Victorian filmmakers dominated the BelowGround Music Video Fest Awards on Thursday July 20, winning two of the four prizes – Best Funded Clip and Best Independent Clip.

Director Anto Skene (left) and producer Anne Gertos, of Melbourne’s Tim Spicer Film and Television, won the Panavision Award for Best Funded Clip -- $5000 equipment supply from Panavision Australia – with their TZU clip In Front of Me. This whacky creation features a Playschool-type intro and leads into a performance by a puppet-headed TZU clad in that garment beloved to children’s TV performers, the skivvy. “I used to love Romper Room,” said Anto Skene as he accepted his lens-shaped Swedish crystal trophy. “I spent a large chunk of my life watching it as a kid in northern Queensland.”

Another filmmaking team from the Vic capital, director Kasimir Burgess and producer Adrian Moses, won the TressCox Lawyers Award for Best Independent Clip ($2500 legal advice from film experts TressCox) with Broken Bones by The Blackchords. This clip, which also won the SoundKilda this June, was partially shot underwater, with clothed musicians and extras, and during the shoot Burgess found himself diving into Footscray Pool to rescue a drowning extra. “It turned out he couldn’t swim,” said Burgess. “He could dog paddle a bit, but under the weight of the clothes he started to go under.”        

The Avid Award for Best Use of Visual Effects went to New Zealand filmmakers Preston McNeil and Jeremy Mansford (right), who co-directed and produced the animated Mana’s Bounce Clip by Recloose. The Wellington lads, who made the pilgrimage to Sydney for the fest and provided several moments of raucousness during the screenings (especially when their own clip came on!) walked away with an Xpress Pro software pack worth $2800.

And the Kodak Best New Filmmaker Award went to Sydney director-producer Matt Chuang (seen below with BelowGround director Anthony Maguire), who made the Night With Chopper clip starring – you guessed it – the tattooed and mutilated-eared one himself, Chopper Read (with more than a bit of help from hip- hoppers Hyjak and Torcha). Matthew scored five rolls of Kodak Motion picture film worth $1000 for his next production.

BelowGround 4 screened 19 independent clips and 11 in the funded category  ($10,000-plus budgets from record labels). The audience of almost 200 watched from the comfort of lounge chairs, couches and cushions set up at the Annandale Hotel, which has a proud tradition indie film nights as well as live music. Talking of which, when the last of the 30 clips finished, the screen at the front of the stage slid up and punk anarchist four piece KILL THE CAPITOL (right) launched into a fast and furious set.

As KTC blasted forth on stage, the three BelowGround 4 judges – Nick G. from Panavision Australia, Sean Glasson from Kodak Australasia and Garrick Simeon from Avid Australia (below) -- went into a huddle in the Annandale’s side bar. They had just watched a program of clips where the production standards were overwhelmingly high, each one so distinctive that it wasn’t going to be easy labeling four of them the ‘best.’ But some jewels shine more brightly than others. After conferring about 15 minutes, Sean Glasson handed BelowGround director Anthony Maguire a piece of paper with the winners’ names and clips on it. 

The good news for all independent clip makers who entered BelowGround is that we’ll be exploring exciting distribution opportunities for you and look forward to discussing those in the coming weeks.

Thanks very much to all those who made this year’s BelowGround such a resounding success. As you’ll see from the print program that you can download on this site, BelowGround 4 screened clips from NSW, Victoria, Queensland, South Australia, the ACT and New Zealand. We’ve become a significant event on the film and music horizons and look forward to further advancing the cause of Australian and NZ music clip makers in the very near future.