Bazelevs Entertainment, the production company founded and operated by celebrated producer/director Timur Bekmambetov (Unfriended: Dark Web, Hardcore Henry), have launched their second International Screenlife Project Contest. The goal of the Screenlife contest is to discover new stories in a variety of categories, and to help support their production.
Bekmambetov is the creative mind behind the "Screenlife" genre of film, first made popular by the terrifying Unfriended, released by Universal, and later by the 2018 widely acclaimed Sundance sensation Searching, bought by Sony following the world premiere.
"Screenlife seems to be the only way of telling stories about us, about people who spend half of their days online. You can look at me with my phone in hand and you won't understand what's going on with me, but if you get to watch what's going on inside my phone or my laptop — that's how you get to know everything about me," says a representative at Bazelevs about the dynamic shift of perspective explored exclusively by Screenlife. "It's funny to see the retro approach we still have in traditional movie making — we see bank robberies where people with guns attack the bank office, but hey, nobody does that anymore. To rob a bank some hacker would just use a computer. Our hope is that, thanks to our contest, more cinematographers will start exploring screenlife as a narrative."
The genre is unique for its defining feature of being exclusively framed inside a screen. While completed films so far have mostly been regulated to computer displays, in the guidelines for this new contest Bazelevs Entertainment defines the creative composition as a screen of any kind - computer, tablet, smartphone, or software and app programs. Storylines must always engage format, and illustrate in some way the intimate relationship between user and technology.
Submissions are open from now till September 1st to submit a pitch in one of three categories: feature, documentary, or series. Bazelevs’ jury panel will determine one winner from each category. Chosen projects are offered an option and purchase agreement with Bazelevs Entertainment, with an opportunity to get their project fully funded and produced.
More information can be found on the Screenlife website, with editorials, videos, technical walkthroughs, and will soon offer an app to record your own Screenlife capture videos at home!
To register your pitch for the contest and to find the full rules, please click HERE.
