Announcing BURTONIZE THIS! A Filmmaking Contest From The Alamo Drafthouse
Read about and order our Tim Burton magazine - featuring exclusive artwork by Burton himself! - here.
Read about the Alamo's month of Septemburton programming here.
It’s time. The Alamo Drafthouse and Fantastic Fest are proud to announce the return of our Filmmaking Frenzy competition with the Fantastic Fest 2016 Bumper Contest!
To mark the return of genius director Tim Burton to Fantastic Fest for a red-carpet presentation of Miss Peregrine's Home for Peculiar Children, we’re theming this year’s contest around the quirky, visually rich film legacy he’s created over the last thirty years. Plus, we’re also giving the best bumper creators a pair of uber-coveted VIP badges to Fantastic Fest 2017 with lodging and airfare within the continental United States covered!
Each year we host a bumper contest where we invite writers, actors and filmmakers all over the world to collaborate on the most outrageous and entertaining under-30-second video imaginable. We use as many entries as we can and wind up playing dozens of bumpers that range from the demented to the hilarious to the… well, strange.
However, we’ve got a theme and a few ground rules.
The Theme
This year’s theme is BURTONIZE THIS, inspired by our peculiar guest of honor, Tim Burton. From Pee-Wee to Beetlejuice to Nightmare Before Christmas to Mars Attacks to Alice in Wonderland, Burton’s work is like no other. So, give us a thirty second take on a film, television show, music video, commercial – moving pictures here, guys – and Burtonize it!
What does Burtonize even mean? You tell us. Maybe you’re reworking a classic Breaking Bad scene with Burton-y gothic quirk, or perhaps you want to see what Beetlejuice would do as the piano player in Casablanca, or maybe you can talk Danny Elfman into doing a score for you?
However you want to interpret the theme, the main thing is to make sure the Burtonization is clear and upfront and doesn’t require explanation. If we don’t get it, we won’t ask, and we won’t use it.
The Rules
Your video must be 30 seconds or under, not including a 5-second Fantastic Fest logo at the end (download the video logo here).
You can adapt your material from an original property’s trailer, a scene, or even write your own scene that reflects the property.
In keeping with FF bumper tradition, the video must end with the line “That’s fantastic!” either in dialogue or narration.
All film entries must be submitted by noon CST on Tuesday, September 6th to be eligible. Entries received after that may still be used on-screen during the fest, but will be ineligible for the grand prize. Submit and read more about the terms and conditions here.
Bumpers will be posted – all at once – by 5pm on Wednesday, September 7th, at filmmakingfrenzy.com
Entrant must not upload his or her film to any other public site until the contest has wrapped.
The Contest
A jury of Alamo creative team members will select two bumper finalists, and online viewers of entries will select a third and final finalist by audience vote at filmmakingfrenzy.com. The grand prize winner will be selected during Fantastic Fest, and the winner will receive two VIP badges to Fantastic Fest 2017 and (if outside of Austin) their travel expenses (airfare and hotel) covered.
The best of the 2016 Fantastic Fest bumper videos selected by our programming committee will be screened in front of an unsuspecting audience during Fantastic Fest 2016. Each of those audiences will include visiting filmmakers from around the world, press from the likes of Birth.Movies.Death, IFC, ScreenCrush, TwitchFilm, Fangoria, SlashFilm, Film Threat, Ain’t It Cool News, Variety, USA Today and more, plus a legion of the most devoted, intelligent, fun-loving genre film fans on the planet.
