Meet the winners of the first Photo Stories Contest 2019!

Meet the winners of the first Photo Stories Contest 2019!

• The Grand Prize – The Night Before by Stephan Partipilo
• The Best Photography Master by Sergey Spirin
• The Best Direction Surr. Prise. by Valeriia Vava
• The Best Plot The Scarecrow who had a Heart by Stephane Fedorowsky
• The Users’ Choice Earth: Reloaded by Alexandr Suhoveev

We are grateful to all the participants for joining our contest and producing a great variety of outstanding Photo Stories. Thank you to all the viewers who were voting and supporting the competitors throughout the contest.

Commentaries from the Jury, CINE-BOOKS Production:

Cine-Books Platform is a platform of visual storytelling for which both of the components, photos and a story, are essential as well as the thing that unites them - an idea.

We judge not only the beauty of the photos (there are a lot of different photo contests for this) but also how the photos reveal the narration.

The works of the winners differ according to the style, genre, and photographer’s experience - but we have found the balance between photography and storytelling in all of these stories.

The Photo Story The Night Before completely corresponds to the format of the platform: it has an original story, a high-quality visualization, direction and even the original author’s sound.

The nomination “The Best Photography” turned out to be the most rich for the contenders as a lot of the stories were shot by professional photographers! We have chosen the Photo Story Master as the most atmospheric and cinematic story: it has wide, mid-wide, and close up shots; the way they change throughout the story controls the viewer’s attention, immersing them into the story.

The Photo Story Surr. Prise. turned out to be a real surprise for us. We appreciate innovation and an original style of the author which is inherent for Indie cinematography.

A plot became the weakest part for the majority of the contestants’ works.

We are glad to point out The Scarecrow who had a Heart – this is a completely authentic authorial fairy tale in the best tradition of this genre, perfectly illustrated through Analog Prints.

Just like the users of the platform, we couldn’t pass by the story Earth: Reloaded! This space blockbuster appeared as a contender for the main nomination and for winning the Grand Prize, but this story lacks the well finalized screenplay. However, the scope of the work is impressive and we totally agree with viewers who marked this work with the biggest number of votes!

We are grateful to all the participants of the contest for uploading their stories!

We would like to comment on other works which were considered as contenders for winning in different nominations.

The Tenth Muse – a Story meets the format of the platform. Nice photos, great acting, a completed plot, and high-quality embodiment. We will be glad to enjoy new works by the author, we are waiting for the most bold ideas!

Moonburn – is a Photo Story in the best traditions of European roman-photo, and its cliches which the author skilfully exploits. From great direction to visual components, we are desirous to watch the continuation as the intrigue is still unsaid.

OZ – is a great story. Perfect shots, but not enough. We want to see the continuation and details! Please make the photos in a horizontal format for the  viewer, so that we can estimate the details.

Moon Thief – is a very beautiful fairy tale with impeccable work by the photographer and beautiful models. There is a story and it is interesting but it lacks material, so that we can understand it completely. Probably, the text describing the feelings of the main characters will help.

Light House of Memory – the story is cinematic, it makes you dive into the narration just like a great movie. We got tangled up with the plot. However, we are glad to acknowledge this work as it was in second place according to the Users’ Choice.

Sangre y Sombra – the atmospheric story with a great work of the photographer and direction. We lacked a little bit more intrigue and the process of seduction.

BLKKK – a beautiful story in a style of alternative cinematography. We like both of works from the author. It is perfectly perceived within photos but we would like to see more narration.

Also, we would like to mark stories Belief in predistenation is part of faith and Father for great direction and original ideas. We would add the quantity and quality of photos. Both of the stories are prospective, interesting and we will be glad to watch new works from the author.

We are glad to greet the project Legends of Ossiania! We suggest exploring the opportunities of cine-books viewers as it is specially designed for perception of the content of “photo+text” format using both computer monitors and mobile devices.