It’s not just the Creative department who are creative at BCM. BCM’s young in-house video editor, Noel Smyth was a finalist in the recent Courier-Mail/Brisbane International Film Festival’s (BIFF) Fast Film competition for aspiring filmmakers.

Fast Film is a national competition which gives filmmakers 50 days to shoot a short film of five minutes or less. There was no restriction on the subject matter or genre of each short film, however, in keeping with this year’s BIFF focus on film noir, the essential ingredient featured in each film was a ‘hat’.

Noel’s entry titled ’One Hat of Bad Luck’ is a contemplative piece which tells the story of an elderly man, busking with a black trilby hat, reflecting on the choices he has made in his life and the choices he faces in the future. In keeping with the ‘film noir’ theme of the 2006 BIFF, Noel’s film was shot in black and white, with the elderly man’s flashbacks distinctly highlighted in colour.

The ten Fast Film finalists, selected from over 100 hundred entries, were presented in a special public screening as part of the Festival.

A great effort for a 19 year old who has only been working in the industry for two years.

Mac Artist Melinda Pearce from BCM’s Art Studio has also had her artistic creative juices flowing, participating in the Brisbane City Council’s Artforce project.

Artforce is a public arts project that gives residents the opportunity to turn the city’s traffic signal boxes (TSB’s) into works of art. Prospective TSB artists must first submit their design for approval and nominate the location of the TSB they’d like to beautify. TSB artworks can last up to 4 years.

Melinda chose a TSB on Gregory Terrace, close to the Brisbane Show Grounds, home to the 130 year old Brisbane ‘Ekka’ (Royal Show) which is held annually each August, and her artwork celebrated a perennial Ekka favourite, the strawberry ice-cream.

BCM partner Paul Cornwell said “it’s great to see staff members in the agency who come from departments outside the traditional Creative realm embracing creative artistic endeavours. It’s fantastic that the agency can foster such talented young people”.