Smartfilms, in search of audiovisual talents outside the box

We live in the era of audiovisual. Smart cell phones have democratized the possibility of generating and the potential for dispersing content, for better and for worse. The audiovisual offer it is unfathomable. Viralized content is not a promise of quality or a guarantee of responsibility for what is published and shared. However, the public is there, everywhere, armed with a cell phone, increasingly heterogeneous and willing to spend more time on short-term content.

In its National Survey of Audiovisual Content Consumption 2020-2021the Federal Telecommunications Institute (IFT) indicates that only in this period the consumption of audiovisual content online grew eight percentage points compared to 2019. This same report shows how short video applications (TikTok, Kwai, etc.) have already surpassed massive social networks such as Facebook and Instagram, 40% of the first compared to 22% and 9% of the latter, respectively.

The fact confirms the need for professionalization of the online content creationwhich also becomes a source of creatives for the formal film industry.

To reach

In this sea of demand and supply of digital content, for five years in our country there has been a project in charge of detecting, training, professionalizing and inserting new talents in film creation into the industry, Smartfilms, a festival that goes beyond a simple contest and every year it invites the general public to send their short-term works filmed exclusively with a cell phone.

This Thursday, the director of Smartfilms, Damara Aguilar, presented the calls and details of the five categories to which the fifth edition of the festival calls: Professional, Advertising Spot, Amateur, Vertical Film and, the new category of this edition: Reportage. While the first three are free on the orientation of the frame, the last two must be delivered vertically.

Each of the categories has a rigorous time limit and is backed by a brand that will support the talent in a variety of ways. For example, the Advertising Spot Category is sponsored by a Japanese car line that asks participants to make a spot of no more than 30 seconds that creatively spreads the benefits of its ecological technology. In addition to the amount obtained, the first place will have the opportunity to film their spot professionally for the brand.

Vertical film It will be supported by a short video application that will help the winner and other chosen ones, if applicable, to position their content and monetize it. The Reportage category is also supported by a news platform that is looking for new visual journalism talents to help them in their professionalization.

Unleash new talent

What stands out from this series of calls, points out Damara Aguilar, is that Smartfilms is focused on the didactic field for the professionalization of new content generators, because the initiative bets that that will be where the names of the future of the industry will come from. audiovisual. After all, many of the now established began their stubbornness with short films.

“We are going back to the beginning, where audiovisual media were sustained by brands. Although we moved to the platforms, the basic principles of content support are not far from their origin. That is why the presence of Smartfilms becomes crucial. We want to become that platform where the public that does not have access to film training can become a professional”, declares the director for Mexico of the event that, by the way, has its origin in Colombia.

“In Mexico we still have a long way to go to teach that you can also live from the content we generate,” he adds. “You have to learn and teach how to monetize talent, that art, that contribution to culture with the potential to generate perceptions and to be the main source of livelihood.”

Damara Aguilar, director of Smartfilms. Photo EE: Special

For this reason, although Smartfilms will have its exhibition of selected videos on November 2 and its award ceremony on November 6, the team’s work is comprehensive and annual.

“Since the festival began, the agenda has not stopped. All year we are training the public. We go to all the places in the country where they are requested, we train audiences, institutions, schools, so that whoever is interested can film with their cell phone. The idea is that once they have taken the workshop to create their short film, we continue to provide Smart Talks, that is, conferences in which we bring experts from the audiovisual world so that they can share their experience with all the participants. The most remarkable thing about Smartfilms is its social impact, because, as you know, this is a small industry, a very closed circle”, he concludes.