What do the filmmakers have to say?

Boar Film interviews the organisers of the Warwick Filmmakers Showcase, Patrick Sambiasi and Geoffrey Mugford, both students of University of Warwick. The event is to be held on June 16 2016 on campus.

Lakshmi Ajay: What according to you makes a ‘good’ film, both as a viewer and as a maker? 

Patrick Sambiasi: I do a module in Film Studies called Film Aesthetics. The most important thing I learned from the module was that a good film is a film that creates some kind of reaction in the public. A films is great when people talk about it.

Geoffrey Mugford: Another important aspect is that it should bring a message to the public and at the same time be aesthetically pleasing too. Simply put, a great film brings both entertainment and art together; it should be meaningful and beautiful but also entertaining.

LA: When you talk about the process of filmmaking, what are the most rewarding aspects of it? 

PS: The most rewarding aspects of filmmaking would be making mistakes. Filmmaking also brings so many people together, from different backgrounds doing completely different things together, just because they believe in that one idea of yours, and that is something very impressive.

GM: Even though you might be prepared for everything that could go wrong, you should always be ready to improvise. Filmmaking gives me adrenaline rushes and there never really is a boring second. It is that rush of adrenaline that keeps me going.

LA: Why are you doing the Warwick Filmmakers Showcase and what would you like to achieve through it? 

PS: What we would like to achieve through the showcase is to simply show that everyone can make films and that Warwick is the place to make films, especially since there isn’t a practical filmmaking course here. There is also the assumption that only people who study films can make films, but that is a wrong concept.

GM: The first reason that made us do the showcases was that we noticed that there are so many student films being made at Warwick, but nobody knew about them. The film industry works on the basis of production, distribution and exhibition. However, at Warwick it stops at production, our aim is to move it onto the next step. We wanted students to get the experience of distributing the films they’ve made, just like it is in the industry.

LA: How is this year’s showcase going to be different from the last two versions? 

GM: This year we have polished the format. Last year we faced some technical difficulties, but this time we’ve had the whole crew ready beforehand, we have live performances, and a highly experienced host.

PS: Our marketing campaign this year is also very detailed, happening on many different levels at the same time. We are pushing the audience to express their honest opinions about the films, and that is something that people shy away from doing.

GM: The films are watched by a carefully selected panel of jury consisting of students from different backgrounds, such as the president of the Philosophy Society, ex-President of BFT, host of the three-year old radio show ‘Cinema Christine’, and a candidate who ran for Societies Officer this year who would provide the view of the general public.

PS: Basically, what we have tried to create is a more interactive experience where the audience can speak to filmmakers, an interactive host, we have live performances by different societies like WITS and pole dancing whereby we bring together different societies that might not conventionally go together. We are trying to find out how to draw audiences, and give them a reason to watch films, but at the same time incorporate different kinds of mediums, such as film and theatre.

LA: How is this event going to benefit the university? 

GM: We want to give the film societies on campus a platform to project their work, and maybe even form a franchise out of it. Another major part that we wanted to push this year, by collaborating with the media societies on campus, is to form a kind of media collective on campus, much like the drama collective. For example, if you need publicity for an event, all you have to do is contact the media collective rather than individual societies. You instantly get RaW, the Boar, and WTV coverage, and you could get BFT to do your trailers! I hope that this event would turn out to become the kick start for such an initiative.