DigiSPAA: guerrilla greatness
Digital feature film competition DigiSPAA is still open for entries for 2009. Elika Bahramrad spoke with judge Daniel Scharf and last year’s winner Jason Byrne.
Now in its fifth year, DigiSPAAprovides an opportunity for non-Government funded low-budget digital filmmakers from Australia and New Zealand to showcase their work and find opportunities that might have been otherwise denied to them.
Romper Stomper producer and DigiSPAA judge Daniel Scharf says the competition has a tremendous role in the industry’s cultural and educational development, through encouraging the new generation of low-budget digital filmmakers to submit their films.
“There are always people out there making guerrilla films, paying with their credit cards, their savings or even grandma’s estate. It’s been going on for generations.” he said.
That fighting spirit might remain unchanged, but nowadays it’s much easier for these guerrilla filmmakers, with the availability of digital technology to create the whole film package. With the number of entrants increasing every year, Scharf says there is a wide diversity of films in competition, from documentaries to romantic comedies, with budgets ranging from $5,000 to $1 million.
The winner is given $15,000 cash, $20,000 worth of post-production, a guaranteed screening of the film on the Movie Extra channel, and a return airfare and registration to the co-production market CineMart at the International Film Festival.
“[The SPAARTAN Award] is a producers’ award, and it gives them the opportunity to meet with distributors and sales agents from all around the world, either to show the film that they’ve made, and/or to promote their next project,” Scharf says.
DigiSPAA also provides the winners with notoriety and publicity that has benefited films like Men’s Group and Little Deaths. John L. Simpson went on to have Men’s Group theatrically released, winning awards and receiving the AFI Fellowship Award (Encore, December 2008). Little Deaths has been picked up by Odin’s Eye Entertainment for a theatrical release, and Madman will again distribute the DVD. Producer Jason Byrne said the 11 directors of the collaborative project are still active in the industry, following the success of Little Deaths.
Along with his team, Byrne came up with an equity model to financially solve what they initially thought would be a “very difficult to finance” film.
“You distribute the equity among the creators and make them financially responsible, as well as creatively responsible for the project. That allowed us to finance a full feature film for under $200,000.”
This year’s judging panel includes Mary & Max producer Melanie Coombs, DigiSPAA president Antony Ginnane, and Daniel Scharf. Entries close on September 18. The winner will be announced at the SPAA Conference in Sydney in November. ■
