Student of HSE Art and Design School Becomes Finalist of Italian Film Festival
The work by Sofia Fedotova, 4th-year student of the Bachelor's track 'Communication Design', has made it to the final of the MAX3MIN 'very short' film festival in Italy.
In the third module of her third year, Sofia created a music video for the song 'Escape' by Rupert Holmes for the MAX3MIN festival as an assignment on working with contests. The work made it to the final and was screened in the final show alongside works by other contestants. In the video, the main character starts to annoy a girl who he has been dating for a long time. One morning, he reads an advertisement on a personal columns page and decides to meet up with a mysterious woman. You can find out what happens next in the video.
Sofia Fedotova, 4th-year student of the Bachelor's track 'Communication Design'
In the third module, our whole group worked on the brief for MAX3MIN—it is a contest for videos up to three minutes long on an open topic. I had already done a lyrics video for the song 'Escape' with a very clear plot, so all that was left to do was to illustrate it. This song is from the 70s, which is why I drew inspiration from illustrations, animation and comics from that period. In June, I received a letter about getting into the final. On the same day, we had our last additional consultation of the year, which is always very stressful. So I decided to put the news aside until the end of the module. In summer, I sent some additional materials for the presentation. During the voting, we received a huge number of comments (the link to the website was in all the family chats). It was fun! My curator Ilya Bannikov truly helped me, not only as a curator but also psychologically. When there's one week before the exam period and you have only one animatic, it really calms you down to be told that you can still do it in time and get constructive advice.
The MAX3MIN Very Short Film Festival is an international festival of short films up to three minutes long. The organisers collect stories from all over the world which can fit into a short song and halt the rapid passage of time. Founded as a digital festival in 2021, it has since become a hybrid festival that screens selected films on a big screen.