My elevator pitch: check out this pithy peek at the aspiring moviemakers competing for cash and professional mentoring at the 2024 Knoxville Film Festival’s Elev8tor Pitch contest. The winner will be revealed! Yes?
A few months before Film Fest Knox opened for business, a prestigious four-judge jury said yes to eight finalists; filmmakers hoping to one-day (please God) turn their five-to-eight-minute movie meisterwerk into a full-length feature film. To win a chance to level-up their filmic love child at a development lab run by Paul Harrill, Elev8tor Pitch judge, Sundance Festival short film superstar and Co-Chair of Cinema Studies at the University of Tennessee.
Unlike Doctor Harrill’s films, the 21 Eleva8tor Pitch films screened at the South Gay Street Regal cinema weren’t fully realized stories. The works on view were extended excerpts from the beginning or middle of what would be a feature film if someone bankrolled the filmmakers’ artistic vision and technical expertise. As the full-house audience would attest, there was a great deal of both on offer.
If that sounds like bombastic boosterism, too bad you didn’t train your ears on the audio coming out of Cinema 2’s speakers during Saturday’s Live Pitch Competition. From Keep Watch’s gently rattling drawer handles to the nerve-racking roar of an approaching train in Episodes, all eight “proof of concept” films offered comprehensively complex and credible soundscapes. As Porky Pig didn’t pronounce back in the ’30’s, that’s not all folks!
Cinematography, editing, lighting, acting, music – at no point did anyone in the packed theater labor under the impression they were enduring amateur hour/eight minutes, or feel like they were being forced to suffer cinematographic stunting and flossing.
In just its second year of operation, Knox Film Fests’ ability to draw top-flight filmmakers to Regal’s Marble City mecca is beyond reproach. In fact, the main difference between the independent filmmakers’ production values and those of mainstream moviemakers was… nothing.
In terms of the filmmakers’ vision – revealed by the scripts driving their Knox Film Fest demi expositions – you probably won’t be surprised to learn there wasn’t a single car chase among them. That said, more than one filmmaker seemed hell-bent on answering the question WWQTD (What Would Quentin Tarantino Do)? Ah To Hell With It.
In the main, the films’ themes were deeply personal and/or pointedly provocative. Narratives included a father’s decline into dementia (Dad’s Last Beach Trip) and a tangled tale of drug addiction, homicide and guilt, based on a true story (Things We Don’t Talk About).
At the end of the day (Sunday), A Scout is Kind tied-up the Knoxville Film Festival’s second annual Elev8tor Pitch competition. Elegantly shot, immaculately acted, the victorious vignette focused on the faltering relationship between two lifelong friends on the cusp of their college career.
The winners are headed for UT’s Development Lab, richer by five thousand dollars. A sum that wouldn’t even cover an afternoon’s catering for a major motion picture. Needless to say, that’s besides the point.
The Elev8tor Pitch was a chance for 21 filmmakers to show the world – and themselves – that they have what it takes to make professional work. Whether or not these or future efforts find commercial success, every contestant emerged from the competition with justifiable pride. As does the city that hosted the 2024 Knoxville Film Festival.