Nokia Music isn’t just about listening to your favourite tracks, it’s about finding new ones, too. To celebrate this joy of discovery, Nokia Music recently launched a competition in collaboration with the Sundance London Film & Music Festival. Its aim was simple: To encourage filmmakers to showcase the amazing, the unusual and the unknown music scenes in their cities.
To do this they had to create a trailer for a short movie to be filmed on a Nokia Lumia 920. Now, after going through hundreds of fantastic entries, the judges have finally chosen two lucky winners. Cue drum roll!
“There’s nothing like a Sound System” By Bartosz Madejski
“Glasgow’s reggae sound systems are gaining worldwide fame these days. Sound system sessions are both the opportunity to see famous producers, MC’s and singers and a showcase Glasgow’s own music and style. Heavy bass is the main focus – music played on custom made speakers sounds powerful, clean and organic. Music played in big warehouses, small clubs and sometimes the most unlikely secret locations. Music that brings people from all backgrounds together and makes Glasgow an exciting place to live.”
“Red Earth Hip Hop” By Jason Van Genderen
“Take a music culture built on survival and introduce it to the world’s oldest surviving indigenous race. ‘Red Earth Hip Hop’ is the trailer for an inspiring, visceral documentary that examines the underground pulse that’s travelled all the way from the Bronx to the red heart of the Australian outback, empowering a new generation of Aboriginal Australian youth with both story and voice. Didgeridoo meets turntable. Clap sticks meet beatbox. If ever there was a music to liberate the oppressed and celebrate the magic of song… that music would be ‘Red Earth Hip Hop’.”
The Judges on the winners
Here’s what Nokia Music Short Film Competition judges, Trevor Groth, Director of Programming for the Sundance Film Festival and Mike Plante, founder of indie distributor Cinemad Presents, had to say about the winning idea’s trailers.
“We found the two shorts, Hip Hop Australia and Reggae Glasgow, very engaging and illuminating. Both show how incredibly popular forms of music can be adapted to become exceptionally personal and symbolic of a specific region, even a neighborhood. Reggae Glasgow seduces you into the Glasgow nightlife and truly makes you feel the music and its cultural impact. Hip Hop Australia may be as underground and unique as you could get by reframing the way we think about seemingly disparate but intrinsically linked styles of music.”
A festival of film fun
Huge congrats to the two winners, who’ll receive two Nokia Lumia 920s and a $5,000 budget to shoot their film. Once completed both films will get a special screening at the Sundance London Film & Music Festival (2013) in April, and one lucky grand prizewinner will walk away with $5,000 and a Nokia Lumia 920.
We can’t wait to see the end result. In the meantime, we’d love to hear your thoughts on the winning trailers.