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CINEMA FORUM: TO SEE AND TO SHOW |
Bogdan Shuba, Pro novosti, May 28, 2006 |
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Action! Pro Novosti ‘camera’ catches the huge International Exhibition Centre which is hosting the 3rd International Ukraina 2006 Cinema Forum this year. There is something symbolic in how much room the event occupies: it takes up one twentieth of the spacious ‘terminal’, the rest being taken by shoes, clothes, jewellery, etc. – which fact inevitably drives one to think of the place the cinema holds in the life of the society.
The exhibition itself is quite modest yet comprehensive: you can see new designs of chairs for movie theatres, treat yourself to popcorn in new packaging that is pleasing to the eye, admire beatiful photo portraits by Eduard Stelmakh, and take a free copy of Kino Didgest (the February issue, for some reason). One can say, though, that those things are in some way related to the cinema, but where are the films themselves? Well, the films were there all right, but they were ‘off screen’, as it often is the case with the things that are of the most interest. That is, outside the premises of the Exhibition Centre.
Butterfly, Ukraina, and Kinopalace were the three Kiev cinemas which opened their doors to the participants and guests of the Cinema Forum this year. They gave their screens to many interesting projects. The three cinemas held the Pre-Viewing Festival, playing 16 Blocks with Bruce Willis, It Doesn’t Hurt with Renata Litvinova and Nikita Mikhalkov, and Ultraviolet with Mila Jovovich. Love Tango demonstrated new technologies of filmmaking: the film had been shot in HD digital format (director Ivan Voityuk). Besides, Ukraina cinema held the third National Film Business Award cerermony, with the Best Movie Theatre award going to Butterfly.
Some interesting events did ‘make it to the screen’, though. Thus all those willing could have a unique opportunity to become Hollywood filmmakers for a few hours. They had that opportunity at Richard Krevolin’s master classes. Mr Krevolin is a well-known screenwriter and teacher invited by Hollywood School in Ukraine. According to a press release, Mr Krevolin has taught more than twenty thousand screnwriters worldwide, so there is a possibility that with his help Ukraine will soon develop its own film industry which will have success at box-office. Taking account of the fact that a Hollywood affiliate studio will be built in Ukraine in 2 ? years, master screenwriter’s help comes in handy.
Those who felt creative and ready to put their newly acquired knowledge to the test of practice could go directly to the shooting spot (right there in the Exhibition Centre) and join in the moviemaking. Young directors demonstrated their skills in shooting a scene, onlookers could watch the processes of cutting, colour editing, and creation of special effects. Specialists from Digital Film Ukraine, the project’s organiser and sponsor, shared with the visitors the secrets of their trade.
The ‘background effects’ included the presentation of a VCDHD, a new optic device developed by the Ukrainian company Rostok CD. It has all the advantages of disks of different formats without their drawbacks, because it is much less prone to mechanical damage (it has a protective rim and enhanced resilience), it can store 4.75 gigabytes of information, it is compatible with all DVD players, and – most important – it is much cheaper to produce. Also worth mentioning is a big flight simulator (for the cinema foyers) developed by Liter company with the use of 3D technologies.
The film like all the good things can never last forever, likewise the full three-day Forum came to its end on April 27. However, with the end of the event, we expect, the Ukrainian filmmaking will start to gain momentum. The Forum showed lots of prospects and opportunities to do so after all.
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