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1 MAY 2020 / ONWARDS, UPWARDS:
A GLOBALLY CROWDSOURCED VERTICAL VIDEO,
FILMED ON MAY DAY DURING THE COVID-19 PANDEMIC 

ABOUT THE PROJECT:

In April 2020 we launched an open call around the globe for vertically-framed shots expressing people’s hopes, solidarity and experiences living under social distancing measures and coronavirus. They would become part of a crowdsourced vertical (9:16/tall-screen/portrait-format) video captured on one (extra)ordinary day in human history,

MAY DAY, 1ST OF MAY, 2020

Usually a global day of celebration, solidarity and love, May Day in 2020 was very different for populations around the planet living in the shadow of a pandemic. The title Onwards, Upwards was chosen to pose the question of what we can gain from this experience as we move onwards, visualised within a vertical frame.

Dozens of filmmakers and amateurs alike from every inhabited continent, and from South Africa to Vanuatu, Singapore to Colombia, created vertical moving images to express their response to the situation and their hopes for a post-pandemic future.

As coordinators we carefully edited the best of these into a single ‘crowdsourced' vertical video, based on non-commercial Creative Commons principles, now made free to view and download* across the globe under a Creative Commons license.

Produced in collaboration between Vertifilms Prague and the Vertical Film Festival (Australia).

Shots crowdsourced on May Day 2020 with grateful thanks to (in alphabetical order):

65@libero.it • @jess & @henryyandjess on Byte • @sava.studios • Adam Sébire • Agnar Hanssen & Ann-Sissel Myrlund • Asa Featherstone, IV @savvyoso_ • Bara Jichova Tyson • Brigitte Gauthier • Carla Thackrah SeeTea Productions • Carrieonfilming • Chucky.Creative • Dana Wardhana & Hakim Irsyad • Elke Reinhuber • Fabrice Idieder • Gabriele Cocomello • Gaurav Dhwaj Khadka • Hakim Irsyad & Luthfi Herdiansyah • Inka • J.Richard Tyson • J.Seibert • Jacob Salzberg • Jacob Harris • Joomi Chung • Kelli S Williams • Krystof Safer • Kuesti Fraun • Lars Fossestøl • liang_clyrena • lmichellemedia • Luca Fornasiero • Meera Krishnamurthy • Michael Burnett • Mika Wiborgh • Miksang • Natalia Kovyliaeva • Natasha Sebire • Nikoleta Georgieva • Patricia Bojacá • Richard Malatinsky • Richard Tan@Ingenious Shanghai • Sabine Osarek • Štěpán Zálešák • Tomáš Rippl • Unto Ikkala • Veresjuli

Map data: Google / Landsat Copernicus / USGS / IBCAO ©2020
Music: "I Tried" by Moby, courtesy of mobygratis.com
All other materials are used under Creative Commons BY-NC-SA license

*To download the original video files visit https://vimeo.com/416499210 (opens in a new tab). The video can also be shared via our Facebook page.

THE BRIEF WAS: 

On Friday, 1 May 2020, what vertically-framed video shot or sequence might illustrate your current lived experience; solidarity in a time of adversity; hope for the future; or the kind of opportunities you see emerging from this crisis as we move onwards, upwards?

All shots were submitted under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike license and the final edit is completed under the same, except for the opening map and the music.

NO FESTIVAL IN 2020

Well, for reasons you’d be entirely aware of, we’ve decided against running a 4th biennial edition of the Festival as scheduled in 2020.

Whilst it’s a difficult time for filmmakers everywhere, for theatrical venues the logistics have arguably become even worse, making live screenings largely unviable — perhaps until a Covid-19 vaccine or cure is found.

Periodically we’ll continue to curate vertical videos we find interesting to vimeo.com/channels/verticalfilmfestival which is a Vimeo channel you might like to follow.  
And our web address will soon move permanently to https://vertical.video 

Wherever on the planet you’re reading this, we thank you for your support and wish you the very best of luck as we all navigate the rapidly-changing moving image landscape.

¡Viva la vertical!

Adam & Natasha.

VERTICAL FEATURE FILMS / FEBRUARY 22, 2020

Reports that the first vertical “blockbuster movie” began shooting this week under Russian director Timur Bekmambetov leave many questions to be answered. Not least of which is whether the vertical format can sustain feature lengths (durations over an hour) while cinemas remain resolutely horizontal.

The poster's confusing all-caps claim to be "the first vertical film" also made us wonder what other vertical features have been released to date. We know of Mike Retter’s “Youth on the March” (82 mins**) which reached the Adelaide Film Festival in 2017 — and at least three others that alas never made it beyond production.

2018 FESTIVAL A SUCCESS / DECEMBER 9, 2018

Wenceslao Lopez Meza's Amapola took out 1st prize and Best Cinematography in the competition section for 2018.

We had a lovely warm summer’s evening on 8 December 2018, for the screening of the 3rd Vertical Film Festival in the Blue Mountains of Australia. A 4 metre tall screen took up most of one wall of the Carrington Brewery in Katoomba. For the second time we’ve used the Carrington Brewery, as the old building with its tall brick walls, iron and old timber beams provides a great atmosphere for the VFF screening - and the smell of the beer brewing in the surrounding vats just adds to the effect!

The warmer weather was a good test for the projector, but thanks to a special mount designed by KFM Media to hold the projector on its side, it didn’t overheat. The summer weather was also perfect for sampling the Carrington Brewery’s craft beers on tap.

The audience was treated to 23 vertical films and videos, some created with smartphones, others shot on high-end cameras such as Arri and Red. The panel of judges awarded both 1st Place and also Best Cinematography in ⇧THIS WAY UP⇧ competition to:

Amapola — by Wenceslao Lopez Meza from Mexico. A big congratulations to Wenceslao for taking out both categories as the competition was tough with a fantastic line up of films! Thanks to Bendigo Bank and Scenic World Shared for sponsoring the cash prizes.

It was great to see Ben Kumanovski, Director of ‘Rectangle’, and Sidat de Silva, the film’s Cinematographer, attend the festival. ‘Rectangle’ had its world premier at this year’s festival and was a very close runner up, with its entertaining story about the vertical format, excellent production design and cinematography.

We’d like to thank Bendigo Bank and Scenic World Shared for supporting this years festival. It’s great to have local community support to help make this event happen. We’d also like to thank all of our in- and out-of-competition filmmakers for allowing us to screen their works. The high quality selection showcased this year shows vertical film and video is well and truly in its golden age. We look forward to more in the future.

¡Viva la Vertical!

Natasha Sebire & Adam Sebire
(founding directors of the VFF)

JUDGES ANNOUNCED / NOVEMBER 28, 2018

This year we have Erika Addis, James Cunningham and Kim Batterham judging this years 2018 VFF. All have many years experience in the industry.

This year there will be a special category for ‘Best Cinematography’. How effective has the cinematographer been with their use of light, shape, tone, colour, movement, rhythm and space to tell the story?

3RD VERTICAL FILM FESTIVAL ANNOUNCED! / SEPTEMBER 14, 2018

It’s on again!  The 3rd Vertical Film Festival will be held in Katoomba, in Australia’s Blue Mountains, on Saturday 8 December 2018.

The formula is the same as when we launched the world’s first competition for vertical film & video in October 2014: entries in high definition of up to 3 minutes, created and delivered vertically (9:16) for tall-screen projection in front of an audience, on any theme, in any genre, pushing the creative possibilities of vertical filmmaking. Finalists films will be available online.  

In 2014 it was just beginning; now vertical videos are on the cusp of going mainstream. But a lot of it is just widescreen “content” cropped vertically :-(

We want to see how you explore the inherent possibilities of tall-screen.  If you're an independent filmmaker or artist and the vertical format is essential to your creative vision then this competition is for you!

Conditions of entry and an online entry form are now on the website.

(No entry fee; prizes to be confirmed; videos to be submitted via Vimeo.)  

Entries close Sunday 18 November, 2018.

2016 FESTIVAL WRAP-UP / MAY 22, 2016

Jean-Charles Granjon's Impact took out 1st prize in the competition section of 2nd Vertical Film Festival, Katoomba, Australia, 21 May 2016.

As darkness fell and fog rolled in across the Blue Mountains, the Vertical Film Festival once again raised its tall-screen — this time up the old walls of the Carrington Brewery to show 28 vertical films from 14 different countries, over a third of them directed by women, and created on formats ranging from smartphone to AfterEffects to 35mm Kodak film.

Projectors are notoriously fickle about being tilted 90º due to overheating but perhaps due to the cool mountain air ours managed to project 2hrs of stunning images on a 4m high screen. Beautifully designed soundtracks reverberated around the brewery’s hops (where beers could be sampled at interval).

In 2016 our ⇧THIS WAY UP⇧ competition was decided by a popular vote of our enthusiastic audience. We tallied everyone's votes while the out-of-competition TALL SHORTS were screening.  

The results gave 1st prize, with a lead of 63 points over its nearest rival to... (drum-roll please...)

Impact — by Jean-Charles Granjon from the south of France.  He wins a Nespresso by KitchenAid machine (rrp: $799). Heartiest congratulations and magnificent work, Jean-Charles!

The 2nd and 3rd prize were only separated by a single 1st preference vote.  

2nd prize went to Basket Case — made by James Bedford of Hampshire in the UK, who wins a Nespresso Pixie Clips machine (rrp: $349).

And 3rd prize, a Nespresso Inissia machine (rrp: $249) goes to Yoshiyuki Katayama of Kanagawa in Japan for Umwelt. (For film details see the 2016 Program page).

Congratulations to all three filmmakers and their teams!  All the prizes will be coming with a set of accessories (see photo below).  We’re extremely grateful for Nespresso for being our prize sponsor this year, and to the three filmmakers (Erik Schmitt, Eva Weber and Gaëlle Denis) who Nespresso commissioned to promote their Talents 2016 Prize for allowing us to show their films at our Festival as well.

And last but certainly not least, thanks to all of our in- and out-of-competition filmmakers for allowing us to showcase such marvellous works of creativity and for the love and effort they and their collaborators have so evidently put into them.

¡Viva la Vertical!

Adam & Natasha Sebire
(founding directors of the VFF)

Jean-Charles Granjon writes about his film: "Impact tells the story of the mental journey of a high diver in the seconds before his jump. Impact is a world first in several respects: The vertical format – 4K – 1000fps slow-motion – the environment (underwater and cliffs). Impact is a team imaging adventure, directed by Jean-Charles Granjon and shot in the Provence-Alpes-Côte d’Azur region of southeast France. This is thus a condensed reflection of the cinematic expertise of Marseille, southeast France.

Lionel Franc, world champion cliff diver is the head-first "hero" of Impact. Impact is also a reflection about the way we use our natural environment. The wonderfull natural sites where we shot this short film are just 7km away from a site which faces massive pollution by the aluminium industry of The City of Gardane, south of France. This has been happening for 50 years. More than 20 millions tons of toxic waste is now lying under the surface of The Mediterranean Sea. Despite a National Park being created on this site, the aluminium industry still have permission to pollute! If you feel concerned about the protection of your natural settings, please sign this petition : http://collectifslittoral.fr/index.php/fr/petition-contre-les-boues-rouges
If you like it, please follow and share: https://www.facebook.com/impact134k

Line producer: Bluearth Production
Vertical film Post Production : La Planète Rouge
Equipment: Phantom Flex

APRIL 30 ENTRY DEADLINE APPROACHES! / MARCH 30, 2016

Only one month remains to enter the 2nd Vertical Film Festival, so get your skates on, verticalistas!

Remember, as per our previous post, you CAN enter your vertical film in both the Nespresso Talents competition (which closes 10 April) AND our Festival (which closes 30 April) without disqualifying yourself from either.  That's two opportunities to have your work seen by audiences, and a rare chance to have it projected in our lovely tall-screen venue here in Australia.

In that vein, here's a brilliant short film that Nespresso commissioned from auteur Gaëlle Denis to get people enthused by the form: Rhapsody in Blueberry.