Berlin Short Film Festival: Babylon Theater

Posted on by Thor

Pam and I walked up to the Babylon Theater lobby on the evening COVID Dystopia was to be screened at about 6Pm in the Berlin Short Film Festival. There were lines of people crushing into the theater. The Babylon is a gorgeous movie theater build back in 1929. It can seat close to 500 people. The organizers had informed us by e-mail that they would supply 2 complimentary tickets to the screening. We were told to meet them in the lobby to pick them up. Rowan and Claudine were at the reception desk. We had purchased tickets for the previous evening’s film block, so they welcomed us with a shout of “Hello Florida.”

Films in the Berlin Film Festival are not screened in the large historic theater but in a much smaller theater in the back called Kino 2 that seats just about 80 people. For some reason, Pam decided to walk around to the back theater entrance and I was to pick up the tickets. Claudine gave me a single ticket and said, “We sold out the seats, unfortunately we can only give your one ticket.” I took the single ticket and went out back to look for Pam. My thought was I would give her the ticket and I would wander off to sketch somewhere. I couldn’t find Pam. She wasn’t at the small Kino 2 entrance.

Another film maker and Pam eventually came to the back entrance with Claudine. They had been arguing in the lobby. Michele Meek, the director of a cure LGBT Short Film titled Bay Creek Tennis Camp, had also flown all the was from America to see her film on the back room screen. She was furious, but in some was pleased that the theater was a full house. The film festival organizers had made a horrendous mistake in offering tickets to film makers and then reneging on that promise. Several Berlin film makers were also being denied entrance to it became an international incident.

Claudine said she would get the 5 or so filmmakers who had been denied tickets in. When we got in the entire front row was empty, so I got to see my film distorted from below and VERY large. I noticed a few things from that close that I hope to correct in the weeks ahead. I don’t judge people based on the mistakes they make, but by how they correct their mistakes. Claudine pulled through. Surprisingly there were still empty seats in the theater.

COVID Dystopia: Mass Grave, Closed Captions

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COVID Dystopia has been accepted into a prestigious film festival that is Oscar qualifying. When I read the e-mail, I thought it was a prank. I can’t name the festival until March 8 when the film festival program is fully lined up. On a tight deadline, I need to add closed captions to the film and make a 2K DCP file that is used for the high quality theater projectors. Once I have the DCP file, I can use it for future film festivals. The problem is that I keep refining scenes. Those refinements are very small at this point however.

Another film festival near Ukraine expressed interest in the film, saying the already viewed it and wanted it for their program. There is no guarantee that the judges will put it in the program however, and I am wondering if it is an excuse to get me to pay the 30% reduced application fee.

I had created captions on youTube once, and the process was pretty easy, but I pulled that version of the film down so that COVID Dystopia can only be seen at film festivals. Now I need to create captions in Premiere Pro so that the film can be shown with captions or without. I think the closed captions can be exported as a separate file from the movie file itself. Since I have never done this before I have a steep learning curve over the next couple of days.

I have seen closes captions that have a dark field behind them on youTube. I am wondering if that is needed for my captions. In the scene above the captions are easy to read when they are in front of the casket shadows, but harder to read in front of the hazmat suit.

I am also wondering if I am supposed to type out sound effects in closed captions. I need to do a Google search to find the best solution. I have seen cations animate on as the words are said and that might be a solution. I just need to figure out how to do that.

Pam said she would help me create the DCP file. It is apparently an expensive file to create. I read once that it coast about $200, but again I am not sure.

COVID Dystopia: Wins Best Micro Short Film Award

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COVID Dystopia was shown at the Berlin Short Film Festival. It won an award as the Best Micro Short Film. Pam and I traveled to Berlin and spent a week exploring the city.

The Berlin Short Film Festival wasn’t the experience I had hoped for. The films were to be shown in the historic Babylon Theater which was build in 1928 which seats about 500 people. It is a gorgeous theater with a huge balcony and large screen. However the festival films were screened in a much smaller room, Kino 2, at the back of the building. Although technically in the same building as the historic Babylon Theater, it was a much smaller space that seated about 80 people. Next to the Berlin Festival screening room was the rehearsal space for an orchestra. They could be heard tuning up through the walls as the Berlin Film Festival films were projected. I am glad my film is rather loud which meant it could drown out the rehearsal.

In the Babylon Theater itself. the classic silent film Metropolis was being shown with a live orchestra. I honestly wish we had gone to that showing instead, which reflected back to the classic early Hollywood era.

Each film maker in the Berlin Short Film Festival was promised tickets for two of the crew members to attend the festival screenings. In Chicago Pam and I sat in on every short film to show our support for fellow film makers. Perhaps we were spoiled by the experience.

COVID Dystopia was to screen on Sunday in Berlin, but the festival started on Saturday. We made our way to the Babylon to meet the Festival organizers in the lobby. I simply introduced myself as the creator of COVID Dystopia. They seemed confused. Since COVID Dystopia was not on the line up for the first night they said, “We changed our mind, you must pay to see the films.”

I would have turned on my heals and left, but Pam stepped in and politely decided to pay. Every film we saw that first night was about death and murder. It was a depressing endless stream of existential dread. I can see how my film fits into the festival’s curated line up. Berliners like dark shit.

Of course Pam and I were the only people wearing N95 masks in the audience.

COVID Dystopia: Burials

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It has been an incredibly long day exploring Berlin. Emperors get incredibly ornate sarcophagi in cathedrals while people considered gypsies in WWII were sent to concentration camps and murdered. The site of one of the camps was converted into a pig farm and it took decades to convince the government that this was a desecration.

How we honor the dead says a lot about society. Nothing has been done to honor the millions of dead due to the ongoing COVID Pandemic. People need to pretend that it never happened and that it is not still happening. To honor the dead would be to admit to a horrific injustice and acceptance of mass infection that was and is completely preventable.

COVID Dystopia: Unemployment

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With millions dead and millions disabled due to Long COVID, businesses are having trouble finding able bodies workers. The animation in this scene works fine. I could animate someone in the background pulling their mask down, but that would be overkill.

Today COVID Dystopia will screen at the Babylon Theater in the Berlin Short Film Festival. It will not be shown on the large screen in the historic 1920s theater, but on a smaller screen in the back of the theater next to the orchestra rehearsal room.

Charlie Chaplin‘s Modern Times will be shown on the big screen with a live orchestra. I would really like to see that screening but it will be happening at the same time my film will be shown. Pam and I have explored much of East Berlin already and we will be heading to the Museum Island for a day of exploring the museums before going to the film festival tonight.

 

COVID Dystopia: Death Chorus

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This shot of the Death Chorus is based on the incident at the start of the pandemic when a church chorus held a rehearsal. They thought they were doing the right things by not hugging and avoiding hand shakes. They didn’t however wear n-95 masks. At the time people were being discouraged from buying masks because health care workers needed them more and there was some worry that supplies might run out.

The two guys in hazmat suits are animated walking forward for a step. They were reworked to keep them high resolution.

I don’t think any other animation is needed. I could open the skeletal jaws to make it look like they are singing but the shot is so short I don’t think such subtle animation would be noticed. Scenes like this don’t seem to fly in America, but Germans seem to love macabre scenes like this.

COVID Dystopia: Blossoms

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Trump declared that when the weather got warm COVID would disappear like magic. Four years later and the virus continues to spread and mutate making it impossible to contain. This scene had a subtle movement on the arm holding the cell phone and full animation on the guys in hazmat suits wheeling a body screen right. They are rolling the body head first or backwards which makes me a bit uncomfortable but I am sure it is done all the time.

I could animate the foreground couple moving closer and locking lips or rather clicking teeth, but I think I prefer that they are already locking teeth.

I have a few hours before I start teaching class here in NYC. I think I will start animating several rhinos turning their heads. I considered sketching on the streets of NYC but I don’t have my art stool and I think my hand will freeze as I try and get a sketch done on my iPad. I may at least get a sketch done of the view from the top floor of this brownstone. I tried twice but didn’t finish either of those sketches.

COVID Dystopia: Gone by Easter?

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Back in 2020 Trump declared that COVID-19 would be gone by Easter. Now four years later, COVID continues to spread unchecked as we approach yet another celebration of rising from the dead.

I am satisfied with this scene. If I decided to add animation, I might have the skeleton parishioner raise the hymnal a bit. I could have the skeletons who are around the hymnal sing by animating their jaws, but I think that might be overkill.

Churches are back to holding COVID superspreader parties every Sunday. Masking has fallen to the wayside and instead the faithful believe in promoting mass infection. One in four people who have been infected by COVID have developed Long COVID symptoms. Long COVID can leave you bed bound and completely unable to function. Long COVID is a disease that doctors don’t understand and are unwilling to treat. Each repeat infection increases the chances of getting Long COVID and yet people are getting infected multiple times every year. The growing population of people disabled by long COVID is depleting the workforce.

COVID Dystopia: Beached

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After using ZOE Depth on the Rush Home Scene, I decided to use it as well on this Beached scene. By using ZOE Depth I was able to zoom in a bit and move the camera downward to shift the focus on the nude on the beach. I then had to add some animation to one of the men in a hazmat suit. His movement leads they eye to the area of the screen where I want the audience looking for the next shot.

There is now much more movement overall in  this scene and it ties in better with the previous Rush Home shot. I am quite pleased that the latest technology is helping me refine shots in this film. Most people probably think that a 4 minute film must be a breeze to complete yet this film has taken over 6 months to animate and I am still finding things that need refining.

I have been told the film is a diversion, but I consider it a shout for sanity in a world gone completely mad.

COVID Dystopia: Rush Home

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This scene had depth using Volumax, but no animation. Since everyone is stuck waiting, I doubt animation is needed. The fast pan plays down ability to notice the depth. I might just see what the scene looks like if I use the ZOE depth effect. My assumption is that the result will be very similar.

I am NYC right now and maybe 1% if the people are masked. We are coming down from the second largest wave of the pandemic right now and yet most people want to believe the pandemic is over. Over 8000 Americans died from COVID in December 2024 and that is not counting those who died of vascular diseases, organ damage and other complications caused by the virus.

NYC suffered more that any other place in America at the start of the pandemic. The image above is of people rushing back into NYC from Europe when it was announced that flights into the country would be suspended. There was an opportunity to contain the virus and eradicate it but governments fumbled that ball. The biological weapon continues to spread and people are actually being encouraged to get infected and to infect others. The world population of 8 billion people is being culled. Heath care in this country is reverting back into the dark ages.