Written by Amir Scandar, New Media and Content, DFI

I consider the week I spent at FEST in Espinho, Portugal as one of the most wonderful experiences in my life so far, simultaneously educational and entertaining. The festival was like a melting pot where film enthusiasts from all over the world came to share their experiences, knowledge, and passion.

Most of the masterclasses and workshops were really interesting and appealed to me, but the masterclasses I remember the most were ‘How to Pitch Your Idea’ and ‘Production Designing’. I also thoroughly enjoyed ‘Improvisation with Scandar Copti’, which was really creative. This workshop actually only came about because of the success of Scandar’s masterclass, and I was thrilled when they asked him to give a workshop on improvisation.

To me, FEST was not only about the festival – it was about the people there who were very welcoming, generous, and hospitable. During our visit, they made us feel at home and surrounded us with attention and care.

I remember how sad we were on the last day, when we realised that it was all over and we were heading back home. Writing about this now brings me back to that feeling, and the happiness I felt when I was halfway through the festival, knowing that I still had three days left. Espinho I miss you, but I’ll see you next year!

DFI"s Amir Scandar with a FEST attendee.

Written by Noor Ahmad, FEST attendee

On the 26th June 2011 my adventure began. The plan was to attend FEST 2011 in Espinho, Portugal, and it was an adventure because it was my first time travelling without my family to a European country. I was scared at the beginning, but I quickly found out that there was nothing to be scared of. The country was awesome and the people were very kind and friendly.

FEST started with a speed meeting, which was really helpful as we got to know a little about the backgrounds of the participants and their countries, who came from all over the world just to share their love of films.

The week we spent at FEST was full of workshops and film screenings from around the globe. The workshops were really useful to a young director such as myself, so I am going to tell you about what I experienced during my favourite workshops, and during the animation and fiction short film screenings.

My favourite workshop was called ‘Building your Characters’ with Martin Dale. Martin started by talking about the character’s journey – how it can be changed by other characters, and how the hero of the story changes his/her path. The process works just like drawing a triangle, because all of the lines connect back to each other – just like the way the characters affect each other.

He also talked about the characters ‘mask’ and how it works – the idea is to make your imaginary characters alive and as realistic as possible. The mask can fall during the story, when they are relaxed or angry, or sometimes not fall at all during the whole film. Martin then went on to discuss the voiceover and how it could affect the audiences feelings, but personally I didn’t agree with everything, as I prefer to let the audience chose their feeling about the characters.

We also discussed the connection between the beginning and the end in the characters journey. While this connection is always there, you should also have a beat in the middle to carry the viewers through every feeling and dissection that comes out of the characters. Lastly, Martin talked about something that I found very interesting, which is the environment that surrounds the character. For example, the house that the hero lives in can also affect how he chooses to determine his path on his journey.

As I mentioned, I also thoroughly enjoyed the animation and fiction short film screenings. They were in five competitive sessions, and in every session they screened six of the best short films I have ever seen. The fiction shorts were unbelievably amazing in the way they told the story and in the way they shot it, and it was the same for the animation – some were done as sketches and others as 3d animation. It was really good to watch, and the techniques they used were great. They were a collection from France, Portugal, Berlin, the UK, America and other countries, and I enjoyed every single one of them.

At the end of my adventurous week I felt that I was full of information and ideas, and now I can’t wait to start working on my own film. Hopefully, next year I could even be showing mine on the screen at FEST!

FEST attendee and DFI pupil Noor Ahmad.

Written by Meriem Mesraoua, FEST attendee

The masterclasses at FEST felt like university lectures: a big room filled with seats, where people were either scribbling, wrestling with sleep-depravation, or absorbed by the speaker’s every word. And that person, the speaker, is the reason why they’ve made an effort to go in that room in the first place – to learn about something they’re passionate about.

At FEST passion seemed to be key – most participants and organisers I had the opportunity of meeting only had cinema on their mind!

FEST is designed for youth, and while many complain nowadays that film festivals tend to rely heavily on just selling ideas (or ‘new-borns’), the ambiance at FEST felt different. The training ground made it obvious that to succeed you always have to learn first, while also remaining open-minded and critical – open-minded because you’re exposed to a myriad of ideas and people you aren’t necessarily used to; and critical because you still need to preserve your perspective on how you view things.

Indeed, after being exposed to a panorama of ways of doing things (such as directing, operating a camera, writing a script and so forth) it’s obvious that you’re not looking into replicating someone’s work, but are actually finding a new way to engage people and have them sit through the entirety of your work.

Here are some tips and memorable quotes I picked up on at FEST:

Music Composition
Associate colours to music, as it leads to broader themes and ideas.

Documentary Making
People had several opinions on this, and while some were similar, some were completely different, which was very interesting!

• “It’s a matter of shooting with the right equipment, not the best.”
• “If you don’t have the right equipment and script, don’t go out and shoot.”
• “Don’t think about what lights are on: just go out and shoot.”

Building your Character

• “Based on life, we’re all essentially fools and that’s an important aspect of the creation of your character.”
• “The ambiguity in films lies in the relationship between your character’s mask and their shadow, as the latter is what is trying to ‘take over’ by the end of the film.”
• “It’s all about the narration. The idea is crucial, as it somehow has to be shaped and put into perspective for all to watch – or rather, you want them to want to watch all of it.”

FEST attendee Meriem Mesraoua taking in local art at a museum.

Written by Mohammed Al-Ibrahim, Education, DFI

FEST was one of the best experiences of my life. It was a small festival of filmmakers (mostly from Europe) that come together to watch films, attend masterclasses, and network. The fact that it’s a small festival gives the filmmaker a sense of importance.

Most of the people attending were students from film schools. That is where the bond became stronger, as the participants all related to each other. The countries represented were Portugal, Germany, Belgium, Finland, Greece, France, England, Spain and, of course, Qatar.

One of the most interesting things for me was watching the entire short documentary programme. There were films from all over Europe and the common denominator amongst them seemed to be humanitarian causes.

One of them, ‘Sonor’ (‘Sonar’ in English) really caught my attention. It was about a deaf ballet dancer and a musician (the filmmaker) who were able to communicate to each other through music and sound experimentation. It was more of a social experiment, and the results were outstanding.

The festival was also very eager to bring everyone together at the end of the day. Every night there was a dinner where all the participants would get together over a meal, and it was a great way to mingle and to get to know every person attending the festival.

DFI's Associate Producer Mohammed Al-Ibrahim.