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Random selection…
As the season finally closes in on us, for those tired of the same
old re-runs on TV or wanting to avoid the family warzone of the living
room and watch TV on a computer under your bed - or better still are
looking for films to share during the post-dinner
web video show-off - I've pulled together some of our favorites of the
year.
In the first bundle I've focussed on anima…
Open source is one of those phrases that gets thrown around, from the Cabinet Office now asking for it in government ICT contracts, to cyber-libertarians saying it heralds the start of a post-capitalist age. But what does it actually mean? And given how much of the for-profit digital world depends on open source - from Android phones to the Safari browser, Facebook’s servers to YouTube’s interfac…
Screenwriter and script reader Danny Stack has written up 11 commandments for script readers on his blog. Even if you don't get paid to read, it provides quite an insight into the life of those who write those painful rejection letters. Eg:
7. All Scripts are the Same, but Some are more Samey than Others A
lot of scripts follow the generalised style of screenwriting and
so-call…
Photographer
and writer Julian Richards wanted to make a documentary film and had a
rare opportunity to study and film Tuareg nomads of Mali in
Saharan Africa. He readliy agreed to share some of his experience with
us. With The Nomads is an intimate, unromantic portrait of the Tuareg
herders of the Sahara Desert and asks: Can they survive the 21st
Century?
Below you will…
How Do I Sell My Film Part One - DEMOGRAPHICS
Netribution and film distributors WYSIWYG have joined forces to present on-line WYSIWYG's essential Guide to Film Distribution.
We're both interested in building a strong industry for independent filmmakers. This means creating films that people want to see and buy. It does not mean sacrificing creative integrity, but it means business. To do the b…
2006 was certainly a year of trailer mashups. To quote the Misshaken Pictures' Mashifesto:
"As our collective history burrows deeper into the digital coalface we
begin to see it recombined, re-imagined, re-invented and e-rased.
Heirachies of media code are becoming silly putty in the hands of the
majority and the global mirror increases at an unprecedented rate, a
miasma of Id…
Added a story about Bad lad film after my first successful attemopt to upload and somehow managed to lose it in the system. Tried uploading a false story and it made the front page. It seems that the truth, in this case, will simply not out. Andy was looking over my shoulder and asked whereabouts he would upload his Carnals? Do we have somewhere they can be put as yet?
Dan - man with a Cannes Van Plan, has posted the first Rogue Runner Cannes update to his website. The show - shot over 12 hours and edited in 8 - runs on alternate days on his site and sponsor LoveFilm. Latest episode now online.
This year has seen something of a resurgence of interest in the political movie with 'Good Night. And Good Luck' and 'Syriana' both doing well both critically and financially. In contrast, the British Film Industry hasn't produced a political film since the late eighties. One man aims to change all that. Tobias Blennerhassett has produced some of the most successful films ever produced in this co…
Producers are different things to different people, making this
question difficult to answer. There are no detailed job
descriptions and no two producers handle their jobs in exactly the
same way. Is it any wonder that both audiences, and many
'insiders', are bewildered by the proliferation of producer
credits in films?
The producer credit has often…
Forget Buddhism, Kabbala, and Scientology - there's only one religion that the Hollywood A-list want to be seen to be worshiping these days - Knowledgology.
It began five years ago when the Reverend Doctor-Professor Solomon Profundis set up The Knowledge Hub, a spiritual retreat where burned out celebrities could recharge their batteries and at the same time broaden their religious horizons. Her…
Bader Ben Hirsi could make quite a screenplay out of his experience directing the first feature film ever made in Yemen, the ancient land at the tip of the Arabian Peninsula. His results though, have impressed the Arab world, who are bound to be his sternest critics. Ben Hirsi's film has just scooped the Grand Prize at the Cairo Film Festival. James MacGregor, who has spent ma…
21 Minute Film School
Have you ever had a desire to make a movie? If so, set 21 minutes of your hectic life aside and read on!
1. The Idea for a film
Ever have a great idea for a movie? Sit down and see if you can decide which character’s eyes we see the story from (the point of view aka P.O.V.) This is likely the main…
Sheffield Doc/Fest wound up on Sunday night after 5 full-on days. Capturing a flavour of the event overall did mean sacrificing time spent in screenings, but I caught two films up for a Special Jury Award; Clio Barnard’s The Arbor (premiered at London Film Festival in October) and Jeff Malmberg’s Marwencol (premiering in the UK at Sheffield).
Neither won, although Barnard’s film did get the…
Last year I built the website for a new documentary due to premiere this year about the issue of land-grabbing in Africa. I'd first been introduced to the production team at an remarkable week as part of the Swim Lab, and been struck silent as the director, Joakim Demmer, explained in plain terms how while we are sending billions in aid to countries like Ethiopia, we are also, inadvertently, he…
I would like to say: when was the last time you gave antibiotics to a whale that had had no prior contact with humans and had swum to chelsea and was obviously a little stressed - and who doesn't get stressed in chelsea? when was the last time you did that? Never? Well why did you think now was the time to run an experiment? It's not like this whale shouldn't have had access to the best poss…
“The reality is a single stream only amounts to 0.003p, which means I would need millions of streams to earn at least the minimum wage” Ayanna Witter-Johnson, singer-songwriter
Last weekend The Guardian published some great insights from 25 figures across the music world around the state of subscription-streaming, as Spotify passes 155 million Premium subscribers and ahead of a uk.gov report…
Just before lunch yesterday I read of a report by the WWF that the number of species on the planet has reduced by 31% in the last 35 years. If the planet continues at its current pace of using natural resource, by 2050 two earths would be needed to meet current demand, with an almost inevitable consequential environmental collapse.
Then while munching away on my fried eggs on toast, I read…
Two and a half weeks may be a little late to begin writing up the Open Video Conference, but then my first essay, penned in the few days after, discussed Pirate Bay at some length and even mentioned Michael Jackson and Brian Newman and so is now largely irrelevant. But with our new Tweeting Netwitbutions, perhaps this is the time to sign up fully for the more anti-knee-jerk Slow Blog Movement - i…
The beautiful music of Elgar could be heard amongst scrap metal, bin bags and shrieking gulls yesterday as players from the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra played a recital in their most unusual venue ever - a London rubbish dump.
The special concert was held to promote the new Channel 4 series
Dumped, which starts on Sunday night (Sept 2nd, 9.00pm) and sees elev…
As I left the job interview yesterday, the words by the
kindly woman wishing me off left me with no small sense of irony. In
short I had bombed.
I sometimes wonder about orbits, how we tend to revolve around something or another - perhaps our partner or our family. After a big break up in 2003, I found myself gravitating towards anything that
seemed stable enough to spin around. When t…
Hollywood
producer Alan Haft, former Vice President of
Breakheart Films, gives the low down on what Tinsel Town
taught him about how to succeed in the business of making movies. In
the early 90's, Haft, with veteran actor James Woods, formed Breakheart Films. While serving as Vice President of Breakheart, Haft was involved with numerous feature films and televis…