I think the 5 minute time limit is restraint enough - especially when combined with the theme that everyone must base their film on.

-Chris
Studentfilms.com

Some ideas:
"Destiny" and/or "Fate"
"The Last ______"
"Crumbs" (just an awesome word all around.)
"A Train"
or maybe instead of a theme, a subgenre. "Parody," "dark comedy," "mockumentary" come to mind.

I like the idea of having the theme be a number...

Public restrooms.

There you go. You can't beat the tension when you walk into a public restroom to take a leak and somebody in the stall is trying to be quiet about dropping one. That theme could lead to some interesting results.

If people are worried about the restraints, how about keeping the themes more general? Like "a sound"?

"what would it be like if I wasn't here?"
"The Domino Effect"

As for the 5 minute constraint, in the past I was involved with a 5 minute monthly film festival. And 5 minutes was a little too much of a constraint. Every month I would have been pleased with just one more minute. I would say instead of setting a max say 10 minutes or less. Maybe 7. Same with everyone elses. Yes it takes skill to compact a story into 5 minutes...but that's just from my expierence with 5 minute festivals. It ends up being more of annoyance than a healthy challenge.

Suggested Themes:
"A Wall" (to play off of the last theme "A Road")
"A Plant"
"Bitter Love"
"Sound"
"Dropped off"
"Cliffhanger"
"Film Noir"
"Reflections"
"Evan Kubota"

"time"

quote:

"Evan Kubota"

HAHAHAHA. Oh boy.

Themes I wouldn't mind:
"bugs"
"Metamorphoses/Ovid, anyone?"
"Death to Shakespeare"
"translucence"
I like Palm Tree Armada's "crumbs"
"reversed"
"the body"
"ire"

I'd like to add that I second kmann's "Time."
Its one of my very favorite ideas and i happen to be working on something that has to do with it right now.

Third "time". Getting visions.

how bout "student film cliche's"

quote:

how bout "student film cliche's"

I hope that was a joke.

I like armada's idea "The Last ____." A common, yet small constraint, and widely open for interpretation and artistic exploration.

coughtimecough

I personaly liked the idea of playing with the theme "fairytales", because then you will truley see a filmmaker's creativity and use of material. It gives a wide range of ideas and instantly egnites the imagination. I would like to see how other filmmaker's inturpret the theme because I garantee noone will have the same outlook. Thats what I think.

heres some more i thought of

get to the point
Where are the wizards
amused with nothing
our own kingdoms built
Closer to screens

We could just do what Hollywood does, and remake all of last year's entries.

Spungebob squarepants and its effects on the psycological development of today's youth.

I know it's got to be a cliche, but for the TFC I did last year, the theme was "The End of the World". At the screening, it was really cool how many people took it in different directions. Also, I think that having to use a certain prop would be really cool as well. Just my thoughts, and "time" is so general..

-Kegan