I was at the EIFF from Monday to Wednesday and quickly picked up the hang of it. I got to see several features and shorts, an animation and a documentary. I attended a couple of conversations with important directors and also attended a couple of seminars on financing film. In terms of networking, I can't say I managed to swap numbers with Roger Corman, but I did forge contacts with an Skillset student doing Producing and with a Bournemouth graduate looking to become a writer-director. So if either of them go on to bigger and better things, expect to find me attempting to cling onto their coat-tails.
Monday
Missing Person (USA, HD-Cam, 95 mins, English Dialogue) **
After an early start to catch the 0715 from Queen Street, a slow moving film noir that meandered from boring to baffling was perhaps not the wisest choice. The protagonist was always either drunk, exhausted, injured or in emotional turmoil and frequently all four at once. This resulted in a continual shuffling performance throughout. Coupled with heavy brow furrowed in concentration, drooping jaw and slurring voice, he was a spitting image for Boris Karloff in Frankenstein. For myself, however, this didn't seem to bad. At 9am this did not seem too bad as the protagonist's state of mind and focus was on a par with my own. But seen as a sane and composmentus indicidual, I fear it would lose its charm. The lighting, occasionally spectacular (the last sillhouetted shot against the green is particularly excellent) is often grubby and sometimes it is too dark overall to actually see anything.
Unmade Beds (UK, 35mm, 92 mins, English, French and Spanish dialogue) ****
Despite this being a film centred around the sex, drugs and rock 'n' roll lifestyle of assorted teenagers squatting in a London house - a life of which I have no experience - I still was affected by the evident nostalgia the film-makers feel for their teenage years. There are several teenagers in the house, but the story focusses on Axl - a Spanish guy looking for his father - and Vera - a Belgian girl who takes pictures of all the beds she sleeps in. Despite living in the same house, they lead seperate lives right up till the end. And even then Axl is too drunk to remember the next day. None of the characters have family. They are all vulnerable, good-hearted hedonists trying to find a place for themselves in the world. Instead they find each other. With an awesome soundtrack and a compelling beauty to each character, I think this film could end up as a cult hit.
Seminar on getting Public Funding for Films
This was a particularly long event, during which I got a free cookie and cup of tea and got to meet my first contact. We first had representatives from BBC Films, UK Film Council and Film4, then later had reps from Scottish Screen, EM Media, Screen Yorkshire, South West Screen, and the Screen Agency for Wales. Finally we had a couple of producers (including Soledad Gatti-Pascual of Unmade Beds) talking about building relationships with key folk. This seemed to mainly involve getting drunk...
The main points:
- UK Film Council aren't interested in development. They want a project proposal handed to them with everything in place, ready to go if the money is put in. BBC Films on the other hand, want editorial control all the way through development.
- Money is available to us from more places than just Scottish Screen. For example, if we had a producer, writer or director involved in the project who either was born in Wales or is now living there, we would be eligible for up to £750k from the Screen Agency for Wales and from Finance Wales.
- If, as looks likely, the Tories get into power, they have pledged more control to city councils for film generation. Glasgow City Council would therefore have funds available to give to filmmakers who want to tell Glasgow's stories.
- After 2013, public money is going to dry up significantly.
- Regional public money is all about building and sustaining a local economy. Film is not sustainable, so you have to show how your film will benefit a particular area.
- Is it worth saying to the newly formed Creative Scotland, "You need a new image, to set yourself apart from the gritty hyper-realism of Scottish Screen films. How about an all singing all dancing musical?"
- Regional funders can't just fund a project because it is a good pitch or is commercially viable. It must also have a regional angle and must show innovation.
- The hard sell to funders is a thing of the past. It's all about building relationship with them.
The Secret of Kells (Ireland, 35mm, 75 mins, English Dialogue) ****
Based on the history of the Book of Kells and its associated legends, this is the most Irish film I have ever seen. It is a refreshing chance to hear Irish actors being Irish, as opposed to Irish actors being English, or American actors being Irish. The artwork is based on the flat, heavily stylised calligraphy in the actual book. This at times is distracting, at times breathtakingly beautiful and occasionally so stylised it becomes difficult to get a grip on the action portrayed. The story is nicely done with elements of Celtic myth and Christian rationalism intertwined, both backlit menacingly by the invading Viking army. The inclusion of a fairy and an offensively cute cat put this firmly in the kids camp, but I was enthralled and I reckon there is plenty to keep adults involved. It challenges all of us to work out what are the most important things in our lives.
Tuesday
Boris Ryzhy (Netherlands, HD-Cam, 59 mins, Russian dialogue) **
A quiet and controlled documentary set in Russia. A woman trawls through the tough neighbourhood in which she used to live. She is looking for anyone who remembers her brother Boris: a poet and gangster, who committed suicide during the turmoil after the fall of the Soviet Union. Certain things stood out. There was first the nostalgic way in which they spoke of the USSR. It was, they said, a good place to grow up. So different to the way the regime is portrayed in the mainstream media. Then there was the fact that the search for memories of Boris, and the doors slammed and the interviews refused were far more interesting than the interviews themselves once she found them. Third, the fact that he was an award winning poet was only secondary (despit the boring montage sequences where his poems were read out). THe real story came from a sister and a widow remembering the one they had lost. Melancholy and with some beautiful photography, I liked the organic style to this. It was very natural. You even saw the camerawoman in the hallway mirror and she didn't seem to mind. Ultimately though it was a little uneventful for 9am and at 60 minutes, it felt long.
Black Box Shorts
The film equivalent of CPP, I was bored so utterly mindless by this collection of shorts that I left half way through the screening, along with half the audience. The ones I saw are mentioned below.
Film Quartet-Polyframe (Spain, Beta SP, 9mins)
After about a minute of simple flashes bangs and clicks, we saw clips
from great films such as Singing in the Rain, butchered with distorted sound and
grainy picture. Every couple of seconds these were interrupted with a loud bang.
Not only was this painful to watch, it simply made me wish I was watching
something good such as Singing in the Rain.
George (UK, Beta SP, 4 mins)
Shaky shots of building, furniture and so on, from different angles
to show the difference lighting can make. If the sun is bleaching everything
out, it looks horrible. If the sun is blocked by a windowframe, everything else
looks very pleasant. The point was made in the first thirty seconds. The
remaining three minutes and thirty seconds were pointless.
Deux Regards (USA, Digibeta, 3 mins)
Microscopic-style imagery combined with numbers, drawings and
soundwaves. Instantly forgettable.
Autumnal (USA, Beta SP, 6 mins)
To start with I found this film rather beautiful, with images like
marbled oil playing over the screen. After two minutes of this, accompanied by a
dismal electronic experimental piece, I was done, and I still had another four
minutes to go. The first people started to leave the cinema now.
The Sound of Crickets (USA, Beta SP, 6
mins)
A blue wash. The noise of crickets. For six minutes. The noise was
courtesy (according the credits) of the Freesound website. All the film-maker
provided was the blue wash. You wonder what sort of people come up with
this...
Phatogram (USA, 16mm, 9 mins)
Abstract black and white images. No sound, no beauty, no insight, no
comprehension.
After this I left. Life is too short. If I thought that the auteurs were playing a con, laughing up their sleeves at the gullible art lovers who pay to watch this sort of thing and rave about it being "new", then I might be prepared to watch it. At least I'd be in on the joke. But the last thing I want to do is encourage any of these film-makers from making any more of this useless junk.
Masque of the Red Death (USA, 35mm, 95 mins, English dialogue, 1964)
Due to a mix-up, I arrived 20 minutes late, so missed the crucial set-up of this truly bizarre film. Bust ladies and hammed up villains wandered around a medieval castle, screaming, selling their souls to Satan, dressing up in gorilla suits, screaming, torturing prisoners, falling in love and did I mention screaming... I found this film rather entertaining, but exceptionally dated. There were more laughs than jumps from the packed out audience. Despite the overblown acting, the wobbly camerawork and the piercing screams, this film still has the ability to entertain (albeit in a different way to when it was first devised). If more Scottish film-makers aimed for this kind of B-movie, instead of the bleak and gritty hyper-realism we are known for, I, for one think our films would be far more popular, both here and abroad.
Seminar: New Producers Alliance on Funding Low Budget Features
The key thing coming out of this meeting was that a feature film is not something to try wandering into with a few mates. You need a lot of premeditation, of planning and of sweet talking.
Some points:
- Make use of the Tax Credit (about 20% for UK, but higher for other places. 40% in New Zealand and Canada) This means that you regain 20% of the money you spent in production and can recycle this back into post-production. There can be considerably legal fees in this, but the money that is returned to you, if you had a large enough budget to start with, should vastly over-ride this.
- In the budget, make use first of "non-recoupable" money, such as the Tax Credit. This is money you don't have to pay back. Secondly use public money. Thirdly and finally, look at loans. The final aspect is something you want to use as little of as possible and pay back as soon as possible. Otherwise any profit your film might make will go straight into the interest on the loan.
- A pre-sales document (for distribution in one of the 30 areas of the world) can be hugely influential in getting funding for production. It can be difficult to get this sometimes, as you are marketing a concept, not a finished piece, but having a line of distribution open means investors can see immediately where they return will hopefully be coming from.
- It is a bonus to have known and established people attached to the project as either cast or crew from very early on. This greatly increases investors' confidence in the project.
- Do not expect a cheque for £1million and then artistic freedom to go off and do whatever you want with it. Expect to get the money bit by bit as you need it.
- An Enterprise Investment Scheme is maybe not for first time producers, but (with a mound of paperwork) allows rich people to give money towards your film project rather than paying taxes. I didn't get the full details of this, but it sounds a very interesting avenue of investigation. There is a cap of £2million on each EIS.
- International co-productions are eligible to apply for funds from both countries, but there are implications in terms of where you need to shoot and who you need to hire.
- There are four reasons an investor may give money to a project. (1) Profit (2) Kudos amongst corporate peers (3) Advertising (4) Eccentic philanthropism. In addition to this, large US firms have CSR budgets (Corporate and Social Reponsibility budgets) to invest without return. This is something maybe coming into the UK, but I imagine the credit crunch will have impeded this significantly.
- TV has a more assured audience than film, so investors see it as a lower risk option.
- There are intermediary companies out there who can link up film companies with brand companies looking for product placement. Some brands are very much up for this. But make sure all brands are cleared for use if they are seen on screen.
An Audience with Bill Forsyth
Unashamedly going to namedrop, one of my friends in work is the son of this director, so I was particularly interested to hear him speak. I have never seen any of his work expect for a clip from Gregory's Girl when I was 13. But having seen little clips from his films, Gregory's Girl, Local Hero and Being Human have all jumped onto my list of Films to See. I was struck by his modesty and humility. He didn't like the idea much of three act structure. He said it was Hollywood trying to tell the world that everything can be wrapped up in two hours. Life wasn't like that, and his movies tend to have a very ambiguous ending, because there never really is any sort of ending in real life. Not until death, anyway. He hasn't made a film in ten years, but he said he had another project in development with HBO. He refused to give away any details of it whatsoever, because he was still trying to get the idea clear in his own head.
Wednesday
International Shorts
Another compilation of shorts, but so different from Black Box. These were in general some of the best shorts I've ever seen.
The Eighteenth Birthday Party (Taiwan, Beta SP, 20mins,
Chinese dialogue) ***
Despite some dodgy subtitles, this holds together well in the typical
Oriental style of being horribly and utterly twisted. Cooking a live cat in the
gas oven is only a minor plot point. Some nice photography at the beginning,
very influenced by paintings of still life.
Betty Banned Sweets (New Zealand, Digibeta, 14mins, English
dialogue) **
The teenage protagonist, lost between the alien worlds of childhood
past and adulthood future, is rather unsympathetic. In many ways I felt more
sympathy with his despised mother. Perhaps that was the intention. Its difficult
to tell. Really nice design work, but I'm not sure this ultimately holds
together.
Eiko (Austria, Digibeta, 13 mins, German dialogue)
****
One of the best shorts I've seen. Intriguing characters, sustained
tension, a bizarre plot and wonderful characters. A naive, teenage girl with an
explicit manga comic under her arm hitches a lift with a rather grubby van
driver. But genre expectations are overturned when the sexual predator
turns out to be the girl.
Short Term 12 (USA, HD-Cam, 21 mins, English dialogue)
****
When I saw the advert for this one, I wasn't expecting much. A group
of nurses try to keep things ticking over in their refuge for mentally disturbed
kids. But it turned out to be a very haunting film, with memorable characters,
raw emotion and an engaging story. In an asylum, it's not just the patients who
are a little mad.
Lowland Fell (Ireland, 35mm, 20 mins, English dialogue)
****
I'm noticing this was shot on 35mm and there is an immediate and
obvious difference in photographic quality to those that went before. The light,
the detail and the colours (some of which is no doubt done in grading)
immediately give this depiction of Ireland the air of mystery and intrigue for
which is is reknowned. The over-convenient premise (three co-incidences) is a
drawback and the director obviously didn't think his prop bog-man was very good,
as it wasn't shown until the last third of the film. Maybe it got damaged during
the shoot! But its a film about beautiful people doing interesting things, and I
liked it.
A Conversation with Shane Meadows
I very much enjoyed being one of the audience for Shane and his producer Mark Herbert talking about their films and their rigidly independant way of going about film-making. I found them both very inspiring, and instantly took to them as very down to earth, ordinary guys, passionate about making movies.
His message in a nutshell is as follows. In the UK, a lot of film-makers sit around waiting by the phone for a reply from the UK Film Council offering them money to make their film. But what people really need to do it just go out and do it. Do it for 1p if you have to, do it for £1million if you can, but just do it. Never complain that you don't have enough money. Make do with whatever money you've got. Even if your finished product isn't very good, it will be a lot better than the zero that has been produced by the film-maker next door who is still waiting to hear back from the Film Council. Traiditional film-making standards (caravans, PA's stylists, etc) haemhorrage money and can't be afforded unless you have a massive budget. It's much better to rent out a community hall, and have soup and sandwiches provided. The more money you are given, the less creative freedom you have. In fact, getting £2million can work out as being less money than getting £1million. With the lower budget, people expect lower standards and are happy to work for less. When they hear £2million, suddenly everyone is wanting the full-on treatment. Commercials should not be looked down upon as only worthy of small-time directors. They can be great fun, they allow you to experiment and you get to meet lots of wonderful people. Shane confessed that one of his ambitions was to make an advert for carpets. They are always atrociously bad and he wants to make one that just takes that cheesiness to a whole new level. The launch party they had for their most recent film Le Donk is an example of the style they are going for. Rather than go for the standard corporate event with salmon and champagne that would have cost about as much as the film itself, they rented out a school hall, got some cherryade and pickled onions, set out some board games and charged everyone 75p to enter. The whole event cost £300.
A Conversation with Roger Gorman
One hour later I was back in the cinema to hear another low-budget filmmaker talk. He is arguable one of the most influential filmmakers in the world, not so much for his own output as for his proteges'. He was obviously far more used to public speaking than Shane and Mark. He radiated a certain authority and wisdom which might just have been a persona but which worked very well for him. The interviewer, Kim Newman, was rather geeky and giggly, which irritated me, and the event went on half an hour longer than it should have done, with the questions from the audience getting more and more inane, but it was a good experience. Joe Dante was sitting in the seat behind me.
All in all, EIFF has been a great experience for me, and has really inspired me to keep the goal of a feature film on the horizon and not to lose sight of that during all the focus on shorts and on coursework.
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