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NEWS
& LINKS
M4P (Music4Pictures) a collaboration of musicians who compose, mix and produce
songs and soundtracks are now on the web with an MP-3 downloads page for
a taster of some of the tricks up their sleeves. Specialities include house,
dance and trance and they aim to match up with any mood or style you want
to create for your film-making and visual arts. Contacts are in London,
Edinburgh and Bristol - visit them at www.icandy.freeserve.co.uk/m4p/m4phome.htm
ReelScene Archives - Brussels Film Festival
BRUSSELS INTERNATIONAL FILM FESTIVAL UNCUT
Last Updated: May 2002
May 2002: Pre-production is completed for the DV feature 'Little White Liars', shooting on location in Hastings, East Sussex, South America and Europe over the summer of 2002. Participants are working on an equal-split revenue basis with a partly scripted, part-improvised format. We're very excited with the potential for this concept comedy which may or may not confirm what the general public tends to imagine life as being like in Hastings, when you don't live here and only hear about it on the news! :)
January 10th, 2001: A demo scene for the feature film project Heavy Duty
was shot on 16mm at the Tattoo Emporium, George Street, Hastings. This was
to demonstrate the look on film we are aiming to achieve with the feature,
and the cinematography of Dave LeMay, who also shot Easy Money on DV which
was in a different style, suited to a TV 'sitcom' look.
Cinematographer Dave LeMay and Chris Taylor of Caribou Productions recently
completed filming of their DV feature LVJ and a 16mm pop video to promote
it, which are both now in post-production. Check out the latest on their
progress at www.lvjmovie.com
KATE NAUGHTON (LEFT), KATIE GREGSON (RIGHT) AND ANOTHER KATE ON THE SET OF THE LVJ POP VIDEO
Brussels International Film Festival Uncut, January 2000 (can also be read as appeared edited by and printed in Reelscene, Raindance’s magazine for independent film-makers, March 2000 by clicking the link below)
THE 27TH INTERNATIONAL FILM FESTIVAL, BRUSSELS
Lisa Scullard, Screen Kiss Ltd.
Since winning last July’s LiveAmmunition (Hallo, anyone remember me?) things have been whizzing along at a frightening pace. It was like Someone had pointed a big fat finger of fate out of the sky or set light to a small shrub in my immediate vicinity and said ‘Oy, you, single parent and physics student - get out there and make movies’. I’d finished the script, registered my company, picked up some very keen and encouraging cast interest from the TV and music industry, and was stuffing my head with industry knowledge as fast as I could contain it. I’d had encouraging letters from Jane Balfour films and Universal distribution along the lines of ‘we’d love to see the finished product’, calls from the head of the Manx Film Commission regarding possible 25% contribution, was awaiting another decision from British Screen and wondering how I was going to get my head round a venture capital presentation.
I decided to take another step recommended by many established pros in the industry - get to an international film festival. On a very small budget. I was amazed to learn of the Brussels Film Festival, now in its 27th year which runs every January (competing for media coverage with the Golden Globes and Sundance, so not surprising really), so last November I e-mailed the festival organisers asking for some information. And didn’t hear anything back.
Until the day after Boxing Day, when they e-mailed with a full invitation offering access all areas (public and press screenings, conferences and roundtable discussions, use of videotheque), a reduced rate at the swanky Hotel Metropole, and faxed me a free accreditation form.
Stunned is not the word! I gave the doctor’s receptionist a headache trying to get my passport renewal authorised, but my GP was in a better frame of mind and did it that afternoon. Staying mostly healthy and not bothering her every time me or my daughter sneezes seems to have paid off…on New Year’s Eve for something different to do I shot a spoof video diary ‘Attack Of The Millennium Bug’, which is totally dire, was great fun, is three hours of vodka jelly long and will be locked away and its existence denied, just like the real Millennium Bug!
Much maths and agonising later I worked out that I could afford either two nights at the Hotel Metropole, giving me one full day at the festival, or four nights at the sparkly clean SleepWell youth hotel, also placed in the centre of town and offered bed and breakfast for £11/night. A couple of e-mails arranged that. Travel was just a case of getting on a train to Dover and legging it to the Seacat with a minute or so spare, and then another train at Ostend - no need to pre-book. My entire travel expenses for the trip would have totalled £62, but for the rail strike on my return when a taxi from Dover to Hastings knocked £50 out of my pocket, so the final total was £99. But never mind - on to the festival.
Incredibly well-scheduled and organised, films were screened at four major cinemas in the town, and the videotheque was situated the Halles St-Gery, where you could also get free tea, coffee and hot chocolate or chocolate espresso all day (with croissants every morning) and the press conferences and roundtables were held upstairs in the airy gallery, with talks given by luminaries such as Peter Fonda and Alan Parker. I made good use of the videotheque in the mornings, not wanting to miss too many films by only staying for four days of the ten, and it was there I saw one of the best films ever, a Central Asian/Balkanese fairytale called ‘Luna Papa’ - no big international stars, no graphics, just top-class originality and humour (and stunts) from beginning to end. I visited the Belgian Distributor’s office regarding the film’s sales afterwards to find out if it’s due for release in the UK as it deserves a worldwide audience, and they gave me the sales agent’s address in Switzerland. If you get the chance to see it, go and be blown away. And hopefully a little inspired.
Otherwise, films showing went from the massive (Anna And The King) to the surprise successes (American Beauty) to the unsold, first-ever-public screening, first-time directors in the America Meets Europe category (The Auteur Theory was particularly apt and whimsical). Human Traffic was entered into the European competition and got a great response from the midnight screening audience, and on my last night I was fortunate to see East Is East AND meet the screenwriter afterwards, very interesting and talkative - I mentioned that I’d been advised to self-produce from the start and he said that he had just started his own production company in order to avoid some of the hassles of the lone screenwriter. He was lucky in that his work had been a successful play previously and gave him much more credibility to contribute to the film, made with the assistance of FilmFour, but didn’t feel that he would have been given such a fair shot otherwise.
One discussion I attended in English was the America Meets Europe debate, which was supposed to discuss collaborations and inspirations but mostly focused on the obvious - To Dub Or Not To Dub. Economics states that subtitling is the cheapest form of translation, and the French and Flemish audiences enjoyed the English-language films which were shown with subtitles as much as anyone else - in fact they caught more of the jokes that were missed by poor sound in some cases. Personally I always prefer to see a film in its original language with subtitles - mostly because it’s disturbing to hear words spoken out of synch by a different voice to the actors, as I can never get the mental image of dodgy out-of-work actor standing in dub studio trying to inject feeling into a scene he never participated in out of my head while watching, detracting from the storyline. For some reason these imaginary voice artists always resemble 70’s Swedish porn stars. I’m probably wrong of course.
The ‘New Americans’ in this debate included a Russian who had gone to theStates to make his first film, an American cop movie. Well done for having the shot and the guts to do it. But there was something wrong with the piece that I didn’t get until I walked out of the cinema. The pace felt wrong, the relationships between the characters was wrong, the scale of the story was wrong - then I realised, he should have made it in Russia as a Russian film. What I had seen was a good Russian contemporary piece - only done as a weak American one. You only make one first film and it’s only going to be as good as you make it - the stars won’t make it a good film, the locations won’t make it a good film and neither will clever advertising - at the end of the day you’re going to be judged on the final product. So that’s where you should focus your creativity. Good luck to him and he may find a market somewhere - but in the States they already excel at this sort of material and poor copies aren’t going to get a peep except in the late-night and afternoon TV market.
Another interesting point of this debate was the many complaints that with either dub or subtitles, their films just don’t seem to reach the world markets. Now this is a case for two departments - homework prior to shooting your film, and sales efficiency. Do your research. Many new directors go the controversial route with their first film and do the schlock-horror-drugs-serial-killing-and-sex. Some do it well. Others don’t. Firstly, you’re not going to get noticed or notoriety if your film is banned across the board - nobody will ever see it and you wasted your first shot - getting the next one financed will be harder. In some countries a film can be banned merely on the advertising and promotional material - for instance a man pointing a gun at a woman on a poster, or in a trailer. Material appearing out of context of the storyline which could be construed as implying a theme not necessarily central to the film can still get your project into trouble with the licensing boards. Wait until you’ve made a couple of films and then stun the world with your images - at least then people already believe in you and the financiers feel confident you know what you’re doing. (Someone recently asked when I was going to make my first porno and I told him to wait five years). Be patient. Your platform will arrive. The second point is of course to get the best sales representation that you can. Just because someone used to sell popcorn at ABC doesn’t mean they can get you world domination.
At the French-language conferences I picked up something else. My French is only about 30% accurate, but unless they were discussing the actual directing about which they were passionate and clearly enjoyed, they were reluctant to speculate about future markets for Belgian films. Something called the ‘American backlash’ was mentioned, either that the market wants American films which the Europeans are trying to emulate, or the sudden taste in America for films made in the European style. In fact, most likely this implied a backlash against American styles altogether. In the festival there were some great pieces which took no American credit at all. The fact is though that the U.S. cracks off entertainment at hi-speed and spends millions on worldwide advertising, the likes of which the rest of the world cannot yet match. The audiences are out there, gasping for original films and fresh faces and sexy dialogue, but their cinemas are already saturated. There’s not a lot wrong with this - you just have to realise who your competition is, and it’s not just Guy Ritchie. If you went to a cinema with three screens and had a choice of a computer-animated Pixar smash, the new thoughtful Spielberg piece, or Mr. Nobody’s film about Nobody doing Nothing Particular one day, what would be the result? Your film and its promotion is up against the rest of the world at the same time.
The comparisons are especially and sometimes painfully obvious against the setting of an international film festival where the contenders are not just the independents. It’s definitely a case of waking up and seeing if you can afford to smell the coffee. I left a few screenings wanting to curl up under my bed and chew on my script in desperation. Even films which I thought were mediocre and of dubious entertainment value had huge price tags, big stars, but obviously tame enough by content and feelgood enough in nature to guarantee world distribution without question or controversy. Those directors were big names through films of that type - not because of artistry or imagination but because of global coverage. You are a speck of Cornish Yarg in a mountain of Very Mild Cheddar. Sidle up and pretend to be Cheddar. Get talking to the Cheddar. Mention the Yarg in the third person to see what the Cheddar’s opinion is - then, offer to show them a really classy piece of Yarg. The next thing you know, the Cheddar is at the Oscars wearing Yargy nettles and talking in a Cornish accent. Bingo - you’re hot stuff.
Okay, so maybe we’re not exactly the same as cheese, but I used to work on a deli and you get cheese snobbery as much as movie snobbery. If you’re going to get into the business, learn your stuff. (Jarlsberg and Gruyere may both have holes but they’re not the same thing). Get a solicitor interested as early as possible. If you talk the talk, walk the walk with it. The first impression you make on people you approach about your film has to be good - not ‘My script is ace, they’ll see that through the tea-stains and ink-splodges’. Plenty of time once you’re established to get quirky.
Big film festivals ARE intimidating to the first-timer, particularly if you’re only considering making films and haven’t achieved it yet. All the more reason for going. Go out there and see what you’re up against - then sit down and really think hard about the reactions you’ve seen in the audiences to the films that were shown. When you take your film to screen next year, what sort of reactions do you want? So how good does your film have to be?
The Brussels Film Festival is virtually local as far as we’re concerned, cheap to get to, cheap to stay at. Oh, and research the city before you go - I spent a week studying a map and legal visitor requirements before going so I didn’t waste any time finding where I was once I got there. It’s surprisingly similar to London and easily navigated on foot. Feeding yourself is cheap too and fast-food outlets are plentiful. There’s a lot of homelessness and begging, which is scary as they come up to you in restaurants and jingle paper cups or even follow you down the street, none of this shop-doorway sitting like in London. It’s simple enough just to say no, don’t walk alone after midnight and don’t get into unmarked ‘taxis’. Basically with common sense and preparation you’ll have a really good time. Without it, it’s potentially a recipe for Gremlins 3.
These may prove useful in your Brussels Film Festival toolkit:
www.brusselsfilmfest.be (e-mail infoffb@netcity.be)
www.sleepwell.be (e-mail info@sleepwell.be)
Bed&Brussels: e-mail - bnbru@ibm.net (bed & breakfast placement agency)
Hoverspeed Seacat: 0870-524-0241
AA Citypack - Brussels & Bruges (includes detailed streetmap, locations of all major hotels and facilities, and important legal visitor information), £5.99 from most good tourist bookshops.
Enjoy!
LISA SCULLARD, SCREEN KISS FILMWORKS LTD.
(‘Heavy Duty’ is preparing for its venture capital presentation, ‘Easy Money’ is in development, and ‘Attack Of The Millennium Bug’ is due for release when pigs fly)
© Lisa Scullard 2000
Raindance Ltd. are online at www.raindance.co.uk
Please visit this site again for future updates - thanks!