It was way exciting to turn it over and see that the winner of the My Home Town competition (In Case I Disappear) actually had their film on the disc, even though I knew they would. So thanks Marie at Soda Pictures for helping to put together such a great competition with us! I find it exciting that we were able to offer distribution for some of the entries on the Internet, television, DVD and at festival screenings.

The four which will air on 3 Minute Wonder as a series early next year, and each get £1,500, are:

In Case I Disappear – Simon Aeppli
Parade – Mathy Tremwan
My Amersham – Marco Williamson
Stratford Side B – Christopher Chen

So congrats to them, and everyone who entered. You can now watch all 12 shortlisted films in the new My Home Town player, or leave comments about individual films in the blog. Do you think we chose the best films? And what did you make of the way Lee discussed them? Let me know…

It’s about his memories and dreams and experiences growing up in a small boring town. How did where you come from help shape who you are today? You don’t need to physically put yourself in front of the camera, but you must stamp your own personality firmly onto your film. And in homage to Guy’s experimental nature, we want to ask you to really push the boundaries of what documentaries can and should be like.

One way to create something for this is to write commentary to lay down with moving images of your home town, perhaps reflecting on how it’s changed, or why you love/hate/am so totally indifferent to it.

Perhaps you could use archive in an interesting way, or like Guy use your siblings to reenact key moments from your childhood. Is there something strange happening in your hometown that outsiders would never guess goes on? Or an interesting character to investigate, someone who everyone recognise, but few know much about? Perhaps this could be a chance to try out basic animation techniques or a new self interviewing technique. We want to build up a collection of intimate insights into places around the UK, and the people who live there, that visually look completely different.

As well as 4 films being played on Channel 4 (and receiving £1500 each) Guy is going to pick one film to go the DVD of My Winnipeg as an extra feature. And that person will also win a holiday to Canada! The distribution company Soda Pictures have a built a site for you upload your films to directly, and read more about the competition. You need to get films up on-line and send us the link by the end of August, so get thinking and creating now. And feel free to post any questions about style and techniques here, and I’ll do my best to answer them.