Art Line

Think of a line… think of a unity of dots, floating freely through out the space…

Now think of a unity of young people, floating through the cre8ive world of ideas…think of Art Line…

It all started almost a year ago, at the beginning of 2006. Till then, C8 had worked mainly on promotional films, we all felt that it was high time to set free our ideas in the field of short art films. And so, the Art Line Project was born. At first it looked like an ambitious & promising idea, but later on it proved to be much more. The point was to open this project for other inspired young people as well, so we made an open invitation to all young film enthusiasts to join C8 as cooperators in this project. It was absolutely fantastic to realize that out there there are so many young inspired & inspiring people, who look for opportunities to devote the cre8ive energy.

The Art Line Project was an opportunity like that. Even from the very beginning of the project was followed by fresh, open-minded ideas. Three intriguing topics were chosen to be the themes for the films.We were to work on Flirt, Paradox & Muse. All three ideas are closely connected to the young person, who copes with the flirt in the everyday life, looking for a muse, source of inspiration, while trying to understand the paradox of living to die. After 2 months active work on the scripts, we started filming the 1st Art Line film "Flirt". It was an unbelievable experience. Experience that helped C8 to mature like a team in a way and develop relationships with the talented people taking part on the Art Line project. We also got deeper into the work of professional film making. It was amazing being part of a team of young amateur professionals, working with such enthusiasm.

We managed to film the 15 min film in 2 days, or shall I say 2 nights. The location where the filming was set, Kapan An, was a perfect for the flirt crime. Mysterious hallways, candle lights, beautiful girls, and shining coins… it's just part of the story. Wait for the rest by February 2006, when to postproduction of the film is about to be finished.

What are we having for dinner tonight? ... Beer & chocolate?!

19-23 November was the time when Cre8ive 8 decided that they would become expansive, hence Tamara, Martin and Stefan were sent to the EU & ME conference to Brussels, Belgium. Discussions and workshops were held on a daily bases during this period, and these 3 Cre8ives managed to cover all of them, plus some incriminating shots of participants swilling divine and absolutely delicious Belgian beer!
None of the participants were camera shy, nor were the MEPs (Members of European Parliament) who were interviewed in the enormous building of the Parliament. Attentively following our work throughout were Elizabeta Jovanovska and Andrew Hadley, and of course our dear friends from Blue Sky, Andreja, Sofia and Igor.
Accidentally meeting Robert Jankulovski and his photography team from Macedonia, was a good opportunity to see ancient Macedonian pictures on the walls of the Parliament’s substantial building. These two teams were a happy combination to film and show the Macedonian audience where and how our culture is being presented.
Overall, the experience was invaluable, the team worked smoothly, we became a small family, and we tasted the best beer and Belgian chocolates that were ever made!

Alex going international!

One of Cre8ive8 members, Aleksandar Mickov has been invited to be a Jury member in a one minute film contest taking place in Amsterdam, Netherlands from 17-19 of November this year. He will present the award for the best film clip at the Conference organised by UNICEF. This is another great achievement for Cre8ive8 since last year when they won the award for the best film clip on theme Voices of Youth. Good Luck to Aleksandar and may he present Cre8ive8 in the best light.

GDLN Achievement

Macedonian video entry "Stairways", produced by Cre8ive8, ranked third for the People's Choice Award at the 2006 GDLN World Forum, held in Washington DC on 9-11 October 2006.

Dear humans & Blue Sky beings? we're happy to inform you about Cre8ive8's new achievement :) Not more than a month ago C8, supported by the British Council's Study & Conference Centre and in cooperation with the State Authority for Geodetic Works, decided to take part in the World Bank's Global Development Learning Network (GDLN) Video Competition. We were due to submit a 3 minute video clip that would celebrate the achievements and illustrate the impact on the GDLN related work over here in Macedonia. Thus why, the video's main "heroes" are the employees of the State Authority for Geodetic Works that attended the GDLN video sessions. Anyways, just a couple of days ago the announcement came that:

Macedonian video entry "Stairways", produced by Cre8ive8, ranked third for the People's Choice Award at the 2006 GDLN World Forum, held in Washington DC on 9-11 October 2006.

"When our video was announced, it was described as "very interesting production and very different from the other entries" by Monika Weber-Fahr, Manager of the GDLN and Multimedia Division at the World Bank Institute." - says Zarko Koneski, the British Council's Study & Conference Centre representative at the GDLN World Forum 2006.

Other countries that participated as well were: Australia/Timor Leste, Benin, India, Macedonia, Mexico, Morocco, The Netherlands, Thailand and Ukraine, and the awards were presented by Frannie Lautier, Vice President, World Bank Institute, and members of the jury.

Even though video entres like these are not Cre8ive8's main goal this is yet another achievement and proof that we have grown into a professional film crew.

Off we go looking 4 new challenges :)

About US :)

Searching for definition ….. searching … sorry… not even close to finding one ;)

… but what we could say about ourselves is that we are a very unique film crew project, a young people's film production, a mixture of personalities and worlds, a cure for all the dullness and ignorance in the world … but most of all we are dreamers…

And just like every dreamer we searched for a way to get things done! And we searched for something that would give us a boost sky high :) Well, we found it .. or to be more accurate, it found us .. :P Of course it was the British Council Macedonia. It not only started the initiative to create such a project and provided training and support but it also got us together, gathered us from the busy streets of our country and our continent :) and it was such blend in deed.


But why play with matches?

Answer: To light up the fire even more! Dohhh … you should have known that ;) Joking … Well, in our case Blue Sky was the fire. Those of you who are familiar with it should know what it means and understand why you must experience it 1st hand, but for those of you that do not know here's some more info (hopefully they have a definition J):

- Blue Sky (flying high) is the biggest youth network in Macedonia. Blue Sky is also a project of the British Council and it has been running successfully for 5 years now. It has more than 1200 members all across the country and many event during the whole year. But definitely the most special one is the famous 10 day Blue Sky Summer School. It’s absolutely wild & extremely crazy … but you can find more bout that on www.bluesky.org.mk … So, as time passed and Blue Sky got bigger a need appeared to get the summer school filmed …


And that's were we came in … what a better way to document the Blue Sky life changing and fulfilling experience than to create a film crew project that would film it and then make miracles with the already enchanting material


That unforgettable day we hatched …

This incredible event happened in Krusevo in the year of the Monkey (2004). Five of us were previously chosen to attend and become the 1st generation of Cre8ives … Boy, little did they know how that small and trivial gathering would change lives, bring success and eventually become an inspiration to many. They, along with Elizabeta Jovanovska, Paul Oxborough and Andrew Hadley (see members to find out more on these suspicious characters) decided upon the name Cre8ive8 and that outrageous logo that every single one of us seems to be in love with.


Of course there's not only 8 of us ….

Probably the most frequent question people ask us right after we introduce ourselves is …
- Why is there an 8 at the end your name if you're more than 20 people?

The answer to that question is as simple as they get. It's not an 8!!!
Gotcha ya :P

When you have an 8 like that and decide to give it push so that it fall down horizontally you get ~ … and then you'd know that it's a symbol for something … but if it doesn't ring a bell then you didn't pay enough attention to you math's teacher … because he/she would have probably explained that that horizontal eight is actually the math's symbol for eternity. So, there you have it … eternally Creative :) Think outside the box .. remember?


The drugs we take and deal …

What you need to know about our team is that our purpose is not to become the ultimate professional production, shoot Hollywood blockbusters, make tones of money, have loads of babies, a house with a garden and dog called Bob .. Nope, it's much more different than that …

You see, we live in the real world and in a country where not everything is possible (yet!) … therefore looking ourselves in the mirror we thought that it would only be brilliant and noble to dedicate ourselves & our work to the very thing that got us involved in C8 and ultimately changed our lives.


Youth people and their Voice!!! Our Voice!!!

The thing is that all of us, in Cre8ive8, realized that both film and media can be such powerful tools that can be used to question negative views, prejudices but at the same time create an opportunity for young people to be heard … because as Andrew says:
"Young people are not the future. They are the present!"

This according to us is one of the most important things in the world along with finding the way to express our creativity :) And so, we have adopted the Kevin Spacey Pay It Forward Concept :P
… Of course little fame wouldn't hurt :P