PRESS RELEASE
Tropfest have awarded the inaugural #TROPVINE Winner title to Perth local and Vine extraordinaire Ken Ng. Ng was selected from a shortlist of 20 Vines from around the world. See his winning Vine here.
Ng spent over ten hours making the six second film and many more conceptualising the super short film. His #TROPVINE entry draws on his experience as a graphic designer to produce the elements of the film and revolves around being trapped within a photocopy.
A lover of short film and its daring and experimental nature, Ng hopes to one day enter Tropfest, he is “waiting for a more fully fledged idea to come to me,” he says. “Only after making Vines have I begun to see myself as a filmmaker. I have worked with video before but in an art gallery/installation context.”
Ng wins a VIP trip to Tropfest Australia 2014, including Qantas flights to Sydney, luxury accommodation at QT Sydney, Nikon camera gear, exclusive VIP tickets to Tropfest Australia 2014 and lunch with the crew from Twitter Australia!
Michael Laverty, Tropfest Managing Director, says he was really interested to see how the Vine platform was used by filmmakers.
“The Vine platform is such an interesting space for filmmakers; the six second time frame really challenges users to tell stories in unique and creative ways, and we’ve certainly seen that demonstrated in the entries received for #TROPVINE. It is an exciting space to watch.”
With entries to Tropfest 2014 closing on October 9, Tropfest encourages filmmakers to check out the Vines for some last minute inspiration.
Not only is this Tropfest’s inaugural Vine competition, but it is also the first official Vine competition in Australia. In a partnership with Twitter, the competition ran over eight weeks with entries open from July 27 until midnight on September 21, 2014, with the winner announced on September 26.
#TROPVINE
The first official #tropvine competition was open for entries from 7pm, July 27, 2014 – midnight, September 21, 2014.
Entrants created a six-second Vine video incorporating the Tropfest TSI – ‘MIRROR’ – and posted it to Twitter using the competition hashtags #tropvine #mirror and @TROPFEST.
All entries appeared on the Tropfest website, in a digital space built by Stackla.
20 of the most popular Vines, as voted by the public, were judged by an internal Tropfest jury.
Anyone, from anywhere, was invited to enter.
Visit www.tropfest.com/au for festival details, screening venues and regular updates on all things Trop!
TROPFEST
This year’s festival is expected to be Tropfest’s biggest yet with scores of filmmakers competing for the chance to be one of the 16 finalists whose short films will premiere live to a national audience of around 150,000, as well as broadcast free-to-air on SBS 2 to an even bigger home audience.
Tropfest entries must be no longer than seven minutes, must include this year’s TSI and be entered before October 9, 2014.
It is completely up to entrants as to how they interpret and include the TSI in their film and filmmakers are encouraged to be as creative or as literal as they like.
A panel of industry and celebrity judges will select a winner live on the Festival Night, with the First Prize-winning filmmaker to take home an incredible prize pack including: a brand new Toyota, $10,000 cash, a trip to Los Angeles for a week of meetings with film executives thanks to Motion Picture Association and the Australian Screen Association plus a Nikon D800 + $2,000 RRP worth of lenses and accessories.
Tropfest had humble beginnings at the Tropicana Café in Sydney’s Darlinghurst where an eager crowd of 200 showed up to watch a short film screening that John Polson had organized. Twenty two years on, Tropfest attracts a live audience of around 150,000 in Australia and the Festival has grown internationally with standalone competitions in New Zealand, South East Asia, New York and the Middle East.