[doz]

I’d like to thank everyone that helped me with the language recordings for the EU financed project I wrote about in an earlier post – I had all of them recorded on time, which was quite a surprise, considering the little time I had.

Everyone has helped me more than I thought. Sorry for the underestimation, I suppose. The project that I’ve been talking about here and there has been completed. Besides the fact that it was actually FINISHED, it won. We were selected among the top 5 works and are due to receive viral marketing and an official release, which is immense for both the team and the University.

I am sorry to say, however, that we did NOT use the recordings. At all. The executive producers decided that our draft was going in a wrong direction. We don’t feel it was wrong even now, but we had our taste of how commercial film-making works. It doesn’t. Simple as that. Luckily the changes that had to be made were in our liking as well, but it still wasn’t what it was meant to become. Enough bashing though.

Whenever it is officially released on DVD and book, I will post links to it.

The DVD will contain all 5 clips with an additional 5 because the project seems to be a huge success in the eyes of the EU Producers and the book will most likely explain what this is about and how it was made. And why it was made. It should explain why cheques bounce as well, but I have a feeling it won’t.

This is the e-mail the director, Peter Palos, received the night before:

“Dear all,

Thank you very much for sending the DigiBeta with your short film for
the E3′ film project.

A few days ago, an international jury gathered in Berlin and viewed
all 28 participating films from students studying in the following EU
Member States:

Czech Republic, Estonia, Finland, France, Germany, Ireland, the
Netherlands, Slovakia, Spain, Sweden, United Kingdom. Students from
art schools in Iceland and Norway also participated in this project.

The jury was very impressed by the high artistic and technical quality
of the submitted films.

The jury selected 5 films which will be awarded with a viral marketing
strategy and distribution, guidelines for the selection were:

-          Relevance to the theme: the contribution of multilingualism to intercultural dialogue
-          Clear and simple message
-          Fulfilling the purpose of viral marketing

The following 5 films have been selected for the viral marketing distribution:

-          “Babelshow” Stephane Kaas, Nederlandse Film & Televisie Academie, Amsterdam, The Netherlands

-          “De pratglada kossornas park”, Oskar Westerberg, Konstfack, dep. of Graphic design & Illustration, Stockholm, Sweden

-          “Language is music“, Peter Palos, University of Westminster, London, United Kingdom

-          “No fishing”, Richard Meitern, University of Tartu, Estonian Academy of Arts, Estonia

-          “Smile”, Charles Temujin Doran, University College Falmouth, United Kingdom
The jury would like to emphasize that all submitted films are of high quality and that the selection was purely focused on viral marketing qualities.

All films will be launched during the PRIX EUROPA Festival in Berlin on the 18th and 19th October 2008.

We are all looking forward to welcome you during this event and the screening of the films!

If you have any questions please feel free to contact me.

Best regards,
Ute Kohlmann”

Thank you all for the massive support!