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This article about the internationally known and distinguished Katie Bignell has elements of a journalism feature, journalism profile, journalistic memoir as well as Q&A. The result is a panoramic deep-dive landscape of the world of film festivals plus a rare deep look at what’s happening with the making of short films and the blooming interests in them taking place. Bignell has a special interest as well as extraordinary insight in short films. Topics for this article include her take on a diversity of cinematic topics including the evolution of “fraudulent” and “pseudo” festivals as well as what distinguishes excellent, good, and poor film festivals.
Bignell also provides insights into the film school landscape, highlighting the importance of creative freedom and unique storytelling over technical proficiency.
Additionally, she shares her personal film genre preferences and perspectives on the current state of politics and their impact on the film industry – in many cinematic circles her perspectives and insight are like manna from heaven. Readers and visitors to this online publication should know that this article has been edited for context, accuracy, clarification.
the WORD:
Were you ever a filmmaker?
Katie Bignell:
No. So my background is screenwriting, yeah, but generally I’ve always been in the back end of the film. So this kind of strategy side, that’s been my main role.
So, how did I get into film and into the screenwriting? For me, my love of theater and film and I really wanted to write and I was supposed to go to drama school. I was supposed to go into acting and last minute changed all of my university degree courses that I was applying for, from acting to writing, which freaked everyone out.
the WORD:
What do you mean by … who do you mean by everyone?
Katie Bignell:
Like my peers, my classmates, my teachers, because I’d always been on that path to acting. And then last minute I just thought actually I want to be on the other side of things.
I want to be on the genesis creative part, creating the scripts and the characters. So I went to university to study script writing for film and TV at Bournemouth University in the UK. And I didn’t enjoy my degree. I thought it was quite prescriptive, but I met some wonderful friends there.
But also the reason I’m doing what I am doing now is I had to arrange work experience in my final year, and I found two filmmaking brothers, Ben and Chris Blaine, that lived about 15 minute drive from my, and they made short comedy films. And when I went to do work for them; the first job they gave me was the company credit card and all of their short films, and they said, can you find film festivals?
And I didn’t know anything, but I was spending someone else’s money. So I was reading those rules and regulations and T’s and C’s avidly. I was scouring them, making sure that it made sense, doing the research. That was 21 years ago, so we had a lot less festivals back then. It was also very analog.
I was filling in forms by hand. I was creating VHS tapes and DVDs to send in the post to film festivals. So I’ve seen a variety of changes and just from doing that, I realized how much it helped a filmmaker have time back to kind of focus on the other projects they were working on. And they ended up getting some traction with their films because of the festivals I found. And their filmmaking friends kept saying, how are you finding the time to do this? And they were like, well, we actually have Katie that’s doing it all.
So I ended up doing it word of mouth for about seven or eight years, and then about 11 years ago decided to create it as a brand, as a festival formula. And yeah, it’s kept me busy for 21 years now.
And I think my interest and love of writing still plays a massive part in what I do because I get to talk to filmmakers about the story development, the character journeys, the scripts, so that when we do give feedback on people’s films, they really feel like that somebody’s watched it and understood it.
And that’s always a joy when I’m talking to a filmmaker and I’m just talking about their work like anyone should. And they go, oh, you really get my film? And I’m like, yes, because you’ve made a good film. So my script writing still filters in, but I’ve never been in the position of filmmakers that we look after.
the WORD:
And, correct me if I’m wrong, correct me anytime if I’m wrong. So I’m going to say your primary focus is film shorts. Did I get that? Yeah, that’s a new, okay, I’m just going to spin this out. And I don’t know, I read, I go to film festivalsto be with film people. I’m into journalism and doing books and short stories and stuff, but I see this link between filmmaking and journalism and stuff.
But I here’s one question I’m popping off the top of my head. There doesn’t seem to be a lot of money and film shorts when everybody wants to pay money for features. What do you think? So I’m right about that.
Katie Bignell:
Yeah.
the WORD:
I’m so impressed that you’ve made film shorts your favorite, your best, that you really have passion for it; I like ’em too. But it seems that I’m going to guess people who make films – again, correct me –people who make film shorts also want to take the film short, eventually make the feature story or feature film. Is that correct? Is that …
Katie Bignell:
Yeah, most of the time, yeah. I mean, I think depending on who you talk to, some people see short films as a stepping stone, so it’s kind of honing your craft, it’s cutting your teeth, it’s figuring out your own creative voice and working out who you want to collaborate with that you then progress to making a feature. You can even tweak it. Some people make a short film that they then want to expand into a feature so that it’s a proof of concept that they’ve made a short film that they want to trial and see if people are going to engage with it.
And then once that’s proved itself, that’s when they kind of go, right, we’ve now proved we can do it with a short, let’s take that short and make it into a feature version film. So you kind of get a mixture of inbuilt marketing, audience research and everything else.
But I think for us, the exciting thing about short films is that you get to see so many different voices, and especially when you go to a film festival and they’re curated, they might be curated thematically. So there’s a theme or it might be a tonal kind of approach programmers had, or it might simply be these are comedy films, these are documentaries and these are animation, but they’ve been carefully curated in a way that an audience can ingest them and enjoy them.
So part of the joy for us is helping a filmmaker realize their potential and find their audience. And that audience can be the other side of the world. It could be down the street, it could be in a place or a territory that they’ve never really considered before. And that’s what our role is, is to kind of help that film travel.
And every film is different, every film that we are looking at, it’s made by a different human being. It’s made by a different nationality, different age, different background. It could be a debut filmmaker, it could be a seasoned pro, but it could also be a story about human rights or it could be a story about food. And there are festivals that exist for all of these different types of films. So every day is different and every film is different.
the WORD:
I’ve seen film shirts that I thought were just a plus, but I’ve noticed that I’ve seen a plus films where it was obvious or it appeared obvious. That’s better. It appeared obvious to me that there were things that they needed to do. There was something that wasn’t there. It didn’t hurt the film, but it was obvious that maybe they would correct it in a feature or revise it or something. But then I’ve come across films, short films where everything in five minutes, 10 minutes, 15 minutes was just right on.
It was complete. Is there a lot, okay, my expression, is there a lot of that going on? I mean, are there people who, yeah, I guess, okay, I’m not forming this question well.
Is there a lot of that that’s going on? And the thing is that there are people, there are filmmakers who do it all, and there we go, and there are filmmakers who do it all in the short film and that’s it, and they’re going to move on to another. And then there are others who are going to tweak or come up with another thing because they have other plans for it. Am I making sense?
Katie Bignell:
Yeah, I think so. Essentially, I think what I’m hearing is do filmmakers put everything that they’ve got into the short film and then they leave it and then go onto the next project? Or do they take that short film and then make it into a feature and expand on it and add those elements back in? Is that right?
the WORD continues:
Yeah, yeah. I think that’s what, well, yeah, that’s what I’m saying. It seems like there’s a risk is involved. I’m someone who hasn’t made films, so for me to make something and then I’m getting lost to make something in which you don’t have everything in there, but you’re going to submit it and hope people like it, that seems like a risk.
Whereas with another filmmaker, he or she or them, they know that it, it’s complete and I’m ready to move on. I think that’s what I’m trying to say.
Katie Bignell:
So sometimes you can watch a film and it might be a bit esoteric. It might be that there isn’t everything fully explained to you. So sometimes we call them a quiet film when a film isn’t the kind of whizzbang, it’s not the kind of huge conflict, it’s not the energetic piece, what it is.
It’s more thoughtful kind of contemplative piece. And they often don’t have what we call a prescriptive narrative. It’s not beginning, middle, and end.
Sometimes it’s like a feeling and emotion. It’s taking you up to a certain point in a journey for a character. And then other pieces are a little bit more whistle, whistle stop. You hit the ground running as soon as the film starts and you’ve got everything in there, all the conflict, all the character development, all the energy and pace and tone and everything. Sometimes people will make a short, that is a proof of concept, which might be a fragment of a story.
So it is a small piece and therefore the feature is expanding that world, expanding that journey. So yeah, there’s a real variety of types of films on the circuit. It’s kind of what we say. If you go into a program, sometimes you’re watching up to 10, 12 shorts in one sitting and you wait 5, 10, 15 minutes and another film comes along. So if you didn’t really enjoy the first one, the second one will come along and you might absolutely fall in love with it.
Click here for Part 2
the WORD Editor Gregg W. Morris