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The Production Office
What's Hot...
Our Most Recent Adventure
Last year I had an extraordinary
journey with the Oscars shortlisted film I made,
'Gone Fishing'. We documented
the whole journey on this blog, so you can scroll back and see just how we did
it.
Below are the very best of the Gone
Fishing Webisodes, and specific gone fishing 'Dates Of Distinction' from the
blog.
Check out our Vimeo channel here, or browse are a few days of note from
the blog below
Congratulations! Your film is a finalist in the Producers Guild of America Producers Challenge!
The finalists will screen at the Sony Pictures Studios Cary Grant Theater in Culver City, CA, at 6:45PM Sunday June 7. Tomorrow I will send you all the information you need, but be aware that we will need a master quality version of your project by Wed June 3. All film and digital formats can be accommodated, but please, for your sake, do not plan to screen from a DVD. I suggest sending 35mm, HDcam or DigiBeta. Feel free to contact me with any questions that you have.
On behalf of the Producers Guild, congratulations again on your tremendous work, and I look forward to meeting you in person.
As I get more news in, I will post on the blog, but it appears that one of the prizes is lunch with Gale Anne Hurd! (Producer of Terminator and Aliens among other things!)
After I wrote my article for MovieScope on piracy, I came to a simple conclusion.
Very few of us want piracy. Most of us want to play fair, pay fair prices, get fair access, and feel the creators get fair pay for their work. Piracy is a symptom of the near catastrophic breakdown of the current distribution models.
People turn to piracy as current content is too hard to get and too expensive (so i's £18 for a DVD and wait a week for delivery, or free on the internet in just 10 minutes). They also feel forced into certain distribution channels (‘I don’t want to go to the cinema tonight, let’s stay in and download it instead’).Don't get me wrong. I DO NOT condone piracy, and at it's worst, it is part of organised crime.
But, arguing against this on moral or even legal grounds is a waste of time. It’s not going to change. We cannot enforce, stamp out, arrest, cajole, threaten... this situation.
More importantly, taking that stance also clouds the vision - piracy is just meeting consumer demands. If we have not done so yet, we need to wake up to these changes, embrace them, and engineer new models for success using tools and chanels that pirates use, but finding ways to leverage it into a business transaction.
If business were to see piracy more like a competitor than a ‘thief that funds terrorism and will bring down civilization as we know it…’ I think we would all be closer to a solution that actually stamps out piracy.
Consumers demand what piracy can offer (immediate access, high quality, compatibility on most devices, cost effective and cheap). And plenty of studies show that people will pay for it too. It’s not the ‘free or cheap’ part of piracy that makes it work so well, it’s that immediate access to everything, and on almost any device. Though I think most people would agree that a great deal of stuff is simply too expensive and needs to become more competitive.
It is clear that a revolution is needed, and I believe its happening right now.
Off the back of that article, I got emailed a fascinating list from a film maker called Ted Hope – here’s how he describes himself…
I am a filmmaker, living in New York City. ADVENTURELAND -- which I was one of the producers of -- opened April 3rd nationwide. I have made a lot of other films and hope to make a whole lot more... but it is quite the changing world out there, and we all need to come up with some new ways of doing things.
I started reading his long list and started nodding in agreement with almost everything… Here are the first 20 of his points… (you can read his complete list on his blog here – the comments make fascinating reading too).
• Too many leisure options for film to compete without further enhancing the theatrical and cinematic experience.
• Too many "specialized" films opening to allow such films to gain word of mouth and audience's attention.
• Too many films available and being distributed to allow films to stay in one theater for very long, making it more difficult to develop a word of mouth audience.
• Lack of access -- outside of NYC & LA --to films when they are at their highest media awareness (encourages bootlegging, limits appeal by reducing timeliness).
• Distrib's abandonment (and lack of development) of community-building marketing approaches for specialized releases (which reduces appeal for a group activity i.e. the theatrical experience).
• Distrib's failure to embrace limited streaming of features for audience building.
• Reliance on large marketing spend release model restricts content to broad subjects (which decreases films' distinction in marketplace) and reduces ability to focus on pre-aggregated niche audiences.
• Emphasis on upfront compensation for star talent creates budgets that can't reasonably recoup investment.
• HP&W fringe levels at too high a level to allow low-bud production to benefit from know how and talent of union labor.
• Lack of media literacy/education programs that help audience to recognize they need to begin to chose what they see vs. just impulse buy.
• Collapse of US acquisition market requires reduced budgets for filmmakers, and thus resulting in limiting content.
• Collapse of International sales markets requires reduced budgets for filmmakers, and thus resulting in limiting content.
• Foreign subsidies for marketing of foreign film makes reduces buyers' acquisition appetite for US product.
• Foreign subsidies for foreign productions contribute greater budget percentage than US tax rebates do, allowing foreign productions to have larger budgets and thus more production value and expansive content -- thus making it harder for US product to compete.
• Recession has reduced private equity available for film investment.
• Credit crunch has reduced ability to use debt financing for film investment.
• Threat of piracy makes library value of titles unstable, which in turn limits investment in content companies and reduces acquisition prices, which in turn reduces budgets, which in turn limits the options for content -- so everybody loses.
• No new business model for internet exploitation at a level that can justify reasonable film budgets.
• Lack of community embrace of new creative story expansion models that would facilitate audience aggregation and participation (to seed, build, drive audiences).
• Emphasis on single pictures for filmmakers vs. ongoing conversation with fans has lead to a neglect of content that helps audiences bridge gaps between films and that would prevent each new film to be a reinvention of the wheel for audience building.
And again, here is the whole list on Ted’s blog...
I am still suffering with my tooth abscess, getting only a few hours sleep a night, and only getting a few hours relief four times a day as I get the sweet spot with the pain killers, before the pain returns. Of course this would all happen over a bank holiday! (and I am writing this blog entry at 3 am while the pain killers are just starting to kick in)
I have taken this opportunity to add more content to the Online Gone Fishing Masterclass, including a whole new 45 minute video with Eddie Hamilton on what HD really means to you and me as film makers. I have also added more stuff to the Oscars section – you may not know it but getting into the Oscars race is actually quite easy for a short film maker, but you MUST jump through some specific hoops or you will be disqualified. I know of several world class shorts that fell foul of the Academy rules, so make sure you don’t!
I also added the programme for the screening of the ten shortlisted live action films and animated films. This screening took place in LA (one of three from which votes are drawn to make up the five nominated films) and it shows which ten films we were up against.
I know from feedback from five seperate parties who were at that screening that Gone Fishing played very well, but this one screening was only part of a series of three screenings. Again, the whole process is outlined in the online masterclass (the main part is winning an accredited festival, which we did in Rhode Island, or by commercially screening, whcih we also did and I wrote about on the blog here). If you want to see the Oscars Shortlist Screening Program, you can click here to view it (at least if finally provides documented proof that we were Oscars shortlisted).
We have had a flurry of feedback for the online masterclass too, and it’s still getting extraordinary comments… You can check out the last batch of feedback here.
Last week, I recorded a podcast over Skype with author of Machinima For Dummies writer, Hugh Hancock. The podcast was suggested by Hugh after he took the online Gone Fishing masterclass (you can read his glowing review here), and we discussed many things, including a whole new evolutionary step in film making which I call ‘Semi-pro’.
You can hear this podcast on Hugh’s Machinima For Dummies blog here… (direct podcast link here).
Hugh was also good enough to recommend a couple of Machinima Examples. Here's what he wrote... which are below…
If you get a chance, here's a couple of Machinima films you might
find interesting as a look at the genre, for both strengths and weaknesses:
"Apology" - a short (3 min) character piece. Quite successful, probably represents the upper end of storytelling and characterisation.
"The Return" - personally one of my favourite Machinima pieces. It's a fantasy story that I thought got an epic feel into 5 minutes.
"The Monad" - The Machinima equivalent of the classic "excellent but depressing" short film. A bit longer at 12 minutes, but some excellent storytelling, and shows off the higher end of Machinima visuals.
Cheers, Hugh
I have also been ‘taken out’ over the last few days by a tooth abscess, which has been extraordinarily debilitating. I am on antibiotics now but need to keep dosed right to the max with pain killers. This has caused a near complete collapse in my ability to do anything at all. Within this catastrophe for me is a message though. Take the opportunity while you can. It really has been a reminder to ‘get on with it’ as life is short and there are no guarantees. So for that, I am grateful.
Right. Back to bed. I have only managed one hour a night for the last two nights.
Last week, I asked everyone who reads the blog to watch and vote for a great little animated short film called Sebastian’s Voodoo, as it was playing in the Cannes Short Film Corner (original post and film here). And I just got this email from Joaquin, the film maker…
‘It's official! We won at Cannes by over 2,100 votes! (Sebastian's Voodoo got about 3,500 votes and the film in second place was at about 1,400 only). It's an amazing, huge difference.
Thank you so much for helping me with the votes! I was checking the stats on where the views were coming from and there was a huge amount coming from your blog. Thanks dude, really awesome. Joaquin
Amazing, so your vote really did make a difference, and it proves that as film makers, we are cultivating out audiences and successes by bringing our communities along with us on the journey of our movies. It also proves that we as a group of film makers, can also help each other. It’s so often forgotten in the British film industry, that we are ALL in the same boat. Awesome and well done Joaquin!
Can you believe! We have won another film festival, The Big Island Film Festival in Hawaii! The awards were on Sunday and we won the Best Foreign Short Film Award. I thought now would be a good time to take a snap shot of the vast collection of glass, perspex and bling that we have amassed on our journeys. Extraordinary isn’t it.
As for how many festivals we have entered so far? Right now it’s about a hundred and thirty, with about fifty festivals we are still waiting to hear from (to see if we have got in or not, though Sara tells me we are in about ten of those fifty). So of those eighty or so remaining festivals, we got into thirty two, and blimey, can you believe, we have twenty four awards on our bookshelf! And some of those festivals were non competitive. Goodness!
And RIIFF is now open for submission for the 2009 Awards in August. Great festival! I would urge you to enter. We have some more fests coming up too – and I am particularly excited about Tokyo!
There’s a new film making book out there, a kind of Rebel Without A Crew for 2009, called ‘Either You’re In or You’re In The Way’, about Logan and Noah Miller, who managed to make a top notch US indie feature called ‘Touching Home’, starring Ed Harris. They had no past experience, contacts or budget. We like it already! I bought a copy, and it is a ripping read for sure, full of detail, inspiration, passion and humour… But on page 29 I was astonished to find this passage…
ON THE DRIVE back to L.A. we listened to Bob Dylan and stared out the window at the passing farmland. When we arrived at our apartment, we threw our bags inside and walked to the bookstore. There was no time for self-pity. It was time to find out what we didn't know.
One month had already been ripped from the calendar. We needed to make a battle plan, devise a strategy for the road ahead. We wanted books by people who had actually made movies, not academic works on moviemaking, but practical experience from frontline soldiers. We walked over to the entertainment section and plunged in.
Two hours later:
"We need to buy these," Logan said, holding a stack of books. "You're out of your mind," Noah said, adding up the sticker prices in his head. "We came here to read, not buy. If it's important, write it down."
"What do you want me to do, write down the whole damn book?"
"I don't know. Figure it out. You're a smart guy. We ain't buying anything."
"We're buying them."
"You got money?!" Noah yelled. "`Cause 1 ain't got any money! Unless you got a stash 1 don't know about."
Noah has a flair for loud candor. He yells in public. He's the asshole who has the argument in the crowded elevator. It's not as if he's deliberately rude, because as soon as you point out he's yelling and disturbing others, he whispers. Yelling is just his habit of communication. He's what a therapist might call "passionate."
"I guarantee that whatever we spend on these books we'll make back a hundredfold," Logan said, pounding his fist into the cover of the Guerrilla Filmmaker's Handbook. He turned over the book and read the tagline to Noah. "The Guerilla Filmmaker's Handbook is the definitive guide. Buy it and save yourself thousands of dollars . . ."
The sales pitch hung in the air. Noah grabbed the book and flipped through it. We barely had enough money for rent. The business of death had drained our savings.
Fifteen minutes later Noah looked up from the book, a religious transformation in his eyes.
"We gotta buy this."
Blimey! I gotta get in touch with these guys! As it would happen, we are also working on a new Guerilla Film Makers Handbook project (a completely new volume) and we are looking to include as many micro budget success stories as we can, to add to our current list of ‘micro budget must see movies and must find out how they did it…’ I have seen quite a few of these films on my travels to festivals over the last year, but I also know that so many have slipped through the net… maybe you may have seen one or two…
So have you seen or heard of an exceptional micro budget film? Something that has gained critical success? Something that has gained awards, or even ended up with a great TV / DVD or cinema release? Something inspiring? If you have, drop us a line with your thoughts (even better, with any contact details if you know or have met the film makers) here [email protected].
We are trying to draw up an extraordinary list of international success stories that will help empower and inspire all emerging film makers. This will form a large part of this new project we are undertaking.
First off, it turns out I am going to be doing another little world jaunt, from Tokyo to Canada, attending festivals with Gone Fishing, and running my 2 day masterclass while there. But, I had planned on running it here in the UK at the end of June, so the dates have now been pushed to June 4th / 5th at Ealing Studios. Can you believe I am running this workshop more overseas than I am at home! If you want to know more about this workshop, check here…
Last year, I took Gone Fishing to Cannes and we had a great screening in the market. I also shot a video blog and a ‘Guerrilla Guide To Cannes’ video which is part of the 2 day Guerilla Film Makers Masterclass, but I have decided to share it with the blog community now. It’s a guide to how the land lies in Cannes, for those who have never been.
One element on the masterclass is about getting professional, no matter what discipline you are in - and until you have visited Cannes to be a part of the sales experience, most film makers are simply unaware of how brutal and competitive film sales can be. You will see from some of the interviews with film students that I took, that their view of what to make next shifted quite dramatically.
We hope you enjoy the video, and as we will be having a big launch at Cannes 2010 (I can’t reveal what it will be just yet), and so we hope you this video inspires you to make the choice to come along next year – if you do, you can get two tickets for our party to kick you off!
Not surprisingly, it seems Cannes this year is very subdued. All accounts from the people I know who are attending, paint this picture. Producer Ivan Clements is down in Cannes and I asked him for a quick report. Here’s what he said…
I got here on Wednesday night and zapped into Cannes Thursday from Juans Les Pins (a small village outside of Cannes 10 mins on the train that allows me to rent a 2 bed apartment for less than a 2 star box hotel room in Cannes!). I used to get in as early as possible to try and avoid the 1-2 hour queuing to pick up my accreditation. In my ninth year now, I realise you may as well go in around lunch time and you’ll probably wait less.
As I descended the stairs to the accreditation hall, I braced myself for the standard mayhem of what’s akin to a hot, sweaty angry farmers market with people jostling for position in queues with furious exchanges at the desks from people who’ve been declined accreditation mixed in with the usual hysterical demands in French ‘I want to speak to the person in charge!’ Ahh, what a blissful beginning as usual.
What greeted me was startling. The hall was virtually empty! With the shocking addition of….wait for it…. breathable air! I checked my pulse. Yep, still alive. I felt I was in a dream as I glided across the virtually pristine red carpet to several nervous looking, slightly redundant ushers who seemed about to tear each other apart in order to justify their existence and direct me to one of the vacant collection desks.
Behind the desks were different creatures. They had chosen a unique way to cope with the problem of virtually no people to serve. They simply ignored it and smiled chirpily. Having collected my pass and goodie bag, all within a record breaking 5 minutes, I made my way directly to the pavilions and started my attack.
I should at this point, spell out what I’m doing here. Aside from technically supporting my short ‘THE TAPPING GURU’ (really a simply way to get two badges – I think Chris has covered this on his blog), I’m here to network like crazy. I’m a producer and now financier of low to medium budget feature films.
I’ve managed to connect with several parties already. With savage determination, I’ll be collecting as many other invitations as possible. It’s the main reason I come to festivals and film markets. And most of it is by chance. Chris and I met Simon West’s producing partner at Bahamas when Gone Fishing played there.
Always important to have decent business cards on you at all times. Don’t go for cheap ones. It can damage you. I’ve seen people physically feel the quality of business cards as they continue to talk to you.
Later that evening I went to the Majestic to do a bit of networking and ended up chatting to ‘Imogen Diamonds’ (pictured – you might be able to just make out her ‘bling’ necklace with her name on it) who claimed to have been in ‘all’ the Bond films as a Bond girl and was happily telling everyone who passed this wonderful news. The dog, by the way, is called James Blond. She is spectacularly eccentric and really makes these things worth while coming too. She has a chauffeur, but sadly he’s in Paris at the moment. But she does have a helicopter on standby, apparently.
After about half an hour of delightful banter with Imogen, I made my tearful farewell and headed out for a bowl of snails. Ahhhhh, Cannes.
I want to let you know the extraordinary story of something happening right here and now in our own country. A few years ago, I interviewed a film maker called Janis Sharp, for my Guerilla Film Makers Movie Blueprint book, about a micro budget feature film she had made called Lunar Girl. You can read the PDF of that interview here.
I met with her a few months later and she was very upset. Somehow it seemed her son was going to be extradited by the US government for hacking into their computers. What transpired over the next few years really does defy belief.
Her son Gary Mckinnon, did indeed hack into insecure US government systems. Why? Well there are many sides to this story, the US government, Gary’s and I guess the whole PR offensive to save him from extradition.
For me it’s this simple. Why does this extradition for an alleged non violent crime need to take place in the first place? And the US government are going for life imprisonment. Gary is clearly a young man with exceptional computer skills, and has since been diagnosed with Asperger syndrome (a kind of Autism). This to me is just crazy, cruel and to almost any sane person, a ridiculous waste of time and resources.
From what I can tell, all Gary really did was embarrass the US government by burrowing deep into what they thought was a secure system. Surely giving him a job to find weaknesses in systems is a much better use of his talents? Gary is clearly is no international terrorist, for which this extradition treaty really exists. And the consequences are very real. He could be locked away for life in a maximum security facility.
The world is going bonkers.
So, I have just signed on online petition at the 10 Downing Street website here… I hope you feel compelled to do the same.
If you want to know more about Gary and his case, there is a page here. And there ios plenty more if you google him.
His mother, Janis is a fearless and tireless campaigner. You can follow her on Twitter here. Send he a message of support, they sure as hell need it. Her film making career has been halted by this catastrophe.
Please forward this to as many people as you can.
Finally, we really do need to grow up as a society…
"Any society, any nation, is judged on the basis of how it treats its weakest members - the last, the least, the littlest." - Cardinal Roger Mahony, In a 1998 letter, Creating a Culture of Life.
I have been chatting to Hugh Hancock over email after he took our online masterclass. Hugh is a very interesting chap and an expert in Machinina – what’s that some of you will ask. In brief, it’s making animated films inside a real time rendering 3D engine such as a computer game engine (often hacking in to take control over camera movement and actor action). The big advantage is that shots and sequences render in real time, and it can all be made from your desktop. You read loads more on Wikipedia here.
Hugh sent me a long email documenting some of his thoughts after he made his own epic Machinima Movie, Bloodspell, which you can view above (yes the whole darn movie in HD, so remember to blow it up full screen!) Hugh is also the co-author of Machinima For Dummies. Anyway, here’s what he has to say about his shenanigans!
We started making BloodSpell in 2003, as a way to make a quick, easy film and get back into the swing of things after I'd spent a year trying to raise capital for an extremely over-ambitious project of mine (my first swing at Stage 4, I guess). It didn't end up that way!
The project ballooned into a feature pretty quickly, and took a lot longer than planned. In the end, the first version of BloodSpell went out in 2006, nearly 4 years after we started. Not all of that was full-time, but a lot of it was. It attracted a hell of a lot of online attention, and we ended up with around 100,000 views for the series (it was initially released in 14 parts, one every two weeks - an approach I recommend, actually, on the Web). We might have gotten a lot more, but the opening couple of episodes showed we were still learning, and were kinda weak. So...
I then re-cut the project into a feature film, reshot a whole bunch of stuff, wrote a new introduction, and did a total re-edit. In hindsight, I wish we'd taken the time to do that the first time around - but we really didn't know how good we could potentially make it. (I spent a lot of time in the Gone Fishing seminar shouting "D'oh!")
The feature was released in 2007, as you know. It was enormously successful - over 33,000 people sat down to watch an hour and a half movie on the Internet, quite a few of them downloading it first – a gigabyte download. There were four feature films made in Scotland and released that year - to the best of my knowledge, two of them were only ever watched by about 1,000 people, and both had budgets well in excess of 10 or even 100 times ours. The other one, which according to IMDB sales data was viewed by about 66,000 people, had a budget over 3 million pounds! So in terms of getting visibility for the buck, our £5,000 film did pretty well!
We released the film as Creative Commons, which essentially means that anyone could copy it, provided they weren't making money out of it. That explains a lot about how many people have watched it. And unlike most features, the viewers keep on coming - we're up to 50,000 viewers for the feature film now, and it's still going up.
Because BloodSpell was made with Machinima, using a copyrighted engine and art, we couldn't make money out of it. We knew that from the start - based on the Guerilla Filmmakers' books amongst other things, I knew that the odds of my first feature making money were tiny, and so decided to keep costs as low as possible and aim for visibility and experience. Overall, I'd say it worked out - particularly given the budget I've heard Hollywood people estimate to shoot the film live was on the order of $30 million! (Obviously, you could do it cheaper than that, but I think you'd struggle to tell anything like the BloodSpell story for less than £100,000). Machinima also let me tell a story there was really no way any live-action filmmaker could reasonably hope to tell.
Overall, it's not catapulted me into the bigtime, but BloodSpell has done pretty darn well for me. I'm known by most of the Internet geek/filmmaker community now, I've had a lot of press (Guardian, USA Today, BoingBoing, etc) and some very favourable reviews (one magazine rated BloodSpell as highly as the Neil Gaiman/Matthew Vaughn film Stardust!). If I'd struck whilst the iron was hotter, I'd probably have been able to leverage it more, but I was so exhausted when I finished the film that I ended up taking a year to do something totally different - a fairly common story, I guess.
Anyway, enough waffling from me! Hope you enjoy it!
So it looks like I am going to Japan! I just got word from the Short Shorts film festival in Tokyo…. Here’s what they said…
Hello!! Hope this finds you well. We finally would like to offer you the invitation to attend to the festival.
We will offer your flight from London to Tokyo (two ways). We'll have many events not only your screening but welcome party, visiting temple etc. So you must enjoy here in Japan!! I really hope this offer works for you.
WOW! Japan really will be an experience - I am really looking forward to neon, sushi and some great short films. They have a twitter account too, but hey, as the Twitter in Japanese, goodness only knows how that will work! Just looking at their website too, I can see just how unreal it will be as I can’t even begin to read their buttons as they are written in Japanese!
Yesterday I sent a request out to my list for information on film making websites that we are using right now – I wanted to figure out what indie film makers consider to be the best resources in 2009. I have had an overwhelming response, but keep them coming. If you haven’t already emailed me with some of the film related sites, services or blogs that you use, then please take a moment to let us know (email [email protected]). I will share the results on the blog in the next week or so, and it should be a great resource that is hand picked by users and not just a big robot from Google.
On another note, I just got a copy in the post of the local newspaper from my home town in Wigan, about Louise Steggals (she was on the blog last week) and her trip to the USA (Cape Fear Film Festival) for Gone Fishing. You can see the article as a PDF HERE
Earlier this year I went to the Sedona Film Festival in Arizona, a real stand out event, as you can see form the video blog here. While there, a young and very talented animator gave me a copy of his film on DVD – he had also won a prize for best animation at Sedona, and I just got around to watching it. His name is Joaquin Baldwin and his film is called Sebastian’s Voodoo, and you can watch it above (also there is an HD 720 QT here on his website).
It’s a terrific piece of animation as well as simple, powerful and emotive story telling. Really great work.
The film is also in the NFB online competition at the Cannes short film corner this year, and you can vote for it by clicking here. Good luck guys, you got my vote!
Last year I held an evening seminar with Stuart Hazeldine, UK screenwriter and now director. He has been very busy in the last 12 months with 2 films that he co-wrote being released, ‘The Day The Earth Stood Still’ and ‘Knowing’. At the time of the seminar, Stuart was in prep for his first feature as a director, a taught, single location thriller called EXAM… (you can listen to the podcast on screenwriting here).
Over several conversations with him, Gareth the producer and Mark Talbot Butler the editor, they took me on board as an Associate Producer, to make use of all the contacts and experience Gone Fishing had given me, on top of prior experience with the features I had made. At the time they were planning on shooting HD, but after several chats and Stuart watching Gone Fishing, they switched to 35mm. And it really shows. It was a unique film in many ways, set entirely in one location and shot in story order, from page one of the script as the narrative takes place in real time, 24 style…
I was unable to attend the cast and crew private premiere at BAFTA as I was in Australia at time, but we all get the chance to see it next month as it receives its world premiere at the Edinburgh International Film Festival on June 19th as part of their Night Moves strand for genre films. GREAT NEWS!
They have a sales company on board too, Independent, and I have been helping Stuart and Gareth through sales delivery too, which could have easily turned into a very expensive and fraught experience – it was in a meeting with the sales company that I realised I needed to host a one day seminar about making delivery of a film as its such a minefield – this seminar is taking place on June 7th at Ealing Studios – more info here.
So well done Stuart, Gareth and of course Mark Talbot Butler, my crazy old mate who edited The Runner (my first feature film) all those years ago!
Here’s the EXAM sales pitch from the one sheet…
Eight talented candidates have reached the final stage of selection to join the ranks of a mysterious and powerful corporation. Entering a windowless room, an Invigilator gives them eighty minutes to answer one simple question. He outlines three rules they must obey or be disqualified: don’t talk to him or the armed guard by the door, don’t spoil their papers and don’t leave the room. He starts the clock and leaves. The candidates turn over their question papers, only to find… they’re completely blank. After the initial confusion has subsided, the candidates soon discover they’re permitted to talk to each other, and they agree to cooperate in order to decipher the question: then they can compete to answer it. Soon enough, the candidates begin to uncover eachother’s background, prejudices and hidden agendas.
Tensions rise as the clock steadily descends towards zero and one candidate after the other is expelled for breaking the rules. In the course of this exam each candidate must decide how far they are willing to go to win the ultimate job . . .
Some time ago I asked if any of our 175 Associate Producers would like to attend a film festival on behalf of Gone Fishing (I have run out of money!). Of course there would be no expenses or flights, but certainly a ripping time and life experience to be had. From my home town, Wigan in the North West Of England, Louise Steggals said that she would like to go to one. And Cape Fear on the Eastern seaboard of the USA was the festival of choice.
Louise got involved in Gone Fishing when she read an article in the local newspaper about what I was doing – she didn’t know me or my family, but she responded to the write up and sent us £50 toward the budget. Every little helped as you know.
And like so many Associate Producers on Gone Fishing, Louise maintains that it was the was the best £50 she ever spent! I now hope to get that same newspaper in Wigan to run a feature on Louise and her leap of faith, and (spoiler alert) take some pics with her and the trophies we won!
Anyway, here’s the Cape Fear Experience in Louise’s own words.
At the time of writing, I am currently sat in Wilmington International Airport waiting to start the long journey home, keeping a close eye on my suitcase which has Gone Fishing’s TWO awards carefully wrapped up inside (I should get a third award for the most creative use of bras) with my fingers and toes crossed that I don’t smash our glass gongs en route (“glass gongs”…now there’s a euphemism).
Yes, the momentum has yet to falter as we claimed the Best Film award for our category (Faith-based/Family) and the Audience Choice award - the culmination of a crazy 72 hours at one of the most fun festivals I have ever been to.
Back-track to the beginning and I didn’t know what to expect as I landed in North Carolina. It’s easy to understand how celebrities can get into that whole lifestyle; I have never been taken care of so well in all my life.
Random strangers would offer me rides to get downtown (included one lady who started giggling hysterically and insisting she wasn’t crazy as she turned the wrong way into a one-way street), I had a very nice hotel by the beach, and the festival host, Joe Manganiello (who played Flash Thompson in Spiderman and Owen in One Tree Hill) very kindly gave me rides around the festival locations (I will have to scour Us Weekly to see if there’s any mention of Joe being spotted in town with a “mystery brunette” – that would be hilarious!)
Gone Fishing, as you may have guessed, was really well received. Everyone wanted to know about how the trick with the ducks worked and they loved the scene where Devon Murray battles to catch Goliath. The film-makers really loved the whole feel of the film, how slick it looked, how complete the story was…I was very honoured to be basking in Chris’ reflected glory as the accolades and compliments flowed and I got a handful of cards from film-makers and actors interested in any opportunities with Chris - when Joe himself asked to be considered for future projects I nearly fell out of my chair (a potentially fatal move as we were in a moving car at the time).
There were some really amazing short films that deserved to win recognition – the competition was stiff in my opinion – and I answered questions as best I could. We didn’t win the grand prize – that went to a very compelling documentary called “I am a Man” about the civil rights movement - but a lot of people had said how much they enjoyed the film and knew it would do well.
Several producers have been talking about replicating Chris’ ingenious funding model for their own future projects. And they’re very interested to see Rocketboy come to fruition. I would thoroughly recommend this festival to any film-maker. The people are wonderful, the creativity is amazing and it’s been a real pleasure to come out here and fly the flag for Gone Fishing, which continues to prove to be the best money I ever spent.
They queued all day, around the corner, to see the film…
It sounds just like a formative experience I had as a kid, in the summer of 1975, in line at the Wigan Odeon cinema, completely unaware of what was going to ravage me over the next two hours. I can remember it just like yesterday. It both traumatised me and thrilled me all at once. I am of course talking about Jaws and the phenomenon it created in that hot summer.
As you may know, Gone Fishing supported a new documentary about Jaws that had its world premiere this weekend in LA – The Shark Is Still Working. You can read the original post on my blog and watch the trailer here.
Apparently the screening was a double sell out (the second running 4am!). Film maker Erik Hollander, one of the team who made The Shark Still Works, emailed me this today.
I just wanted to write to tell you how much I enjoyed "Gone Fishing". It was the perfect opener to TSISW at the LA Film Festival, and I was proud to have your film precede ours. Wonderful storytelling from start to finish with beautiful cinematography and stunning production design! You're right, it seems to be a marriage made in heaven - maybe made in Amity! My compliments to your cast and crew and I wish you all the best of success with it. Sorry we didn't get to meet, but I'm sure we'll cross paths somewhere down the United Film Festival circuit. I definitely hope to be at the London screening in November!
He also has a big write up about the première on his blog (and mentions GF, as well as having a short video), which you can read here…LOOK AT THOSE QUEUES (that’s lines for the Americans).
We have had a very busy weekend. Those of you following me on Twitter will know that I spent it running around like a blue arsed fly, shooting a wedding video with my good buddy Simon Cox, for my girlfriends sister - it’s the blessing / curse of being the film maker in the family. I did learn one thing though, shooting HDV eats battery power about 40% faster than shooting straight DV using the same camera.
But the real action was taking place across the world at a gaggle of film festivals.
Over the last few days we have received notification of SEVEN! YES SEVEN separate awards! GOOD GRIEF!
It began late last week with the win at Palm Beach! Followed closely by the win for best screenplay at Newport Beach, both of which I reported on the blog. Yesterday I also reported on winning at The End of The Pier Film Festival in Brighton too, courtesy of our casting director Cathy Arton. Since then I have been frantically checking the websites of other festivals in which we played in this gridlocked weekend… Here’s what else we managed to collect.
First of, we won Best International Short, The Bone Head Award (pictured above), at the Bare Bones Film Festival in Muskogee, Oklahoma. I like their style! What I have discovered is that many US festivals have Best Short (domestic) and Best Short (international) and of course we are always up for the international award.
Next we got word that we also won the Best Short Film at the Hollywood First Glance Film Festival in LA, which was attended by Gone Fishing AP (associate producer) Kerry Finlayson (who had a frantic weekend driving between events). We could still snare the Audience Award there too as we are waiting for the ballots to be counted – fingers crossed.
Then I got an email from Rincon, Puerto Rico, to tell me that we had won Best International Short Film there too! Blimey!
Finally, we also heard from another Gone Fishing AP who attended a festival on our behalf and she has written us all an account of the events, so I will leave it to her to announce the win on the blog in the coming days when she emails it to me and sends me some photos.
It’s a real shame I was unable to attend these festivals as I feel very passionately that where possible, film makers should attend the festivals to support their film, the festival, but most of all, to connect with the audiences and get real feedback for their films. It’s tough though as jetsetting across the globe is expensive, especially if the festival does not even cover any accommodation (though you can often rough it by sleeping on someone’s floor or spare bed).
Anyway, just getting my head around the rapidly expanding amount of awards we are collecting!
Last Saturday, I was at my girlfiends sisters wedding, video camera in hand, dutifully making the wedding video for the family (the curse of being the film maker in the family!), which meant I was unable to attend the End Of the Pier Film Festival Awards, and so I asked Cathy Arton, our casting director, to attend in my stead. Here’s her report.
Last week Chris asked me if I would be able to attend The End of the Pier International Film Festival Awards ceremony in Worthing. How exciting to be asked to go to another festival on behalf of Gone Fishing. What a truly wonderful event. I take my hat off to people like Brian Gartside and partner Roz, Festival Director, who champion the importance of film in society. The End of the Pier International Film Festival is a very important festival attracting filmmakers from all over the world. Brian manages to get many of the local business interested in supporting film and now to actually invest in films.
Again, as at the OnFilm Festival for independent film, I had the tremendous opportunity to meet fellow film makers. I met a filmmaker called Mihal Brezis, whose film ‘Lost Paradise’, opens on two people making love, unsolaciously shot, the two people are purely and joyfully naked and making love. The complication arises when we see them getting dressed and we, the audience, see that the woman is a religious Muslim and the man is an orthodox Jew. ‘Lost Paradise’, made by Mihal Brezis and her film making partner Oded Binnum, won Best Short Drama film. In Mihal’s acceptance speech, she espoused the hope for true peace in the Middle East. I also got into conversation with Susan Everett, writer and director of ‘Mother Mine’. The premise of this film is an adopted daughter looking to connect with her biological mother. This film is phenomenally executed in every way. Outstandingly directed and acted, I would urge anyone who has not seen it yet to try to see it. Unsurprisingly, Susan’s film took home two awards, Best director and Best Actress in a short drama for actress Kelly Harrison. Best UK Feature film went to the beautifully made film; ‘Ambleton Delight’, written and directed by Dan Parkes.
And now the moment you’ve all been waiting for… Gone Fishing won People’s Choice Award for Best drama film in Festival 2009. Wow! Not just short drama, but BEST OVERALL DRAMA! WOW AGAIN! I am completely awe struck by the wonderful reception “Gone Fishing’ has had around the world. It is an absolute honour to be a part of this experience. Thank you Chris.
Thanks Cathy, and I am delighted with the outcome. I am even more delighted that Susan Everett’s film, ‘Mother Mine’ collected two awards too. Hers is a strong and brilliantly executed commercial movie that I suspect has been overlooked at other awards and festival, because it dares to grip the audience, and it's a ripping yarn. My experience is that Euro festivals and awards don't like stuff that is comercial and popular in its story or execution. So well done Team Mother Mine, you deserve these awards and more!
YES! This is my 500th blog entry! Can you believe? 500 entries… Just check out blog number 1 (and what a funny co-incidence too as we are going out with Summer Scars in June – and this really does show how long and indie film can take to go from idea to theatrical release). Note also, there is no catchphrase yet, that appeared on June 27th with our new Movie Blueprint cover.
UPDATE! In a wonderful co-incidence, we are also just a handful of DVD’s away from selling 500 disks! So buy yours now and if you are the 500th buyer, we will send a crisp new tenner back with it (or dollars if in the US). You can buy the Gone Fishing DVD here… Remember, there are hours of extras on the DVD too!
And soon I hope to be announcing what the main thrust of the next 500 blog entries will be. Be assured, plans are in motion.
BUT! What better way to celebrate this milestone than with a win at a film festival! I just got word that we won Best Screenplay at the Newport Beach Film Festival in California, and Newport Beach is a biggie, so the award is important to Gone Fishing.
This is the first award for our screenplay, having won only Jury awards for best film and Audience Awards in the past. And for me it’s very gratifying as I know just how much work was put into the script from quite a few people. We worked for hours and hours of specific lines of dialogue, and it’s one thing that the people who have been taking our online seminar have been commenting on – how the script development process (which you go on if you take the seminar) is what gave us such good foundations for a completed film. It’s not a scripty film, with cool dialogue or angsty characters, and often I think people are dazzled by Verns amazing cinematography and Eddie’s great editing, forgetting all of this is built on solid foundations that we all worked so very hard on. Hoorah!
So thanks to Guy Rowlands, Martin Gooch, Eddie Hamilton, Jon Walker and Lulu (and lots of others of course) for taking the time to comment, sometimes rewrite, but always improve on the words on the page. This one if for the team!
About Chris I am just like you. Passionate. Crazy mad. For movies that is. Can’t get enough. Watching movies. Making movies. Talking about movies. Drives my girlfriend Lucia nuts! So yep. Passionate, crazy and mad. And yes, I am a little schizo too. Thing is, I love making films as much as I do teaching film making. Hence, Make Film, Teach Film. I have spent my life making films and sharing what I have learned with those who, like me, have been infected with the 'film virus'... I've made three feature films, action thriller ‘The Runner’, serial killer thriller ‘White Angel’ and paranormal horror ‘Urban Ghost Story’. I also co-created and authored The Guerilla Film Makers Handbook series, and currently there are six editions! Most recently, I made the multi-award winning and Oscars shortlisted ‘Gone Fishing’. I run film making workshops and my offices are at Ealing Film Studios where I am currently plotting my next big adventure…
CONTACT - Living Spirit Pictures, Ealing Film Studios, Ealing Green, London, W5 5EP, UK tel / fax +44 208 758 8544 [email protected]
. Anyway, here’s what he has to say about his shenanigans!
