jump to navigation

Festival frenzy August 29, 2008

Posted by joost in : LFA, film , comments closed

The last half year I have been trying to get the short film “Sculpted” that I produced into festivals. The main motivation for the director is to have his film screened to a wider audience. For me it’s partly that reason as well, I’d like “the world” to see the film that I worked bloody hard on to get made. Apart from that my other main motivation is to get a more thorough understanding of the festival world; which ones are “career makers”, which ones specialize in a niche, what audience do they cater for, which ones have a film market at the same time, which ones offer eligibility for awards or other important merits, you name it.

All of this makes you revisit a film and look at it from a “cold” marketing perspective. What distinguishes this film from all the others? What are the unique selling points? Are there any names attached…? (well known actors or crew members) Is the tag line catchy? (enough?)

The net result for “Sculpted” so far: 14 entries, 0 screenings. We have changed the strategy from the initial targets of “generic medium sized festivals in Europe” via “smaller and more arty festivals worldwide” to “lesbian / gay festivals worldwide”. We should be able to notice the coming three months if that last change has any impact (because you submit a film generally 3 months before the festival takes place).

I have now come to the point where I hope I can make good use of the knowledge that I’ve gained while producing this film. I intend to apply this for the promotion of the short film “Rule 2″ that I have directed.

My film academy has sent “Rule 2″ off to two or three festivals so far, and I think that is not good enough. Their philosophy is that they will send it to festivals that will have some benefits for the film makers involved, such as grants to visit the festival or cash prizes towards new short films. As much as I appreciate that attitude, the harsh reality is that the competition is fierce and it is damned hard to get a short film into any kind of decent film festival anyway.

So starting this week I am taking the promotional aspects of the film in my own hands. I have selected 18 festivals in the next four months to which I will submit “Rule 2″. Some of them have a special student section, some of them are the bigger festivals in the world. In a way it is a bit of a shotgun approach, but I feel that it is better to bet on multiple horses than to sporadically submit the film over two years time. By then my film will perhaps feel slightly outdated because the political climate has changed (cold war revisited, anyone?). And with Memorial Day and the US elections coming up in the next few months, I feel that my film earns more exposure than it has had so far.

One Night Stand August 21, 2008

Posted by joost in : film, screenwriting , comments closed

The past few days I’ve done nothing but writing, thinking, scrapping, pondering, rewriting and reading. I’ve been working on a synopsis for the One Night Stand initiative by the NPS / VPRO / VARA (Dutch broadcasters) / Dutch Filmfund / CoProduction Fund / anyone-who-claims-to-be-anyone when it comes to Dutch film development and funding.

Albert and Karin pointed me to this initiative a couple of weeks ago (thanks again for this guys!). It’s geared towards up and coming writers and directors, and it is a high-quality well-funded plan for 9 “tv films” of 40 minutes each, with a budget up to €230.000 (!). A great opportunity, not only because of the production value but mainly because of the people and organizations involved. If I ever want to make films in the Netherlands – and why not? – then these are the companies and producers that you will eventually have to deal with.

Today I will send off my proposal. I consider it a good way to “test the waters”, to ascertain how third (Dutch) parties will weigh the fact that I’ve studied and made films in London, how they will perceive my relatively lightweight resume and to check out the competition of fellow young film makers.

Best case: hitting the jackpot and getting paid to develop the screenplay and to direct that film :-) Slim chance but hey, can’t hurt to fantasize!
Even getting through to the next round would be interesting, because that will enable me to introduce myself to the aforementioned parties and producers.
Worst case: “Thank you for your proposal. Unfortunately, …”. Which will at least tell me something about where I am now on a professional level, so that alone will be useful knowledge.

No matter what will happen, in the next few weeks I will be writing and submitting a number of other screenplays / synopses for short films, in an attempt to get funding:

By the looks of it I will stay in writing mode in the foreseeable future, which is great because I’ve (finally) gotten the hang of it again after a few slow months (writing wise that is).

Can’t get you out of my head August 18, 2008

Posted by joost in : directing, editing, film, producing , comments closed

Remember the Kylie Minogue song “Can’t get you out of my head“? (la la la, la la la la la…) After assistant directing on the “Can’t have my love” music video for Sian Cross, I suffer from the same syndrom; can’t get that song out of my head. Which bodes well for the chart potential of her song I guess :-)

The shoot itself was ambitious, with several exterior locations in and around Hammersmith planned, and interiors in an apartment in Kensington and a ‘dance studio’ in Fulham. On the day itself we changed plans because the weather was surprisingly good, the van surprisingly small (preventing us from traversing any meaningful distances) and the schedule not surprisingly too ambitious. So we adopted and managed to shoot some really good stuff anyway.

Compared to filming short films this shoot wasn’t that different, partly because the director tried to stay away from the cliche of singing-to-camera, partly because the logistics are pretty much the same. Assembling the right crew, camera and lights, locations, transport, shooting schedule, lighting and covering a scene, same same.

One of the main differences is that video clips tend to have a higher number of cuts than films (although I still have to see a music video that exceeds the average shot length of The Bourne Ultimatum – 1.9 sec!). This requires more coverage (different camera positions and shots) to have enough options in the edit, but at the end of the day the style and vision of the director determines just how flashy the end result will be.
We’ll have to wait a couple of weeks before we can judge ourselves. In the meantime I’ll be humming “Can’t have my loooove…”

The Seer August 6, 2008

Posted by joost in : film , comments closed

Last week I’ve worked as focus puller (camera assistant) on a sci-fi action short film called “The Seer“. The lead actor is a psychic hitman who has to fight the Yakuza to free a little girl. The film is written and directed by Sandun, from a previous diploma year of my film academy.

It’s been by far the most spectacular shoot I’ve done, not only because it features a “star”- one of the baddies from The Bourne Ultimatum, Joey Ansah – but also because of energetic fight sequences, running through corridors and guns being fired. Nice change to the low key drama work that I’ve mainly done in the past year and a half :-)

The Seer - behind the scenes

Right: The Seer (Joey Ansah) ready to move in for the kill.
Left: Camera operator Charlie and director Sandun.

We shot three days in the LFA studio, mainly dialogue and one big fight sequence, and two days in a really wicked location, a nightclub / warehouse / paintball arena in Angel, pretty close to where I live. The core team of people behind the film have two main goals with this film. One is to try to do something that is not that common for short films, namely having an action packed film that at the same time has a strong narrative. The other goal is to garner interest in the character and world of The Seer (audience, investors and producers) with the ultimate goal to make it into a feature film with a proper budget. Judging from what I’ve seen on this shoot it would be awesome to see that happen!

Here’s a short clip that I recorded of Joey improvising some moves while the lighting crew were preparing the next scene: The Seer – Joey on the hunt
Pretty cool huh? And that’s nothing compared to the kicks, flips, jabs and blows that he and Chris (the uber baddie in this film) exhanged in the main fight :-)