Alberta filmmakers get musical in video competition
There is cannibalism, a story about the perils of bullying, a sweaty danceoff and even a period drama about the bizarre “dancing plague” of 1518.
No one could ever accuse Alberta filmmakers that dabble in music videos of being predictable.
On Thursday, 10 filmmakers will screen their collaborations with local musicians at the Plaza Theatre as part of Storyhive, a funding program by Telus that had them shooting a music video.
The finalists, who were chosen through online voting, received $ 10,000 for the shoot. On Thursday a jury will choose an overall Alberta winner, who will receive $ 30,000 to shoot another video and a documentary about the artist he or she is working with. The winner will also get distribution of Telus Optik TV on Demand.
“What’s amazing about Alberta was that we had hiphop, heavy metal, country music, singer- songwriters — there such a range of musical diversity,” said Prem Gill, director of programming and original content for Telus. “Everybody thinks it would all be country music — you know all the stereotypes — but not at all.”
The variety of music matches the variety of tone for the videos. Slick performance pieces, such as Douglas Cook’s video for Almost Human by Calgary hard- rock band Every Hour Kills, or Light Factory’s appropriately psychedelic, background- shifting take on Calgary’s The Ashley Hundred’s Falling Up, sit alongside more narrative style videos. Laura Combden’s video for Mercy, by Calgary’s Petunia, is an epic, expertly designed period piece about the 1518 Dancing Plague, a peculiar 16th- Century outbreak of “dancing mania” in France.
Meanwhile, Marc J. Chalifoux offers a darkly comic, and cheerfully gruesome, take on Jr. Gone Wild’s cover on S. N. F. U.’ s song Cannibal Cafe.
Artists and filmmakers teamed up for submissions to the contest. More than 60 entries came from Alberta and were whittled down to 10 through online voting.
A jury will be on hand Thursday at the Plaza to choose the winner, who will receive $ 20,000 to make a new video and $ 10,000 to film a behind- the- scenes short documentary.
Telus has used the Storyhive formula for short film and webseries, but this is the first year it was applied to music videos.
“It’s all part of the bigger story of engaging people in their art and their creative pursuits,” says Gill. “The new thing that people are embracing but sometimes have trouble with is social media. Storyhive is a social competition. You have to exercise your social chops on Facebook and Twitter and create an audience and community of people who want to support you and are interested in what you are doing.”
The 10 finalists will screen their videos Thursday from 6 to 9 p. m. at the Plaza Theatre. To watch the videos, visit storyhive. com.