[30.05.2008 first posted on silicon republic]
Digital media graduate Brian Deane didn’t even realise his short film had been seen by viewers of Dublin-based internet TV company Babelgum when he got the call that he had been chosen as one of the finalists in the Babelgum Online Film Festival.

With a panel of high-profile judges headed by esteemed director Spike Lee, Dean’s film, Without Words, was chosen as the winner of the Babelgum Social/Environment Award, and Spike Lee has some words of his own for the first-time film maker, telling Deane that the film had really touched him.
Submitted when he was still a student at the Huston School of Film and Digital Media, Without Words was presented with the Babelgum award last week on stage at the prestigious Cannes Film Festival.
With an Irish winner in a global digital media company that is based in Dublin, and Ireland making the top 30 countries by volume of entry, Deane agrees Ireland is fast becoming a hotbed for the online independent film industry.
While most people associate online film with poor-quality, mind-numbing content that can often be found on sites like YouTube, Deane thinks the Babelgum online film festival – the first of its kind – is giving weight to this emerging industry.
“The thing that astounded me about Babelgum was the quality of the filmmaking – it entices professional level content,” he said.
Despite the rising profile of online film, Deane thinks the old-fashioned cinema is here to stay: “The visual structure of the big screen, the building intensity between cuts. The main focus on the bottom left may be the actor and then it cuts to next frame, it is more intense if you have to move your head.”
While Deane thinks these two industries can co-exist. also he thinks that online film may be the death of DVD and the physical format.
By Marie Boran
Pictured: Spike Lee presents rebel Brian Deane with the Babelgum online film festival award for Without Words