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Alchemy and the London SciFi Festival

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London’s 11th Annual Festival of Science Fiction and Fantastic Film started today, May 1 and continues until May 7, 2012 as I noted in my March 9, 2012 posting about the event. James Kingsland in an April 30, 2012 posting on the Guardian science blogs announces the winners in a Guardian newspaper contest to set themes for a 48-hour filmmaking challenge (part of the festival’s pre-programme) which took place the weekend of April 14, 2012,

This year there was an extra dimension to the challenge: readers of Guardian Science were given the chance to propose scientific themes for the filmmakers through a competition. There were around a hundred entries, some of them brilliant, some bizarre, many original.

Among my favourites from the far side of our readers’ imaginations were “Robotic Jesus disguised as iceberg sinks Titanic”, “Suicidal god in human form”, and “Acid was a gift from aliens”. Sadly none of these made the final cut.

Here are the winners and their ideas, in no particular order:

• A website to see into your future (Helen Worth)

• Death is no longer a certainty (Keith Stokes)

• Teleportation device ends privacy and property (Peter Dalloz)

• At the universe edge. A door ajar … (Tucker Stevens)

• Vaccine against mental illness. Recipients abandon religion (Katie Brown)

• We were born from the same … batch (Sophie Constant)

• Synthetic meat coincides with cosmetic surgery boom (Adam Smith)

• Two robots contemplate switching each other off (Haroon Saeed)

• Faster metabolism at cost of shorter life (Dan Smith)

• What if personality is an ancient parasite … (Adrian Rogerson)

• A virus that kills language (Alan Faller)

…

For those who do not live in or are not able to get to London for the festival, I’ve embedded a trailer for one of the films (not part of the 48-hour filmmaking challenge) that will be shown at the festival,

Here’s a description for the film, from the festival’s Blink of an Eye: Shorts Programme 1 webpage,

ALCHEMY & OTHER IMPERFECTIONS

(Dir. Zachary Rothman, Canada, 2011, 12mins)
A dark fable about a Man and Woman who have completely lost touch with the outside world.

This short film will be screened along with others included in Programme 1 on Thursday,  May 3, 2012 at 6:30 pm and on Saturday, May 6, 2012 at 2 pm.

See science fiction movies and/or make science fiction movies in London, UK

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SciFi London Film Festival May 1-7, 2012 is running its fourth annual ‘make a science fiction film in 48 hours’ contest starting Saturday, April 14, 2012 at 10:30 in London, UK.  From the March 9, 2012 news item on the Guardian science blogs (Notes and Theories),

For the past four years the Sci-Fi-London film festival has run a 48-hour filmmaking challenge. More than 380 films have been entered into the competition, many of which have gone on to be shown at other film festivals and have been broadcast on TV.

This year teams will arrive at the Apollo Piccadilly cinema in London on Saturday 14 April at 10.30am where they will be given the title of the film they will make, some dialogue that one of the characters must say, and a list of props that must be seen in the film.

This time round there will be an optional extra dimension to the challenge: a scientific theme nominated by you. [emphasis mine] The theme could be nanotech, cloning, gene splicing … or something a little more “fringe”.

The teams will have until Monday morning to deliver their completed movie. A panel of judges will shortlist 10 films, which will then be screened at the 11th Annual Festival of Science Fiction and Fantastic Film, 1-7 May.

Here’s the prize,

Last year Vertigo offered a feature-film development deal as the main prize of the 48-hour challenge (the winners will complete their first feature later in 2012) and it’s putting up the same prize this year.

Sci-Fi London can be found here and specifics about the contest and how to register here. As for Vertigo Films, you can go here.

You may have noted that you can participate even if you don’t want to make a science fiction movie yourself by entering the Guardian’s competition for scientific themes. From the March 9, 2012 news item on the Guardian website,

… this time round there will be an optional extra dimension to the challenge: scientific themes nominated by you. The theme could focus on nanotech, cloning or genetic engineering … or something a little more unusual.

To win one of 20 pairs of tickets to the Sci-Fi-London film festival (1-7 May), fill in the fields below (go here for the form) and click “send”, then email your scientific theme to science@guardian.co.uk with “Sci-Fi Competition” in the subject line.

Your theme must be summarised in seven words or fewer. So, for example, “An experimental drug that allows the person who takes it to use 100% of their mind and thus become a perfect version of themselves” would be too prescriptive, but “A pill that supercharges the mind” would be fine.

A panel of judges will choose 20 winning themes, which might be comic, surreal, original or thought-provoking …

Good luck!