News from L'Institute Zoom

NEWS AND UPDATES ON CURRENT PROJECTS FROM THE COMPANY

May 2008	Our new DVD The Prelude - Live at the Zanzibar is now available via The Prelude's MySpace page.
February 2008	Pilot For A 22nd Century Sitcom received its telly premiere on Propeller TV on Saturday, February 16th. We only found out at the last minute. Soz. Zoom Agent Mick was recently invited to the Bradford Movie Makers group to give a talk (in two bum-aching 50 minute sets) about editing techniques and technologies. Using landmark post-production examples from the Institute’s own archive ("A Case Of Making The Knife Fit The Wound," "Early As the Trees", and "Holy Well" from the forthcoming The Prelude project), Mick’s talk was a resounding success despite libelous and belated claims of him being an awful mumbler. Over in the Institute's Field Musicography Unit, Anselm and Mick are putting the finishing touches to our promotional DVD for The Prelude, the Liverpool based band hailing from Derry. Ten overwhelming live songs are punctuated by interviews and the dvd is peppered with extras from their raucous ramblings and impromptu jamming from a hazy Sunday drinking session in a Liverpool pub. Be one of the first to catch a sneak preview. All sorts of fancy things are being done to It's Nick's Birthday, our short musical inspired by the life of the Institute's occasional engineering consultant, dreamer and bit player. And Graeme has been selected to jet back off to the 58th Berlin Film Festival to participate in the Berlinale Talent Campus 2008.
August 2007	And again! We told you not to go out. A Case Of Making The Knife Fit The Wound will be on the box again on Tuesday, 21st August at 2230hrs (10.30pm) on SKY channel 195: Propeller TV. Citizens, stay in your homes: L'Institute Zoom's debut short film A Case Of Making The Knife Fit The Wound will be on the box this Saturday night, 4th August at 2200hrs (that's 10pm) on SKY channel 195 - Propeller TV. This is a telly premiere for both the film and the Institute as a unit, so we encourage Jubilee style street parties (don't forget to go back inside and watch the film though) or, for the more glamorously inclined, some sort of picnic blanket-red carpet, tin foil and pipe cleaner-tiara set-up.
May 2007	"Professionally packaged"; "Hot off the press"; it can only be FINAL CUT: Take Three, a short film DVD from Brighton and Hove's (very) eponymous, premier film night, and the first time Pilot For A 22nd Century Sitcom has been made available indiscriminately for outmates to watch in their own homes (and coaches, classrooms, oil rigs). You can hand over your hard-earned for it here: http://www.finalcut.gb.com/dvd.html. Whilst the Institute receives £Nowt from this venture, we endorse it as a viditome that it'll be important to have displayed prominently in your household when the revolution comes. £10.45 including postage and packing? Get away! For those who prefer their entertainments ephemeral, histrionic and perhaps a little 'pataphysical, a memo from the Institute's School of Ephemera, Histrionics and 'Pataphysics feverishly recommends Malibu, Peter Easterbrook's theatrical play taking place this Saturday in Stockport. Malibu involves the participation of several of the Institute's staff, residents, practitioners and out-patients including Emma Hardy, Kate Ramsden, Graeme Cole and Peter Easterbrook himself. Ramsden and Easterbrook will both be seen in our forthcoming short film, It's Nick's Birthday.
April 2007	Pilot for a 22nd Century Sitcom's Welsh premiere this Wednesday also marks its twentieth festival appearance. How has Pilot... changed the world in the last two years? We can only wonder at that, and whether having another piece of toast at 11am constitutes an extension of breakfast, or a prelude to lunch. We have people working on both questions, leaving you ample time to to make your way to the William Aston Hall at NEWI University in Wrexham on Wednesday 4th April, at 1830 hours, to watch Pilot... play alongside nine other eyewowzerers at The Sci-Film Festival 2007. Those of a more Croatian orientation (you know who you are) may prefer to bob along to the Tuškanac Cinema in Zagreb on the 17th of April at 2000 hours, where Pilot For A 22nd Century Sitcom will play in the BIZARBAR program (scroll to bottom of page), one of a series of free experimental film and video screenings organised by the people behind the 25FPS festival. The Croatians know it as Pilot-epizoda za komediju 22. stoljeca, of course. Getting translated gives us thrills.
March 2007	It’s been a while, but we’ll be dusting off our matching cineaste-skin handbags and heels for an eyeball boogie in town this coming Saturday, as DJ Small Independent Screening dusts off the hit parade mainstay of yesteryear, Pilot For A 22nd Century Sitcom. Mmhm, the short film of that name will be screened as part of the Vaudeville night at the Green Room in Manchester this SATURDAY, 24th February, at 2000 hours.
February 2007	Residents of the Institute and greater South Manchester won’t have failed to notice the massive dome erected over Lot 29 of the Institute’s studio complex at the beginning of February. Causing even the Beetham Tower to blush, the dome was engineered to keep the weather consistent as we idly threaded together the components of our latest short film, It’s Nick’s Birthday. The Super 8mm film stock is currently maturing under six feet of processing-fluid and tea-treated peat in a bafflingly featureless stretch of the Institute’s protected (free range) gardens, and should bloom sort of June time ish.
December 2006	Pilot For A 22nd Century Sitcom plays in the Panorama section of the ALTERNATIVE FILM/VIDEO FESTIVAL 2006 in Serbia, at the Academic Film Centre, “Student City” Cultural Centre (SCCC) on Friday, 8th December at 4pm.
November 2006	Our 2004 short film Blip gets an airing amongst some distinguished audiovisual company on Wednesday 7th November at the Cornerhouse in Manchester, 6.30pm. It is on as part of the Teenage Britain/ Strange Girls programme of short films, so do come along and lend us your eyes. We'd also like to plug Grandma & The Monster, the audacious and fantasmic graduation project of Debbie Steer (writer, DOP) and J Addy (producer, animator, editor), who have in the past held practitioner and consultancy posts here at the Institute. The film plays at the Exposures UK Student Film Festival in early December. The film is directed by the wonderful and talented Lucy Elliot, and is that good that it graces the cover of the festival brochure so you'd better come along on Monday 4th Dec: Best of North West Prog 1 -(6pm) or Wednesday 6th Dec: Drama Programme 1- (12 noon). From the 11th to the 19th of November, Pilot For A 22nd Century Sitcom can be seen at the film market of the 21st European Brest Short Film Festival.
October 2006	On Wednesday 25th October at 7pm, Pilot For A 22nd Century Sitcom plays at the Cinem@tic Festival’s free showcase of short films at Birmingham's IMAX Cinema. A Case Of Making The Knife Fit The Wound will play at the BRNO SIXTEEN INTERNATIONAL COMPETITIVE FESTIVAL OF SHORT FICTION FILMS , which takes place 18th-22nd October in the Czech Republic.
September 2006	The Zoomy little caterpillar takes a nibble at the big Maple Leaf this week as Pilot For A 22nd Century Sitcom achieves its Canadian debut. The Antimatter Underground Film Festival runs from 22nd-30th of September in Victoria, BC, Pilot plays this Saturday night (23/09/2006) at 7pm in their Like A House On Fire strand. Look at their nice postcard www.antimatter.ws/antismal.jpg !
August 2006	Pilot For A 22nd Century Sitcom received a Special Mention from the Jury at the Budapest Short Film Festival, our drinking and csocsó (pro: "shoo-shoo", it's table football you understand) colleague Tobi Winterhagen's "The Callgirl and Her Client" won Best Idea, and our loyal one-woman entourage Beccy was kind enough to be equally proud of both of us. Dreadfully amateurish Super 8 footage of the wonderful festival to be posted here soon... In a bizarre twist of recognition for the solid work we are doing in the field of future films (using corrupt technology to yank back audio-visual artefacts through time and present them to a contemporary audience) the Malescorto Festival in Italy will show Pilot For A 22nd Century Sitcom in their non-fiction strand on Tuesday 8th August at 20:30hrs. Double-whammy: the Budapest Short Film Festival will show both A Case Of Making The Knife Fit The Wound (Saturday, 16:00hrs) and Pilot For A 22nd Century Sitcom (Sunday, 14:30) the weekend of the 4th-8th August. Programme here We finally burst from the womb of Mother Europe for our first Asian screening in Seoul, where Pilot For A 22nd Century Sitcom will play at the EXiS Festival at the beginning of September. Pilot For A 22nd Sitcom will make its second Romanian appearance for the Anonimul International Independent Short Film Festival, 14-19th August.
July 2006	We have full faith in the Phoenix Short Film Festival to do us proud when they show Pilot For A 22nd Century Sitcom on Sunday 30th July. Vienna cancelled! Pilot For A 22nd Century Sitcom has been inhumanely culled from the programme at the Vienna Short Film Festival. Needless to say, we encourage brutal and imaginative acts of revenge against said organisation. Pilot For A 22nd Century Sitcom is on at EXP24 (part of Short Circuits), an experimental film night on Saturday 15th July from 7pm to the midnight hour at Brudenell Social Club, Queens Road, Leeds.
June 2006	Pilot For A 22nd Century Sitcom is to get its first London screening at the Talent Circle sponsored Super Shorts Festival, 17th-24th July 2006. Keep an eye on their site for further details. The festival then tours the country until every bugger's dirtied us with their provincial eyeballs. Pilot For A 22nd Century Sitcom will play at the Vienna Short Film Festival which runs from 6th-8th July 2006. Date, time and venue tbc.
May 2006	The 34th Festival Of Nations will host 's Austrian debut in Ebensee on Sunday, June 18th. Pilot For A 22nd Century Sitcom will receive its Italian premiere on Friday May 19th at the 5th Reggio Film Festival in Reggio Emilia, just down the E35 from Parma. Saunter along to Cinema Cristallo d'Essai at 2030hrs to see it play as part of the 'spazio libero' (we hope it means Open Category). The Institute's attempts to penetrate every last German pupilar aperture continue in the city of Bochum at the 16th International Videofestival at some point that same weekend, the 18th-20th of May. Precise date to reported here when we know it, all we can divulge at this point is that Pilot For A 22nd Century Sitcom will show as part of a 'Midnight Special' screening. Seedy, eh? And L'Institute Zoom are preparing to get proper messed up with our own five-minute Bowie/Isherwood style Berlin period. Pilot For A 22nd Century Sitcom will play at the snappily monikered Jugendmedienfestival Berlin 2006 on May 20th at 2100hrs. The Institute's information cell would like to disseminate a rumour that our own Corduroy Agents will be in the Deutscheskapital; slip us an e-nod to set up a meeting.
April 2006	The Pilot For A 22nd Century Sitcom telecinematic campaign rattles on. Set course for the Pyramid and Parr Hall this Saturday 8th April and screw in your electro-eyeballs for a zapping of Pilot at the Warrington Film Festival. It's on as part of their Wire Works programme which plugs in at 1945hrs. Liverpool screening: Pilot For A 22nd Century Sitcom will play at Screenscene Northwest's film night at the 'creatives' club 3345 Parr Street this Thursday 6th April. The event begins at 1900hrs. The 3345 club is found, not unreasonably, at number 33-45 Parr Street.
February 2006	Our debut short film A Case Of Making The Knife Fit The Wound is receiving a homecoming showing as part of FACT’s Seen:Liverpool Film Night next Wednesday, the 22nd of February at 7.30pm. There will be a gaggle of cast and crew around so a drunken reunion is not out of the question. Mick’s hair will be acting as a Zoom beacon in the bar, follow it for the aforementioned revelries.
January 2006	Pilot For A 22nd Century Sitcom will play in the Special Program of the 19th Stuttgart Filmwinter festival this Saturday the 21st of January at 12pm. Details of how to snaffle yourself a ticket for the screening at the Filmhaus Stuttgart can be found here.
November 2005	We are honoured to announce that Pilot For A 22nd Century Sitcom will be playing in competition at the up-and-coming International Film Festival Hannover between 1st-4th December. Come and see it. Anyone who happens to be in north Germany at the time, do get in touch as Graeme and Emma will be in attendance for sausages and glory. That’s anyone in north Germany. Anyone. Meanwhile, the Institute's own Mick Sugden has got himself tangled up with goth legends Skeletal Family: he's working on a DVD of the band's gig footage for release in the New Year. The recent Skeletals exposure on Corrie has brought them into wider public awareness, and it doesn't get much bigger than an article in this is bradford.co.uk. And the mini-digi short that we made for North West Vision in 2003, Blip, will be showing at OVERexposed, the Cornerhouse’s new regional filmmaking night that launches on Wednesday 7th Dec at 2015hrs. There’ll be a scattering of the Institute’s practitioners there, not sure who yet, there’s also talk of a talk (so they say).
September 2005	Pilot for a 22nd Century Sitcom has been selected for the Where is the Love? festival in Bucharest. Tell all your Romanian friends immediately. The festival plays from the 1st to the 3rd November 2005. Check the Bucharest Short Film Festival website for updated programme details. None of us are going. We're skint.
August 2005	The Institute's music video for Aidan Smith's Early As The Trees is in the can (i.e. it is finished. Really, it is in a small plastic box). Experts at The Institute strongly advise you to invest in a copy of his Early As The Trees EP for the good of your health. Follow the train of scotch egg crumbs to his new label at Analogue Catalogue Records.
May 2005	We are pleased to announce that to the best of our knowledge A Case of... came joint second for the audience award of the "North by Northwest" category of the the Commonwealth Film Festival 2005 along with four other losers. Graeme and his 'actor' Mick can be seen here anticipating the mediocre result.
April 2005	A Case of Making the Knife Fit the Wound will play at the Commonwealth Film Festival 2005 in Manchester on May 4th. The film will be shown as part of the "North by Northwest" programme, at the Cornerhouse cinema at 20:30 hours. Tickets will be available from April 15th. All ticketholders can gain free entry to a "Local Heroes Party" arranged by the Commonwealth Film Festival at the Tiger Lounge (Cooper Street, the City Centre) after the screening. As this venue is L'Institute Zoom's unofficial Manchester Office, just follow the Zoom team blur, we'll lead the way.(We didn't come up with the "local heroes" tag but encourage its use.)
February 2005	A rough cut of our new short film has been selected for the Kinofilm festival, and will play on Tuesday 22nd February, at the AMC in Manchester. Featuring in the By Invitation Only section profiling works-in-progress by local filmmakers, the short (working title: Pilot For A 22nd Century Sitcom) will be followed by a bumbling, mumbled Q&A session with writer/director Graeme Cole. No heckling, now.
September 2004	A Case of Making the Knife Fit the Wound is now fully edited.
June 2004	L'Institute Zoom supremo Mick Sugden recently led a trip from Keighley College to GMTV at London Television Studios. It was after GMTV finished so unfortunately the bigger names fooked off before the photo was taken, in which Sugden can be seen trying his luck with the weather girl. Zoom collaborators Ben Clements (on end in white T-shirt) and Joe McEvoy (centre with hat) were also on hand to pass on knowledge to the so-called London big-shots. Meanwhile, Keighley College's Arts Factory TV could be broadcasting programmes from Keighley Festival.
April 2004	A Case of Making the Knife Fit the Wound is still being edited within the bowels of Keighley college. We have not forgotten about it. We promise.
November 2003	Blip wrapped at 5am on the 17th November after a weekend of joyous, virtuoso, trouble-free filmmaking.
	The title role in L'Institute Zoom's forthcoming short, Blip, will be now played by Kat Parry following Nina Pascale's decision to devote her life and body to David Blaine.
October 2003	Nina Pascale has been confirmed as the lead role in Blip. Whilst in 'deep method' she visited David Blaine in his box. He definitely waved at her. Graeme was a witness.
September 2003	Graeme Cole has been accepted onto the Draft Zero scheme with a script he has co-written with Emma Hardy. This involves him going to Hanover for a week of 'learning'.
August 2003	A jolly time was had by all during the making of Whistle Down the Wind for the 48 hour film competition over the weekend of 16-18 August. It could be viewed once and once only in a screening at the AMC in Manchester on Sunday 31st. It was a violent contest but the cast and crew for Whistle Down the Wind were the first team to make it to the free bar afterwards.