Vertical Film Festival

The Vertical Film Festival (VFF) is a film festival held in Katoomba, New South Wales, Australia. Established in 2014, the Festival was conceived to encourage exploration of vertical film and video. This nascent format is variously referred to as tall-screen, portrait format, 9:16 aspect ratio or simply vertical video for short. The VFF was the first worldwide competition to be held for vertical videos and has since become a biennial event with public screenings in suitably vertical venues.[1][2]

Vertical Film Festival
The first edition of the Vertical Film Festival, projected in tall-screen 9:16 aspect ratio at St Hilda's Church, 17 October 2014.
LocationKatoomba, New South Wales, Australia
Founded2014
LanguageEnglish
Websitevertical.video

The Festival has been widely cited for its early engagement with the vertical format by Harvard University's Nieman Journalism Lab,[3] in textbooks,[4] in patents for new technologies,[5] in academic papers,[6] by the ProVideo Coalition,[7] and in media sources ranging from Norway's public broadcaster NRK[8] to Wired Magazine,[9] ZDnet,[10] the Huffington Post,[11] Editions Financial,[12] the Chicago Tribune,[13] Guachazh[14] in Brazil to L'Obs[15][16] in France.

The Festival accepts submissions of moving image works created on film, video, computer or mobile devices providing that the frame is taller than it is wide, and the video is of at least high definition resolution.

Its stated aims[17] include giving amateur and professional filmmakers alike encouragement to explore the aesthetic possibilities[18][19] of the oft-maligned[20] vertical format in its formative years as commercialisation of the format proceeds apace.[21] As such it screens a broad mix of live action fiction, animation, video art and documentary works. The Festival's website also offers a 'tips & tricks' guide to would-be vertical filmmakers dealing with various practical problems posed by having to work against apparatus and editing software often only designed for shooting horizontally.[22][23]

History

Conceived in early 2014 the Festival held its first edition in Katoomba, in Australia's Blue Mountains, on 17 October 2014. It was initially run under the auspices of the Australian Climbing Festival (ACF).[24] Its co-founding directors are brother-sister team Adam Sebire and Natasha Sebire[25] who initially conceived it as an interesting solution to an inherent problem faced by the ACF's film screening event: its principally vertical subject matter felt compositionally squashed by the standard 16:9 film frame, which had replaced the 'squarer' 4:3 frame in the early 2010s. No restrictions were placed on subject matter other than a maximum duration of 3 minutes, and indeed first prize went to an animation film.[26] Entry to the Festival is free, with film submissions previewed for selection via Vimeo. The VFF is run as a not-for profit organisation; nobody is paid except the technicians, venues and the filmmakers who win prizes; the directors run it in their spare time.[27]

The first Vertical Film Festival screened to a capacity audience at St. Hilda's Church, Katoomba in 2014 on a 4 metre high screen suspended above the transept, with the videos rear-projected in HD from behind the altar. The programme followed a formula the Festival has retained in future editions: showing finalist films from a worldwide competition call-out; intermission; a second half of curated tallscreen films from around the world; and finally the presentation of prizes. Finalists are shown online when the filmmakers so agree.

In 2016 the 2nd edition of the Festival[28] moved quite literally across the road to another high-roofed venue, the independent Charrington Brewery, to be projected amidst the beer hops.[25] On this occasion, prizes were chosen by popular audience vote.[29]

In 2018 the Festival presented its 3rd edition on 8 December, also in Katoomba, Australia.[30] The Festival announced that it would not run a 4th edition as scheduled for 2020 due to the logistical and economic challenges facing live screening presenters during the COVID-19 pandemic.[31]

References
  1. "Vertical Film 2014". www.exit109.com. Retrieved 23 February 2018.
  2. "VFF". Vertical Film Festival.
  3. "Vertical video is becoming more popular, but there's no consensus on the best way to make it". Nieman Lab. Retrieved 9 March 2018.
  4. Holfelder, Ute; Ritter, Christian (14 December 2017). Handyfilme als Jugendkultur (in German). BoD – Books on Demand. ISBN 9783744509428.
  5. "Surround sound applications and devices for vertically-oriented content". Thomas Mitchell Dair, Thomas Mitchell Dair. 23 November 2016. {{cite journal}}: Cite journal requires |journal= (help)CS1 maint: others (link)
  6. Napoli, Maria Donata (27 December 2016). "The 'Mobile Effect' on Screen Format: the Case of Vertical Videos". Journal of Science and Technology of the Arts. 8 (2): 45–49. doi:10.7559/citarj.v8i2.169. ProQuest 1857992997.
  7. Antunes, Jose (7 March 2017). "Vertical Video: New Opportunities for Filmmakers". Retrieved 9 March 2017.
  8. "How the Norwegian Broadcasting (NRK) made its first vertical documentary film". NRKbeta. 27 December 2015. Retrieved 9 April 2023.
  9. "Phones Are Changing How People Shoot and Watch Video". WIRED. Retrieved 9 March 2018.
  10. "Visuelle, verticale et mobile : une nouvelle ère pour l'info et la communication ?". ZDNet France (in French). Retrieved 9 March 2018.
  11. Week, Advertising (6 October 2016). "Yes, It's Really Time To Get Serious About Vertical Video". Huffington Post. Retrieved 9 March 2018.
  12. "Vertical video vision - Editions Financial". Editions Financial. 7 June 2017. Retrieved 9 March 2018.
  13. Zorn, Eric. "Yes to viral shaming videos; no to the vertical format". chicagotribune.com. Retrieved 9 March 2018.
  14. "GaúchaZH". gauchazh.clicrbs.com.br (in Brazilian Portuguese). 22 December 2017. Retrieved 9 March 2018.
  15. "Comment Snapchat redéfinit les codes de la vidéo et de la photo". L'Obs (in French). Retrieved 9 March 2018.
  16. "Bienvenue à l'ère de l'info visuelle verticale". L'Obs (in French). Retrieved 9 March 2018.
  17. "About the VFF". Retrieved 23 February 2018.
  18. Anne., Friedberg (2009). The virtual window : from Alberti to Microsoft. Cambridge, Mass.: MIT Press. pp. 123–127, 129–130. ISBN 978-0262512503. OCLC 262881377.
  19. "Phones Are Changing How People Shoot and Watch Video". WIRED. Retrieved 23 February 2018.
  20. Zorn, Eric. "Yes to viral shaming videos; no to the vertical format". chicagotribune.com. Retrieved 23 February 2018.
  21. "Yes, It's Really Time To Get Serious About Vertical Video". Huffington Post. 6 October 2016. Retrieved 23 February 2018.
  22. "Vertical video is becoming more popular, but there's no consensus on the best way to make it". Nieman Lab. Retrieved 23 February 2018.
  23. Holfelder & Ritter (2017). Handyfilme als Jugendkultur. Books on Demand. pp. 54–55. ISBN 978-3744509428.
  24. "Australia Climbing Festival (Facebook page)". 23 February 2018.
  25. Lewis, B.C (4 May 2016). "Vertical film festival on in Katoomba". Blue Mountains Gazette. Retrieved 23 February 2018.
  26. "2014 Program". Vertical Film Festival. Retrieved 16 July 2020.
  27. "Contact". Vertical Film Festival. Retrieved 23 February 2018.
  28. "2nd Vertical Film Festival – Call for entry 2016". IMDb. Retrieved 9 March 2018.
  29. "Vertical 2016 DRAFT". www.exit109.com. Retrieved 23 February 2018.
  30. "About". Vertical Film Festival. Retrieved 16 July 2020.
  31. "Vertical Film Festival - News". Vertical Film Festival. Retrieved 17 July 2020.
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