In Michel Gondry’s 2008 film Be Kind Rewind, Jack Black’s character (“Jerry”) explains what it means to “swede” in this way: “You take what you like and you mix it with some other things you like and make a new thing.” Neither the filmmaker, Gondry, nor the actor, Black, likely predicted that sweding would take off the way it has. At the heart of the swede phenomenon is Swede Fest. If you’re not already familiar with Swede Fest, now’s the time to learn.

Swede Fest was launched in Fresno, California in 2008 and is held there and in Tampa, Florida, every six months. While it is a film festival, it’s like no other film festival you’ve ever seen, or entered. As described on the Swede Fest website: “Swede Fest is the only film festival dedicated to sweded films. A sweded film is a summarized, low-budget recreation of a popular movie, starring you!” The organizers go on to say about sweding that “it’s a great way to promote filmmaking in your community. Anyone can make a swede, it’s easy and a lot of fun!”

And from the list of movies that have been sweded by video enthusiasts around the world, “a lot of fun” is an understatement. Films on the swede list include Raiders of the Lost Ark, Silence of the Lambs, Planet of the Apes, The Breakfast Club, Forrest Gump, Titanic, Jurassic Park, The Godfather, Citizen Kane, and many, many more.

Swede Fest even caught the attention of National Public Radio recently. Check out their story at the NPR website.

Swede Fest will hold its ninth festival in Fresno in May of 2012 and its second in Tampa in April. The Swede Fest organizers don’t award prizes, they simply accept the first 20 entries that are submitted, and they want to see swede film festivals held in more and more locations across the country. If you’re interested in submitting a sweded film, or in holding a Swede Fest in your area, you should definitely check them out.

The nominees are out for the first International Academy of Web Television (IAWTV) awards. Final voting for the awards begins today and will continue up to Jan. 5, then, the winners will be announced on Thursday, Jan. 12 at the 2012 International CES. There is a great host of categories including live or taped shows, individual performances and many with a separate comedy or drama distinction. What makes these awards stand out are a few unique categories: Best Supplemental Content, Best Distribution Platform, and Visionary Award.

I’m a huge fan of special features and bonus content, so awards for supplemental content are great, especially since the web allows for a lot of creativity with such bonuses. The distribution platforms for Web video are incredibly important since it is an area where innovation will be quickly noticed by the general audience and advertisers and marketers have been looking for years for the best way to do business with the Internet. The Visionary Award is really the heart of the IAWTV and shows their value of advancing web television.

What’s Trending with Shira Lazar is both a nominee and responsible for hosting the presentation of the awards. There is a lot of great video to be seen gathered here at these awards, including the long running machinima Red vs. Blue.

The IAWTV is a nonprofit organization that focuses on the education and appreciation for Web video and it is open for new members to join. Anyone is welcome, and with these inaugural awards there’s sure to be many more that join the academy.

Take a look at the nominees and you should be able to find something worth watching, and who knows, maybe you’ll be ready to participate in future award ceremonies. I for one, am looking forward to checking out a few of the hundreds of nominees and reporting the winners of this year’s awards.

Believe it or not, the iPhone Film Festival requires that your film be shot entirely with an iPhone, iPod Touch or iPad. Many other contests make it very clear what the general restriction is for the contest, and while these confines won’t reach Android users, the work that iPhone users put in is exceptional. The real prize in any film festival is the screening of your film and being able to see those of your competitors. Prizes are still nice though, and so far, the iPhone Film Festival has awarded prizes that are valued less than $1,500, but the 2012 festival is scheduled for at least one prize at $2,000. A win here certainly offsets the cost of production, even a third place prize from the iPhone Film Festival equals the cost of an iPhone 4.

There is plenty of space for big film festival ideas if you want to push the limits to earn a win – the rules are simple and leave a lot of room for creativity. The categories are also fairly simple, including cinematography, documentary, feature, series, short film and  music video. There were five awards in each of the previous iPhone Film Festivals with cinematography and music video being the only separate categories – all other videos, feature, short, documentary, and animation competed for first, second and third. For the third iPhone Film Festival, the categories have been shuffled to join cinematography and documentary, then feature, short and series make up a second category, with music video holding up a third.  Ruben Kazantsev and Renata Rinyu are the founders of the festival and love to  focus on community. The festival is still quite young, and counting down to the appearance at MacWorld, and maybe next year’s winners will include an animated film or Siri.

If you have plans for your own entry,  Oct. 1 is the cutoff for IFF4.

Every once in a while a well-produced video comes our way that we want to share with our readers. The Super List is one such project – it’s a great video and all the more fascinating because it is the producer’s first feature.

Will Gallego attended a Videomaker workshop a few years ago, and has been an avid reader of Videomaker, and recently sent us this video for a look-see. You HAVE to check it out, it’s pretty amazing:

THE SUPER LIST from Will Gallego on Vimeo

About the Producer
Gallego began shooting at 9-years-old on Super 8 film, but went on to make a career in other ventures after college. He returned to his movie creating passion six years ago when he had a brand new subject to follow: a baby girl.

He moved on to be the event videographer for a couple of theater companies, and eventually created his own company, Gamma Ray Productions with Raymond Vargas to produce “the Super List”, as a way to ‘prove’ the up-and-coming Gamma Ray Productions could deliver a quality movie, gain some valuable film experience and give everyone involved a chance to showcase their talent, which he hopes to enter into a short film contest someday.

About the Cast and Crew
It took eight months to complete, and was done in everyone’s spare time – no one was paid, including the actors but a few had some materials or travel expenses covered. 36 people in all worked on different parts of the production.

Writer Adam Winston and his partner and 3rd producer Frank Gallego (Will’s brother) were looking for a CGI story to pitch to Dreamworks. They knew of Will Gallego’s wedding video and music video work, and asked him to assist. Gallego writes, “I envisioned this as a live-action movie the instant I read the short screenplay.  From a practical standpoint, this was not a monumental task as far as logistics, cost and location. Once Dreamworks passed on the story, I let them know if they wanted to collaborate on a project, this story was just right.”

Based on Winston’s script concept, Frank Gallego hired a Hollywood artist to deliver the well-done and professional looking comic-book and ‘super list’.

Will Gallego’s role was as one of three producers, and also as Director of Photography and 2nd Unit Director. They shot in the autumn, to take advantage of the east coast’s amazing Fall colors, and shot in several locations from Eastern Pennsylvania to New Jersey. the soundtrack was composed by Will Gallego’s brother, William Gallego, and the two main actors, Derek and Ryan, are neighbors of Gallego, and Sarah is the director’s daughter. Each had some stage experience, but this was their first time on a movie set.

About the Gear
Gallego’s gear list for the shoot include:
Camera: Canon 5D Mark II.
Canon Lenses: 50mm 1.4, 24-70L 2.8 and 70-200L 2.8.
Soundtrack: Original music score by composer William Gallego was created with Apple Logic.
Audio/Sound Effects: Zoom H4n.
Entire Audio was mixed with Nuendo software.
Anders Johansson/Sound Editor took care of all the Foley and sound effects.
Cranes/Dollies: Losmandy Porta-Jib, Glidetrack
I rent whenever possible, such as the jib and some lighting equipment(flags, extra c-stands, follow focus, matte box. )
Editing: Final Cut Pro 7.  Trained in Apple One to One. Final Cut Pro 7, Motion and Photoshop Extended.
Other:  Marshall LCD70XP – 7 inch monitor, Zacuto follow focus kit, Petroff Matte Box with ND filters(a must for out door shooting if you want to open up the iris. [and he adds, "And of course, a lot of Videomaker reading and attending their 2 day workshop in Newark, NJ around 4 years ago. " How nice to be credited with helping him find his muse!]

Words from the Producer
“I owe theater director, Ted Concepcion and Jesse Gallego a lot of credit for giving me the first video job opportunity.

“Videomaker has been a great resource for me as a filmmaker.  I studied film theory in Rutgers University, but other than being a NYC film studio production assistant during my college years, I did not have much other film experience or any contacts to work with in NJ for 10 years as I chose a different career path. Luckily, I came across Videomaker magazine and subscribed. VM is a source of inspiration, especially, Mathew York’s Viewfinder section each month.

“There is an important message in this movie [that] Ray Vargas/Gamma Ray Productions values, and is forging forward with, mainly about the choices and decisions that kids/young people make at this point in their lives.  Ray feels in an anti-bullying campaign, the decision our main protagonist makes, which we don’t know for sure, is critical.  Just Be Me Organization is interested in this movie as a vehicle for discussion in anti-bullying campaign.  Kudos to Ray.

“If I could give any advice to new filmmakers, go and shoot something, but know what you are getting in to, know the end game. Everyone has to commit to the project no matter how small a role.  A movie is a complete production package: story, sounds, score, and cinematography.  If anyone tells you otherwise, tell them to write a book. Filming is like a muscle the more you exercise it the stronger you get.  No matter your role is in the movie, give it 110%.  Value your crew’s time and efforts by rewarding them with a finished project they can showcase.  This is their reel as much as the rest of the producers.  Don’t wait.  Set deadlines, deliver and move forward on your path.  Your crew will respect you for it and will be read to go make another one.  I am grateful I have a dependable crew that gives it 110%.

“In closing, I love one of your moderators’ feedback on your forum for the film.  He gave excellent constructive feedback, but on top of that, he says: “now go make another one…”  That is the true spirit of Videomaker: great advice and encouragement.  Thank you Videomaker.”

You’re welcome, Will, keep up the good work, and keep us informed.

Besides our well-known monthly magazine and website, Videomaker has many resources for learning for different types of needs from our face-to-face workshops like the one Will attended, to our training DVDs, books, eDocs and webinars. Our mission to to teach and encourage video producers to make their dreams come true – kudos to Will and his gang for keeping their focus strong and their dream alive, good luck to all of our readers who strive to make a project as entertaining and compelling as “The Super List.”

The distribution company behind such great breakthrough films as Pulp Fiction, The Crying Game, Clerks, Sex, lies and videotape,  The English Patient and No Country for Old Men has officially been laid to rest. Miramax Films, the pioneer’s of the indy film movement who were the brainchild of Harvey and Bob Weinstein have finally laid off the reminder of their workforce. According to Disney, who acquired the company in 1993 for $70 million, “Miramax will consolidiate its operations within Walt Disney Studios, and will be releasing a smaller number of films than in previous years. But it will continue to operate within the Walt Disney Studios.” However, in October Disney already announced that Miramax would cut down its production by 70%, down from 6 or 8 movies a year to just 3. Some the of more recent offerings ended up as flops such as Cold Mountain and The Four Feathers. One thing is for sure, with so many remakes and carbon copies out there Miramax was the one company that seemed to make major motion pictures that mattered and carried some sort meaning. This will be a very sad day for true film lovers out there.

It only took $300…

And Fede Alvarez landed himself a Hollywood movie deal, a viral video, and $30 million. Talk about inspiration, nothing can be more inspiring than Fede’s road to success. A commercial director from Uruguay, Alvarez caught the eye of esteemed film maker Sam Raimi. Raimi’s Ghost House Pictures has agreed to develop and direct Alvarez’s original science fiction style project. Drawing comparisons to District 9, Alvarez’s movie entitled “Ataque de Panico!” (Panic Attack) has created a buzz amongst the YouTube crowd already reaching over 1.5 million views. After becoming viral in such a short span of time Alvarez claims his email was full from directors and Hollywood types trying to nab his film. The video itself uses the heart pulsing soundtrack from 28 Days Later to build up its anticipation of the large invasion brewing and is a nice combination of influences. This just goes to show you, sometimes it just boils down to talent! Now watch the video for yourself, and be sure to tell us what you think!