Moments of Film

Why I Joined A Very British Cult!

2012-02-07T12:25:00.007Z

The newest project I'm working on is the latest feature documentary from the incredible team who made the successful 'Beyond Biba' James Collie and Louis Price et al at November Films.

I met James way back in 2010 at a marketing and distribution seminar and then later at the London Screenwriters festival where he was giving a talk on writing for documentary and documentary storytelling. The team at November Films not only produce quality work but distribute in a way that brings the scope of documentary back to a cinematic form for theatrical 'event' release. James and I became festival buddies and attending screenings and events I found he had a lot to teach me about the business side of production and distribution. I hope that in joining the team to explore this documentary I can not only bring my own skills to the table but take away some of the magic that makes November Films productions so incredibly successful and well respected wherever they are shown, and also learn more about event theatrical distribution.

This documentary in particular is fascinating as it has a very personal journey to take. Director Louis Price was only 2 years old when his parents joined Exegesis group, an organisation who ran extreme self-help seminars. The group obtained cult status with Louis' parents among others moving into a network of houses in North West London and giving their leader, ex actor Robert D'Aubigny, a guru like status among their community and actively seeking to change British Society.

The group raised questions in the House of Commons that led to a fruitless Scotland Yard investigation and eventually closed down but during it's time it transformed into a legitimate business 'Programmes Ltd' and became in a record amount of time one of the most successful and award winning enterprises in Britain. These people could sell almost anything to anyone.

As someone who reached my own maturity in the 1980s it was a transforming time all around in the UK, but this story and the very personal, almost frightening journey the Louis is taking into a group that had a profound effect on his own childhood was too irresistible to pass up, in particular because other documentaries on the subject were quite biased toward the press sensationalism about the Exegesis group and with Louis attached we get to take a far more in-depth and independent look at the roots of this cult and how it infiltrated the top tiers of society today.

For that reason the film is being crowd funded in order to produce a truly independent and unbiased delve into a phenomenon of UK history. What we will discover will no doubt be a unique perspective on our own culture and A Very British Cult indeed. As Assistant Producer on the first documentary project I have ever worked on I am certain I'll have a lot of my own learning to share along the journey also under the mentorship of the most excellent November Films team.

Click on the link above to take a look and get involved yourself from as little as $5. We hope you'll join our November Films 'cult' and let us 'brainwash' you with knowledge as we explore this story with you. And do spread the word!

I, Cowbirdy

2012-01-19T02:57:00.007Z

I’ve been using the website Cowbird for just over a month now. Developed by artist Jonathan Harris as a new type of platform to share stories of our life experiences with each other, the site offers space to create something that is more meditative than the fast moving, frequently updated, timelines we currently use to connect on the Internet. Cowbird then enables those stories to be seen in the wider context of shared human story. And while the content of the site may hold more weight than other mediums, the functionality remains as light, contemporary and organic to use as any you’ll find on the web. These qualities of chewing the cud (Cow) while remaining swift and breezy (bird) are what make Cowbird what it is. And what makes it's users, Cowbirdy.

Each story created inhabits it’s own page on the Cowbird website where it can be seen as a lone entry, a single picture with accompanying text and/or audio. User added metadata includes information such as dates, locations with maps and character profiles for people appearing in the stories, or to whom a story can be dedicated. The metadata, as well as giving background texture to individual stories, allows them to be grouped into mosaic story pages searchable by tags and themes uniting story collections grouped say by, ‘Family’ or ‘Coffee’ or that feature a specific person or city. The more metadata added, the more collections a story shows up in. Stories can be as short and sweet or as in depth as you want to make them. Both sorts equally meaningful.

The storyteller community adds other levels of focus to how stories are collated, as people ‘love’ stories on the site helping those most widely appreciated entries to be found easily. Storytellers can also join the audience of other users to follow their particular additions on the site. And for social creatures like myself who love free flowing streams, Cowbird has an easy share tool for many social networks.

The site has another function, that of documenting the widespread human events of our time as they happen, the first of which is the Occupy movement. The mosaic pages compiling story, whether individually journalistic documentation, poetic creations or a mixture of both, collectively create a saga of human story that is both anthropological and bardic in nature, and offers a collective and unique view into the ways that events are experienced by people and time. Quite a work of art, and it’s alive and growing.

Still in it’s early infancy, Cowbird has already adapted to become even more fluid to use and I’ve found that because of the way it’s designed, I have been able to write on Cowbird about things that are hard express directly into the maelstrom of facebook or twitter, and that felt too personal to dump on a blog where they wouldn’t make sense or would disappear, pushed down a tunnel of chronological posts and forgotten.

Cowbird has so far proved a fantastic heart home to house my own story collection and to be reinfoced by the expression of others (as I had encountered with Jonathan’s own stories, created during his time building Cowbird) and as stories on the site retain a lively immediacy, sharing them in a place where they will last and remain vibrant, feels very spiritually enriching. As virtual spaces go, it’s a really nice place to reside.

Cowbird is looking for photographers, writers, filmmakers, journalists, etc. and if you want to join the storytelling community, you can request an invitation.

Deader than Elvis #SOPA #ACTA #filmmaking

2012-01-18T19:03:00.004Z

As someone who makes films, I'm supposed to be very concerned about copyright and piracy. I was once, but now I'm not. I have come to understand that IP is deader than Elvis and ultimately, while conglomerates and politicians seek lockdown over the internet and copyright enforcement, the reality of how media will move away from that notion and into a more access based system founded on usage, will be tested and implemented, not only by web techs and innovators but by people like me in the indie film world. We are the ones at the bottom of the food chain who will really evaluate and trial the new platforms that are sculpted for us and sort the wheat from the chaff as to what will make the new distribution mainstream as the shift to a new paradigm happens. In fact, we've already begun.

It's been interesting today to spend time on the internet to see people's absorption with how this could become much harder for us with the issue of the bills like SOPA, PIPA and in Europe, ACTA and whether people are disinterested, confused or outraged by the proposals, or have blacked out their websites for the day or not, seems irrelevant to me. These bills if not passed in to law in their current forms I think will return in another form, because conglomerates, afraid to let go of the system they make their money from without a proven alternative will carry on pushing to protect their interests. Nobody stops dialysis with just the hope of a new kidney.

The good news is this resistance to change happens every time there is an adjustment in the way media is distributed. With radio, the music industry was horrified at people listening to music for free but it turned out to be the best thing ever causing a boom in music revenues! Video repeat fees were only given at a far lower rate than television broadcast because studios had no initial idea whether this new innovation would be profitable or not. Again when internet streaming, webisodes and download sales began residuals took a hit as the fear kicked in that the medium wouldn't work. We all hope a way forward will be found so that crazy laws don't damage our wonderful system of global connectivity, and I'm glad that today awareness was raised so that people can think about the web and what they want it to be because I believe censorship is a far more dangerous thing to content creators than piracy is. Also, as protests go it wasn't the most effective way of making a point but at least it's hard to club websites with batons or tear gas them so it got people talking while being trauma free.

I think the web can be a much better place for us than it currently is and I do believe there is room for everyone's interests on it to be served. I'm hoping to be a tiny part of the shift towards making that happen and that's what I want to be focused on, not worrying about the problem of what might become of the web because of legislation, but doing the small bit that I can do to help the transition to a system that makes that legislation irrelevant and implements something that serves everyone, as any society should serve all it's participants, even the ones who don't understand it very well.

Documenting Christmas

2011-12-15T17:56:00.013Z

I've been trying to get projects and loose ends tied up, get my Christmas shopping done and wrapped and posted and just sit down with a mince pie or two to enjoy some Christmas movies, but there's always that one person, isn't there that you don't know what to buy for because they've already got everything or they don't want anything or because they're just generally difficult. And it occurred to me recently while watching a friend's documentary that they make really good Christmas presents for those awkward people, especially the lesser known ones with their specific focus which can be so right for those not obvious presents you love to surprise people with.

So here I thought I'd make some recommends that you may not have come across or even if you have, may not have considered their Christmassy potential for main gifts, stocking stuffers or a treat for yourself there's plenty to choose from to break up the monotony of the Christmas TV specials with!

My top 3 picks for 2011 are:

THE SILVER FOOTPRINT

A fantastic documentary DVD set about the art of Robin Bell, master printer. Robin's photographic prints are highly sought after by the worlds top photographers and he is one of the few who still specialise in hand processing black and white prints to exceptional standards. Even if you don't know their names the work of Don McCullin, Ken Griffiths, Bill Brandt, Ernst Haas, Martyn Colbeck, Ida Kar and Norman Parkinson, amongst others including director Richard Dunkley's own stunning images are iconic recognisable works of art.

The documentary's delve into the work of this master printer, with insights into his processes and interviews with him and the photographers he prints for covers a half century of incredible photographic work, and with a 40 minutes 'extras' package where Robin shows advanced printing and darkroom techniques it's a great gift for any photographer friends or indeed anyone who just loves image and photographic art.

You can order it on the website at www.thesilverfootprint.com

BEYOND BIBA

Barbara Hulanicki changed the face of British fashion in the 60's with her fashion line BIBA and created the off the shelf high street fashion shop model that is still familiar to the way we dress today. Beyond Biba is therefore a fantastic gift for all the fashionistas you may know, but not know what to buy for. But beyond that the film goes on to tell how Barbara's career developed and she found herself a key ingredient in the regeneration of Miami in the late 80's and 90's and where she still works as one of the most respected interior designers in the world.

The film is not all about fashion and design though, it takes us through Barbara's personal history and her incredible life and background, her relationships and personal spirit and how she refuses to be coloured by the shadows of her past. Anyone who loves a bit of gumption will appreciate this.

You can purchase Beyond Biba on Amazon or watch it yourself on demand.

SWEETGRASS

A charming documentary about the modern-day American 'cowboys' (should this not be shepherds?) who lead their flocks of sheep up the Absaroka-Beartooth Montana mountains of Montana to summer pasture. The almost medatitive pace and lush panorama coupled with the gritty herders and their horses dogs and working class grit is epic in it's observational splendour. It's experiential, funny, charming and a little bit different to anything you've seen before. Give it to your quirky friends or those who just need to relax and kick back a while because it's definitely one to relax with.

Sweetgrass is avilable to buy from Dogwoof on Amazon.

And remember folks. Documentaries are for life, not just for Christmas! Happy Chrimble everyone!

And as a little gift from me here's a link to Documentary Heaven where you can watch some fantastic docs yourself for free. ;)

Sleeping Beauty

2011-12-07T16:36:00.005Z

An aesthetically minimalist piece of work, Sleeping Beauty is to those who will ‘get’ it chilling in it’s quiet examination of soporific submission. Far removed from Disney dreams and fairy tales the film somehow resonated despite it’s rather thick plot of a young student with a troubled set of life circumstances who tries to improve her lot by taking a job as an erotic prop to fulfil wealthy wants.

Ultimately an experiential movie, where what seems to be shown is an overwhelming world where submission to ones own needs can be as disturbing as submission to someone else’s, wherever we look there are those seeking soporific escape from their own lives. It’s an experience not unlike a trip through a fairground hall of mirrors, where the twisted reflections are distracting but where nothing exists to really make you happy. This film won’t make you happy, and that’s its point. It’s about the use of sex, drugs and fantasy as a way of sleeping through life.

Beautifully restrained performance from Emily Browning is mirrored by a supporting cast led by Rachel Blake and sits within a cinematic tableau that is dreamlike and elegant in the world of our heroine's sexual employment and dingy in the mess of her real life outside of the fantasy world. Sound and score are tensely sparse. All is technically excellent and emotionally barren. When sleeping beauty is woken from almost death she can do nothing but scream at her situation. And anyone who’s stuck with the film that long will want to scream inside along with her. Whether that is from intense immersion in this highly artistic film or boredom at the lack of any such engagement I can hardly say. I can see the film having both effects. For me it was fortunately the former and I consider this film a truly impressive piece of arthouse cinema.

The Ides of March

2011-12-04T10:27:00.005Z

Here in Europe we generally take our contemporary politics less seriously than our US cousins (I guess the edge wore off when the political beheadings ended) however in these dystopian times I found myself weirdly sympathetic to this tale that predictably spins a bright, brilliant press secretary into the murk we know to be the political campaign system with it’s dirty tricks and dirtier secrets, and jades even his smartarse, smirking little heart forever. Storywise there are few revelations here. We know what’s coming, we see it coming, and when it finally comes we drink the bitter juice. What’s different this time is that while we’ve seen this grime before in political drama, we perhaps have never seen the disappointment of political wrangling have such a visible impact on our own lives as we do now in this post Obama sobering up era where the fallout from the murk of political wrangling on our world is clearer to us than we ever wanted to know about, and we look at our latest golden boy of politics, and begin to wonder where the dream went so very wrong this film holds a resonance beyond what it is in itself.

But it’s not just that this film puts us in the frame of mind to reflect on our own part in the political spin and spoils of our world, that helps me to like it, but that it’s beautifully made, with thoughtful, bubbling scenes that would be painfully drawn out were it not for the delicious tension of a wonderful score and moody icon filled cinematography. The acting is spot on for this film driven by compelling characters rather than plot and with an A list cast that I’d expect no less from.This film is serious and takes itself so. Sadly the script is a little pedestrian and lacks some of the brutal edge that most contemporary political drama has to offer. However overall there’s a lot of nice stuff here to reflect upon and at the end of the day, the real juice of it is that people should always matter more than politics and the horror that sends us reeling when our darkest fears that this is not the case, become confirmed.

See this film. I don’t think you’ll be sorry.

Death Wish

2011-11-25T11:28:00.003Z

Death Wish was my first proper introduction to crowd funding via micro financing websites like Indiegogo and Kickstarter. It happened across my path at a fortuitous time and was such a cool project and a nice experience that it set me in the direction of backing many more projects since.

Nina Tryggvason, a fellow screenwriter from an online community I’m part of knew a film producer called Timo Puolitaipale and when he began a crowd funding campaign for a short film called Death Wish, she posted details for us to take a look at both the project, and the crowd funding site and how it worked to help people get their films made.

I’d had a great experience becoming an Associate Producer of Chris Jones’ short film ‘Gone Fishing’ and although we didn’t really call it crowd funding or do it via a special site, and we all had already known Chris and were part of his community, it had left a good impression on me about giving money to projects to help people out in the instances that I couldn't commit to help on films. I couldn’t work on films at that point in my life as I was caring for my terminally ill mother, while giving money to a total stranger on the internet seemed a bit odd to me even if they had come recommended, I was looking for some kind of continuity in a life that had litterally turned upsidedown for me at that point.

When I clicked through to take a look at the project I was hooked both on the project and the idea that I could help filmmakers afar as well as the ones I had known and helped in my own community. The indiegogo page video from director Chad Costen revealed him in a Christmas hat in front of a miniature set of snow topped lit up houses on a tabletop. I’d made my first film Death of the Dinosaurs on a tabletop and that was an amazing experience and I totally love Christmas and despite being penilless it wasn’t a huge donation to make in order to join in.. plus getting a ‘Special Thanks’ on IMDb for eleven dollars was kind of a no brainer, I am very fond of my IMDb page! And to be honest the idea (at what was a very draining time in my life) of being able to follow a really special project that I loved and had a tiny stake in but didn’t need to give any energy too was very appealing and felt hopeful for me.

So out of this series of events came a complete joy in and an attachment to the project, that for whatever reason it began, was perpetuated and rewarded by the quality of the film itself. I own it, I enjoy it, and it’s available on iTunes for a bargain amount if you would like to see it. It won awards, was made with love and care, and is just a rather special gem to have.

You may also wish to check out Chad Costen and Timo Puolitaipale’s new project Death vs. Robot which is currently gathering funds on Indiegogo. Needless to say after my previous good experience, that lead me to back many more rewarding projects, I am a happy backer of this most excellent filmmaking team again!

Conan the Barbarian

2011-11-14T03:25:00.006Z

I’m a huge, huge fan of the previous Conan the Barbarian films and so despite having heard some very dubious feedback about it’s quality, I felt it was time for me to see this re-imagining of the Conan tale based (apparently) more closely on the original stories, partly because I just love Conan as a character and partly because I actually welcomed a more modern, adaptation.

Initially though the film seemed well designed and Ron Perlman sets it off well, I could tell it was going to be overly long winded as from the offset, it begins with a legend to set up the premise that occurs before even the birth of Conan. By the time we’ve been through said birth, the teen years and finally gotten to the adult Conan, there’s been a confused muddle of storyline followed by a huge gap that makes it hard to identify with our fully grown hero when he finally appears in the guise of a happy pirate. As the plot winds it’s laborious way forward even the very nice and smashingly gory action sequences begin to become meaningless as the screenwriters, without the relief of any charisma or relationship development whatsoever, attempt to stuff years of meandering adventure, relationships and meaningless side plot into a two hour film. And then the actors are weakly directed, making resulting film a dull, shallow borefest that other than the odd moment of brilliance glinting through the fuzz, I didn’t much care about it.

There was something a little off about the acting largely down to poor casting and direction, I felt. Jason Momoa, I have to say, is an awesome choice for Conan, he’s a charismatic, earthy actor with ability, charm, humour and incredible looks to take on the iconic role, but unfortunately weakly directed his performance lacks some of the bravado or levity that it deserved, it’s bubbling there in the actor but never seems to be allowed to the surface. Poor direction on the part of Marcus Nispel who’s weakness as a director does seem to be in his handling of actors and perhaps in attempting to remove any hit of the cheesy smell left from the earlier films, he’s actually crushed all charisma out of the performance altogether. A real shame as I’m a big fan of Jason Momoa and had he been allowed and encouraged to breathe and have fun with the role, he’d have been extremely compelling. As it is, he still makes a likeable Conan and fights his way expertly naturally through some pretty awesome action, but a lot of what would have made him more human is missed out on. Rachel Nichols is stunning but again, is left (by a quite terrible script choices for her character) without having the tools at her disposal to make the most of her role or acting ability, though what she does is done very nicely and with strength and again, she's adept during the fight scenes.

Other parts are, unfortunately, less well cast, Stephen Lang makes for an odd Khalar Zym and though around the same age as Perlman, actually comes across too elderly and weak to seem like a serious arch enemy, not aided by his witch daughter played by Rose McGowan who despite being a good actor in general, is badly miscast in this strong role and can’t even carry her revealing costume convincingly, never mind pose a threat to our hero and heroine. Nonso Anozie was underused (he’d have been a good choice for Conan himself as he can carry strong roles very well) as was Said Taghmaoui and the two characters made for disappointingly unconnected side kicks and stole whatever camaraderie might have bonded them to Conan in a believable way.

The whole foundation of the thing is a complete muddle, and misdirected to boot, and that throws some very good potential under the bus and results in a movie that is too long with not enough happening and all the focus in the wrong areas. The fight scenes, though truly exceptional and with one especially beautiful Harryhausenesque VFX sequence, are so unending and out of context with the momentum of the film that they become tiresome and unrewarding. I'm reminded of something Shane Black said about action needing to really drive the plot and reveal the characters, not just sit aside from the two. Never a truer word spoken as far as I'm concerned and the meat of the problem in this movie adaptation.

Overall it’s a tragedy of ultimately rushed development, script doctored hastily during production and not quite reaching the dizzy heights it was aiming for with it's budget. I could have totally loved this film, I really could. I found a fair amount to like in it but I mostly wanted to take it straight back to an edit suite to see if it could at least be put together better than it has been, and really I just wanted to re-shoot it from scratch and fulfil all that unreached potential I saw in it.

All in all, while I’m glad I did see this film and that I found it just about well made and interesting enough to stick through to the end, I think I’ll be remaining loyal to the joyously cheesy Arnold Schwarzenegger version of the Conan tales from now on, which despite their camp humour and slightly rubbery snake scene, had believable plot that worked well and built momentum, had majesty and mythos to it, and on that strongly scripted foundation gave us true chemistry between likeable characters, and done simply, without fuss or deviation from the storytelling. And that’s why those films will last on and be loved long after this ‘re-imagining’ has been forgotten. I'm sad Jason Momoa won’t get the kind of springboard from this that Arnold got in his time.. I don't think he deserved a flop. Never mind Jason, you were great in Game of Thrones!

Me.. well, in the back of my head, Conan the Barbarian didn't utterly disappoint but didn't make the grade either and is on my list of things I’d like to re-make properly whenever someone would like to give me the job. :)

Q&A with Ben Williams ~ Producer's Assistant #LondonSWF

2011-11-04T01:08:00.003Z

Ben Williams is Producer’s Assistant to a leading UK Producer as well as screenwriting and directing his own films, most recently a beautiful tale of fandom and friendship in his short film “The Fan”.

It struck me chatting to him over a cuppa at the London Screenwriters’ Festival, what an important link between Producers and screenwriters (not to mention everyone else on a film) that a Producer’s Assistant is, and yet how little we really pay attention to the people who do this work and what the job itself is. So I asked Ben to answer a few questions for us to tell us a little about his work and he was kind enough to share a few thoughts.

Can you tell us a little bit about your work as a Producer’s Assistant and the sort of things it entails on a day to day basis.

Day to day, my job entails a multitude of tasks, from the complicated to the basic. We're a small company, so I take on most things, from emptying the bins to preparing important legal documents. For the most part, it's all office-based, administrative tasks - hardly the glamorous things I think some friends imagine. Film companies spend 99% of their time trying to get projects off the ground, and I'm around to help with all the necessary steps that make that happen.

Does your work change drastically when you are in production?

Yes. It's sort of the difference between war and peacetime! The core roles as assistant remain the same, but the context changes, and you take on more tasks for other people. On our latest production we were based mostly on location, sometimes in very remote and difficult places. I kept on assistant-ing as normal, but I'd also be helping out elsewhere on the production. There's no set formula to it, but I found myself meeting actors at the airport, scouting locations for wrap parties, arranging translations of dialogue, keeping in touch with historical advisors, preparing casting materials for the director, keeping abreast of changes to the script and writing change logs for the crew - and lots of other things. Generally, someone was always looking for help, and I was able to offer myself on quite a few occasions. I do regret trying to run a mini-fireworks display on my own, however. And once asking whether any of the camera crew wanted a cup of tea. But you live and learn.

What’s the most fun thing about your job?

There are loads. I've worked away from home for four months, living in hotels and meeting the most amazing people. On other occasions, I've met Oscar winners and world famous actors in the flesh. On a completely different level, I've been made responsible for the running of an office, which I really enjoy. The constant, day-to-day nature of it is enjoyable, too. Some days not much goes on, and in a way I enjoy that too.

What is the least fun?

Petty cash receipts.

How do you deal with contact from those attempting to make unsolicited contact or pitch ideas?

It's unfortunate, but we really can't read unsolicited ideas - most film companies can't. From the outside looking in, this might seem a bit harsh, but it's for good reason. If someone submits an idea to us that's similar to one that we've been working on, and we read it, we leave ourselves open to lawsuits if that film goes on to be a success. Traditionally we would return paper scripts unread, but in the world of email that's harder to do - especially as some people presumptuously attach the script anyway! - but the same rule applies. In all communications, though, we are always polite and considerate, and I hope helpful.

You also write and direct in your spare time, is there one thing you’ve learned from working with your boss that you will always take into your own work?

Definitely an eye for detail. Interrogating the minutiae of every part of your project might be tiring, and often rubs some people up the wrong way, but it always pays off. Questioning one arrangement may lead you to discover an even deeper misunderstanding, for example, that could go on to harm your project and cost you money. As long as you stress that you're not out to get or undermine someone, it's a very useful habit to get into.

What do you think are the most important things to nail when writing a screenplay?

I'm hardly an authority! Generally, it's pleasing yourself. I have a minuscule attention span, so if I can read and re-read the same thing a hundred times and still find it entertaining, there's a very good chance that others will too.

The best scripts I've ever read end up being sort of invisible. It's weird, but in these cases the subject matter is so strong that your imagination gets fired up and you lose yourself. It's like being trapped in an exciting fog.

If there is one piece of advice you could give screenwriters about working with producers, what would it be?

Let them in, and listen to them. At the point of delivery, you might baulk at their advice, or it might sound ridiculous or totally misguided. But if you take it onboard, and perhaps even draw out the meaning (because, let's face it, no one really nails what they mean in the first sentence), you'll find the process incredibly rewarding and your script will so much stronger as a result. Remember: good producers are always on your side. Feedback can feel combative, especially if done verbally, but that's just how it is. Bad writers will raise their defences and ignore everything. The good ones listen, and take note. This takes guts, and thick skin, but there will always be something useful for you at the end of it.

Cheers Ben, for taking time out to speak to us. Ben's latest short film "The Fan" can be viewed online.

Festival Faces.. #LondonSWF

2011-10-31T03:29:00.001Z

A few of the faces I met at the festival today...

Daniel Martin Eckhart, Crime Screenwriter working for some of Germany's best TV networks, and producers. One of the speakers at this year's festival.

Elena Dapelo, Writer and Actor with some production experience.

Richard Messenger, Screenwriter, Producer and Filmmaker.

Judy Kerlander, writer and artist.

Michelle Good, Screenwriter and Script Reader.

And finally, our festival founder, and Creative Director, Chris Jones. Thank you Chris for another great year of the London Screenwriters Festival! I hope you enjoyed it every bit as much as we did!

Written from the London Screenwriters Festival 2011

It's a Wrap! London Screenwriters Festival 2011 #LondonSWF

2011-10-31T03:28:00.002Z

And so, the hundreds of delegates who attended the festival gathered one last time in the main hall to hear Chris Jones wrap up the 2011 London Screenwriters Festival. In it's second year the festival has been more focussed and built on the feedback from last year to give a very full and varied experience to everyone attending.

It's clear that there's a real need for this festival to happen so that screenwriters can have this forum for meeting, discussion and sharing within the industry and a place to make opportunities happen for oneself. Chris Jones assures us that the festival will be back in 2012 so if you didn't make it this year, then make your plans now to attend next time and put them into place, and maybe bring a friend too. The festival happens because of the people who attend and the people who give their time to making it happen. Everything everyone gets out of the festival is down to those others in the room with us, and on that note it was time to give a roaring applause and standing ovation to the most excellent festival staff and volunteers who gave us so much care and consideration all weekend. Each and every person has worked very hard so that the delegates could get the best out of their time here and always with a friendly smile and a willingness to assist. A big thanks to all of them and to the festival organisers.

Written from the London Screenwriters Festival 2011

Common Pitfalls #LondonSWF

2011-10-31T03:27:00.001Z

Writers, Daniel Martin Eckhart, Paul Andrew Williams, Evan Leighton-Davis, Danny Stack and Steven Russell using their own experience and mistakes as early writers, covered the common pitfalls that new writers can make when marketing themselves, their work and writing their early screenplays.

In fact, the session was more positive than it's title sounds, with the writers talking at length about the things a writer should and could do to give themselves a positive experience. The session was relaxed and friendly, with questions from the audience and advice ranged from picking your battles and learning to adapt when taking notes and feedback to not sending generic letters or emails, learning not to be difficult and just staying calm and pleasant, understanding that what you wear can be a visual metaphor for how people view you as a writer (a superman t-shirt not being a bad thing in some instances apparently!). Research was highly recommended so that your genre and style of work goes to production companies who actually are looking for that type of thing and so that you don't earn producers' disrespect.

Dialogue needs to be good and real ('not shit' director Paul Andrew Willams amusingly phrased it) and not written the way you'd be used to hearing it in other movies, but the way the people in your film would naturally say it. Rein in your ego (not reign in your ego as I mistakenly tweeted during the session!) and in person just take it easy, chat and be yourself. Producers are people too, they want to work with people they get along with. As long as you treat people nicely and approach them with respect they won't care if you persist every so often if your work is good and you've made contact in the right way.

A lot was said about public presence too. It's true that social networking and online presence has become a familiar thing for most of us, and while you can get away without an online presence right now often people will expect you to have one and the general consensus was that this aspect of working will mean that in five years time if you can't be googled online then you're nobody. But when in public internet space you have to take care with how you portray yourself. Don't blow any fuses online. Maintain your online presence well & make a good representation of yourself. Social media is an extremely powerful thing. Don't burn any bridges that you might want to use later. Danny Stack pointed out that blogging is not going to be for everyone but if you do decide to blog, do it well and make it about what you want to say. And to remember that it's not an instant thing to benefit from blogging, it can take years for blogging and tweeting to pay off. Daniel Martin Eckhart brilliantly pointed out that there is always downtime from writing so blogging and micro-blogging are a great way to use social media to express things and show you know something about writing and about the world and why not take full advantage of that!

Paul Andrew Williams probably put forward my favourite bit of advice from the session. He said to establish a relationship now and allow it to develop for years before it reaches fruition and becomes truly beneficial, often partnerships forged years ago can lift both individuals up in time, especially if one does well an opportunity arises and they can bring the other into their work and lift them too.

Finally the consensus was not to fixate on luck. Make your own luck. A great and friendly last seminar of the festival and with a fantastic bunch of writers who were charming to listen to.

Written from the London Screenwriters Festival 2011

In Conversation With Ashley Pharaoh #LondonSWF

2011-10-31T03:26:00.002Z

Ashley Pharoah writer, producer and creator of numerous TV series including 'Life on Mars' and 'Ashes to Ashes' gave us an in-depth and honest account of his career to date and his current work and new series 'Eternal Law'.

Training at the NFTS he was at first reluctant to take work in TV, especially soap writing because of the attitude he'd inherited which biased him toward film as being more artistic. Five years with little money however encouraged him to give it a try and not only did he find that it was more than useful to be able to write regularly and see the work performed, strengthening his craft through production, but he had produced credits and a career to prove to his family that he was succeeding in his chosen profession.

From those beginnings and after a number of years on Eastenders, he went on to write for other well known TV Dramas, until he eventually began creating his own shows.

In terms of getting his own creations made he says that he doesn't do Show Bible's as he finds them to be difficult documents both to write and to read. And while some writers do still use them he never does. In pitching the ideas he says that you must, in a sentence be able to to put across the concept for a show in a way that puts across the idea that it has endless potential for conflict.

Always bothered by the idea that TV is seen as social realism and that film was viewed as more poetic and he has tried to bring high concept into his TV work as Dennis Potter often did. Television writers have a lot more influence over the shows they produce but he finds film is far less writer-centric and he both dislikes the way writers are treated with the significance of a cleaner in film finding it baffling that film directors and producers would not use his extensive experience to the film's advantage. TV writing is therefore more fun and given the trend for current cinema more intricate and containing more craft than a lot of movies these days. And a decent living can be made from TV writing, but it's important not to become complacent or lazy, it takes more than talent to succeed.

Ashleigh finds Genre and structure a help when writing, comparing it to writing writing a sonnet, that the rules of the structure help the writing a great deal. However sometimes you need to let a show die, when it's run it's course. He went on to speak about moving on from 'Life on Mars' and 'Ashes to Ashes' and not really wanting to do those again, he went on to speak about the transfer of 'Life on Mars' to the US and that having not contracted the original writers to consult on the series they were free to adapt it into a longer seasoned US show without really having the expertise of the original creators involved to keep it on track, therefore it did less well than in the UK. He's since formed a writers company with his writing partner, not so much a production company but one that holds the rights to their work, that way if any future work goes to the US he can arrange to be as involved as he wants to be in the development of it.

Speaking of series writers and the people he employs on writing teams Ashley said it's not all about talent. It's also a great deal about being able to sit in a room with someone over long periods and be able to like each other and have a laugh. In terms of his writing partnership with Matthew Graham they split up the writing according to their individual strengths, something that works well for series television.

His new series 'Eternal Law' is currently in production and despite his proven and excellent track record for drama, he still has his difficulties to get work produced in the way he intends it. TV drama is tough and producers ever concious that if their audience don't get something that they will just change channels.

Enthralling us with 'war stories' of his 'Life on Mars' US experience and other writing tribulations and engaging us with his clear love for the job he does, the hour went very fast indeed but it was clear that here was a writer who enjoyed giving the benefit of his vast experience to other writers, something that came across even more clearly in the scriptchat afterwards where we sat around a table in Herringham Hall and spoke more casually with him. He's a very personable writer who cares deeply about his craft and likes working the way he does, becoming a show creator and producer has not made him a poacher turned gamekeeper but has rather allowed him to work with other writers and pass on the benefit of his own solid experience and is something not every writer has the talent for but that he finds he has a knack for. His love of his work and the writers he gets to work with was perhaps the nicest thing he shared with us and that was very appealing. Eventually we reluctantly let him go but it was so very nice meeting him and I look forward to watching his new work very soon.

Written from the London Screenwriters Festival 2011

Write, write, write: The crowdfunding way

2011-10-30T22:13:00.000Z

Write, write, write: The crowdfunding way: Crowdfunding has exploded these past few years and that fact has meant absolutely nothing to me. But two recent short film projects made me...

Events & Horizons... #LondonSWF

2011-10-30T11:09:00.001Z

As well as the business side of networking at the festival, there's been social events every day. A great opportunity to relax after the flurry and frenzy of energy surrounding the speed pitching sessions and many of the speakers have come along and mingled with the delegates sharing more of their knowledge and people everywhere are just saying hello, it feels very inclusive and the evening drinks and coffee sessions have spread out all over London until the early hours by all accounts with some firm friendships being forged in the process. There are smiles everywhere and a few tired faces, it's quite a marathon of a festival but you sure get your money's worth in terms of things to do.

The speed pitching is going very well by all accounts, some writers having a go just for fun and some finding it terrifying but being proactive with their work. Many writers I've spoken to have asked to send in their sceenplays to the producers who've heard their pitch. Good luck to all!

Last night we were treated to free drinks from The Welcome Trust, a charitable foundation who work with creatives in order to share their stories with a wider audience. It was wonderful to hear about their work and to also see more opportunities for ours. And the free wine went down a treat, after the second intense day at the festival, everyone was very exhausted and very ready to unwind and yet there were still opportunities being talked over and a lot of excitement in the room. Indeed there are so many people with projects going on at the festival and not all are writers, some are filmmakers, producers and directors too and I've been pleased to meet some people interested in having me involved in some of their work either directing or writing for them, whatever comes of it, it's been an absolute pleasure to see so much happening in the industry. A big thank you to The Welcome Trust for hosting a really pleasant evening.

Written from the London Screenwriters Festival 2011

Festival Faces.. day 2. #LondonSWF

2011-10-30T00:39:00.002+01:00

A few of the faces I spoke to at the festival today..

Matt Howling is a writer with attitude who's written for radio as well as film and is a former journalist.

Robert Grant is a fledgeling screenwriter and also part of SCI-FI LONDON Film Festival.

Rav Punj writes TV screenplays and came to pitch an idea for a show.

Emer Gillespie is a novelist and screenwriter.

Andy Wright, screenwriter and founder of Evermore Films has worked in the television and film industry for twenty years.

Emma, Screenwriter and Nathaniel Lloyd Actor & Screenwriter both networking in the refectory.

Written from the London Screenwriters Festival 2011

Connecting With the Audience: What the Numbers Mean. #LondonSWF

2011-10-29T23:40:00.002+01:00

Comprised of analyst and journalist, Charles Gant, British Producer Stephen Follows and film distributor David Wilkinson this seminar dealt with box office figures and why screenwriters should pay attention to them.

Speaking about British film in particular, theatrical release is a tricky business. Most films want it and most distributors will try to place it but this is perhaps something that is not serving the industry as very few films make profit from theatrical screenings. When it comes to smaller films, there is the problem of there being just too many produced. Theatrical distribution windows are tight, often they compete against both mainstream films and other independents and as people don't really go to see four films a week so if you are competing for theatrical box office you have to be compelling. Nice films alone are not enough and if a film lacks clear focus it's harder to find a market. Strait drama for instance doesn't work in theatrical. It's done very well on TV so there's no market for it in cinemas when people can get it at home for free, and broadcasters make films now so sales to TV are only a fraction as profitable as they used to be ten years ago.

All of this sounds quite depressing and it's true that there are problems facing the industry. Paying attention to the box office though can help a writer see what audience want and what motivates them to theatrical screenings of film, plus identifying the trends and companies making the films that succeed.

It occurred to me walking away from the session that if I was in the business of marketing my work to other directors and sold screenplays that ended up as flops, then my my future as a screenwriter would probably begin to dry up and if I could market my work to the right people and my first few scripts produced did well then I'd be more likely to have a long and sustainable career. I'll be subscribing to Charles Gant's Box Office Analysis forthwith!

Written from the London Screenwriters Festival 2011

A Network of Screenwriters. #LondonSWF

2011-10-29T12:46:00.003+01:00

Regent's Park is in it's Autumnal glory at this time of year, and the beautiful buildings of Regents College are charmingly bathed in sun creating a relaxed atmosphere for the middle day of the London Screenwriters Festival. A perfect and calm setting for networking, which is what I largely chose to do with my morning.

Elsewhere in the comfortable conference rooms the serious business of screenwriting is being addressed. These are skills that writers need to be able to practice their craft and profit from it. Charles Harris once again is began his day with The Hour of Power to help writers get the best out of their festival, motivate and getting the mental game into the right space for effectively focussing on goals. Meanwhile other sessions included advice and information about agents, technique to get into what you bring to your work and characters to release the power of your writing, and the business end of how your screenplay translates both in terms of the cinematic language and in the edit room.

There are networking breaks dotted throughout the festival schedule and a fairly long lunch to allow time for meeting the other festival delegates. Yesterday was a very friendly day and today has been for me, more about the nature of our industry, and the legacy of the festival is the people who become part of your life after it finishes. Now is the time to meet those people. I know from my experience as an actor that future work comes often through being ready to take the opportunities that cross your path, and that those opportunities cross your path through the people you get to know and like. This was re-iterated time and again during the talks I listened to in yesterday's sessions with every speaker mentioning one or more opportunities that had come to them through people they knew or friends of people they knew. Networking, after all isn't all about swapping business cards it's about getting to know people in your field of interest and maintaining those relationships so spending time really connecting with other writers now is time well spent.

It's a glorious day for new beginnings so let's see if I make some new friends today, and/or solidify the bonds I've created with the people I already knew who are here at the festival with me. Having had four short screenplays picked up by other directors (two already made) since last year's festival I know that if I keep meeting people and learning from them, good things are ahead.

Written from the London Screenwriters Festival 2011

Christopher Vogler: The Hero's Journey Continues..

2011-10-29T03:56:00.000+01:00

Unable to be at the festival in person, Chris Vogler joined us via satelite link up to have an in-depth conversation with Chris Jones about The Hero's Journey, why it's continued to be popular amongst screenwriters and filmmakers all over the world and helps them to write their stories.

The Hero's Journey, if you're not familiar to it, is an approach to story founded on the work of Joseph Campbell and the interpretations of mythological story it identifies the common threads that pull through most every story around the world and has been adapted by Christopher Vogler to be applicable to screenplay story and structure. Not so much of a blueprint or template for writing Christopher speaks of the work as something that need not be applied rigidly (he said like recipe ingredients) but about having a series of questions that you can ask yourself when structuring your work and if something isn't working maybe it's one of these journey elements that could be missing and it's your choice as to whether you decide to add that in or deviate from it in an interesting way.

In fact, the whole idea of journey is one Chris Vogler explains very well. That if you're going on a journey it's good to have a map, but you won't want to follow that map too rigidly, you'll probably want to stop and explore or deviate from the path at times and you may want to loop back to places you've seen. The map just describes the path you can take on your journey to get to your destination, the journey experience is entirely of your own making and it's really when you get lost or aren't progressing is when you may look at the 'map' to lead you back to where you need to be. This implementation of The Hero's Journey is, Christopher believes, the reason it has remained a popular tool used by screenwriters and relevant to today's new ways of storytelling, because it seems to still help people.

Speaking animatedly and enthusiastically about the craft, Vogler gave a reassuring account of how it can be employed for longer form TV writing as well as features, aid in pitching and even be applied to anti-heros in a story. For longer form writing he says that there will be fractals and small arcs within a longer series arc and that's how best it's employed.

One of the best pieces of advice I think I heard from him during the session is that when submitting screenplay specs to the US, to make sure you've conformed to American spelling and format. Otherwise your work will be viewed as a 'British' script and having that in the readers head can subject you to excess judgement on your story. A great piece of advice from a man who clearly cares about good writing being judged on it's own merit.

Christopher Vogler has a new Hero's Journey book coming out and we trust it will be as useful and inspiring a tool as the original has proved itself by long popularity to be. And it was great to have him hook up with us here at the festival.

Festival Faces.. #LondonSWF

2011-10-29T03:26:00.003+01:00

Just a few of the faces I met around the festival today..

Screnwriter and filmmaker Allison Parker is a deputy moderator of #scriptchat on twitter. She's currently crowdfunding funds for her comedy short film 'With a Little Help from our Friends' on Indiegogo.

Met over lunch Russell Heyworth lives in the north, makes short films and has various scripts he'd like to improve and make.

Guido Lippe is a script editor of some nine years, writer and creative who lives in London, and is at the festival to network, learn and find fun.

Ben Williams is a Producer's Assistant and also screenwrites and directs films.

Neal Romanek is a working screenwriter and my fellow festival blogger and tweeter.

Teenie Russell is a screenwriter of mainly comedy screenplays working on multiple projects, and is looking forward to the networking sessions.

From De Montfort University Tommy Haymes came on the recommendation of his university with some other graduates and students from his course.

Written from the London Screenwriters Festival 2011

In Conversation with Joe Cornish #LondonSWF

2011-10-29T02:45:00.003+01:00

Admittedly, having never seen 'The Adam and Joe Show' or been exposed to any of his work in fact, I didn't really know who Joe Cornish was before today. I'd seen the trailer, though not the film, for 'Attack the Block' though and was interested to learn what I could about it, especially as it has such a refreshing concept to it. I soon discovered that Joe Cornish is awesome and is now one of my favourite people at the festival this year.

I was swiftly impressed with the way he spoke about his work and the amount of sincerity and openness he expressed when talking about his process, he has a love of creating mood boards of his drawings and photographs and for 'Attack the Block' began with these to go with his outline for the idea. From those initial tools he then fleshed out the story.

Prompted by a question he spoke about his choice to reveal the 'monster' of his story early in the film as opposed to only hinting at it until later in the movie. He answered that there's two schools of thought, the 'withhold the monster' thought, which he'd seen a lot in his youth but which often proved to be a bit of a let down if, when the monster was finally revealed, it was rubbish. The alternative thought which is about revealing the monster and using multitude to add tension was therefore the approach they took. When making the film he had to prove that they could create the monsters and that they worked some six months before shooting. As both writer and director, he mentioned how tiring it can be to take on both roles. He has an ethic of 'plussing' (improving) the work as much as possible but to be in production meetings and then go home to re-write and improve the screenplay left him fairly sleep deprived through sections of the process. The kids in the film are real teens playing their own age, and he worked to wherever possible, record only unmitigated behaviour in the actors. He spoke of impro being something that doesn't really happen on set as it's too expensive. Even those directors who improvise heavily tend to do that before shooting or at least get what's on the page as a take to fall back on.

The towers in 'Attack the Block' being named after fantasy writers, Joe admitted his love of books. A Clockwork Orange was a big influence for the way he used language and slang with the film.

Tin Tin is his next project to be released but the script he wrote was actually finished prior to his work on 'Attack the Block' and that was a project that came to him via Edgar (Wright). The challenges with the screenplay for that revolved around things like having to condense the continuity of the characters so that they could all be present in the film at once and how some of the original work was quite weak in terms of story.

In a Q&A Joe Cornish was very giving with his replies, unflinching about the things he cared about with a forthright honesty that I really admired. He's a very confident man and confident about his writing and filmmaking and I've gone from not really knowing who he was an hour ago to finding him to be one of the people I've been most impressed by out of today's very good sessions. He's an awesome person and I liked him a lot. This is one of the things I love about the screenwriters festival. There is always something very refreshing about the things and the people you discover. That's certainly been my day today.

I finished up my day by joining the satelite hook up session with Chris Vogler and then networking drinks in the bar. A very, very full, very long day and an extremely pleasant one filled to the brim with incredible people both delegates and speakers alike!

Written from the London Screenwriters Festival 2011

In Conversation with Duncan Kenworthy #LondonSWF

2011-10-29T02:30:00.003+01:00

Sitting in the talk session with Producer Duncan Kenworthy today and hearing him speak about his impressive body of work I suddenly realised that there is nothing he has produced that I don't like. There's some I haven't seen but of the projects I have, I've loved every single one. I don't think I could say that about anyone else in the UK film industry and I suddenly felt in awe of being seated a few feet away from someone who, before today, was only a legend to me.

Four Weddings and a Funeral, is probably the project that gets mentioned most of all when Duncan's name is raised or praised. A commercial success from a low budget beginning the film is as popular today as when it was released. But for 25 years before he ever became a producer of films he worked in children's television on such illustrious productions as 'Sesame Street' and working closely with people like Jim Henson (becoming VP of his company) and Anthony Minghella who's subsequent career was founded on not only his writing ability but the bedrock of the work Jim and Duncan gave him.

'Fraggle Rock' for which he was co-creator and 'The Storyteller' were shows I loved (despite being way past child age when they aired in the UK) and that still have a huge following today, and though he says he finds 'The Dark Crystal' flawed and quite difficult to watch now, it's still a film I have treasured and enjoyed for years, as indeed are 'Four Weddings' 'Notting Hill', 'Love Actually' and more recently 'The Eagle'. All his features since leaving TV have a distinctly British flavour to them that is well received abroad making his endeavours some of the highest grossing UK film box office earners of all time and setting high standards for the industry to follow while also proving those standards can be achieved. Highlighting the comedy element of romantic comedies as vitally important gave an insight into why those genre of films succeeded so well, given the dialogue elements of comedy in them.

It became clear to me listening to Duncan speak of his work that Producing requires calmness and a kind of brutal honesty, that though delivered in his considered tone gave a clear indication of his backbone in making decisions that might seem very tough to individuals but ultimately serve the project. However when dealing with writers, he spoke about not treating writers as equipment but treating them with kid gloves and couching what you need to say in a way that doesn't hurt them or their process.

Coming from a TV background where Producers have far more power than in film, Duncan is a true creative producer who takes his weight in the writer/producer/director trio and says there are three positions for a reason and that producing for a writer/director is more about helping them achieve their project in the way they want to achieve it than being a hands on producer who's part of developing the work. In defining a producer, he spoke of the role as being a person who can connect money to talent and that if one can do that you can hire the expertise you need but may lack yourself.

Speaking about the industry in the UK at the moment, Duncan Kenworthy feels it's doing well. It is hard to make films, as it should be, but with good material, with the right script you can get it made. As one of the people who originally set up the UK Film Counsel he felt it was short sighted to close it outright when a shake up might have fixed the problems stated as reasons to end it and felt like it's function was still needed. He did say quite firmly that the UK tax credit was essential to having a UK film industry and that we'd be in trouble without it. Even though it's often exploited by US studios that work flowing into the UK keeps the technical backbone of our industry relevant.

Speaking about his most recent feature, 'The Eagle' Duncan said that in retrospect he would have made more of the two men's relationship from the beginning, in actuality the contention of the main characters was something that was largely created in post production to make up for the lack.

Answering questions from the delegates ended the session on an informative note from this well loved and infinitely dedicated Producer. His new work will be a remake of the musical 'My Fair Lady' and he feels that the story of a man who creates a person and then falls in love with her is very relevant to today. I sincerely look forward to liking it as much as I like the rest of Duncan Kenworthy's repertoire and as much as I loved his talk today.

Written from the London Screenwriters Festival 2011

Another 50 Ways to Break into the Business. #LondonSWF

2011-10-28T22:56:00.002+01:00

So in true serendipity Kate Leys session was full by the time I wandered up to the room it was in and instead I made my way into this session about breaking into the business, which was really good and a great way to kick off the festival.

Hosted by working Screenwriter, Script Editor and Filmmaker Danny Stack the panel comprised of Bernie Corbett, General Secretary of The Writers' Guild of Great Britain, Writer/Director Martin Gooch who has a vast catalogue of experience in film and TV, Writer/Producer/Director Vadim Jean who makes features, documentaries, TV and commercials (I know him best for the awesome Hogfather), and Chris Hill who two years since graduating from NFTS three years ago, has become a commissioned screenwriter and formed part of the 'Skins' writing team, as well as being a script consultant on the Oscar Nominated film 'The Last Station'.

The guys had put together a list of 50 suggestions for breaking into the business split into beginners, intermediate and advanced level screenwriters. What was really nice was that along with each of the fifty bits of info came a bit of insight from the panel about their own experiences of how they had reached their current place in the industry, they all spoke with care for us and how we could approach our careers, preparing us for the hard facts of the industry. Not every industry professional would, I think, be able to speak so deftly and with such great eloquence about their own paths and still be able to pinpoint the specific choices they made that paid off for them years down the line like these guys did, so kudos to all the panel for some fascinating sharing of their paths. I was very impressed with all of them, a really cool bunch who deserve their success.

These are a few of the points talked about that I picked up on and tweeted about during the session, blog & tweet, be a runner, join a group, make a film, but mostly just WRITE! Do as much as you can. Network. Write regularly (2 nights a week) and turn the Internet off when writing. Don't be selfish, give time to working with other people. Feedback is subjective. Be careful you get feedback from those who's judgement you trust. Build a portfolio of work. A really well written short is worth two badly written features. Don't give up your day job until you have to & have built the resources to support yourself. Write in the spare time you get. Read the industry news & publications. Give yourself thinking time.Balance writing from personal experience with not limiting yourself to only that experience. Research what you don't know. Ask. Do something. Just do it. Make a short film (or have one made of your writing) Learn about contracts, copyright and industry contracts. Research rights and practice. Producers will exploit you if you don't. Pay attention to craft. Hook them in 3 pages not 10. Times are ruthless. Be compelling. Suck them in. Your competitors are the established industry screenwriters. It's tough. Be prepared for that. Be proactive. You don't need an agent until you get one. The important thing about networking at festivals, Cannes etc. is to maintain contact with your network. Keep in touch.

Written from the London Screenwriters Festival 2011

Up and at 'Em! #LondonSWF

2011-10-28T10:45:00.004+01:00

So it's Friday morning and my first blog of the festival. I've got my business cards at the ready, a stash of chocolatey snacks to keep my blood sugar up, the obligatory bottle of water that we actors always carry, iPhone, itinerary, a massive handbag to put it all in.. sunglasses for that festival fabulous look (a must have for any festival dahlink) and I'm ready to rock!

The festival actually started over an hour ago with the opening keynote. It's an important part of the festival that I think helps energise the day and just allows people to acclimatise to the building and each other. It's a very large festival with a lot going on and a lot of people, the days are long and it's pretty non stop all weekend. So to have a grounding positive introduction and just settle in helps things not to become overwhelming. It's bustling here and I'm thrilled to be milling about in the milieu!

And it's also a chance to spot some familiar names and faces. Fellow screenwriter Neal Romanek is alongside me also blogging and tweeting from the festival so hopefully between us we can offer different perspectives and cover a bit more of the festival flavour. Both of us and numerous others who are part of the festival familiars will be live tweeting and there will be blogs aplenty on the London Screenwriters Festival Blog Page. A few other twitterati of my aquaintance are here and I've already been greeted by friendly faces and faces of friends. It's feeling good to be here and to be focussed on screenwriting again. The highlight I'm looking forward to this afternoon is the In Conversation with Duncan Kenworthy not only because I hugely respect and love his work and am really looking forward to hearing his views, but also because my friend is his assistant and a pretty darn good writer too, so hopefully will be along to the festival too and I'm very much looking forward to catching up with him and hearing his take on it.

Then after that I'll hopefully make In Conversation with Joe Cornish, Writing Games 2.0: the sequel and The hero's Journey Continues.. so quite a full day indeed.. where did I put that chocolate stash?!

Right now I'm off into my first seminars and I think I'm going to opt for Kate Leys Produced or Rejected? Is Your Script The Best It Could Be, which will take me up to lunchtime.. and then a bit of networking is in store. Like I said... I've got my business cards handy! ;)

Written from the London Screenwriters Festival 2011

Shalom Baby ~ Theatre Royal Stratford East

2011-10-26T16:44:00.010+01:00

New writing by Rikki Beadle-Blair, Shalom Baby currently playing at the Theatre Royal Stratford East spans two separate eras, in two separate cities, and focuses on relationships within the sphere of the social, racial and religious branding we lay upon ourselves and each other regardless of the place and time we live in.

I was privileged to be invited down for Press Night and after a bit of an adventure in order to even enter the space (the entrance having changed due to a new transverse arrangement of the theatre’s staging for this season, means a trek around the building to gain access) a lively audience gathered for press night giggled their bemused way through lines of washing draped above the front rows to find their seats. The pleasant and friendly buzz of anticipation, even before the well-choreographed beginning of the play gave for a great kick off to the evening.

Opening in 1930’s Berlin and swiftly flinging us via a deftly delivered rap solo into modern day Brooklyn all actors play two parallel roles, one in each metropolis. In each time sphere the story revolves around a Jewish matriarchal family and those very close to them, but dealing with the issues of their time in diverse ways. The comparison forces a multi faceted look at the issues and legacies of race, religion, love, acceptance, family and fear in a tumble of gut punching comedy, and dramatic empathy.

The cast as a whole is stellar but three actors in particular stand out. Mandy Fenton, glittering in her role of an unyielding Jewish matriarch, lovingly and efficiently takes the characters under her wing providing the backbone that tautens their bonds to each other throughout the trials of life, love and racial stereotyping that face them in each era. Toby Wharton superbly balances vulnerability and electric edginess as the young white male who in two spaces in time must find his place amongst the prejudice aimed at his peers while coming to uneasy terms with his own sizzling passion, and Richard Simons' raw, turbulent performance as both hapless drug addict and angry oppressed young Jew careering through life on two continents is volcanic.

This play gets in your face, something you must expect from a comedy with subject matters comprising of the holocaust, homosexuality, and cultural stereotyping. It won't please everyone, but full of poignancy and brevity the sheer risks taken by the writer/director and cast are impressive and insightfully hard-hitting.

In the early stages of it’s month long run it's pretty polished, though lags in a couple of places and one overly long concentration camp dream scene in particular was unnecessary, but none of that took away from the vibrant and thoughtful energy of the play. It’s something very different to what we normally see in off West End theatre and very refreshing it is to witness such pushing at boundaries and audience engagement with something uniquely fresh and challenging. After all, isn’t that what theatre is supposed to be?

Shalom Baby runs at Theatre Royal Stratford East until 19th November. Go and see it, and then maybe go and see it again. It really is that sort of play!

I’m Back and I’m Blogging! (And Tweeting) #LondonSWF

2011-10-23T00:09:00.002+01:00

I can hardly believe a year has passed since the first ever London Screenwriters Festival but here we are ALREADY and year two will be upon us in a few days. I’ll be back to live tweet and blog from the seminars as screenwriters from all over come together to network and celebrate our craft and the many directions it takes us.

Coming back for year two makes me feel a bit like a school prefect, a bit more comfortable with the corridors, a lot more laid back about the layout and having gotten four short screenplays picked up by other directors since last years seminar a bit more confident about where my screenwriting is at right now, more feature screenplays at various stages and eager for more good advice to move myself forward and build on what I've got going on. I'm wanting to experience more of the festival this year and most of all I'm looking forward to sharing space with other screenwriters both at the festival and virtually with the writers who follow it in the online networks. There's nothing quite like that sensation of being part of something that is larger than yourself sat in front of a computer after all.

So, having experienced last years festival what do I expect this year? Well, the truth is that you can never entirely know what to expect from the Screenwriters Festival, with such a variety of seminars, workshops, delegates, networking events and interaction the possibilities are endless, but one thing everyone can expect is to become part of a warm community of writers, which via the online network and the personal connections you make will remain with you throughout the coming year as a support and encouragement to your writing career.

The seminars are hosted and given by industry professionals at the top of their fields who truly care about the writing we see on our screens and who will share their own experience and expertise for the improvement of all. It’s a priceless and jam packed three days so whatever you decide to focus on when you go, the most important thing is that you engage with and experience as much of this amazing festival as you can, for yourself and as a delegate attending during the formative years of the festival you will help to shape it for the screenwriters to come. Tha'ts kind of cool isn't it!

So what will I be doing? Well I’ll be one of a number of people sharing my own experience and live tweeting on the official #LondonSWF hashtag to engage with others both at and outside of the festival to give everyone a chance to participate. I’ll also be blogging about the seminars I attend in a little more detail each day on the London Screenwriters Festival Blog and talking about some of the other festival buzz happening around me. What’s more, I’ll be knocking around the corridors and networking rooms at the festival and will hopefully be a friendly face to engage with for anyone who’s a bit shy. Say hello if you see me or tweet me @momentsoffilm on twitter. I’m seriously excited about returning to the festival this year and looking forward to the surprises and solid advice the festival has to offer. Looking at the schedule and fabulous list of speakers and knowing a number of the delegates going along again this year, I recon there’s going to be plenty in store!

Leilani
www.leilaniholmes.co.uk
www.twitter.com/momentsoffilm
www.momentsoffilm.blogspot.com

Of Smiles and Clowns..

2011-10-22T21:35:00.006+01:00

Clowning Around shot last week in a frenzy of activity and a bathing of sunshine. I think the film we'll come out with will be something kind of special.

For myself, it's certainly one of the biggest things I've ever been involved in producing. I'm a reluctant producer at best and only really do it for people and projects I truly care about. I'm very glad to have been part of this one and though my personal feelings about producing haven't changed I did enjoy it more for this project and as always I deeply respect the job of producing itself.

There will be lots more about the shoot days coming up on the Clowning Around Producing Blog in the days to come. Right now I'm still taking it all in and assimilating the various things that happened but all in all it was a great feeling to see the months of work everyone has put into this film come to fruition. The work certainly shows with the look and the feel of the characters and locations having a quality about them that seemed just right.

I think what I'll take away from me from this shoot most of all, once the tiredness and minor stresses drain away are the amazing smiles. That was the best feeling of all, to be on location and see the people around me smiling and laughing and enjoying themselves, and in the moments that happened all the hard work and struggle fades into insignificance.

Somehow this idea that began with Damien and bounced about for a long time being planned and developed and crowd funded and slowly put together became a reality unfolding in front of us on the shoot, and it happened so quickly and some of it went to plan and some didn't but as a producer, with a trusted and capable team keeping it all in hand, I got to stand back a little from the hub of work and intense focus going on and just observe it all happening in the moment and there were, amongst everything else, lots of radiant smiles. And that I think for me, after a year that has been full of loss and personal difficulty that has not made for very many radiant moments in my life, is perhaps the most precious thing of all.

Raindance Film Festival ~ Body Temperature #RDFF

2011-10-02T00:09:00.004+01:00

Nicely directed by Takaomi Ogata, this mild mannered film about a man's relationship with his sex doll is a true indie delight which, through simple exquisite production explores the value of messy human relationships, and their alternative.

Rintaro, not a people person, avoids both the complexity of relationships or personal loneliness by having an imaginary and sexually satisfying relationship with his perfect sex doll who he has named Ibuki and treats like a partner, speaks to, shops and cooks for, takes on dates and has passionate sexual relations with. Until, his world is thrown upside down when he meets a real life girl who exactly resembles Ibuki.

The film is simple and poignant with a few rather funny moments to it as Rintaro, played courageously by Chavetaro Ishizaki struggles to come to terms with both his loneliness and isolation and his inability to deal with a real woman whom he cannot control as he 'cheats' on Ibuki with the real life Rinko, played by Japanese porn star Rin Sakuragi (as in fact is the 'doll' for most of the shots) but is ultimately unable to maintain the pretence of either relationship.

There is a darker side to this film, however and as a woman watching it I was struck by the depth it explored as Rintaro struggles first to change his sex doll to be the same as Rinko, going as far as changing her hair and name so that he can have the relationship he wants with the woman without giving up the control and perfection in life that he has with the doll, but then he treats the sleeping Rinko like he does his sex doll. When she wakes and reciprocates he's in heaven but having to deal with odd and messy sex with a real woman and her reaction to his troubled replica of her confounds him. Unable to any longer maintain either his real relationship or the pretend one, he blames his anger and frustration on his sex doll, first 'murdering' and decapitating it and then treating it like a headless whore, a tool to ease his own pain and feed his gratification. In fact the saddest thing about this man's relationship with his doll is not that he doesn't have a girlfriend but that he doesn't have any friends, family or other human relationships. And it crossed my mind that if this were indeed a woman instead of a sex doll he might well be abusing her for his own shortcomings in the same way. A clever use of both actress and dummy to portray the sex doll probably due to keeping production costs down actually gives an interesting perspective and was nicely done.

The film is simply made on digital with a bright colour palette and clean sound, cheerfully well shot and edited, and even the darker moments are treated with black humour that made me laugh at this (bless him) 'not well' individual. Though it's sexually fairly revealing, it's neither porn nor gratuitous and it's not uncomfortable to watch or overly long. In fact it's so well put together and has such a simple yet complex subject matter that it left me leaving the auditorium smiling with joy at it's cleverness. Definitely a great film and well deserving of it's place in the lineup. I wish I could see more indie films as simply well done as this one. I found it inspiring.

Raindance Film Festival ~ A Thousand Kisses Deep #RDFF

2011-10-01T22:32:00.006+01:00

The first film I've seen at this year's Raindance Festival, A Thosand Kisses Deep opening words and title are from the Leonard Cohen song of the same name and through it's metaphor of relationships that don't quite make it to full fruition, it takes us on a subtly surreal journey through cause and effect. Mia and Ludwig, a tortured jazz musician with a drug habit, were once in a passionate but dark relationship leaving Mia emotionally scarred. After seeing an old woman commit suicide Mia becomes convinced the woman has some connection to her, and haplessly guided by Max, her elderly building caretaker, and a time travelling elevator 'with a mind of it's own' she travels back to face the love of her life and tries to put the timeline of her own existence back in sync and attempt to change the outcome of the old woman's tragic end and in doing so discovers some of the darker secrets of her history of which she was previously unaware.

The film looks expensive for an indie, it is quite beautiful, with smashing cinematography by George Richmond and compelling acting by leads, Dougray Scott and Jodie Whittaker. Compelling too is the beautiful jazz music that permeates the plot. Dougray learned to play the trumpet for his part and gives a convincing passion to the troubled musical soul of Ludwig and his dark impact on the lives of those embroiled with him.

There are also decent performances by David Warner, Emilia Fox and Jonathan Slinger though a couple of other actors in the film give charming but less effective efforts. However when it comes to the screenplay, the problems really begin. This story is actually executed quite badly at script level, leaving plot holes, unexplained paradox, and, worst of all, some really torturous dialogue that badly deadens the overall effect of what is an excellent premise.

Offir Kedar, Dana Lustic and Eliot Grove

In the Q&A afterwards director, Dana Lustig, explained that one of the two screenwriters is a qualified psychotherapist and the film explores that journey one undertakes in therapy going back through the cycle of painful events in one's life to break the cycle of behaviour that stems from those moments and causes pain in the present. Quite a brilliant idea actually, and one that made clever sense with the Leonard Cohen based theme of the story, however I felt given such a nice merge of ideas, it would have been better to have seen more money spent on script development and getting that crucial language in the screenplay right than on the production of the film, which may in fact have even benefited from having a less upper middle class look about it.

I don't think I'd particularly want to watch this film again, primarily because of the bits that fell short, especially dialogue and parts of the acting. It was, despite it's shortcomings certainly not a waste of my afternoon though and has left me with plenty food for thought and the resonance of some wonderful tunes. I wish the film and it's team of dedicated people all the best with it.

And for Raindance, whether I like or dislike a film (or parts of a film) there is always something rather special about their programming choices. A Thousand Kisses Deep is no exception.

Drive

2011-10-01T21:24:00.004+01:00

A quite unusual mixture of arthouse moodiness and fast action heist driving, director Nicolas Winding Refn has somehow pulled off this strange genre mix in Drive, but I'm not entirely sure it's to the benefit of the film. It's a bit like a TV movie in some ways, with a few too many manipulative musical pieces with longing mopish looks painfully milking the emotions, but then there's suspense and some pretty thrilling car stunts plus extraordinary violence that lift the film into something else, and the story, the characters, are just compelling enough to carry you through. It's a film worth seeing but perhaps not the film you will expect from the excellent trailer. I can't help thinking that there was something vitally essential missing, perhaps smothered.

Ryan Gosling, an actor I've never paid that much attention to before, is impressive and iconic as the Driver. Carey Mulligan too is decent enough, but their direction I felt was a little off, leaving too many pregnant pauses, similarities and blank looks and the relationship lacked the true chemistry it might have had with a less staid, less painfully held, embodiment of the roles. The supporting cast of shady characters are a little predictable so it was quite a relief in fact when Oscar Isaac comes into the film and we finally get to see someone, surmounting their stock character 'of jealous husband out of prison' and acting like a normal human being. Suddenly you see how flattened out some of the other performance has been, and it's an eye opener.

Overall this is a good, even great, script with a solid premise and characters. Gosling is super cool, the other actors decent and there is fantastic cinematography and sound (bar the cheesy music). Ultimately though, this film has been dampened by the ideas of the director to make the overall mood somehow more stretched and forced than it needed to be. It's still a decent movie and I quite enjoyed it, I just think it's a shame because there's a bit of me inside that's absolutely screaming "this could have been a contender" and it's true, this movie is good enough, but it could have been one of the greats, it could have been a 'Taxi Driver' and sadly it's missed the mark and ends up being as odd and off balance as the girly pink chick-flick writing on the titles.

Better luck next time, Nicolas.. this is an interesting film to be sure but it's not your masterpiece.

Ryan Gosling though.. he has an electricity in his acting, just waiting to come out. I will pay way more attention to his work in future! More roles like this for him please, and next time don't hold him back!

A Year Without Rent & Up Country

2011-09-27T03:01:00.014+01:00

I wanted to write some blog articles about a few of the crowd funded projects I’ve backed to date, to share a bit about my favourite ones and the filmmakers behind them. I've backed a few different projects over the past couple of years, but one of my favourites out of them all has been A Year Without Rent. It sort of sums up for me a lot of the things I’m interested in about filmmaking and seems like a good place to begin talking about the appeal of backing and following projects that are not your own.

Lucas McNelly is a filmmaker who’d come across my radar on his previous project Up Country when someone re-tweeted him during his crowd funding run. It was, I recall quite a bolshy tweet that made me smile and I followed him on twitter and took a look at the film idea. He was crowd funding a feature which he was planning to make in the middle of nowhere in Maine and had to raise funds to fly in, well, practically everything! Except trees.. there were plenty of trees, and bugs, but not much access to anything else to make a film with, including professional actors. It’s tough enough to make a low budget project in a hub of filmmaking like London and so I figured anyone who was brave enough to make a film in the woods of Northern Maine with bears and stuff, and talk others into committing to go there and do it with him, was probably a pretty cool person and definitely a bloody brave one. I decided wanted into this project! A meagre ten dollars got me a really interesting film project to follow progress about and learn from, and also a look at the finished film so I could see how the plans all worked out. I was not sorry, I enjoyed the shoot updates very much and I’m still enjoying the project, the best part being when long after I’d forgotten the perk was coming a postcard from Maine arrived on my doormat. It now lives on my fridge and reminds me to be brave in the face of woods, bears and filmmaking. And I’m very much looking forward to seeing the finished film when it’s complete.

Still from 'Up Country' Dir. Lucas McNelly

Anyhow.. when Up Country had finished shooting and was in post, Lucas decided to embark on another project, as editing would take some time and need periods of space. The idea for A Year Without Rent stemmed from his experience on Up Country, being a filmmaker who needed help in a somewhat remote location. Considering that other filmmakers must surely be in the same boat, and finding himself between houses, he decided that he didn’t really need a home for the next year, packed up his car and became an itinerant crew member, travelling America staying on the couches, floors and spare beds of independent filmmakers and working for free on their projects whilst documenting his experiences of indie film creation in the US today.

As soon as I heard about the project I was into the idea, it was right up my street (having been co-running for some years a UK indie filmmakers group who's very ethos was helping each other make films) and again it was a brave undertaking for Lucas that was deserving of respect and support. The thing I was most interested in, I think, was having an honest account of what was really happening in the larger independent film world right now, both for my own sense of curiosity about what other filmmakers were doing, and also because I feel it’s beneficial for those outside of the indie film world to be able to see into the real struggle that independent filmmakers all over the world face to fund and make anything at all, let alone anything good, and along the way to get that finished product in front of an audience. Lucas was, I had come to realise, a person with the integrity as well as the brevity to address the flaws as well as the fun of making films in this way and give a truthful account of everything while helping filmmakers to not only make, but also to gain a following for their films via publicizing his journals, photos and videos through various film media outlets.

I honestly didn't think twice about becoming a backer, and I have thoroughly enjoyed every moment of it, the people and projects I’ve gotten to know about (and to know), the lovely photographs, well written, sometimes almost poetic, articles and insights plus the daily throwaway banter of twitter comments and humour that happens along the way. For me, there’s a vitality to the work that has gone beyond all the other projects I’ve backed. It’s hard to put into words why it’s such an important project but I feel that in time, and with more examination, this unique multimedia view into independent filmmaking really is important, not just interesting, and the things we can learn from it are salient. It’s rare that such a broad experience of behind the scenes filmmaking is available from a single source that is, while respectful to the films, also objectively observed rather than from the PR versed mouths of the makers themselves. There’s definitely something savoury to me about that.

I was somehow unsurprised that the project eventually brought Lucas to Europe, even though that hadn't really been in the plan or figured into the project budget. He was flown over to work on The Stagg Do in Gateshead by filmmakers James De Marco and Zahra Zomorrodian, both of whom I’d met the year before via various Chris Jones’ events and had kept in touch with and gotten to like them both well. After working on their film, and flitting over to Berlin to speak at an event, Lucas stopped by London before heading back to the US, and I finally got to meet him in person! We had some filmmaker drinks with a few of my OTTfilms friends and he stopped over at my house outside town for a couple of nights before flying back to the US, a little tired from his journeys and looking forward to a holiday, but also very enthusiastic about the work that he'd done, the eternal challenges facing filmmakers, his future plans and projects and the things he’d be working on next. I can tell you he’s a super nice house guest, polite, easy to talk to, decent, and would be more than welcome at my house or film set anytime (not something I’d say about many people). He’s back in the US now and if you’re making a film and have a spare couch you should ask him along to help you out, he's building up a lot of expertise to share.

You can follow Lucas on twitter and check out his work for yourself! There is, I suspect, plenty more venturesome stuff yet to come from this intrepid filmmaker!

Selling Your Film Without Selling Your Soul ~ #SYFWSYS

2011-09-24T05:24:00.007+01:00

If there's one thing indie filmmakers agree on it's that attempting to sell your film can be a complete minefield and that perhaps the biggest challenge to filmmakers these days is the task of sustainable filmmaking.

It seemed to me for a long time that filmmakers were taking so many tasks onto their own back that sustainable filmmaking was actually becoming a more and more distant goal.. that is until I met Jon Reiss and Sheri Candler at a Chris Jones workshop and learned more about their philosophies for hybrid distribution and I breathed a sigh of relief that maybe there was a way forward. Since then they have, along with The Film Collaborative, taken a serious look at case studies of the real figures and details behind indie film distribution and shared transparent data, multiple point of view analysis plus the filmmaker perspectives on numerous projects, in a transparent and informative book that will give you a real insight into the realities and myths of distributing films the indie way... which, let's face it is sometimes the hard but the only way. This book makes things somewhat easier in what is a difficult field to navigate with the limited information that's been available until now.

The book is available in reasonably priced print version but I got it in a very handy iPhone/iPad edition and that, plus other digital options are currently totally free until October 1st.

Here's a bit more about it in a cool trailer, and I highly recommend you pick yourself up a copy right now!

The Extraordinary Art of the Movie Poster

2011-09-09T20:40:00.019+01:00

I’ve always loved movie posters.. I think somehow they tell you something about a film in an instance, something that a trailer can never really do. And there’s something about the static element of them that really makes me pause and look properly. Often I’ve been motivated to go see a film for no better reason than that I was attracted to the poster.

As an actor, it felt odd the first time I saw my name on a poster as a director of a film. It was weird to see my name without my image, it seemed strange and arrogant to be taking ownership of a whole film instead of just a role in it and “A film by Leilani Holmes” was a sentence that made me squirm considerably at first until I got used to it, and got used to what it meant to be a director. And of course what it does mean is not that you’re taking ownership of a whole film but that the whole film, it’s cast and crew are taking ownership of you, and it’s kind of a sigil of the debt you owe the production and you hope you created a good film and one that everyone will be proud to see your name on and proud to have worked with you.

And I’ve been very fortunate, given that I am rubbish at design, to have had some fantastic posters created for me for my films. I thought, upon getting a new one designed recently for my film By The Steps of St. Paul’s, what a lovely thing they are to have and how much I enjoy them and I thought I’d talk about some of the thought process behind them.

Death of the Dinosaurs | Designed by John Condon

This was the first film I ever made and when John spoke to me about what I wanted for a poster design I didn’t really know. My brief was confusing and frankly kind of stumped us both because I’d wanted fun elements, but the elements I’d chosen didn’t really make sense with the film I’d created, until John came up with the idea of having a poster that had an iconic shape to it, which could be replicated in different colours and would look the same, like a logo or branding for the film and that would work as a poster or a sticker or any kind of marketing.

So our dinosaur footprint was formed and I think perfectly suits the fun nature of the film, and the wide variety of places it has been seen all over the world. And talking to John about it really helped me to understand why I’d choose elements that work with the films story and not just shapes and colours that I thought were cool. I understood posters a little better for the first time and how the elements of film can be brought to play in designing the marketing. Something that I hope will serve me well in future.

Transference | Designed by Damien Cullen

Damien was the Producer of Transference and took some of the focus pull effects I’d put in my shot list to create the same effect of ambiguity in the poster that I’d tried to create in the film. I think it works wonderfully to convey the impact and uncertainty of a therapy relationship where one person’s inner self is revealed fully and another’s isn’t. A flowery element of the micro-site we’d built for the film was brought in to a corner to connect the two marketing formats and the font used for the poster was something we carried across into the film titles itself. I’m pretty pleased with the way it all worked together and the response we get from people wanting to know more. The tag line in fact is not one of my own making but something a friend insightfully said after reading the screenplay and it nails the idea on the head without giving away the story, something I really liked and decided to use.

By The Steps of St. Paul’s | Designed by John Condon

When I recently got an IMDb page for the film I wanted a poster to put on it and John once again offered to design one for me. This time I was clearer with my brief, that the film was about people brought together in that place so I wanted to have those elements in the film. I gave some examples and John brought me back a range of designs to choose from, all of which were lovely but which we narrowed down to these two favourites. One, my heroine of the film, was a particularly serendipitous photograph taken of the actress Claire Garvey, on location when the wind was blowing her hair, by far my favourite still from the shoot by our photographer Rob Baker Ashton as it had an element of fate about it, something that kind of figures in her character’s story.

The second poster we went with was more of an ensemble of the characters and gives a sense of place and people without being obvious, leaving the place of St. Paul’s Cathedral to be given with the film title. The elegant pastel lettering saying it all and leaving some of the iconic cathedral images used to be revealed in the film itself rather than all given away in the poster.. something that helps when a film is short and only holds so much imagery, so you don’t want to give all away up front. I especially like that the images have depth of feeling in them, a testament to the incredible talent of the actors who joined me on the project and made this silent film speak without words and it's this second one that I've come to like the most.

Butterflies | Designed by Meddy Ford

My most recent film posters for Butterflies were designed, appropriately, by Meddy Ford who wrote the script, acted in the film and Produced it too. The film itself is still in post production but we had some really fab stills from the shoot and as Meddy has great photoshop skills from her professional modelling days and of course had a real insight into the message of the material, she made three wonderful ‘Coming soon’ posters, each showing a different mood for the film. Two featuring the main character at different stages, and one focussing on another character from the main characters point of view. The one in the taxi is my favourite, not just because of the colour and style (which I like) but because it seems more iconic and unstatic and represents in some way the journey the character goes through emotionally. And all the posters have the same lettering to carry through the film design. I’m hoping we can do something with the website and film credits to match in the whole ‘look’ as we did with Transference.

All in all, because I don’t photoshop or use illustrator, being reliant on the good will of others to have movie posters made for my little films has taught me a lot about that process of designing key art for a film and it has been far more invaluable to have had that dialogue. I hope as time goes on and my projects get more ambitious I’ll understand more about the specific and beautiful magic of movie posters and perhaps eventually comprehend why that still image that seen again, and again prompts me to see films I may never have dreamed of seeing otherwise. And why after many years, I still enjoy seeing posters for those films (and my own) so much.

Super 8

2011-09-01T16:36:00.003+01:00

Super 8 is perhaps a prime example of the type of film you go to see because everyone says you should and that maybe you shouldn’t have, not in a cinema. Or more specifically, I’d say that maybe I shouldn’t have, because I found it a bit of a bore.

It’s JJ Abrams to be sure, and Spielberg chucked in for good measure and it’s very mid American, kiddie adventure and everything cliche you’d expect from that. It’s a good enough movie, good picture, good sound, good action, good effects. It works, it entertains but to a large extent is predictable, generic and while it does have some interesting elements, it’s not something I feel has added anything to my world other than a slight nostalgia for much better and more ground breaking films of that genre, largely left behind somewhere in the 80’s and perhaps should not be repeated in this decade.

All in all though, I’m not the audience for this film. Kids may like it well enough, Americans will too, probably for it's nostalgic qualities. For us Euroskeptics something a little darker, a little closer to the boundaries would have worked better. I sometimes wonder whether we just indulge middle aged male filmmakers with power to make these movies that please them so well. I know that JJ can do much better than this and I was, frankly, disappointed that I didn’t like it more.

Hey ho.. there’s always another film playing when you walk out of the auditorium. Next!

"The time has come," the Walrus said..

2011-08-29T14:47:00.005+01:00

For some five and a half years I have co-run and administrated collaborative filmmaking group OTTfilms and during that time the group has formed from a handful of people, grown, thrived and made lots of films, some of which I’ve had the privilege to be part of or to help facilitate. I’m proud of everything we’ve done together.

I am now stepping down from the leadership team, confident that the group will continue to thrive and grow and meet new challenges as I take time to move forward to new challenges in my own work. My work on my own projects continues.

I think in our creative lives when the time comes to make changes we need to recognise that moment of change and act to make it happen. Otherwise we begin to stagnate. I loved the time I spent helping to run OTTfilms and now I will love seeing it continue and am confident the foundations I was a small part of building are strong and it will continue to thrive and grow.

For those members of OTTfilms both new and old who have known me as the "OTT Girl" I have one piece of (borrowed) advice that I live by and would recommend to any filmmaker in their collaborations!

"Be excellent to each other. And party on dudes!"

"The night is fine," the Walrus said.
"Do you admire the view?

Inside Job

2011-08-13T23:07:00.005+01:00

You’re going to make an extra $2M a year, or $10M a year, for putting your financial institution at risk. Someone else pays the bill, you don’t pay the bill. would you make that bet? Most of the people who worked on Wall Street said “Sure, I’d make that bet.”

Frank Partnoy
Professor of Law and Finance
University of California, San Diego

Directed by San Francisco's Charles H Ferguson and narrated by Matt Damon, this Oscar award winning documentary screened to much acclaim at Cannes last year and details the insidious corruption in the US financial sector practices that precipitated the banking crisis of 2008 and how those practices came about.

Split into five parts, How We Got Here, The Bubble, The Crisis, Accountability, Where We Are Now, the documentary seeks to explain how building blocks of financial system failure are put into place and exposes the lack of regulation, accountability and consequence that prevents a system from righting itself, in particular when the workers of the industry are busy feeding their own widespread personal vices. It goes on to touch on the damage done to other world economies, education systems, and manufacturing by the financial sector practices of the last decade and the lack of significant change that has been implemented since to prevent future recurrence of crisis and collapse.

Inside Job by it's very title makes reference to the criminal practice of all the major financial institutions and their executives. It is, I have to say, a really well made, intelligent documentary that makes an ironic probe into how this crazy, criminal system, geared for collapse, was ever allowed to perpetuate in the first place and why it wasn't stopped by intelligent people who surely must have seen this coming. Through, what must have been hard to get, interviews and stock footage from depositions and speeches made before and after the crash, we see the intelligent minds behind the financial sledgehammer that has hit us all, squirm and stonewall any suggestion that reason might have prevailed and that this could have been prevented.

The film comes with a final warning. That while European governments have implemented some new regulation, nothing has really been done in the US and those corrupt executives personal wealth and those corrupt institutions control over financial policy is still firmly intact. "It won't be easy", says Matt Damon about reforming a system that will spend billions to fight against reform, "but some things are worth fighting for". With an arial shot of the Statue of Liberty under the voiceover. It was hard to argue with that.

My only mild criticism of the documentary is that it's rather too America-centric, panders a little to the intellectual left and could have had more clarity in the factual explanation of practice that is, after all, a very complex global financial system. I think the film perhaps preaches a bit too much to the converted instead of bringing this information to new audiences.

But all films have their limitations and for what it is, the information here literally, straight from the horses mouths and is probably the closest thing to an explanation of the unchecked personal and political greed that led to a world recession, we're ever going to get.

A Can Do Attitude

2011-08-12T05:17:00.006+01:00

I trained as an actor with The Impulse Company under the mentorship of Scott Williams, Artistic Director and a fantastic theatre director who hails from San Francisco, has taught and directed all over the world and who taught me not only the kind of actor I wanted to be, but also the kind of person I wanted to be.

We have an ethos of positation within our training, that stems from Scott and his teacher Bill Ball to become actors, writers and directors who are:

Creative
Resourceful
Proactive
Proud
Courageous
Positive
Flexible
Empathetic
Considerate and
Courteous

This ethos is as important to us as the Techniques we learn. It’s empowering to embrace that way of being and to see the results of being that kind of performer. I’m not perfect at it by any stretch, but having that ‘soul’ of positation at the heart of what I do really helps me to not sweat the small stuff. Or sometimes the big stuff.

It’s been a really tough week on the artistic front. Riots and talk about riots seems to have overwhelmed a lot of people. There’s a sort of powerlessness in both the rioters actions and the lashing responses. Frankly, neither sat easily with me. It all went against the grain of what would really be productive and I wanted little part in it. And so I did what I quite often do with bad news. I switched it off and got on with the positive stuff that I could put out into the world. I do the things that I can do.

The Eagle

2011-08-07T04:26:00.004+01:00

My friend Ben worked on this film as Assistant to the Producer and Director and while I didn't catch it in the cinema (sorry Ben!) I have been meaning to watch it for some time. I wasn't expecting it to be at all bad but I was refreshingly surprised by how good it was.

The script is straight forward and very much set in a completely male dominated era (virtually no females in the entire movie makes for a very noticable perspective) and it has a simple compelling story that works, kind of. I can't help feeling that more than a few tricks were missed in the adaptation and it could have been told far better, with more reinforcements to the themes, and without the stupid travelling maps and montages, but overall it's a workable effort.

The film is beautifully realised with stunning, stunning cinematography from Anthony Dod Mantle who has turned the use of lower budet cinematic action cinematography into a strong technical advantage, creating an intimacy with the landscape that runs through the entire visage of the film. We're put amongst the action, right in with the men. It's close up and very personal, you can practically smell the mud and sweat, and the fear. Lovely stuff! This is production value that has nothing to do with production budget and everything to do with detail and craft, the footage stunningly graded to enhance the intensity of the story, just delicious to the eye and every bit of it, enhancing the elements of man and nature and the nature of man.

The attention to detail throughout is evident, the film uses it's production design elements to the utmost, costume & make-up and setting were refined to pinpointitude. Sound and score, too, work in tandem to bring us further into the feel of the time.

The film is pretty well acted, even by Jamie Bell who I find monumentally annoying as a rule but who was vastly toned down and gave a half decent account of himself in his role. Overall, however, I felt the casting was quite off, and although the film contains many fine actors, they were poorly miscast to the detriment of an otherwise rather well put togther project. Marc Strong in particular threw me considerably with his bloody awful Alabama accent. What on Earth were he and Kevin Macdonald thinking to go with that piece of idiocy? Channing Tatum though was surprisingly not miscast in the lead and most certainly had the acting chops for a subtle stoic performance that worked very well. Whatever you think of him as an actor, he's got craft and intelligence and he knows how to carry a film.

The stunts and fight choreography deserve special mention as I felt they were brilliantly done on location settings that can't have been easy terrain to work in. This is without a doubt a class production.

Overall my criticisms of this film are mainly because I actually liked it so much, that I really want every bit to be perfected. But as it stands, it's a film I wish I'd watched a lot sooner and that I enjoyed a lot. It holds it's own well against much bigger budgeted Roman epics, although this is a much more personal, contained story. I wouldn't mind owning this on DVD. Well worth checking out if you haven't yet.

Season of the Witch

2011-08-07T04:14:00.005+01:00

So, after sitting through the chees of I Am Number Four I wished I had pressed the pay-per-view button on Season of the Witch. In for a penny, I figured what the heck, how much worse could it be and went for it.

Actually, this film is unexpectedly good. It has an interesting story, lots of fantastic action and Nicholas Cage is pretty awesome. I rather enjoyed it. Unashamedly so. It's very well made with a good cast. If I have one major complaint it's the theme. There isn't really one. Just a rather shallow excuse for us to go on this journey with the characters, so although the journey is great and the ones that don't die horribly live happilly ever after, there's not enough meaning or reason there to engage us. A true shame, but in many ways it's still a pretty good watch and has nice sound design and score to go with the bleak and beautiful imagery and not too 'plasticy' special effects. You could do a lot worse. Trust me.

I Am Number Four

2011-08-07T04:03:00.004+01:00

When I decided not to hit the pay-per-view button on Season of the Witch the other evening I decided to click on this instead. The trailer looked mildly interesting and it had Timothy Olyphant in it, who I never object to. I didn't really know what to expect. Or that this was a Michael Bay produced film.

What could have been a quite fun film for geeks and teens has been overcomplicated, undersold and melted down into fondue. Yes, despite some interesting action scenes, it's about as cheesy as they get and cloyingly so. I daresay it's got it's audience but that audience just wasn't me.

I don't really know what I was thinking, except there are so few movies that appeal at the moment I'm just clutching at straws trying to find something I want to watch. This, sadly, wasn't it. If you ever want to get the taste of cheese out of your mouth. Avoid.

Taking a Break at the Guerilla Film BBQ #GFilm

2011-07-30T23:46:00.006+01:00

As filmmakers, things are usually all about the work and the focus and we rarely, outside of wrap parties & screenings, take time to just chill with other filmmakers without any agenda. Chris Jones and Judy Goldberg understand that and threw a fab barbecue this afternoon for the Guerilla Film crowd where we could all just kick back in the sunshine, have a burger and a cold beverage and just talk to people.

A busy team of helpers, got hotter than the barbecue coals making it all tasty so thanks to the team who made it nice. It certainly was nice to catch up with people I knew, meet some new people I'd only seen online before and just enjoy the atmos.

Damien, Graham and myself were there along with some of the Clowning Around backers and it was awesome to get to meet some of the people who've gotten behind the project and get to spend some time just chatting and chiling with them. The party went on quite late into the evening until it began to get dark and we finally rolled up our lawn blankets and rocked off home.

All in all a fantastic afternoon & evening thanks to Chris, Judy and Guerilla Film Team, it suddenly feels like summer! Best get back to making filmic hay while the sun shines!

Clowning Around ~ The Fundraising Begins

2011-07-25T01:25:00.010+01:00

Last week I was kindly offered a guest blog spot by Clowning Around backer Chris Jones who endorsed the project and allowed me to speak about it on his popular blog.

I thought, as the blog was kind of a follow up to my own blog a while ago Crowd Funded Films: My Backer Experience , that I'd repost Chris' blog here to explain a bit about how as Producer of Clowning around I used that experience to plan, alongside Director, Damien Cullen, and fellow Producer Graham Inman, the crowd funding campaign for Clowning Around on Indiegogo.

Thus follows Chris' words and mine about the initial stages of the project. Comments are open on Chris' blog so do head on over there after you've had a read and tell us what you think.

Film maker Leilani Holmes has always been a vocal supporter of everything I do, and so when I discovered she was producing an ambitious short, I asked her to share her thoughts with us all. She is running an IndieGoGo campaign for her film ‘Clowning Around’, and after I post this blog, I am heading over there to contribute myself – after all, Leilani also contributed to Gone Fishing. If you are thinking of running an IndieGoGo campaign, you should check out what she has done here, and also listen to the podcast I recorded with IndieGoGo founder Danae Ringelmann that I posted on the blog earlier this year.

Take it away Leilani!

I wrote an article a while ago about my crowd funding experience as a backer of projects here so when I offered to become a producer of Clowning Around a short film project written and directed by my friend Damien Cullen, and that we were going to need to raise funding to, we approached the idea of crowd funding with all seriousness to make it the best and most collaborative experience for our backers and a film that all of us together (because the bakers make these things happen as much as we do) could be hugely proud of.

The story of Clowning Around is bittersweet. It’s a clown showdown about Bonzo, a traditional clown who must fight his way back from insecurity and alcoholism and beat his rival, Mr Fernelli to regain his position as the best clown in town. But as he sets on his path his addiction haunts him at every turn.

The first thing Damien did was to get the right people in place. The script was being developed throughout the approach to funding and many people read and gave feedback on it, both those working on the project and those just wanting to support us in seeing it made. We have an incredible team. And I think, in some cases quite by chance, nearly everyone involved so far has worked with someone else involved on the project already, so the project already has a kind of family feel to it.

We wanted to extend that to our backers and make the project inclusive so we’ve created an online community forum http://www.clowningaroundfilm.com/community/ to put behind the scenes information, video diaries, and other content that will show the backers what we’re doing at every step, allow them to interact with us and so we can get to know who they are and take an interest in what they are doing too. Everyone who backs the project will get that interaction whether it’s a $1 or $200 we are so appreciative of anyone who backs our campaign and we need to be because the networks we are reaching out into are people we have spent time building a connection with outside of our film projects, and we want them to continue respecting us.

We spent quite some time with key crew designing the look of the characters, getting make-up and fully costuming them before we got any funding so that we could show people the calibre of film we were hoping to create. We shot the crowd funding video www.indiegogo.com/clowningaroundfilm at the stills shoot to show our crew at work and our main cast clothed and made up in character. Although it was a lot of work in people’s spare time it’s been great for the film project to get some of the ideas for character design nailed down and we have some stunning photographs of our four main actors and lots of ideas from our Heads of Department about how to maximise the calibre of the film, building always on our incredibly strong core story. We believe that for the some £4000 ($7500 less indiegogo fees) we hope to produce a film that looks like it cost £40K to make. It’s daunting to say that in writing and hold ourselves to delivering but I have such belief in our team and the sheer heart and soul they put into all their work that I’m prepared to put my reputation on the line and I know that we are going to create something worthy.

We just wanted the backers to have both fun and useful perks so we’re having comics created by artist Phoenix Ryte, planning lots of behind the scenes extras both filmed and documented in book form right through from project inception to the end of post production an on through marketing, DVD’s, A swish BAFTA Premiere in London (or live online screening with Q&A for those too far away), free Screenplay analysis, photographs, posters and an array of credits. All of it designed to include people in the project, not just expect them to hand over their money and forget about it. We didn’t want to take without giving a lot in return. We’ve got a whole bunch of varying levels of producer attached who have been helping us with the building bricks to put everything together. Each step has taught us something good.

In fact, what we’ve learned so far has been invaluable to our future work and I can’t wait to get cracking on the film planning which we’ve already had a lot of talk with our crew about. One of the things we decided to do after seeing the wonderful imagery from our stills shoot, instead of just creating posters ourselves, is to hold a poster competition with a panel of judges from the film and design world, who can look at the poster designers work and pick us a winner that will travel with the film around the seven continents we plan to screen it on.

I’ve kept in my heart since taking on the Producer role for Clowning Around, those first conclusions I came to from being a project backer of other films and seeing what went into the ones I loved most. And in the drive for funding it’s important for me not to forget that there’s also a film in pre-production now that we’re beginning to plan out. It’s all a bit of a rollercoaster ride, but along with Damien, Bonzo and pals I’m loving every minute of it so far. You can keep track of our doings on our blog at www.clowningaroundfilm.com or become a backer from $1 upwards and join us in our online community!

Leilani Holmes
Actor Screenwriter Director Producer
www.leilaniholmes.co.uk
www.clowningaroundfilm.com
www.twitter.com/momentsoffilm

Thanks Leilani, lets us know how things progress.

Onwards and upwards!

Chris Jones, Film Maker and Author

http://www.livingspiritgroup.com/
www.ProductionOffice.org
e: mail@livingspirit.com

There's a Whole World Out There.

2011-07-16T21:47:00.004+01:00

I’ve always believed that to be at all artistic or expressive you have to learn to constantly touch base with the world around you and find inspiration. I don’t just like to look online, I like to go out and see things for myself, one of the reasons I like street photography. But occasionally on twitter or facebook someone shares something truly inspirational. This video of the beautiful people of the Omo Valley in Ethiopia who decorate themselves as a way of expressive life I found to be stunningly moving.

I don’t really know how all the interesting things I stumble across online and off really translate into my own work. I don’t think they do, directly. But I think they invoke feelings and the feelings translate into the things I write about, photograph, and colour the things I make. It’s easy in the constant tirade of stuff to do to cut off from the world a bit in order ot focus, but it's equally important to spend some of our creative time allowing ourselves to feel. Because how can we hope to express ourselves when we do not feel how can we do it in a visual media when we don't take time to see. You feel me?

DIY (Or Not, As The Case May Be!)

2011-07-06T19:19:00.006+01:00

Another of my short film scripts got picked up this year and shot on Saturday. DIY is a fun tale I wrote in a fit of wry humour and I'm very proud that Gary Perkin chose to make it his Directorial Debut. The above image is one of the stills from the shoot and is exactly the image I had in my head when I wrote that bit of the script. Very cool to see how the writing came across.

I won't tell you what the lady in question does, as that would be a spoiler but it's all looking rather fun and I can't wait to see the actual edited film in due course. I'm definitely enjoying seeing my work made by other people so far. I've long realised that I can't make everything I write myself and that as a director I'd like to direct other people's writing more too, as I did recently with Meddy Ford's screenplay for Butterflies.

When it comes down to things I (and I think many of us) can be quite lame at talking about the work I do and putting myself out there more. I'm a little bit shy sometimes. I rarely speak about acting things for instance, despite the fact that is my profession and that I'm a trained acting coach. Or I don't mention a lot of the screenplays I'm working on or the script feedback I give. I'm trying to be a bit more forthcoming this year though and the fruit my work in combination with other fab people's input is bearing is turning out to be very fun, quality stuff.

Which is just what I'm doing again in another collaboration that came about thanks to the weekly topic of #scriptchat on Twitter. Myself, Allison Parker, and Jamie Hooper (neither of whom I'd met or even talked to much at the time) were speaking about editing, screenwriting, etc. (mainy editing) and taking on multiple jobs on when we make projects for ourselves, and about learning to let go of those tasks to others. Alli has blogged about it here to explain how things have transpired and how we each chose to take on a single task. Jamie chose editing, Allison direction which left me writing, perfect as I was directing and producing other projects at the time so writing was about all I could manage.

I can say that so far, working with Allison's notes on the script, she has given me great insight into her directorial vision, without actually changing my writing perspective or voice, but allowing me to see how the strong points in my characters and story can be brought together more strongly with her visual style for the production. A few changes later and losing an unnecessary introductory section, the script is looking quite neat and may not need a lot more in terms of changes. Interestingly Allison has chosen a visual style that harks back to the 40s and 50's, which is something that seperately came to my mind for two of my characters in another short screenplay I wrote and that I'll be directing myself. Overall it's pure co-incidence and not written into either script, but a serendipitous co-incidence of thought stemming from my writing that may well make it look more consistant in imagery than it actually is if someone were to view both films.. So yeah, things are shaping up rather nicely for my body of work and I'm looking forward to seeing what Allison and Jamie do with the story seed I've planted.

I've got more collaborations on the horizon but for now my existing projects like finishing Butterflies and Producing Clowning Around are taking centre stage. Both, also wonderful collaborations.

To share some of the load sometimes, I think, makes you better at both writing and directing, to Produce for others a way of learning how to deal with the practicalities in a better way and support other filmmakers good work and Acting, well that's just a joy to do at anytime for me. So the moral of the story is that while indie film involves quite a lot of DIY you don't always have to do everything yourself. Though the plot of DIY when you get to see it, might suggest differently! ;)

Candy Crime

2011-07-03T23:36:00.010+01:00

In March 2007 I wrote a little micro film script that for one reason or another (mainly to do with budgetary requirments because of the UK gun laws never got made)... I moved on from it but was always sad that an idea I'd really liked and thought would work well was never realised.

Cue forwards to a few weeks ago at the Guerilla Film Masterclass where I got talking to filmmaker Ben J Jacobson who was looking for some scripts for his daughter. When I saw her my script came to mind and I sent it, and another to Ben that evening. Ben liked it and it has now been completed for this year's Virgin Media Shorts competition.

It's all happened pretty quickly but I'm thrilled with the result and that it has been made finally and with such an accomplished and charming star in Holly Jacobson, a great supporting cast and a fab crew led by Ben. Watch it for yourself. I hope you enjoy it as much as I have!

Beetle Queen Conquers Tokyo

2011-07-03T19:41:00.005+01:00

Last night I went along to the ICA to see November Films latest documentary Beetle Queen Conquers Tokyo and have a drink with Producer James Collie and some other folks we know in the bar after. All I knew going in was that the film was about the Japanese obsession with insects, which sounded intriguing and I thought would be a refreshing change from some of the more dull blockbusters on offer and so I went along looking forward to a pleasant evening in good company, but I was extremely surprised by how fun this documentary turned out to be.

The film takes us through the common insect pets owned and adored by many Japanese people, the kind of character and heroism attached to the wiggly beasties, the people who collect and sell them and their higher place in the most ancient traditions of the Japanese culture, the microcosms of the universe explored through the insect world that permeates so many more aspects of Japanese life and tradition than I ever realised. There’s lots of laughs throughout too as these quirky insect pets and their enthusiastic owners are observed day to day within the furore of buzzing city life, beasts taken from their watery or forest homes bartered and sold in insect pet shops with names like ‘Top Gun’ and furiously pampered and petted by old and young characters alike. The world we are taken through is a Jiminy Cricket paradise. Through Japanese eyes, we begin to see the personality of these insects and experience the cycle of life in the microcosms of Japanese art and philosophy. I spent the film with a huge grin on my face. It’s entertaining, endearing and enlightening stuff. I don’t think I’ve ever seen a film like it.

The one thing that had us on polar opposites in the bar afterwards was the cinematography. Loved by some, I definitely didn’t care for the swivelling zooming, hand held swiftness of it and preferred the stiller moments of incredible insects poised on leaves or canvasses in light or scuttling through shot on a busy street amongst the footsteps of commuters. There are many beautiful shots like this too. This isn’t like your average nature doc, though with purely magnificent macro shots, it’s a human view of insects and an exploration of an insect’s view of humans. I suppose on that level it works well enough. Overall though, I do think a tripod would have been hugely beneficial, especially to the focus.

The rest of the film, voiceover, score, editing, and the concept of the ‘man as nature amongst nature’ is superbly, intelligently and delightfully done. I found myself, despite feeling a bit crawly at times (insects not being my favourite things) being charmed by scuttling stag beetles, stellar stick insects, and smiling children’s faces. Even many of the popular computer games feature these insect heroes. And in the framing of dead insects, I was reminded of my own country’s past obsession with nature and how in our period dramas, butterfly nets and cased insects are commonplace. The delight the Japanese take in their happy insect companions is something very human, to be in awe of. I’ll try to remember that next time I’m reaching for the Raid.

There's Never Enough Time to be Dead!

2011-06-29T02:38:00.005+01:00

Acting dead isn’t an easy thing to do on a film set. Directors don’t always understand that or allow enough time or privacy per take for an actor to prepare or fully relax. I think I’ve been dead about three times now.

Well, two anyway. The third time I just got a bucket of blood and gore thrown over me and then was dragged off screaming into the dark corner of a crypt. It was pretty much a one take deal though so I had to get it spot on with my reaction despite the fact there were twelve delighted faces about two feet away from me waiting for the blood splatter to begin. It was also an actual church crypt with a dirt floor so the dust down my throat during the couple of days we were filming down there didn’t do my throat a lot of good, it’s hard to scream effectively with no voice.

Another time I had a cut throat and after having a hairdryer, drying the glue on the prosthetic slash across my neck on one of the hottest days of the year after about two hours in an equally hot car with no air-con getting to set, it was kind of hard to be bloodless and corpselike. Especially when you’ve got crew members telling you jokes and you’ve got to keep your eyes open (always keep your eyes open if you can, it’s creepier).

The last time as ‘body in the bush’ it was a battle to keep still as crawly insects tickled their way across my ankles. I’m not particularly keen on insects. I don’t suppose there was a lot that could be done about that and for once I had enough time before takes to be able to keep still.

All in all I’ve had pretty good directors for my death scenes who have been considerate when I’ve asked for a few moments to prepare or less people in my eyeline. And it’s fun to play dead. Truth is, I’ve always wanted to play a dead people in films & TV as well as live roles. There’s something compelling about that wide eyed corpse that holds a vital clue or hooks our human compassion for the utter severity of the situation the protagonist is in. And if you’re only playing a corpse then there’s no lines to learn and you get to lie down a lot. I’m lazy enough to appreciate that kind of job!

As an actor my biggest complaint is that there’s just never quite enough time or quite enough understanding for the difficulty involved in lying dead. It’s not as easy as it looks. I look at corpses on the television and I get cross at the direction, when I can see them breathing or if their eyes aren’t quite dead enough or the makeup has sweated off because someone fiddled about with the focus pull too long after the make-up artist had finished their job. Being dead is a skill. It’s actually one of the first things I learned to do as an actor. Being dead requires focus, confidence, control, you’re often in an odd position, in an odd place, forced to remain that way for some time. It’s uncomfortable requires preparation and a few moments of quiet before the take. It requires the crew to not deliberately make you laugh because they think it’s funny when your throat gash looks like it chuckles. It requires a moment of consideration that the person playing dead is not actually an unanimated piece of flesh but that someone is actually doing something inside that corpse to make it look like a corpse.

If you’re a director and you think you know how to work with actors, ask yourself how you deal with the dead? Because I’m here to ask you for just one full minute warning to settle before the camera rolls. And it’s nice, after lying there for an hour to know that you have that couple of moment’s space to get it right.

Just thought I’d put that out there on behalf of those of us who die for the filmic cause. ;)

Signal Failure: Wrapping Up a Lead Role.

2011-06-21T19:37:00.017+01:00

Hazel Kismet (Leilani Holmes) and her henchman Chief Bowler Man (Shai Forester)

When a project is a heart project that you’ve worked on for a long time with a bunch of friends it’s hard to realise when you get to that place where you know you really have wrapped and that it’s unlikely that any new scenes or any more pickups will be needed. None of us really know for certain until the final lock of the edit, but here, a few days after wrapping (for the third time) on Signal Failure I find myself coming to the realisation that this is probably it for good now, at least unless ADR might be needed. It’s a bit sad to have that fact suddenly hit home, but I think I’ve finished on a high with some solid work on the new scenes shot this week, that will add to the energy of the film. I know that the film we have made will far exceed the film we set out to make. We've grown and the project has grown with us. Improvements happened. I'm kind of proud of us. And proud of our director, our leader Jason who's worked and is working so hard to make this film shine.

I can always tell good writing by how I feel acting it and how smoothly the words come out of my mouth. When director and friend, Jason Fairley emailed me to remark upon how well his new piece of screenwriting for the scene came across in the performance I knew at once what he meant. It’s that melding of craft different people give to a film that all comes together in a satisfying wholeness that makes the good moments, really good. I felt it saying the lines. It flowed. It’s ultimately why we do it. It's golden.

Of course Signal Failure isn’t wholly concluded yet. There’s more editing, sound design, grade and a lot of VFX work to be done and then marketing, and as we’re all friends and keep in touch, there will be plenty contact over the coming times of post, but for now my acting work is done and as I box up Hazel’s hat and coat I do so with a slight heart pang for my first lead role for film and possibly the most brilliant role I've ever had for film or theatre. It was good to be her again, for a little while. I think I’ll miss her and the things she taught me about my craft but as I put away a piece of myself with her costume, I take a piece of her soul with me into my future work. I hope that when we all gather and sit in a film festival together somewhere in some future place and time, we will all look at our audience and feel the way I feel right now. Job done. Happy inside.

Jon Reiss and #TOTBO ~ Returning To London for a 2 day Worshop

2011-06-20T23:12:00.007+01:00

Last year I attended a two day Think Outside The Box Office workshop run by Jon Reiss and Sheri Candler and organised by Chris Jones. It's a great workshop and it's returning to London this weekend for another two days of frank advice and tools to help filmmakers deal with th e mire that is independent film distribution. I want to recommend it to anyone who's thinking of making a film, or indeed any kind of video content, in the next couple of years because what I've learned and the way I look at film since taking part in the workshop has made me both a better filmmaker and a more clued up one. Certainly what Jon, Sheri and Chris do to keep filmmakers up to date with current happenings in the marketing and distribution sector of film is nothing short of a Godsend and you don't want to be missing out on any of their information.

Hybrid distribution seems to be the way to go for most people to try to take advantage of the rapid changes going on in marketing and distribution right now and the options avaliable for both traditional and self-distribution. The way to approach filmmaking as a whole in order to ensure your films get to reach the audience they are intended for is an important part of that.

So how has what I learned from them last year, changed the way I've approached my own work since. Well, firstly, I realised that there was a common thru-line for a lot of the short films I was making and/or wanted to make and a lot of my writing was revolving around similar themes while some was going off on a different tangent. By fixing the work I go on to make in one realm (for now) and making films that fit the common theme (whether written by myself or others) and giving away my scripts that don't fit that theme to other filmmakers, I've been able to build one audience who appreciate all the shorts I've made so far and who might follow my filmmaking forward into features with similar themes, and I've also shown that my writing works for other filmmakers too. So I've been able to market my work in two ways, that I can hopefully build on in the not too distant future. It's all very 'happening at the moment' so I haven't seen much in the way of tangible results but with two short films off out to festival/marketing land one in post production and another awaiting funds for pre-production to begin, and some feature scripts in progress, I'm moving forward with my eyes open instead of just making random projects because I can and sticking them on YouTube hoping to be discovered. And for the first time in a long time I feel like there's a map of sorts to follow and Think Outside the Box Office will be the GPS by which I get to my final destination of sustainable filmmaking.

That's as far as I have gotten with my own work, but I've expanded my contacts and skills a lot in the past year since doing the course and always on the advice of those people. I've also opened my eyes a lot to what is happening with distribution changes, how others are dealing with marketing and selling their indie films and how the newer distribution systems are working in practice for them. There's some great information out there for the finding. I'm guessing that the new TOTBO workshop this weekend will be a far updated version of last year's because things have been adapting fast to filmmakers need to have more control over their profits. Whether you consider filmmaking to be art or a business or both, it's important that it remains sustainable for you. I took hope from Think Outiside the Box Office last year because of all the systems being flung at filmmakers as 'the answer' this seemed to make the most sense on the most levels and in a way that was adaptive to a changing environment and gave me the tools I'm going to need along the way.

Jon Reiss is a successful filmmaker with principles close to my own heart about the worth of our work in this industry that so often fails or bewilders us. I trust his advice implicitly, he doesn't say stupid things or give you a schpiel or unproven concepts. He shares his personal knowledge in a way that is very empowering. The workshop is a live step by step guide into to new world of hybrid distribution and marketing including how to create a release strategy that is unique for your film, the various markets that are available for your film, how and why to engage your audience as early as possible and how to think beyond the feature film to create new forms of content and/or to market and distribute your film.

If you have time to attend the London workshop this weekend I recommend you do so, Jon will be joined by the following special guests:

Terry Stevens from Dogwoof
Using a fresh approach, Dogwoof Indie partners with filmmakers to help themselves giving them direct access to professional film distribution services, whilst letting them retain the rights to their film, controlling costs, and actually having the chance of seeing revenues and profits. The film experience is changing and they intend to help filmmakers set the new rules. Terry will speak about a new theatrical initiative that Dogwoof is launching.

Peter Gerard and Andy Green from Distrify
Via Skype: Peter and Andy will discuss DIY digital distribution. They created Distrify which is a revolutionary toolset for social-media marketing with sales and distribution built in. Share and embed your movie trailer with Distrify. With built-in VOD, downloads, merchandise sales, and audience engagement tools including an affiliate revenue program, Distrify makes every view of your trailer a potential transaction. Sell anything, anywhere.

Chris Jones
Chris Jones is a filmmaker and author of the The Guerilla Film Makers Handbook series and he will talk about the ever confusing world of deliverables that trips up so many filmmakers.

Sheri Candler will speak about creating your filmmaking brand - and promoting yourself to the world. Sheri is an inbound marketing strategist who helps independent filmmakers build identities for themselves and their films. Through the use of online tools such as social networking, podcasts, blogs, online media publications and radio, she assists filmmakers in building an engaged and robust online community for their work that can be used to monetize effectively.

Gregory Bayne
Gregory Bayne is a filmmaker who has run three successful Kickstarter campaigns to fund and distribute his films. Greg will talk about the dos and don't for a successfull crowdfunding campaign.

Seriously, try and get to this if you can and if you can't then follow these good folks on twitter and their individual sites and blogs because they can help you.

And incidentally, I'm still firm friends with a lot of the folks I met in that workshop too!

Butterflies ~ Day two in the Can!

2011-06-15T03:10:00.007+01:00

Last week was the rescheduled day two of the shoot for my short film Butterflies written, produced by and starring Meddy Ford. It seemed at some points that it wasn’t going to happen as we ended fixing issue after issue, last minute and stretching every resource to cope with the changes to our plans that got thrown upon us. Even on the morning of the shoot we were putting out fires so that we could forge ahead and get this thing done.

As it was, the shoot was easier than I’d expected it to be. The number of setups we had in the time allocated was, I had thought, a push, but after a bit of a delay getting started we caught up swiftly and things were actually fairly relaxed. I like to work quickly when I can, there’s a sort of momentum that taps into my inventive side when I’m in motion. Alpha state, maybe?

Anyway, the shoot took place at the beautiful Bermondsey Square Hotel, a boutique hotel just down from Tower Bridge where we had a choice of their loft suites, which are like very lush bedrooms and not too hotel-like at all, the perfect place to set our perfect girl with her perfect life in her perfect bedroom, in our film. We had interiors, an exterior on the balcony with cityscape and then a taxi ride into which we crammed a skeleton crew & lights to get some movement into the story. A lot to fit into one short night shoot but we managed it with ample time and had fun in the process. It’s just a joy to be on set with great people who work well together and who know how to have fun and make things fun for each other. I really don't know what I'd do without such great and giving people in my life.

It’s funny how much this project that I didn’t write myself has come to mean as much to me as the films that I wrote from my heart. Looking at the photographs of myself directing, I can see in my face some of the personal pain I’ve experienced this past year, just showing there on my features. It’s been really tough for me to try to find my way back to normality, I still struggle a lot with certain parts of what’s happened, and as an actress, that enduring stress that shows on your features is a bit of a scary thing and I sometimes look in the mirror and can’t see the same face that I wore in my last set of headshots at all. I can’t say I’ve had a great deal of sleep this past year with one thing and another and in truth I’ve begun to feel more comfortable behind the camera where I’m not looked at and judged as much and the hollows under my eyes don't matter. I think ultimately the story of this film has resonated with me. We all go to our dark places sometimes if we can’t express that darkness it stays inside us and becomes damaging. So this past 18 months the films I've completed & worked on, and in particular this project for me has been a very cathartic process and made me smile at some of the cracks in my life that hide behind the glossy happy side of Leilani that I so often show to the world. I think through directing I've learned to be more honest. To tell all the stories instead of hiding some of them, the glossy happy side of me is true but there's a broken side to all of us, sometimes, and I'm becoming more comfortable with the idea that it's okay to let that show. There’s no hiding in film, the truth shows through the veneer. This film is very beautiful with beautiful people and beautiful settings but ultimately the cracks in the characters show. I like that about it. I hope it will find it’s audience and they will love it as much as I do.

All shots in the can, the rushes are looking good and I’m just piecing together in my head how it will fit with the voiceover we recorded, how the sound design will work underneath that, and thinking more about the score that will glue it all together. I’ve already made some decisions that are different to what I initially imagined. Projects grow organically as you work on them and as I have a very malleable approach to working I’m feeling really comfortable with the process of letting go of a mindset and just working to enhance what I have got emerging. I had a great sleep yesterday. Night shoots will do that to you! Now onto Post! :)

The Guerilla Film Masterclass #GFilm

2011-06-06T18:07:00.005+01:00

So. It’s Monday and I’m recovering from two very intense days of The Guerilla Film Masterclass with Chris Jones who basically over the weekend shared the entirety of his experience and philosophy about filmmaking in a straightforward and honest way, dealing with the pitfalls and progress of a filmmaking career. I wanted to blog about the whole thing last night but I felt that it would be advantageous to actually let what I have just experienced sink in a little and begin to assimilate so that I could talk about it with a bit less of the ‘whoah, wow’ that my brain was in yesterday, and actually make some sense!

So. Saturday began in a room of some 350 filmmakers of varying levels and experience, buzzing with anticipation and keen to learn. We started with Chris giving an overview that lead into the course and then talked about what the keys to success are and spent a few minutes talking about defining why we want to do this with our time and energy, who we are and really getting to the core of what motivates us.

Something Chris said about this really resonated with me in a way I can’t quite even define yet. He talked about what we want (or our egos want) and what we need out of life. That want is mundane and that you have to really need something for the circumstances to be right for it to come to you, which wasn’t said in a ‘The Secret’ or ‘ask the universe’ kind of way but seemed more deeply rooted in connecting with what you need as a human expressing to other humans through film and not just what your ego tells you that you want. Life is full of want. Want is mundane. You have to really connect with and ask for what you need, for life to deliver it.

Chris detailed a five step career model that he has defined and we looked at illustrations of how this five steps has fitted well known filmmakers careers. It’s not a blueprint as such but a framework to help people be realistic about where they’re at and know where to go next and what to be aiming for. And then he told us meticulously how to plan to do just that and how to carry those plans through pre-production and the shoot. What you want to make and the kind of filmmaker you want to be is quite key to planning productions and realising how far you can reach without overstretching and where to spend every penny for the best outcome without wasting resources to choose the right project that will lead you forwards to the next stage of your career. Always as the information led forward, it highlighted again and again the very specific things we’d already been told and formed a whole plan. So the very vital parts of being a filmmaker get re-iterated throughout the masterclass.

We then went in detail through the choices for sound, camera, and digital data management planning, how to prepare your personal life for the impact of making a film and how to minimise fallout.

There was a dizzying amount of information to absorb, personal philosophy to consider and practicalities to take into account. I finished Saturday utterly, utterly exhausted. If this course isn’t mental and physical training for how exhausting it can be to make a feature film then I don’t know what is! I got a good night’s sleep before day two!

Sunday I’d built up a bit of stamina for the masses of information coming at my brain and was able to hone in on the key issues of post-production. It’s an area I’ve personally struggled with and been both clueless about and out of control of during a couple of the shorts I’ve made. While it’s okay to fudge your way through with a few mates help on a short, when making a feature, post is a massive, massive endeavour that few filmmakers are really prepared for. I know that right now I’d totally struggle so it was refreshing to hear the nitty gritty of how the process works and the pitfalls to avoid by knowing about all aspects of your post workflow and troubleshooting beforehand. It’s when the anticipation of planning is gone, the thrill of being around a big crew has disappeared as the shoot finishes and the production crew leave for their next gig and you are left with the material you have which you have to make a film of despite the fact that there are always flaws to work around. That’s real work but I felt enthused once I’d understood the ins and outs and strategies to manage and I hope that employing some thorough preparation will make a process that is as joyful as the shoot itself.

We spoke in some detail about sales and distribution. The current state of play in those areas, what other filmmakers are doing and what Chris thought we ought to know. How to deal with the hard edge of business and where and how to sell you film for the most advantageous rewards and how best to try and protect yourself and your project for the long term. There were a few reality checks along the way that were good to be aware of. Always Chris spoke from the experience of himself and the filmmakers he’s close with, showed us examples and told us the truth from where he stood, while motivating us to understand our own strengths and weaknesses and how best to work with them for the kind of filmmaker we want to be.

I’m not sure quite sure where this weekend has left me. Certainly better prepared, a little daunted and yet strangely the enormity of it all is reassuring because what the whole weekend really came down to is why. Why do we do this with our lives and what is it about us that makes us tell stories to strangers? And that’s actually quite a simple question to answer with a little bit of thought and self-evaluation. That’s the important bit really, getting to the simple core of it all. The rest is just doing the stuff you need to do.

A lot of The Guerilla Film Masterclass information is held in the Guerilla Film Maker's Movie Blueprint that you can buy from Chris Jones' website. I do recommend the course. Chris said that making a feature film changes your life, that you'll be a different person when you come out the other side of that process. That takes guts. Chris' course will punch you in those guts and let you know they are absolutely there inside you! :)

Gareth Unwin, David Seidler & The History of The King's Speech #GFilm

2011-06-04T00:31:00.006+01:00

The above photograph is the closest I've ever been to a genuine Oscar statuette. Well, actually that's not quite true as I did go up on the stage later on to say hi to Chris Jones but by then it was in a bag. The Oscar of course belongs to The King's Speech and Gareth Unwin is it's Producer, David Seidler the writer who has one of his own for the same project. Both gave a wonderful talk this evening about their work and were extremely frank and down to earth with the thoughts and information they shared.

Firstly there was the statue and getting it out and showing it off and talking about the time it got broken by one of the Producer's kids during a photo session just after the Oscars ceremony and had to be sheepishly taken to the Oscars clinic to be repaired and it's a fun story that you may have seen in the news. Once the glitz had been gotten out of the way though the serious talk about how the film came about and how it evolved happened and was really informative. I'm not sure I can remember all but I'll try and share some of it here.

For writer, David Seidler, the story began when he was a child with a stutter. He left the UK for the US but his parents would get him to listen to recordings of the king and told him about the fact that the king had had a stutter and had learned to overcome it. Overcoming his own stutter in time, the story had seeded itself in him. Not much is written about stuttering. At the time it was considered a defect and if you had a stutter you were considered a defective person and in some ways written off. When David came to writing he investigated how the King had lost his stutter and through Lionel Logue's son discovered the story and that Lionel's notes still existed. He was told he could have access to them & story rights from Lionels son but only if The Queen Mother agreed and when David contacted her she said yes, but only after her death please. Although she was fairly old at that time it was twenty-five years later when Queen Elizabeth, The Queen Mother died and David was free to write his screenplay.

The original screenplay was re-written, on advice, as a stage play to refine the relationship of two men in basically one room, and in that form it found it's way to Gareth Unwin, who saw it's screen potential immediately. The story was then put back into screenplay form to be made into a TV Drama for the BBC. In order to expand the writing for screen and give a more visual narrative to the existing material, more scenes outside the therapy room were included. Gareth would throw things out to David who would come back with great ideas. Budget contstraints were dealt with inovatively. For instance, the BBC Budget didn't stretch far enough to re-create the coronation, but that was an essential part of the story, so it was shown as a coronation rehearsal instead. As the screenplay expanded and became stronger through development Gareth began to realise there was more here than just a drama serialisation, this was a movie being developed.

The project moved on and an Australian company became necessary in order to have an international co-production that would allow funds for filming in Australia to tell Lionel's backstory. Because of their UK base (meaning the whole development period needn't be done on Australian time by Gareth) See-Saw Films were recommended and came aboard the project. David then spoke about how someone he knew helpfully suggested that someone they knew who lived a few doors down from Geoffrey Rush could slip the treatment through his letterbox for them. David got through an explanation of how very unprofessional and not done in the industry that was only to find out it was too late and it had been done. An email arrived from his quite cross agent about the 'tactic' but also admitted Geoffrey was very interested in the project and he came aboard. And that raised the bar on the project again, and set a standard for the other actors. The team knew they wanted Helena Bonham Carter but began looking for a King! By this time word had spread throughout the London agents and they were being offered a choice of the top tier actors. Colin Firth came up trumps and although David had his reservations (which he later realised was a mistake as they were unfounded) he filled the king's shoes admirably throughout the production.

Though smaller festivals gave an indication that the film was going to be big, the first real test of the film was at Toronto with a very filmic audience. The people in the auditorium began applauding before the film was even over, at the end of the speech itself, and when the film was over the entire audience (and it's a huge cinema) rose to it's feet as one. The Oscar race began and we all know where it ended. David and Gareth are collaborating again on epic tale of the life and loves of Lady Hester Stanhope, a female "Lawrence of Arabia", but 100 years earlier. It sounds amazing and great to hear of a fabulous strong female role on the horizon.

So overall the Oscar winning feature is not necessarilly something that happens overnight but something that is put together and grows organically as more elements get put into place and a project comes more tightly together.

David and Gareth gave some honest advice to us then, about working. For Gareth, it was about not self doubting and always being prepared to back yourself. The pair got great legal advice for dealing with contract issues before going into negotiations with The Weinstein Company. There were a lot of producers on the project and although not all of them worked directly on the film, Gareth talked of the necessity to have those producers involved to ensure certain things happened so that the film could be made and each of them had done their fair share to earn their production credit. Something I think we all know but is nice to hear from a Producer how valued other producers are and that these things are really not vanity credits at all. David gave some advice about writing and said that you cannot wait for devine inspiration, writing is like any other work, you just have to turn up for a period of time and put something on the page. Gareth was saying that overall period drama was approx 15-18% more expensive to produce and that although Oscar winning got people to trust your box office record more, it is still extremely difficult to get projects financed. Single source financing is like the golden fleece for producers but more often it's a case of piecing a project together with a patchwork quilt of financing with hedge funds and equity deals. At the end of the day state funding for film in the UK is still highly important although for Gareth, the demise of the UK Film Council just means that the letter heading has changed and that the BFI will now do the same work and hopefully be as productive to work with. David then made a joke about writing when he said, choose rich parents. He went on to say keep writing and keep putting it out there but you only have so much writing energy so to find a way of earning a living that doesn't sap it.

The guys went on to give some final advice to new filmmakers. Gareth advised that as a producer you should never prevent anyone's opportunity to do a great job. And to just do it. The day you become a producer is when you first produce, a director when you first direct. David advised writers to write from the heart. Something that comes from within. That it will resonate more and be more meaningful as art over the course of a career.

Overall it was a great evening and Chris Jones was marvellous and over-delivered as usual on what was already a fab event by making it more spectacular. I really enjoyed myself and when I said hello to Gareth and was greeted with an 'Ello Lani, yes I recognised you' it made my day, not because he's an Oscar winning producer but just because he's someone I've talked to a bit before he won his Oscar, and he's a really nice person who cares a lot about his craft. I hope to see him with a lot more shiny trophies very soon!

Off to bed now as have to be up in a few hours for what is sounding like a madly packed weekend on the Guerilla Film Makers Masterclass. Bring it on!

Voice Recording ~ Butterflies

2011-05-27T21:38:00.009+01:00

It's been a while since I've done any voice recording either as an actor or director, but this week took me down to Air Studios in Shoreditch where I was kindly given access to a sound suite to record actress Meddy Ford's voiceover for Butterflies. We all arrived a bit bedraggled from the rain but we had a whale of a time avoiding the urge to press a fascinating array of buttons and knuckling down to working but having a lot of fun too. I always think that a level of fun is helpful, even with a serious voice recording. It keeps things relaxed and pressure free and you can get a fuller, more natural range in the voice.

We popped Meddy into the sound booth and took a number of recordings. Though I had an idea in my head about how I wanted it to sound I also didn't want to totally impose a certain feel. I wanted to have options and be open to possibilites. As of yet I have only a rough idea of what I want musicwise for the film and all I know is that I'll be working with the wonderful Rob Knight who was the composer for By The Steps of St. Paul's so I may want the voice to be stronger or softer at certain points.

Outside in the sound studio it was then possible to listen back together so that Meddy could hear her recordings and I could check off the lines I liked to ensure I had choices of recording for each that would work and that we liked. I think it was an advantage that Meddy had written the script so was able to deliver the lines well just as they had been written.

All in all, it was as much fun as I remember!

And while I was there I was also able to pick up the sound recordings we'd captured on the shoot, so although we've still got more to film and then put it all together in post I'm beginning to get a nice overview of the project and how it will work. I'm looking forward to cracking on with it!

BLANC DE BLANC

2011-05-26T01:48:00.013+01:00

As a backer of A Year Without Rent I received some time ago an email with an extra little perk, a link to watch director Lucas McNelly’s film BLANC DE BLANC. After a few busy weeks I finally got around to sitting down and watching it the other evening.

I’m at a bit of a blanc to describe it really. The plot is obscure to say the least and reminded me a little of JJ Abram’s Mystery Box TED speech. But to be honest the mystery of this film is not the part of the film that kept me watching or in fact even interested me as much as the relationship of the two leads. Made as part of twitter’s two-week film incentive and realised on a very small budget, I expected that this film probably would probably be simple and basic, and that is largely what I found to be the case. A film that has flaws, due to production time and available resources, but that looks decent and, though has some hits and some misses in it, on the acting front has some tender engaging moments of connection and has stretched itself into some interesting areas.

It was those moments of connection that kept (and still keep) me intrigued, and they were largely the bits where I felt the main characters connecting on a deeper level amongst a few (sorry!) hammy moments elsewhere. Timewise there are quite a lot of pretty inserts that extend the time of the film but add nothing to the plot or pace. Whether these were intended as filler moments or time to think I’m not sure (I suspected a bit of both) but ultimately I think they made the film feel a little more stretched out than it needed to be for an effective story and didn’t work quite as well as may have been intended.

What I liked most about it is the potential. For a film made in two weeks on a shoestring you get what you’d expect to get plus a little bit more and that little bit more is quite rare to find. There’s a gem in here. A spark of innovation and experimentation that may fail on some levels with this film but actually just doesn’t really get touched on at all with slicker high budget productions where experimentation isn’t an option. And isn’t that really the purpose of indie film? To reach into those places that studio films don’t go, and see what happens? Sure, with time and budget and the opportunity to work more with the actors I think there’s a lot that could be improved and there was an itch there to see the film remade and developed to reach the fullness of that spark or potential I saw in the writing. It is what it is though, and given the same constraints I can’t say I’d be able to do any better. Overall I didn’t love it but I liked it and found it inoffensive. I could watch it again. There are far bigger budget films I couldn’t say that about.

And if you want to take a look at it you can click to watch it below for the bargain price of just $2.99. You might find that it gives you much food for thought. Note the player will expand to full size. ;)

Butterflies Shoot #1

2011-05-24T01:37:00.004+01:00

It all happened rather quickly but I've found myself directing another film. This time not my own screenplay but a short written by Meddy Ford who is also acting in the lead role and producing. I'd been wanting to direct another writers work for a while and had also wanted to work with Meddy as an actor so when this came up and a lot of the production work had been put in place, locations ready to use and the script was really nice and fitted in very well with the kind of films I write and make, it semed like it was meant to be.

We had a few production bumps right before the shoot as our DoP was very sick and unable to film and it was an extremely difficult decision as to whether to cancel & reschedule the shoot or to go ahead and find another DoP. We had a stylist who had worked really hard to speak to designers to borrow outfits for us and so that was a factor. We'd all worked really hard and so I felt that with enough in place to continue I would go ahead. We found a replacement DoP for Saturday's shoot. Samuel Pearce who I'd worked with before on By The Steps of St. Paul's and who is a great professional DoP that I like working with a lot but he couldn't do the Sunday. However by fortune the costume for Meddy is something that the stylist can give us again so we've been able to postpone and reschedule. That extra time is giving us the incentive to look at improving the second day's locations to add production value to the film and also to give us a little more space to work in.

It's such a tough call to make when something goes awry just before production. I think it's a judgment call that each director has to make based on what is right for them and their project and the kind of filmmaker they want to be. For myself, I am looking to train myself for how I might act not only for this project but for the ones I make in the future. If I'd paid for locations, designer costume hire, people's time and work I'd have had to replace the DoP or lose all that. So that's what I chose to do in this instance. Sunday I didn't have any experienced professional DoP so I decided to try and get at least the costumed shots right with the not inexperienced team I had. When I discovered it wasn't extra work to get the costume another day it was an easy decision to reschedule that.

I'm not a vastly experienced director, this is just my fourth short, so I did the best I could and I believe I've made the right decisions for myself and my project. I'm very pleased with what we've got, the film so far is looking good and I'm very much looking forward to shooting the rest.

Costume Meeting #1 ~ #ClowningAround

2011-05-24T01:00:00.007+01:00

Damien our director is back from filming at his day job in the US and arranged a meeting with Katerina Dipla our Costume Designer to sort out some costume for the photo shoot with the four principal characters of the film.

Katerina knows her stuff and took us through some of the ideas she'd had based upon her and damien's discussions. It helps clarify for me the kinds of places I can contact to look for collaborative support. We're going to be documenting the costume process, in fact we'll be documenting every part of the process of creating characters and making this film so that could be of interest to some.

Meeting face to face and chatting through stuff certainly helps to solidify ideas. Katerina uses images taped to sheets of paper to leaf through and talk about and test out ideas & put things together to see how strong they are. It's a really artistic process, strong almost exaggerated imagery helps to fix the ideas and one gets a kind of gut response to certain shapes or colours. The idea of ruffles went down well.

Damien is off working in France again shortly but before he goes we'l be having another crew meeting and hopefully I'll have a little bit more time over the next week or so to get to grips with the websitey stuff we have planned before Damien returns and everything kicks up a gear. I'm really excited about it.

OTTfilms Spring Screening 2011

2011-05-14T02:25:00.011+01:00

OTTfilms had it’s spring screening last Tues in which two of my films were shown amongst some 20 others made in the last 12 months or so some of which I also helped out on. Since the group founded we’ve together made over 100 shorts and we’ve arranged screenings for all. It’s important to us as a community who join together to make films so frequently, and are both filmmakers and friends, that we get to sit down together to enjoy our films screened.

For those who don't know, OTTfilms is a collaborative filmmaking group that I have co-run with founder John Condon and a few others for the last five years or so. The group operates with no money at the moment and is free for members to join so it’s a big job to pull something like this off well but of course enormously rewarding, especially for me as a group admin to see what the group has achieved. We’ve got a tremendously spirited screening team who pulled this one off with aplomb.

We’ve screened at a number of venues before, some better than others, this time we were at the fabulous and comfortable Apollo cinema in Piccadilly and we screened from blu-ray which I thought looked and sounded fab! It’s definitely a wonderful format. One of the benefits of the Apollo is that it has a really cool licenced bar to hang out in before and afterwards too!

The films were all cool, some were big projects to showcase talent and some were people’s first films, some were made for 48 or 72hr competitions and to see the mixture of genres and innovation in short films of varying budgets, all in one screening event was inspiring. Over a period of years I’ve seen a number of screenings and it’s enormously satisfying to see how people grow in their craft. The filmmakers, casts and crews, were excited to see each other’s work and chat together in the bar afterwards about what they were moving on to make next. It’s great to see how people in a collaborative community help and encourage each other so readily. I managed to grab myself one of my 1st AD’s of choice for my next shoot next week while I was heading up the road afterwards!

I understand the afterparty at O’Neills in Wardour Street went on for quite some time! If there’s one thing all our OTTers know it’s how to celebrate films!

I certainly went home happy. People seemed to like both of my films but it was interesting to screen them both together and see how my second film Transference which I spent over £2K making was received compared to my third film By The Steps of St. Paul's that was a zero budget made in 72 hours. The films have a common theme about why we love the people we love and the things we obstruct ourselves with. By The Steps of St. Paul's was very gushed over while Transference was received a little more cooly with only one person saying to me that they really loved it.

In retrospect, I had to have a hard think about why the film I'd spent so much more time and money making and was supposed to be a higher calibre was a little less popular. It's by no means a failure, it's a lovely film that people respect and that a lot of people worked hard on to make it shine. It's just not the sort of film people really gush about. I think though a very well received screenplay this film maybe needn't have been made in such an expensive way, and perhaps I could have spent money on a script that was a little less static and philosophical and that maybe had a little more to it than two people in a room. But what I did do with it, I did deliberately as a way to see how my writing came across on screen and because I really wanted to make a high end short to send over to Cannes but as only my second film I needed to keep things manageable. So for me, it's a resounding success and a pleasure to look at it and enjoy what my wonderful cast and crew helped me do which far exceeded the second short I would have made if I hadn't stretched myself. What I've learned through that film, brought me further as a filmmaker and made me want to expand and flow out from that bedrock of a solid film. So in many ways, though I had some frank evaluation to take in afterwards about what audiences may want to see from me and what cinematically grabs people, ultimately, I'm happy. Drama is such a difficult genre to work with and to draw people into in a short form. Transference certainly works better on screen than it does on web as the close ups and shot angles along with the cinemascope wides were designed for it to be played in cinemas. I also think both my films are connected in more than just theme. And I'm so proud of both of them and the people who made them with me. I've got plenty more filmmaking in me yet to learn more lessons. I think though I've probably been harsh on myself and my films it's worth taking time with every project to look at it with a bit of emotional distance and see what you could, might or would have done differently to make the film better than it is. That done, you have to let go and just love the film for what it is. Films are like our children sometimes.. we worry, and fret, and hurt if they are criticised, and stick up for them and judge them and then we have to let them be whatever they are and stand on their own. The best part of screenings for me is just that. Letting the films stand up there alongside other films and watching audiences watch them. It's why I make films, so I can watch the audience.

A big cheer goes out to all the people who organised the event, made the films, and generally made it a great night! And especially to the benefactors who paid a larger ticket price to help support the event and keep ticket costs down for everyone. There’s some video footage & interviews coming... I'll make a post when it's edited together but it's just a bit of behind the scenes at OTTfilms so people can see what we're about and the kind of people who make films here (pretty great ones!).

In the meantime we can be found at www.ottfilms.co.uk/forum and there are some more photos from the event here!

Transference goes to Cannes (Short Film Corner!)

2011-05-14T00:59:00.005+01:00

My film, Transference, is currently in the Short Film Corner at Cannes. It’s the festival I made it for and although we didn’t get officially selected (only a tiny handful do from the thousands entered) the beauty of Cannes is that the market there is great and the Short Film Corner in particular is an exciting place, you never know what will come out of it. It even has it’s own compettition each year that all accepted films can freely enter.

The last time I had short films in Cannes was 2007 when my first micro-short Death of the Dinosaurs and a micro-short I produced called Tarot, were there. Out of the some 3000 films submitted that year to the short film corner Tarot came in the top ten finalists of the official SFC film competition that year. Both films were seen fairly widely and got invited to other festivals. The submission waivers I got were alone worth the price I’d paid to send the films over into the market. Plus there were emails from random people who said they’d just viewed my film in the SFC and that they’d enjoyed it. That was priceless.

The Short Film Corner has changed quite a bit since last time. It used to be open to every short film, but now they are very select having first viewed all films to check their ‘festival suitability’ first and only one submission per director is allowed. I guess people were sending all sorts. Fortunately Transference is broadcast quality and they seemed to like it because it got accepted quickly. The plan had initially been for me to go over to Cannes with it but circumstances over the last year or so made that unpractical for me right now both financially and from a more work orientated point of view. I’m not so disappointed about that. I’m making another short film instead!

Transference, is quite a grown up film, a little bit philosophical, a little bit sex and love.. (hey, I wrote it for the French market!)... and it’s a drama which I know is going to be less popular than a dinosaur film. I’m really proud of it for my second ever short, I aimed high and while I didn't reach my goal of getting Official Selection I am glad to send the film to Cannes Short Film Corner and it’s great that it’s over there being seen as part of a fantastic festival & market that regards short films so highly for the art form they are.

The first films that were ever made were shorts. The Short Film Corner keeps that tradition going proudly, giving a viewing outlet and a market for shortform content. Long may it continue, and long may I make short films to go in it!

App-ealing to the Festival Audience ~ SCI-FI-LONDON Techs Up

2011-05-01T01:29:00.004+01:00

Back in the green room at SCI-FI-LONDON there's a calm oasis of comfey seats with snacks and refreshments for festival guests and filmmakers to relax in and all around buzzes a hive of activity as interesting people pop in and out and start conversations, swap business cards and talk serious film in fun ways.

During my time in there, I met some of the festival staff who were taking a quick break from rushing around organising things, Uri, the Festival Director from the ICON fantasy festival in Israel (a great festival btw) popped in and also the Lunopolis crowd of filmmakers who are a great bunch, thoroughly enjoying the festival and speaking truly knowledgeably about films and the industry. I spent some time chatting Wendy Whitney one of the Associate Producers but who's business card is entitled 'Dept of Lunar Intelligence' ~ how cool is that? They've made a really enticing film and I'm hoping to get down there tomorrow if I can manage to get away to see it.

And of course Chris and Louis were there making everyone happy and sharing lots of fascinating thoughts and information about what was happening and would be happening over the rest of the festival.

This year, Chris has built a festival app that looks fantastic and Louis was showing it to us. A great way to have the programme and festival stuff at your fingertips without having to lug round one of those very lovely but often cumbersome festival brochures. Download it and give it a go. The photo above doesn't really do it justice but it looks great on Louis' iPad and better yet the app programming is something that can be sold for other festivals to utilise. I hope they'll all snap it up because the way I am able live out of my phone lately it's likely to be the way things are going and if any festival were going to lead the techy way it had to be SCI-FI-LONDON. What's great is that when you find the film you want to see you can just hit the box office number in the app and book right away. Simples!

Only a couple of days left for this round of festival goodness but I'm sure there's plenty more to come later and throughout this year. For lovers of Sci-Fi or if you just like Fantastic film you could do worse than enjoy the rest of your bank holiday there! The hospitality for festival guest and festivalgoer alike is incredible and after the talk (which entailed free wine, nibbles and some bonus throw out gifts) myself, Anna and the entire audience were invited by Louis to stay free of charge to enjoy either of the two all nighters and refreshments happening at the Apollo that night and though Royal Wedding plans beckoned me away I know some of my fellow OTTers stayed out all night (nothing new for our lot!) and despite the bags under their eyes the next morning swore all the films were more than worth it and are now scanning their apps for what else they might squeeze in before the closing night gala.

You could say overally the festival this year has been a very app-y experience!

My Talk at SCI-FI-LONDON Girl Geek Dinner

2011-05-01T00:33:00.007+01:00

So, last Thursday evening I went along to SCI-FI-LONDON to talk about collaborative filmmaking and the work I do at the Girl Geek Dinner there. I was joined by the marvellous Anna Higgs, who spoke first about her company Quark films and two of the documentary projects they've been working on. More about that in another blog post, but for now I'll suggest you follow her @quarkfilms on Twitter as she's got some very interesting things happening right now at the cutting edge of documentary filmmaking.

Then, I spoke about my thing for a while. It's funny but I'd never thought of myself as a geek before. I guess it just never occurred to me that anything I did was that difficult. I'm not in any way technical so I work with talented people who are and only take an interest in the capeabilities of technology rather than the workings of it. But at some point between agreeing to talk and going along I found myself googling the difference between a geek and a nerd and realised it was that very investigative, curious quality about me that is what makes me a geek girl.

I did make my presentation slides using the cloud on a beta site called 280 slides, so I guess I'm kind of explorative when it comes to technology and possibility. The truth is there's a lot of possibility with the things that are happening right now with filmmaking and marketing tools because software and hardware exists for all sorts of fun things and is evovling sometimes faster than I can read up about it. It pays anyone to be aware of at least some of the things going on though. So far I've made films using HDV when that was taking over from SD, then moved on to RED and the Cannon 5D MKII so I guess I'm up for exploring new developments. Technology doesn't always work in the ways we'd like it to and everything has it's pro's and cons but there have been massive benefits.

Anyhow.. the talk went okay considering it was my first time. I did get a bit nervous the more I spoke, something to work on I guess. For an actor I get very shy when I speak as myself. I got some good tips afterwards on how to improve and a lot of great feedback about the things I had said about my journey into film so far and the benefits of collaborative community. The truth is that unwilling to be stiff I didn't write any notes down and decided to wing it with just a general idea of what I wanted to say, I got laughs at my funny asides which was nice, my films went down well which was most important to me, and as I spoke I sort of realised how many great things have happened to me over the past few years, how I've grown as a person and a creative by collaborating with some truly amazing people and how I've managed to touch and be touched by folks along the way. Sure I've only made shorts so far, but you know what, the very first films ever made were shorts and that short film not only survived the last 100 years of filmic development but has actually thrived and grown is something to be very proud of and I'm so proud of my casts and crews and what we've achieved together on ours so far. I know that standing at the front of that big cinema screen in front of a packed house talking about collaboration I felt every single person I'd ever collaborated with present in the way I feel about filmmaking. So far it's been a brilliant ride and what started out as a bit of fun has turned into something that is a huge part of who I am as a person and will colour the way I live the rest of my life.

It's funny to be standing in a room mostly full of strangers and come to a realisation like that.

I said before that sooner or later if you make films and get them out there that people end up speaking about them in front of an audience. But it's not really the films we speak about so much as the experiences that making and sharing them with other humans gives us. That's why we do it really.

Thanks, therefore to everyone who came along to hear me speak and spoke to me after, and who've contacted me since. I'm grateful to have had the opportunity to speak to you and with you, and I look forward to the next opportunity to share my experiences, and very much looking forward to creating new ones! Perhaps some of you will join me along the road. :)

Serious Producers Required for Clowning Around! #filmmaking

2011-04-28T03:03:00.006+01:00

I've had a busy week this week and I'm really delighted to be teaming up with my Transference Producer, Damien Cullen to help him out by becoming a Producer on his newest film Clowning Around. It's a project Damien has had ticking over in development for a long time and I'm delighted to be seeing it made and to get to be part of it and work with him again.

As the title suggests it's a clown film, but it's not just a comedic jape, it's a seriously ambitious project with some strong themes of addiction and outgrowing your dream profession.

We are collaborative filmmakers and in the true sense of collaboration we've got some very cool plans and cool people involved and we are kicking off with an invitation for other likeminded people to join us on our journey and share the creation of something truly worthy and special.

The following notice written by Damien has gone out in various places and I thought I'd share it here too as a good way to begin speaking about my involvement with the project and what we intend to achieve and the sort of people we intend to achieve it with. In true clown style we'll be doing it all with a smile on our face. :)

We are looking for assistant producers and producers for our short film, a bittersweet comedy called "Clowning Around" which is written and directed by Damien Cullen (www.damiencullen.co.uk), which we hope to shoot on either RED or 5D in September 2011. The primary role of the producers will be to raise £200-£400 each for the films proposed £4,000 budget. By splitting the funding responsibilities we aim to create a collaborative network of people who understand the potential of the project and use this, as well as a strong IndieGoGo campaign to raise the budget. We currently have two producers on board, Leilani Holmes (www,leilaniholmes.co.uk) and Carlo Ortu (www.sugarspunpictures.com) and are looking for like-minded, enthusiastic and committed individuals who want more experience with crowd source funding and private investor funding and sponsorship. We have some fantastic actors involved including Bill Thomas, Matthew Jure and Kiki Kendrick and have crewed up the heads of dept including DOP (Azul Serra), Production Designer (Bianca Turner) and 1st Assistant Director (Greer McNally) so are aiming to create an extremely high quality film to be entered into the top tier of global festivals. In order to do this, we will be creating a website and productions stills in June to use as a visual basis for fundraising and demonstrate the ambition and production value of the project. If you would like to view the script or know more about the project, please email us at damien@damiencullen.co.uk

Hope to speak to some of you soon!

I'm Speaking At SCI-FI LONDON Girl Geek Dinner! Come Along!

2011-04-22T15:14:00.003+01:00

Sooner or later, if you make films and get them out there, you'll be asked by someone to come along speak about your work. This is my first 'proper' presentation where I'll be speaking about collaborative filmmaking and the possibilities of film. An incredibly fitting event for me to make my first speach as SCI-FI LONON film festival was where I first had the experience of sitting in a film festival as one of the filmmakers, watching my very first short Death of the Dinosaurs play to an appreciative audience. And a great experience it was too! Hopefully this talk will be equally pleasurable for the Girl Geeks and their Boy Geek friends who join us for dinner! I hope you'll come along!

DETAILS:

SCI-FI-LONDON and London Girl Geek Dinners presents an evening of geek girls in film...

If you do a google search for ‘women in film BAFTA 2011’ two of the first four hits are about red carpet fashion. Looking though the 2011 BAFTA nominations it seems like women are mostly only taken seriously in film if they are actors or doing hair, make-up and costumes.

Leilani Holmes and Anna Higgs have both had success in a male-dominated field and are joining SCI-FI-LONDON and the London Girl Geek Dinners to present about how they make use of new media, crowd sourcing content and engage with collaborative filmmaking forums to challenge the glass ceiling.

Leilani Holmes is a short film maker, screen writer and actor who co-runs a collaborative filmmaking group www.ottfilms.co.uk/forum and blogs for the London Screenwriters Festival.

Anna Higgs is a producer with a background in the world of BAFTA-award winning interactive ‘edutainment’ and has been involved the production of a wide range of games, as well as managing digital media projects for a diverse range of clients including Sony, Sainsbury's, BskyB, Telewest and the BBC. In 2006 Anna completed her MA in Producing at the NFTS, and founded Quark Films with producer Gavin Humphries.

Food & drink: Drinks and nibbles in the bar, from 6.30pm

Attendees: As usual, men allowed as a guest of a LGGD member.

Tickets: http://scifi-london2011.eventbrite.com/

Crowd Funded Films: My Backer Experience

2011-04-21T20:33:00.012+01:00

Last year I found myself in a position where I was unable to physically get involved with or facilitate very much filmmaking for quite a long time. I’ve always been a collaborative filmmaker and so, on a whim really, I became a backer to a crowd funded project called Death Wish and liking the idea of a project that didn’t require much from me, but that I could be a little bit connected to, I decided to make a foray into supporting other filmmakers in this way, mainly through speciality websites Kickstarter and Indiegogo and connecting with the filmmakers via Twitter, usually before (sometimes after) backing their projects.

This certainly wasn’t my first exposure to crowd funding. I’d been fortunate to have chosen to become an Associate Producer on Chris Jones’ Gone Fishing short film. It was a high budget, high end piece of filmmaking that was documented extensively throughout the whole creative and marketing process, was Oscar shortlisted, received numerous festival awards around the world, and obtained distribution.

For my initial financial investment and later investment of a little time to help with marketing a bit, I received so much back in terms of events, experiences and learning, that I feel it has truly paid me back for my initial faith more than tenfold. Chris is like that though; it was why I didn’t hesitate to get involved with his venture in the first place and why I’m still so proud to be connected with Gone Fishing and the amazing people who got behind it, and why I continue to edify the film on a regular basis. Gone Fishing is, in fact, still going strong and we’re still all learning from it’s process. It’s available on iTunes or here from Chris’ site and well worth a look as is the online short filmmaking course that came out of it.

Anyhow, that good experience behind me I found, during the course of 2010 thirteen more crowd funded projects to become a backer for, mostly in a small way as I’m but a poor arty un-financed type myself, but all endorsed by me with the hope that out of these cold cash transactions, something cool might come sparking back to illuminate a moment of my creative soul. A fanciful wish perhaps, but that’s my particular trick. I look in the gaps of things to see the possibilities that might be there if I venture in.

And so, the projects and filmmakers I’ve backed have given me an initial insight into the crowd funding process from the perspective of the crowd, I’ve learned what appealed to me and why it did, and what sort of projects would ultimately make me want to part with actual money (however piffling the amount) to fund someone else’s film and spend my time paying attention to it’s developments and talking about them to spread the word of the filmmakers work. How my expectations were fulfilled, and what the downsides of crowd funding may be were also things that came to light.

I think any filmmaker out there who’s looking to crowd fund a project needs to understand whether it’s really right for them and if so, to think how they are going to maximise their rewards in asking for strangers and friends alike to help them get their film made. It’s not really an easy ask, it’s not free money, and there’s plenty negativity to negotiate from people who think you've got a cheek to come begging. Some projects I backed really could have done better. Some people were so great I backed them more than once and would again, because they were so very worth it.

While each of these projects probably deserves an entire blog post of it’s own (and I may well do that in future) for now, I’m just going to list what projects and people I have backed and how with a link through to them. Some are completed, some are still ongoing projects and after nearly a year of helping other projects get going I have now drawn a strict line under my crowd funding backing, while I concentrate on getting projects off the ground in more practical ways.

Whether I’d ever crowd fund a project I was directing myself or not, is something I’m actually still on the fence about. The main thing I observed is that crowd funding is a two way act of giving that requires an extra investment of time and resources from the filmmaker that must be given freely, enthusiastically and frequently. Not every filmmaker is cut out for this on top of managing a busy project, and if I do ever go down that route myself I will choose my project and my timing very carefully to ensure that I do it right for the people who believe in me enough to put their hand’s in their pockets with no hope or thought of their contribution gaining them profit. That’s a special kind of trust that I respect too much to meet half hearted as a director. As a Producer there are people I've worked with who I'd wholeheartedy get behind to crowd fund a project for.

So, the projects I micro-funded were.

KICKSTARTER

Solomon Grundy ~ Mattson Tomlin
TILT ~ Phil Holbrook & KingisaFink
Up Country ~ Lucas McNelly
Dream Lover ~ Mattson Tomlin
Neil Gaiman’s The Price ~ Christopher Salmon
The Sea is All I Know ~ Jordan Bayne
A Year Without Rent ~ Lucas McNelly

INDIEGOGO

Death Wish ~ Timo Puolitaipale / Chad Costen
Black Lotus ~ Angelo Bell
Heroes & Villains ~ Open Cinema
The Night The Reindeer Died ~ Garry Scullion / Nick Acott / Jon Campling

OTHER PROJECTS FUNDED VIA THE FILMMAKERS DIRECT WEBSITES

Gone Fishing ~ Chris Jones
Love Like Hers ~ Danny Lacey
Lemonade: Detroit ~ Erik Proulx

And now to the crux! My insights into what worked or didn’t.

It’s not just the film it’s the filmmakers.
The projects I backed were often about the people as much as the project. It’s not really an earnest desire to get help to make a good project but an extra something that filmmakers like Mattson Tomlin, Timo Puolitaipale & Chad Costen had that made them personable but also made me rock sure that they had the chops to really take their work forward through the projects they were making and achieve something special with them that I would love.

Why are you so special?
People need to know why they’d fund you and not themselves (especially if they’re filmmakers). What is exceptional about what you’re doing? Why should it interest anyone other than yourself to make it? An earnest plea for ‘help’ because you’re nice and you want to make a film but need support, doesn’t really cut the mustard as much as something that holds real innovation that inspires others to want to be part of it, Christopher Salmon had his own distinctive vision for The Price and had sketched out his visual intentions well in a way that both captured my imagination and explained with certainty how he was going to achieve those aims. It was this far more than the fact it was a Neil Gaiman story that really made me want to invest after less than a minute of looking at the project. It had to get made because I wanted to own it!

What costs you?
What doesn’t cost you? What do people really want? I was at times a bit put off by projects that were clearly being tight with their perks and there were a myriad that I turned away from for this reason. In filmmaking there is no such thing as a free lunch or free money. I wasn’t making a huge investment in these things and didn’t expect a lot at all but when a filmmaker so obviously begrudges or doesn’t know what to offer in return for support then I don’t think they deserve any. The perks I really liked were credits aknowledging that I had contributed to making the project happen (which let’s face it don’t cost the filmmaker anything to give away), fun things that bring me smiles or getting to see or own a film I really wanted to see.

Investing is a guts thing.
In selecting projects to hit the pay button on, I got a gut feeling about a couple of people, and those people turned out to be filmmakers who had their own guts, and who have really made being a backer on their projects the best experience. The shining stars I was inspired to back on two projects each and wouldn’t hesitate to back again in future, were Mattson Tomlin and Lucas McNelly. Mattson has more filmmaking chops than virtually any other filmmaker I’ve seen. His projects are ambitious and his talent to get them done to an incredible standard is unrelenting, especially for his age. Give him a couple more years and he’ll be one of the greatest feature directors on the planet, or anything else he wants to be. I know it in my bones. Lucas is just fearless. Up in Maine, miles from anything but bears he sources an amazing cast & crew and makes a feature on a teeny budget, then says “I’m going filmmaking for a year, who needs a house” and then packs up and sets off to help out as many filmmakers as he can achieve their aims, is just courageous. He’s dauntless, and he is doing it and making it fun and an edifying experience for everyone. How cool is it to be supporting a project for people like that?

Fun is Money. Give a little to get a little.
The fun asides to investing in the project itself are often more than worth the bit of money I’ve chucked into projects. Long after I'd forgotten it was part of the perk, I got a bear postcard from ‘Up Country’ Maine with a note and drawing from the director on the back. It lives on my fridge, and will be joined at some point by an interactive Haiku picture thingy, from a Haiku I had to write myself (thus gaining a new art form to practice in my idle moments) from the 'A Year Without Rent' project and a signed still from 'The Sea is All I Know'. I also have an alter ego of myself that has green thumbs and is (alongside the alter ego’s of some of my twitter contemporaries) an honorary citizen of the virtual hub that is Tilt the Town. The banter alone about some of this fun stuff has been priceless. Who doesn’t need extra smiles in their life while helping someone create something good? That’s worth a few quid of anyone’s money!

Fame is fortune, but so is fidelity.
A filmmaker who previously made a short from a Stephen King story. A cool project made from a Neil Gaiman work, or a menacing adaptation of well-known childhood poem or character can add a familiarity and kudos to a project, especially if it’s something the filmmaker clearly has a genuine desire to create and not just a way to get a ‘name’ attached to a project that might attract more funding. Truth is it may well attract more funding, but use with care. Contrary to projects that had a kudos were projects I was so happy to fund not only because they were good but because the filmmakers had been so nice to me. Angelo Bell was one of the first people to follow and talk to me when I joined twitter and didn't really know what it was all about and I never forgot that welcome and interest he took in me, King is a Fink are two lovely women who entertain constantly and put a lot of effort into communicating with and encouraging others. Who wouldn’t want to be involved with people who are nice people. Frankly that's what I was put on this planet for.

Your existing network is your net worth.
People join in endeavours with people they know and like. If you appear out of the blue and start harassing folk for cash you are likely to receive a bit of neglect and abuse. Better to have built up some engaged, like-minded, contemporaries in sufficient numbers to back your project before going out with the big ask. You'll get more support and encouragement, kindness and solid financial backing if you've previously proved your worth to folks when you've wanted nothing from them.

If you’re not on twitter you’re a twit.
All the projects I’ve been involved with have a twitter presence. It’s a great en mass way to engage people within your field of interest that you don't already know. It's quick and concise and you can feed rss and other fun links into it with updates on your projects automatically. BUT.. If you hustle then be prepared to bustle. If you’re going to give us all funding fatigue and badger folks with cheeky emoticons and cheekier banter until they fund a bit of your film whether they really wanted to or not, then be prepared to earn their respect with what you achieve from your project. If you don’t meet your targets and don't meet your promises it’s maybe worse than never getting the investment because you’ll have picked someone’s pocket and they know it was you who did it and be disgusted inside that they ever let you within range. You don’t need that kind of negativity.

Sometimes it’s about society not perks.
Heroes and Villains was a music video project from charity group Open Cinema that show films to the homeless giving them a place to be a community and engage in society by coming together to share and also to make their own film projects. Though I'm not sure they did quite so well on the whole crowd funding thing, they will, I know put the money to good use. In future I'd prefer to make offerings to them outside of the whole crowd funding expectations. Lemonade: Detroit is Erik Proulx film about how the people of Detroit are reinventing their city after it's main industry collapsed. It's a film about people who come together to make their city happen again, made by people who have come together to make the film about that happen. I like that. The short is in progress and the feature is stil being funded one frame at a time and for just $1 to engage with a society that won't sit down and desist I think that becoming a film producer on this project is something nobody who likes films or people should pass up. I'm very surprised that it's taking longer than expected to raise the full feature funds, especially considering the press that's been generated, but I do think it will get all the way to where it needs to be, and when completed, will be spectacular for those of us who knew it could. In the meantime the short film is on it's way as a taster and I couldn't be happier with this cool film.

Understanding your funding engine.
There's different options out there for crowd funding. Kickstarter and Indiegogo are the main ones, but there are others and there are options to fund via your own site if you feel you can reach enough people by yourself. For me as investor I liked Kickstarter best because it's policy of giving you no money unless you reach the full target means that the films I ended up funding (all that I backed exceeded their goals incidentally) were made to the level they were intended to be made for. Indiegogo projects didn't always reach their goal, and sometimes the film I wanted to support never realised it's full potential, which was a shame. I'm not so much disappointed by that but it would certainly reflect on me funding that entity again. I funded Danny Lacey's Love Like Hers via his own website rather than via his indiegogo page because I knew more of the money would go directly into the proejct and that he needed it more than indiegogo did. I do feel that I tend to manually follow progress on it via Danny's blog rather than getting the regular updates into my email box but that's no biggie as I invested because I was interested in the film and in Danny who just goes the extra mile with his live TV show each week to document his filmmakers journey. But in general I didn't go searching for film outside of those sites. For Erik Proulx on Lemonade: Detroit funding the film has been as I mentioned, a bit slower than planned. That it happens via his own site has allowed a build of investment without a cut off date which on a long documentary type of project can be really useful. It's worth looking into everything with a view to what suits your project best and as micro-financing has been around for a while considering whether you intend to raise all or only part funding that way.

Putting your money where your mouth is: Part funding.
The Sea is All I Know was looking for completion funding. It was great, they had made it, there was a great team behind it who clearly loved their project, what's not to like to invest a few quid so it could be finished and I could get to see it. No brainer. They'd invested far more than I had. I trusted them.

Talking about what you want to achieve helps people help you to achieve it.
This is going back to the people thing. I know that many of the films I backed were not films I wanted to see per se but were people I wanted to see make the films they belived in. Because they had shared that desire, their willingness to go all out and stretch themselves, they were inspiring. They made me want to back them just so I could see them do it and be inspired to stretch myself via their example. I have learned a lot from them and while they are grateful to their backers, I'm far more grateful for having had the opportunity to be a small part of their journey and make them an inspiraiton to mine.

Make your project their project and they will spend more of their time talking about it. Which is great free publicity.
Some projects I backed have just included me, kept me informed, validated what I gave to them (not a lot) with a feeling of inclusion. Those are the projects I share and retweet on social networking sites and the filmmakers who's paths I talk about. Mattson Tomlin and Lucas McNelly were the shiny stars of my backer experiences last year. Chris Jones was the ultimate includer, my first and best experience of getting behind someone else's ambitions. I like and totally respect them all and I won't let you forget their names or their projects. Ever.

Social Networking Rocks: Because You Can't Always Be Everywhere!

2011-04-16T02:40:00.003+01:00

I often hear the words 'I just don't get twitter' or 'why does everyone spend so much time on Facebook?' ~ It's true that a lot of people don't use the tools of Social Networking very well, but a hell of a lot of people do. And my life has been enriched by a slurry of wonderful people who share their own lives and experiences. Sometimes it's a photo of their dinner, sometimes it's a valuable insight into something within my field of interest. Both are equally welcome as long as the person behind them is cool and interesting. I'm pretty lucky to be aquainted with a lot of those.

Recently, I was scheduled to spend a weekend at the London Comedy Writers Festival and also attend some or all of the American Independents Day seminar with Christine Vachon and Ted Hope. However the week before I’d come down with bronchitis, after five days it had gotten considerably worse and despite a huge dose of antibiotics from my concerned doctor, by the time the weekend came around I was litterally too ill to get out of bed without fainting. Not even to go sit on a train to go sit in a room and do nothing but listen. I could hardly believe my ill luck.

I don’t get ill with coughs and colds. I haven’t had a cold for over five years so it was monumentally frustrating to miss out on not one, but two wonderful events. As I was tucked up in my sick bed stewing with grumpiness and only my iPhone for company I logged on to twitter and had an out of character moan about the misery of my state.. And then, I found the hashtag! All the delegates at the conferences were tweeting about the seminars they were in. I suddenly felt a bit better about missing out. Yes, I’d rather have been there tweeting myself, but failing that it was really comforting that people took time to share their experience of the events and tweet tips and insights from the speakers.

Lo and behold after the event, someone had taken some FANTASTIC notes of the American Independents Day seminar and Chris kindly emailed me a copy. How cool is that.

And that’s why social networking is great. Because you don’t miss out on bits of life.. Even if you can’t be everywhere at once!

A big thank you to everyone who shares on twitter hashtags and blogs and shares information about events. I for one really appreciate it. And if you weren’t at the American Independents Day you can obtain a copy of the notes from Chris’ Blog here.

I’m much, much better now, by the way! Thanks for asking. ;)

Up The Junction of Social Realism.

2011-03-30T15:42:00.012+01:00

Whenever I hear groans about the misery of British social realism in film I think of the joy that is Peter Collinson’s ‘Up The Junction’ and take heart. This 1968 film is an embracing piece of work, and as upbeat as it is serious in dealing with the story of an upper middle class Chelsea girl, Polly Dean (Suzy Kendall), who determines to leave the entrapments of her social advantages behind to make her own way in the world, meeting and finding romance with Battersea boy Peter (Dennis Waterman) who works in a junk shop and aspires to a better life.

Through Polly's eyes and experience the lives of the young and working class are revealed and some of the social controversies of the time confronted through her compassionate exploration of her new found friends and the bustling world they inhabit. Upwards shots and an almost Noirish lighting gives a rich mood to the film. And there is lots going on, a broadness to the sensory input, we're 'in life' with this film, enveloped by the sometimes frenzied layering of image and sound. Inside the world of these characters whatever beauty or ugliness life brings, a kind of honesty blooms. Seeing this made me love British Social Realism which here contains great compassion alongside the atmospheric brashness summing up those times and class issues with it’s affectionate gaze.

Though not of my era 'Up the Junction' reminds me very much of the London I know today, where the desirability of districts rich with working class culture become a magnet for the wealthy to occupy them and soak up the atmosphere, and by their presence, subtly changing the dynamics of a borough. Whether rich or poor the greenness of one's grass in Britain always depends more upon how you tend your plot than the neighbourhood in which you plant it. For that reason alone I have never tired of watching this wonderful work of film. I never will.

Writing Comedy: Why It’s Everybody’s Genre!

2011-03-19T22:12:00.006Z

I don’t have heroes but if I did, my hero would be screenwriter Shane Black. One of the things he once said in an interview, which I copied down and have kept for many years, is about his use of comedy in writing his Action screenplays.

I always have humour in my action movies. I think characters that make jokes under fire are more real. It somehow helps put you in their shoes. But only if the jokes are conversational and not stupid. I think in recent times people have gone overboard with a certain type of Jerry Lewis style. But I used to love older movies where the jokes were more throwaway: that effortless riffing that Nick Nolte and Eddie Murphy did so well in 48 Hrs - remember when they're trailing a suspect and Eddie says: "For a cop you're pretty stupid, man. You're driving too close." And Nick says: "Yeah, well, most cops are pretty stupid, but seeing as you landed in jail what does that make you?" Real people in real situations don't stop and wait for their gags to be registered and applauded. They just chuck them out as they go along. - SHANE BLACK

In a couple of week’s time I’ll be going along to the London Comedy Writers Festival. I don’t write comedy screenplays and, to be honest, I’m not very funny. That in itself might be reason enough to go to a comedy writer’s festival, to explore new avenues. But the greater reason for me is that through Shane Black's well put point all those years ago and my own experience of writing since then, I understand that comedy is a great unifier for audiences and is not something that belongs solely in it’s own genre but can spill across any type of genre writing. And for myself, understanding better how comedy writing works my writing will be enriched as I believe that if you can, within the context of a piece of work of any genre, add some lightness, some smiles, some absurdity, well, there isn’t much that is more human or more connecting of humans to each other than that. And I think that is a lot about what my writing aims to be, something that connects us more deeply to our own humanity.

If you’re heading to the LCWF yourself I hope to see you there and I shall certainly be blogging from the event to share the experience for those who can’t be present. I’m pretty certain from the amazing line up of speakers that the event will be both an extraordinary and enlightening one.

So.. Comedic fun? Hell yeah! Bring it on!

The Unexamined Power of the Screen

2011-03-13T05:13:00.003Z

There’s a joke that goes along the lines of.. "Computer games don't affect kids; I mean if Pac Man affected us as kids, we'd all be running around in darkened rooms, munching magic pills and listening to repetitive electronic music." It’s funny, and perceptive and (I think) written by comedian Marcus Brigstocke. I heard it recently and it brought to mind an issue that I think is quite fascinating.

The debate about the safety and impact of content children see on TV’s, computers and games consoles has been going on for years and will no doubt continue as devices become a more pervasive part of our lives. But what we hear much less about is the medium of delivery for that content and what the long term effect on our brains and state of being these devices themselves may have.

As a child I completely loved the TV. I would sit very close to it and watch virtually anything on the thing. I was an early riser, and would frequently wake at about 5am, creep downstairs and switch the TV on. And looking back it wasn’t really because of the content. This was the olden days of the 70’s when the UK had only 3 TV channels and no breakfast television so I would watch the test card until open university came on and then I would watch hours of bearded men talking about science and maths and other things my small uneducated brain had no way of comprehending. I was mesmerised. Telly was my favourite thing in the world and me and my dog would just park ourselves in front of it and bathe in it’s wonder. The addiction lasted most of my life until, about fifteen years ago when I began to restrict my viewing. Now the TV is switched off most of the time and I frequently go weeks without watching anything. I’m no longer a Telly addict, My laptop and iPhone, however are another story. Maybe I’m just feeding my habit in new ways.

About a year ago I first came across Evidence, a film by Koyaanisqatsi director, Godfrey Reggio. It’s an 8 minute short that looks at children as they watch Disney’s Dumbo on TV. The film has no voice narrative or explanation, nor does it express a particular point of view, but simply allows us to see for ourselves the altered state of the children as they sit in the thrall of the device.

It’s a compelling film and a compelling topic to consider with regard to both children and adults. I can’t say if my prolonged attachment to TV since childhood affected, even damaged me neurologically as some studies have suggested is the case. Disrupted sleep is one of the common results of excessive TV watching and Insomnia has certainly been a huge and ongoing part of my life since my earliest childhood. I can also be quite passive at times, When I really don’t want to deal with life, the TV goes straight on and everything else stops. Whenever I’m watching something I really like, a favourite film or TV show, then it’s my favourite medium to watch them on.

I wanted to share Reggio’s film as it’s not only an interesting subject to question the potential hazards of mediums as gadgets through which we absorb all sorts of content are changing rapidly. And also because it’s just a simply delightful way Reggio has of making films that are self-expressive of the subject rather than overly dominated by the filmmaker’s personal message. Yet his films are recognisable ‘Reggio’ all the same. Evidence perhaps in this case that while the mediums may be under debate for some time yet, visual content, when delivered in a way that lets an audience absorb information without question, is always influentially powerful.

International Women's Day Centenery & Representing Women in the Arts #IWD

2011-03-09T03:00:00.005Z

Today has been the 100th anniversary of International Women’s Day and as well as celebrating the achievements of women, my mind has been very much on the way women are represented in the arts.

Can I firstly say that being female is not the same as being an ethnic minority. I’ll say that again, just in case anyone hasn’t grasped the significance of that, women are not an ethnic minority. We are 52% of a whole population and how we are employed and represented isn’t just a women’s issue it’s an issue of how 52% humankind is represented and employed. The impact of our significance as women represents the significance of that impact on the men in our lives also. Yet gender equality and gender representation tends to be something that is looked at in terms of ethnic diversity and given far less priority than it needs. We really aren’t that diverse. I’ll say again, just so it registers, we’re 52% of the population. I think you get what I’m saying. Certainly for myself, though I can’t say I’m even that clued up on feminist issues, things have been getting very unbalanced over recent years to the point where I’ve really noticed it quite often, and I’m beginning to believe the future isn’t looking too bright for anyone unless we begin to change our attitudes about how women are employed, funded and given access to jobs and adequate representation in the arts.

In many areas of top jobs women are underrepresented and are often paid less than their male counterparts. Salaries in the film industry are on average 15% lower for women and even in sectors where there tend to be higher numbers of women than men, it’s still men who are paid more, In costume men are paid an average of 14% more and in Hair & Makeup a vast 33% more than their female counterparts. Over 99% of lighting departments are male, and less than 1/3 of the workforce are women.

For television over half the viewing public is female and yet in TV drama, for every female character there are two male characters and while lead roles are frequently played by men over 45, women of the same age begin to disappear from our screens. It’s a very distorted message.

Offscreen women’s employment in film and TV is troubled too. Skillset’s most recent census displays some more shocking figures that since the recession 4950 women have lost their jobs compared to just 650 men.

In theatre too things are very tough and as councils cut their arts budgets this month organisations are discovering just how much of their support is going to be cut or indeed eradicated. As these organisation gear up to fight cuts and encourage support it’s been pointed out to me by a fellow female actor and Equity member that the way any future arts money awarded is spent by these organisations needs to be looked at and gender impact studies done, because if women are to fight for the arts it’s got to be because we are represented adequately within them. At the current time, while things are tough for everyone, women have already been being cut for ages. I don’t know if it can get much worse. I couldn’t agree more that change is needed.

In 2008-2009 The National Theatre had 24 productions, and in those were two male to every female actor, yet 80% of tickets were purchased by females. This 2-1 ratio is recurrent across all the leading theatre companies. And again over 40 years of age, women performers begin to peter out. Is this partly because women playwrights are not given the same opportunities as male playwrights? I think so. There is certainly no significant amount of female playwrights who’s work is being made.

I would ask, who subsidised theatre really serves? And where should it be going. Certainly not trudging on misrepresenting the society we live in. Because it’s not just about employment but about the way we see our society validated through art. And at the moment there is a big piece missing.

The truth is there is not an imbalance in the equality of gender in life. Men and women have important contributions to make to the enrichment of our society, our lives cross and mingle, we’re not different species or races we are two halves of a whole world and that world deserves to be available for all of us to be part of, to be represented as being part of.

I like being a woman. I like men too. It would be great to work with lots of both and to see their stories entwined. That’s nature. That’s how it should be. Let’s take this international women’s day as a beginning to change the imbalance to reflect our human society and the rich contribution that is made to it by all of us.

Jamiu Adebiyi ~ In Memoriam

2011-03-06T09:13:00.015Z

A close friend, one of my best friends in fact for some eleven years, actor Jamiu Adebiyi, took his own life a few weeks ago, just a few hours after sitting down in my home, having tea and cake and talking to me about his plans and mine for the future. Jamiu was one of the most talented and positive people I have ever had the good fortune to know and love. Though we had (I thought) a good morning, by evening he was gone forever and his reasons with him. He’d left a note saying sorry to his friends and family, he loved us, but things were too much to bear. I knew he’d had a hard year both workwise and financially. I knew he’d worked very hard. I didn’t realise just how tough things had gotten for him.

As I spoke to the (literally hundreds) of the friends we shared and listened to their shock and pain, and from some of them stories of their own unvoiced despairs. I have been at a loss until now, to fully express the silent feeling in the pit of my stomach that this industry was too tough on my friend and despite his successes, he struggled to earn a subsistance living until it slowly and terribly sucked his heart and his life away.

Jamiu was a great actor, writer, dancer and person. He was one of the stars of Jimmy McGovern’s first series of BAFTA winning The Street working opposite Timothy Spall as the lead character Ojo. The series went on to pick up a collection of awards including a BAFTA, RTS and International Emmy, and He did other TV and stage shows, made films, wrote and produced TV and Theatre, he took photographs, he laughed a lot, he encouraged (and often helped) all of his friends to follow their dreams and desires in positive ways. He could dance like joy itself. He taught actors the technique we both worked in. He earned his friends, not by what he achieved or did, but because of the wonderful person he was and the joy he gave to others just by being around. We trained together, we worked together, we socialised and shared each other’s lives and joys and pains and grumpy days together. But this industry is very tough. And the last couple of years have been tougher than ever. We both knew how soul sucking it could be to keep going in the face of disappointments and financial hardship, bound to the frustrating ways the industry works. I guess his disappointments were deeper than I could fathom, deeper than he was able to express, even to me.

The last few weeks have been a roller coaster of emotions as I attempted to comprehend his actions and whether there might have been something I could have said or seen that day which might have opened my eyes to his true state of mind, if so whether I’d have been able to change his course of action. It’s a difficult path of thought and one I’ve had to logically shy away from but I can’t help wishing I could go back and change something that might make a tiny difference. Maybe a tiny difference would have been all it took. I am aware of the futility of this thought but I guess it’s what we do when faced with loss. It is human to fight when we can, even against impossible odds and to seek solutions where there seem to be none. I am utterly saddened that my friend’s fight ran out.

Somewhere in the middle of all this I’ve lost interest in a lot of things, including my own desires for success. I know that is only temporary but it seems irrelevant right now how successful I am or how many fantastic plans I do or don’t have for the future. What has come to matter very much are the small things that I believe make life worth living. I suddenly want to just stop and let it be enough that I have food and shelter, community, family, friends and a certain spirituality, that I am close to nature. That I have a right to be, no matter how important anyone thinks I am or what value others place upon me or my work. And that I am free to express myself in whatever avenues may open to me. I know many people will shy away from or disapprove my public expression of loss. And yet perhaps, if we could all express our feelings better, if we didn’t value ourselves based on how positive or successful we appear or how successful other people think we are all the time maybe people wouldn’t ever come to feel so lost and unheard that they no longer wish to be. I don’t know. Maybe some stories just need to be told for whatever people can take from them.

The last 18 months have been very tough for me. I’ve lost my mother and one of my best friends in circumstances I wouldn’t wish on my worst enemy. There have been other worries and disappointments. I’ve lost myself a good deal of that time to this grieving worrying person that I no longer recognise as me. I have found myself too in the friends who have been there and offered me opportunities to be alive and expressive amidst the darkest of times. I have done wonderful things just for the joy of doing them. There have been joys both great and small whatever has been happening. This is life. This is the human story. This is how it is, and it’s intense and powerful and terrible and valuable and amazing and sometimes, yes, balefully sorrowful to the point where it shakes your bones.

What I’m learning these days is that when you listen the world is simply full of stories, and our own personal stories are a vital part of this big collective story of life the universe and everything. I don’t have any special insights to share about the meaning of that. I maybe never will. I just know that the artistic journey is sometimes a really tough one and that the way to navigate it seems to be something we must do through our collective stories, through expression and acceptance of ourselves, and each other. By expanding the boundaries of success to include that, we accept ourselves and each other for whatever we are, just because we are.

If I can share only one thing today with the artistic people I know, some of whom I know are struggling a lot, I will share the thought that we should never be afraid to seek to express ourselves honestly in whatever place or form we can find that it feels okay to us to do so. And I will leave you with some of the work my friend Jamiu did. This was not the full measure of his value to us as a person, but was a part of his life and his story that he really enjoyed and took pleasure in sharing with others. For him, for me, and also for you, I share this fragment of his story, to celebrate his life and so that his story does not go un-remarked.

A Charity donation page has been set up in Jamiu's name to offer respite to those in suicidal crisis.

True Grit

2011-02-25T21:15:00.004Z

The Coen Brothers, True Grit is the most astonishing adaptation I have seen in a long, long time. Unlike a lot of their work, it lacks some of the Coen’s more original flair or quirky sense of humour, but in it’s place lies a more grown up type of Coen film, to be just what it is, the bare characters with all their quirks and oddities. And it works. What we have is not the usual Coen fun but a very dogged lovable western tale which has a charm all it’s own that the brothers have enhanced and if it’s the story that really matters in film then this is merely what the Coen’s have given us here. Not everyone will like it. But for me it was a superb, honest, very well written and gimmick free delight, stunningly performed and beautifully shot piece of filmmaking that I think will lead Joel and Ethan onto some wonderful new work. The only bit that didn’t sit as easy was the original ending, missing from the John Wayne film (which I also love) but despite it’s slight oddity to the main bulk of the film it’s an addendum that certainly doesn’t take away from the brilliance of the whole.

The performances are extraordinary. It should not be forgotten, as you are blown away by Hailee Steinfeld’s performance, that this is her first feature production and she is carrying the film for a lot of the way with an aplomb that only comes from great supportive direction and a gut full of courage. She excels, the Coen’s excel and Matt Damon is not only great but astonishingly different to anything I’ve seen him do before. He’s one of my favourite actors and it took me a moment or two to even recognise him. I love that the Coen’s have found this side to him and that he has served the brackish character so very well as to steal the limelight (and a little bit of my heart) away from the redoubtable Jeff Bridges who along with Josh Brolin gives the usual fine fettle.

This film has the added bonus of a superior production and technical team, not least of which is stunningly frank cinematography from the wonderful Roger Deakins. It’s real, it’s a delight and I shall be pre-ordering my DVD forthwith. I am also going to go against popular thought and say I have high hopes for it on Oscar night! Here’s hoping it really does have the grit I think it might have, to take a few statues home!

The King's Speech

2011-01-31T20:03:00.006Z

If there’s one thing that British cinema rarely fails at it’s a good old period drama.. we do it so well because we’re ever so old and have all this wonderful history that makes us what we are, and we’ve never really let go of that history, because we’re a tiny island in a vast and powerful world and without our past glories and knowledge of our mighty spirit we might just feel a bit insignificant and bullied by more powerful nations. It’s this factor, I believe, that makes the British love and root for Kings and underdogs all the time. Because we have such a penchant for costume drama all our favourite tales can tend to be churned out again and again and it is the fact that this film isn’t one of those, plus that King George VI, as it turns out, was a little bit of an underdog, that makes The King’s Speech a very fine and refreshingly welcome period drama indeed.

The screenplay is structured well to elegantly reveal the traumas of a bullied frightened child inside an angry prince as he struggles to cope with the expectations of a desperate nation facing war and looking for him as an accidental second choice monarch to lead them with an aplomb he does not feel he has. It’s a well made and refreshing film directed nicely by Tom Hooper (who directed a rather splendid Daniel Deronda TV drama I loved some years ago). It is filled with moving cinematography that elevates the moody tension, has a plethora of fun swear words and shouting, a good deal of disregard for pomposity and a happy ending. The fantastic cast led by the wonderful Colin Firth, Geoffrey Rush and Helena Bonham Carter (eerily very reminiscent of the late Queen Elizabeth The Queen Mother) create a real sense of tension as they all will the speech to flow. It’s rather wonderful stuff, nicely directed and elegantly produced, but truly it’s the subject matter that is the star and I can only say well done to the team who chose to make it.

I suppose as period dramas go I’m still going to love my old favourites like the Austens, Dickens and Brontes but this slightly stuffy contender has definitely won it’s place, for what it lacks in English romance it makes up for in good old British Spirit and I say Hip, Hip Hoorah for The King’s Speech and all who sail in her. It’s not the most amazing period drama I’ve ever seen but what it is, is decently made and heartening stuff and it has earned it’s crown in my Kingdom. I insist you go and see it.

Junebug

2011-01-31T14:39:00.002Z

I don’t quite know what I expected when I decided to watch indie film Junebug but I most certainly hadn’t expected such a depth of tenderness, subtlety and beauty in the revelation of family dynamics when an art dealer marries into a southern family and accompanies her husband there to meet them for the first time and secure a new artist for her gallery at the same time. It’s funny, it’s heartfelt and it’s a real treasure of a film.

Far from one dimensional southern hicks the characters go beyond the quirky frontage and silly ideals to reveal depth and humanity in their lives and family bonds. The screenplay finely tuned, saying only the small things that we often fail to notice. Really fantastic acting from a great cast, in particular Alessandro Nivola, the cinematography is excellently placed and paced and the scenery slips in it’s own quiet comfort. A very lovely film that I wanted to hold to my breast and cherish.. I guess it’s not often we get to see something of this quiet calibre with no flaws that I can find in it.. but this film is like that and I am in awe of it.

Black Swan

2011-01-22T03:40:00.003Z

Right from seeing the trailer I had a funny feeling that I wasn’t going to appreciate Black Swan no matter how awesome it was. I have issues with Aronofsky films and while I’ve liked most of them well enough, I’ve never quite gotten to the point where I really rate him as a filmmaker. Not since Pi. His work is somewhat elusive, tentative and not really solid enough for me to get a grasp on. Black Swan I disliked from the trailer, and yet, with the huge praise it’s received I felt compelled to go and see it and to try and maintain an open mind to see if I could like it. I don’t really but that’s not because it’s a bad film… au contraire mon frere, it’s a pretty well done film. I’m sure many will love it.

It’s certainly a creepy story, the well written screenplay delves into the neurotic mind of a dancer under pressure that is both physical, artistic and emotional as she prepares for her first principal dancer role in Swan Lake. It’s pretty well structured and well made, with exceptional sound design and a certain edgy look to it. Kids from Fame this certainly is not. While the cinematography is interesting I’m not sure the intimate mainly handheld style does it enormous favours as, while it works well in some spots, in others the constant closeness becomes mundane and a bit TV-ish. Natalie Portman shines as she acts her heart out in this role, embracing fully the quite bizarre spikes of personality and we see some true stretch of her talent in this. Vincent Cassell is also very good and Mila Kunis sutiably jolly. And the art design is pretty damn great.

Focussing almost exclusively on the female characters, the story is however, as I had feared from the trailer, like a godawful metaphor for women’s sexuality. I resented this film like no other I’ve ever seen that dealt with the same issues and that was the ruination of it for me. It’s misogynistic in tone. Portraying ballet dancing as a spiteful, shallow craft, demanding excessive commitment and providing no ultimate rewards to the poor souls who give their life to it is certainly an unfair way to treat this great art form which is populated by some very together people who get great satisfaction and strength from their work. So too this film seemed a terrible portrayal of women, as if we were all too close to our mothers, childlike and stupidly stuck in innocence, until we become freed by becoming sexually promiscuous sexual fantasies for the controlling choreography of men. Ultimately becoming the demanding mother, suffocating those around us. Some may find this very true of life. I do not, I find it a very male perspective of what women are, and I resented the underlying shoehorning of these issues into the script.. far from being a thrilling experience I found the plot to be fairly predictable and cringeworthy because of this. A bit like being slowly bludgeoned by being constantly tapped upside the head by a ballet slipper.

The film is however, looks lovely, has some amazingly interesting performances and some super weird scenes, works structurally and is far less vague than some of Aronofsky’s other works and to be fair, it’s a kind of psychotic story of pressure and what we give for our art so maybe it’s okay that it’s a bit extreme in it’s bizarreness, but I’m afraid I took a dislike to it and I don’t think I’ll be rushing out to see any Aronofsky films from here on in. He’s just not a director who speaks to me or who I think speaks well for ballet. If you truly like dance then I’d recommend you forget Black Swan and go and see Wim Wenders’ PINA when it comes out, instead.

127 hours

2011-01-08T11:44:00.005Z

Here be spoilers, because, well, it’s hard not to, really.

My worst freakout of my entire life was as a child, being taken into the caverns of the Blue John mines at Castleton, Derbyshire. Although I was with my mother and it was a guided tour with stunning underground wonders to behold, as we went deeper inside and the passageways and caves got narrower I could feel the entire weight of the mountain I was in bearing down upon me. I felt trapped and I began to cry and then I began to scream and then I couldn’t breathe and had to be taken out an emergency exit. I’ve never much liked caves since then. I’ve been in one or two since.. always checking that they were large airy caverns before agreeing to go inside. I don’t mind small spaces and I like the London Underground, there’s just something about spaces deep in rock that gives me the willies.

It’s hard to imagine therefore what possessed me to watch a film about a man who goes canyoning, gets trapped by a rock inside a deep canyon for days on end and has to eventually cut his own arm off to escape certain death. But hey, this isn’t just any film, this is a Danny Boyle film and although I had my doubts about whether there was enough substance in this story for an entertaining feature length film, early reviews for 127 Hours were positive and I decided to give it a go, though fully prepared to walk out if it got too dull or too unpleasant to view.

I have to say my reaction to the film was positive, it took off at a good pace and created a cool introduction to the character of Aron Ralston, who we'd be spending most of our time with, his irrepressible adventurous nature and the beauty of the hidden places of the world seen through his eyes, once the inevitable entrapment in stone occurred it was utterly hard to look away. In fact it was riveting and I emotionally transported from my cinema seat right back to those Blue John caves (eerily Aron Ralston's canyon is also named Blue John) until I was squirming and cringing and holding my arms round my head, even retching and nearly vomiting at one instance (not the amputation) at the intensity, to the point where the guy in the row behind decided to laugh at me as much as the funny moments in the film (of which there are thankfully plenty!) It’s probably the only cinema trip I’ve had where an audience member has complimented me afterwards for enjoying my in-seat antics as much as he enjoyed the film. I’m not quite sure how I feel about that. I hope I didn’t distract him too much, but hey.. cinema is all about the shared experience, right?

The actual self-amputation comes quite late in the film and the majority of the five days are filled with the ingenuity and both outer and inner ramblings of a resourceful man who is quite literally pinned down to confront his own mortality as his strength ebbs away.

It’s quite a journey. I don’t know if I want to watch it again. I probably will, just because Danny Boyle made it so compelling and it’s so physically impacting. The cinematography is almost tactile, it's so close and intimate as it touches the filmspace, the sound is invasive, like it's inside your head, the soundtrack is uplifting and the acting superb, especially by James Franco who I could watch for 127 hours straight as our amiable hero, my one complaint being that he didn’t seem to be showing enough pain early on, however the last part of the film makes up for that in spades and I considered him clever to have held that performance for the full intensity of those final desperate moments, they really impact and show an understanding of craft. I shudder to think how many hours he actually spent wedged into that slim space making the film. I think I may need a few years to recover from this movie before I see it again. Let’s just say I won’t be going near any mountains or canyons anytime soon!

Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows

2010-12-27T21:19:00.003Z

For the first half an hour it was difficult to work out what the heavens was going on in the latest and darker incarnation of the wizardly whiz that is Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows Part 1.

Thrown in at the serious deep end of a much more grim HP than I’ve ever before witnessed, the very cinematography seemed ominous and yet the pace flew on confusing me more with wizards doing funny things with wands all of a sudden that I still don’t quite understand. Despite the confusion that followed me around there are a lot of goodly moments in this film that left me excited about part 2 and eager to find out how the pug faced Voldemort (is it safe to write that word?) gets his timely comeuppance, as surely he must! When the time comes I shall be greeting it with deathly hallo’s!

Somewhere

2010-12-27T15:45:00.004Z

Stephen Dorff, an actor I have long considered underused for his talent is quite frankly mesmerising in Sofia Coppola’s Somewhere. In a slice of life movie with little else to do but aimlessly pass through days at ground level LA amongst the fake, the fawning and the downright idiotic, we become like the protagonist battered with boredom and amused by triviality. Even his routine of daddy duty is alien to this man who has detached from himself in an effort to escape from the inevitable dullness of isolating fame.

Boo hoo I hear you cry, what a bore to witness the lack of struggle in the privileged life, however fame is a prison of our making, as we put people of note in a gilt cage above ourselves, stare at them, ask them repetitively stupid questions, fawn on them, gripe at them, never engage with them as equals or allow them to be our friends or do anything but perform for us. It’s one of the worst things we do in society and the amicableness with which it’s borne to the detriment of those we inflict our whim upon is something that perhaps should be acknowledged.

This film won’t be for everyone, it’s long slow shots and experiential pace are at times, numbing, and there were points when I felt the dullness and isolation deep in my bones. I know how to detach from real living but it’s not a place I like to be taken to. Nevertheless I felt moved by this film beyond my expectations and it’s the gentle unspoken moments that make the journey worthwhile and ultimately charming as we do begin to see the real flawed ignored people behind the privileged celebrity parade. The film isn't without it's moments of fun either as the absurdity of life at the top hits home. Beautiful acting by Dorff and Elle Fanning and indeed Chris Pontius, make this movie endearing, and set off with lovely cinematography showed LA in a way that made me understand the real streets and buildings as if I were walking through them myself. I can only say Sophia Coppola is a director to be reckoned with and shows a depth of the female gaze not yet reached in the other films she has directed. Bring on the next.

Winter's Bone

2010-12-21T20:00:00.001Z

It’s been a few weeks now since I saw Winter’s Bone but I haven’t quite known how to review it. At surface level it’s a bit like a country and western song, grim and more grim and a bit of banjo thrown in so you don’t get utterly suicidal. But underneath there’s a lot more going on that talks about America today and what is acceptable to be seen and spoken about. Images of the provision of neighbourly sustenance, monetary assistance, education and military service permeate this story, isolating the current routes out of poverty and indoctrination as not quite enough, if people can’t find the way to put their foot on those roads.

It’s quite good. I liked it a lot, grim as it was. The main cast is well acted by a lot of not very scary people playing scary people, that kind of took the edge off the otherwise great performances a bit, but it’s not an unrealistic tale by any means. The supporting cast are used cunningly to provide the audience with an almost subliminally larger societal perspective as we view this backwater family through the eyes of observers on the edge of their plight who, are unable to help much in any but cursory ways. All in all it’s quite a commentary.

However, the technical flow and pace is what really works well about this film as it keeps you curious and uses moments of stillness and contemplation with subtle cinematography and sound to take you deeper into the backwoods of the Ozarks just as it takes you deeper into the story of family ties and tough territory, where the embedded culture of drugs and blood has come to define all.

There are a few beautiful moments and a spectacularly poignant ending that is allowed to unfold for those who grasp it. It’s probably a film best seen when you’re in a contemplative mood or just mad at the world but it’s quite an observational piece and I wouldn’t be surprised to see it on the Oscar lists for 2011.

The American

2010-12-19T17:21:00.003Z

Less of a thriller and more of a tense drama about the redemption of the soul, The American is a film that will surprise most, and infuriate some. It’s dense to be sure, rich in subtext and just as well as there is little else plotwise that makes sense, as George Clooney plays a character even more subtle than his role in Michael Clayton. I have to say it’s a good way for him to go. While I’m not bowled over by him physically he does a very good deep dude and it’s kind of delicious to travel that road along with him. Hollywood be hanged, Clooney can do nuance unlike any other and belongs with European directors who know how to use him.

The film is pensive, delving deep below the surface of the unexplained surface plot to the desires of the soul, and this will, I am certain frustrate the hell out of many who watch it and will be bored off their behinds by the lovely shots of European warmth as it closes around a cold and yet yearning protagonist. But, aside from a slight discomforting wish to have had more understanding of the overlaying action, and a few moments that border on cheesy, I found the film to be satisfying on a moral, philosophical and almost sexual level, as the story connects with the fundamental human need to bond with others. No man is an island is perhaps the moral of this tale. Told with lovely, tense shots, music and mood all draped in soft light and beauty and a great supporting cast. The sound design was especially well done.

All in all it’s one of the best films I think I’ve seen recently, and a nice discovery so late in the year. The American indulges the senses more than the intellect, don’t expect anything other than rich mood and you won’t be disappointed.

#Wikileaks And It's Vital Importance To The Film World

2010-12-17T11:27:00.014Z

It’s not often in my filmic chatter that I touch upon anything that isn’t directly film news or film politics. So forgive me if I seem to be deviating from my usual moments of film and trust me, really I’m not.

This time last week, I’ll admit, I was pretty ignorant about the whole Wikileaks saga. I don’t read newspapers or watch TV news much (for my own valid reasons) but important news tends to cross my radar, and when the word Wikileaks had done so for the umpteenth time I became interested enough to begin looking for information in order to catch up with what was going on and make up my mind about why it was important. In the space of a few days voracious research I’ve gone from apathy, to nonchalance to interest, to shock, to beginning to think this may well be the most important juxtaposition of stories I will ever experience in my lifetime. I have had to define myself on reading this information. Who I am, what I care about, and as a storyteller, what these stories mean to me and my work.

One of the first things that surprised me was the sheer level of hysteria in the reaction to Wikileaks and Julian Assange and the knock on effects of those actions. Calls for legal and illegal executions from prominent Americans, then Paypal, Visa and Mastercard suspending payments to the Wikileaks site (though not, it seems to the New York times or The Guardian and other press who were publishing the leaks also?). It all seemed overkill for leaks that seemed to be confirmation of stuff that we kinda knew was happening anyway. Bradley Manning, staring out at me from news web pages with his blue eyed baby face, and his earnest words about what you would do if you found out the government you had sworn to serve were not quite the good guys you thought they were. It’s not the first time the Western world has faced this kind of ideology dilemma. Last time, it was pretty bad I recall.

Then of course there are serious questions regarding the motivation behind the Swedish arrest warrant for Julian Assange. Some very odd events happening all around seem quite bizarre and frighteningly excessive to me. Once I began reading the cables and war diaries the stories of whether or not Wikileaks or Julian Assange or Bradley Manning were right or wrong to release secret papers, and whether either man deserved to be in solitary confinement and under 24hr cctv prior to any trial or conviction, sort of seemed like almost a deliberate distraction from the important facts. But in fact, they’re the same thing as the stories from the Wikileaks. They’re about how ugly a price are we as individuals and as nations, willing to pay for freedom and truth? And make no mistake, with the price we pay we buy our world. Governments have made some choices in that respect that have dire undertones. Bradly Manning and Julian Assange made their choice too. Whether we spend a lot of time criticising these very difficult choices or look for a better way forward for our world and the values we say we hold, is now ours to decide. It won’t be an easy choice for us either, in particular for the film community as we begin to speak of these ideals with our very unique voices. Unlike news reporting we do not communicate facts, we communicate feelings and those feelings can make powerful changes in the people we touch with them if we choose to allow it to be so.

Upon viewing as many Julian Assange interviews as I could find on the web, to try and help myself understand his philosophy I discovered that he seemed not to be the egotistic arse some people had mentioned, or the saintly crusader with a cause that others were championing, he was to me, a man, perhaps an extraordinary man, who wants, through revealing their stories, to speak for people who have no power to speak for themselves and who would challenge, the press, the governments of the world and each and every one of us to wake up from our slumber and openly decide what kind of a society we want our world to be, then to act to make things so. He hit the nail on the head for me when he walked out of a CNN interview because he said they had contaminated the very serious revelation of war crimes by attempting to turn it into the usual newsdrone of sensationalist gossip about his personal life. In those Wikileaks stories, not only are there tales of over 100,000 deaths that deserve to be heard, but so much, much more about ideology and the world we want to live in, the world we are using arms to forge, using bombs to ostensibly keep ‘safe’. We can trivialise these stories, sensationalise them for entertainment and carry on pretending our world is more perfect than it is, or we can truly examine them through our art, our hearts and our human connections, laugh or cry at the fragility of life and death and government, challenge ourselves and each other to do better at asking questions and telling the stories differently, in a new way, and not contaminate them with the blind routine of what has gone before.

These events are not some distant unconnected happening our governments are involved in, in other countries, to be commented upon and gossipped about from afar. This is my world, and these are my world's stories to express, through my art, with my voice. They are your stories too, and whether we choose to own their importance or not is up to each of us to decide. Sitting here on the sofa it's easy to have thoughts about changing the planet through the communion of art and entertainment. Whether any of us can move off our comfortable sofas and act to really alter the things we dislike in our world, is the challenge I lay before you, as I lay it before myself.

End of soapbox.

A 2009 Report on the British Film Industry for Shadow DCMS

2010-12-15T03:57:00.005Z

I recently stumbled across this link for an independent report on the British Film Industry compiled for the then Shadow (and now the current) Department for Culture, Media and Sport, headed up by Jeremy Hunt – Conservative spokesman for Culture Media and Sport and Ed Vaizey – Conservative spokesman for Culture and the Creative Industries.

The report is introduced as follows and is well worth a read.

‘It is dangerous for an entertainment industry to become a prisoner of its own past.’ ~ Federation of British filmmakers. Annual Report 1960/61

It is the purpose of this independent report on the British film industry to address some of the key issues relevant to film policy at the end of the analogue era. Primary research has involved taking soundings from a broad sweep of the film industry and various stakeholders, beneficiaries, trade bodies and other interested parties, initially gathered over a series of informal sector-specific roundtables2 and then consolidated during an intensive set of meetings conducted between May and October 2009.3 It is hoped that by virtue of its independence, research and representation, this report can effectively help inform the shadow Department for Culture, Media and Sport (DCMS) as to the ideas, concerns and proposals most pertinent to the British film industry at this time.

It is important to note that the breadth of representation has dictated that many different subjects have been raised and it has been impossible – at this point – to discuss all of them in the kind of detail they undoubtedly deserve. By the same token, no claims are made to the report being an exhaustive account of all matters relevant to British film policy.

Maud Mansfield

This comprehensive report presents several interesting ideas, which I will consider
carefully. I would like to thank Maud Mansfield, and all the people both she and I met during the course of research, for taking the time to contribute to our thinking on film policy.

Ed Vaizey,
Shadow Minister for Culture and the Creative Industries
November 2009

The Black List 2010

2010-12-13T19:39:00.005Z

Drumroll....

And here it is, ladeez and gentile-menz, The best, the biggest, the ultimate mustachio'd pimp of all script pimping! It's out now ~

The Black List 2010!

Read it and weep!

Or get yourself on it. Yeah baby!

The Town

2010-12-08T18:19:00.002Z

The Town is a pretty damn solid heist movie with the rather good premise of bank robbery as a generational with many robbers stemming from a tiny mile square area of Boston known as Charlestown. That’s the main originality of an otherwise regular, as you’d expect film, but the structure works and holds attention without being too predictable, and there are a number of recognisable bank robbery traits, great if you like that sort of thing, not so great if you’re looking for something different. The screenplay is an adaptation so the book could be to blame for some of it’s weaknesses, nevertheless the film is well structured and well written and any clichés there for a reason.

What the film does exceptionally well is to bring the Heist format right back down to Earth and takes the glamour out of it. These characters are very real, they take money and they take life and they take drugs. They are violent men who grew and were nurtured by violent men and they have problems, even within their own semi-trusted circle of lifelong acquaintance. The cinematography puts you right in the moment at a few crucial points and I only realised this afterwards as it does so without any obvious tricksy camerawork. The sound too is unobtrusively effective and all round it’s a very well made film.

The characters in The Town are down to earth too, played very straight up by an uncompromising cast. I was surprised to find a very different Ben Affleck than I’d seen in a long while, demonstrating solid un-embelished acting and looking rather mouthwateringly buff (I know, I shock myself sometimes!). It wasn’t until I saw the end credits that I realised the film had actually been directed by him and then all the subtle good bits made sense, I have to say that once again I totally love his directing style, I think he’s very talented and should direct a LOT more, and clearly he’s by far the best person to direct himself.

All in all, while it’s got minor flaws, I enjoyed it a good deal and am bound to watch it again at some point.