting his head shaved.