It’s that time of year again – Cannes is on the horizon. If I’m going to go this year, I need to do it for less money than it’s cost me in the past. If you saw my Cannes vlogs last year, you may recall I said it costs about UKP1,000 to attend the festival: UKP100 for your flight, UKP400 for your hotel, UKP250 for your Market Pass and the rest goes on food, transfers and incidentals. So how can I get these numbers down?
Well, the first thing I can do is not be an idiot and misunderstand the differences between market and festival passes, like I did last year. There are several ways to get into the Cannes Film Festival – and I mean ways that you, as a person, can get into the festival, not your film – but the main two are the Market Pass and Festival Accreditation. (I’ll try and go into the others at some point in the future.)
Before I go any further, let me remind you of a key point in understanding Cannes – it is actually two separate events that happen in the same place at the same time: the Cannes Film Festival and the Film Market, or Marche Du Film. The first is the one you will see in TV coverage – the red carpet, the stars – but it’s also a film festival like any other, to which you can submit your film and if you’re extremely lucky it will be selected and screened, and if you’re preternaturally lucky you’ll win an award. The second event, the market, is just like a trade fair or a convention for films. It’s where most of the world’s sales agents and distributors go to buy and sell movies – most of them really, really terrible, as indicated by the thousands of appalling posters which assault your eyeballs when you enter the Riveria building at the heart of the market.
So back to accreditation. I always thought that Festival Accreditation would only get you into the festival areas, not the markets areas, but I was wrong. It gets you into both, just like the Market Pass does. So what’s the difference? Well, one difference is that with the Market Pass you get the Guide – a massive and very useful book containing contact details for all the companies attending.
But the most important distinction is HOW you get these two types of accreditation. For a Market Pass, you cough up your 286 Euros and – bingo! – it’s yours. For Festival Accreditation, you fill in an on-line form, attaching evidence that you are a working filmmaker, and if the panel is convinced by this evidence, and if they have not used up the limited number of passes they are able to give each year, you get accreditation – completely FREE. This shouldn’t be a revelation to anyone who’s been to Cannes before, but somehow I’d got it into my head that it cost about 150 Euros for Festival Accreditation, plus of course the erroneous belief that it wouldn’t get me into all the necessary areas, so I was very pleased when I finally got the facts straight.
I’ve heard a lot about how picky the panel can be when deciding whether to give Festival Accreditation or not. I know that your IMDb page is quite important, and that your credits have to be recent, so I applied in the film technician category, since I have plenty of recent DOP credits. I applied on Tuesday morning – the first day registration was open – and received an email a few hours later saying I had been accepted. And there was me thinking it would be weeks before I got a decision and that they would ring up and interrogate all my referees and I would have to supply more evidence. But no, it was easy peasy. I think this was largely due to me probably being one of the first people to apply, so my advice is to get in there on the first day registration is open.
So that’s UKP250 slashed off my Cannes budget already. We’ll see what else I can squeeze as the festival approaches.
The Dark Side of the Earth
The Dark Side of the Earth: January 29th, 2011
I was interested to read this letter to US uber-critic Roger Ebert about why 3D cinema is doomed to fail, written by Walter Murch. (Most know Murch as the master sound designer from Apocalypse Now, but to me he’ll always be the director of the brilliant Return to Oz.) Although I agree with him entirely, all the evidence is that the format is here to stay. Every single genre film that comes out now is in 3D. For me this is heart breaking, because it means that the profession I’ve always wanted to work in – making 2D fantasy films – no longer exists.
Better change the subject, before I get too depressed.
Last weekend I uploaded the last in the series of Dark Side Guides: The Dark Side Guide to Digital Intermediate – check it out.
The Dark Side Guide to Digital Intermediate
Here is the last of the Dark Side Guides: The Dark Side Guide to Digital Intermediate. I really had to muddle my way through post-production on the pilot, wishing there was somewhere I could get all the information I needed, but there wasn’t – until now!
This step-by-step guide takes you through the complex post-production route known as DI, whereby footage shot on film is transferred to the digital domain for editing, FX and colour grading, before being recorded back to film for distribution and exhibition. Invaluable tips on everything from telecine of your rushes to Dolby authorisation for your soundtrack are complemented by a sample budget laying out all the costs.
As always, if you have any questions that the guide doesn’t answer, please feel free to ask me.
The Dark Side of the Earth: January 22nd, 2011
This week I’ve been making revisions to the latest script draft, based on Quay’s notes. When you have spent this long working on a screenplay, you can’t see the wood for the trees, and I can’t tell you how great it is to have someone else give you a list of the things that need changing, rather than having to figure it out for yourself.
Lately I’ve been reflecting a lot on how dramatically the script has changed since I wrote the first draft in 2005 (between lighting set-ups while I was DPing a student film). Some of the things in it which were then very important to me have been eroded and in some cases removed altogether.
But the things that are important to me as a person have changed in the last six years too. I’ve got married, which inevitably alters my attitude towards the romantic elements in the script. It also makes my portrayal of women in the story more realistic, since I have one on hand to consult. And Katie’s period working for the Union of Concerned Scientists has opened my eyes to environmental issues, which have found their way thematically into the script. And of course I’ve shot the pilot, giving me the kind of insight into how it all works on camera that is normally only afforded to TV writers.
Whilst out searching for furniture bargains yesterday (ah, married life!) Katie helped me to work through a problem with Old Father Time’s motivation. What was great is that we were able to bring it back to one of the most common ideas of this character in mythology: the image of an old man who transforms into a baby on New Year’s Eve. Carl often says that in a fantasy film, it helps to tie your made-up world to existing made-up worlds, i.e. well-known mythology, and when you can figure something out like that it really strengthens the story.
So the script has evolved – for the better. Today it has a stronger, more logical plot, more defined characters and a richer – but not exclusionary – subtext of themes, literary references and mythological roots than it ever has done. Not to mention the fact that I’ve finally figured out what the sequel would be about, and let’s just say: Pink Floyd may sue.
The Dark Side of the Earth: January 15th, 2011
When Aidan and Joe were working on the FX for the pilot, John Galloway gave them many excellent pieces of advice, but one in particular sticks in my mind because it’s equally relevant to writing. Make a list of everything that needs doing, and stick to that list. Don’t digress. Don’t start questioning how the list item you’re currently executing will affect another part of the job – just make the changes, cross them off the list and get to the end. Then you can look back and reflect on the whole. But if you try to do that as you go along, you’ll never get anything done. I think I’ve finally learnt to follow that advice when I’m writing.
I’ll probably regret saying this, but this draft seems to be going swimmingly. I feel disciplined. And it really helps to have a producer, a script editor and a novelist to turn to when you hit a snag. Thanks, guys.
Last week we had an interesting meeting with Film Education, a charity that supplies teaching resources about films. It seems there may be an exciting opportunity for the extensive behind-the-scenes material to reach a wider audience and spread the knowledge.
This meeting was in London, of course, and unusually I travelled by National Express. I have always preferred trains and didn’t even bother trying coaches until late last year, when I was surprised to find the leg room was superior and generally it wasn’t too unpleasant at all – which, coupled with the considerably lower price, threatened to knock train travel into a cocked hat. This time, however, the experience was less convivial. Partly this was due to my failure to take travel sickness pills, but mainly it was because the drivers were grumpy old farts who treated us like naughty schoolkids. Looks like it’s back to trains.
The Dark Side of the Earth: January 3rd, 2011
Well, we’re another year closer to hoverboards and flying cars. The self-lacing Nikes are already in development. It’s only a matter of time before they abolish all lawyers and ties become see-through.
Amongst the bounty Santa delivered this year was a t-shirt from my sister, bearing the legend: “COME OVER TO THE DARK SIDE. WE HAVE COOKIES.” Today I have indeed come over to the Dark Side again, having restarted work on the script, after a really, really, really nice two month break from it.
Another of my gifts, this time from my brother-in-law, was a Wii. With the odd exception (notably Ghostbuster: The Video Game, which I spent most of last Christmas in the States playing), I haven’t really played computer games since I was about 18. And whilst the main purpose of the Wii was to get Katie and I some exercise (we got the Wii Fit bundle), it’s also great research for the inevitable The Dark Side of the Earth tie-in game – yes, I have already made some notes.
Movie research is also easy to do at Christmas, as the TV schedules are packed with ’em, with no shortage of family fantasy films this year. I tried to watch as many as possible, but what did I learn from them?
1.There is an inverse relationship between the entertainment value of a battle scene and the number of digital extras in it. (The Mummy: Tomb of the Dragon Emperor)
2. Eighties fantasy movies are the best – even the ones with awful synth-based scores. (Ladyhawke)
3. I can’t hold enough characters’ names in my head to follow a Julian Fellowes film. (From Time to Time)
4. Cute kids who can act can really make a movie. (Mr. Magorium’s Wonder Emporium)
5. There is a bizarre trend in superhero movies to aim acts one and two at adults, but act three at small children. (The Incredible Hulk – see also Iron Man)
6. A strong theme, in this case war and the call of duty, can lift a genre film above the crowd. (The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe)
7. I can’t understand why this franchise isn’t making more money. (Prince Caspian)
8. Seriously. (The Voyage of the Dawn Treader) And the other thing I can’t understand is why anyone would want to watch it in 3D with all those shaky fight scenes. We made the trip to Malvern especially to see it in 2D, as part of my boycott of 3D movies, as I don’t want to see the format take over.
The Dark Side of the Earth: December 22nd, 2010
Today is the 15th anniversary of the first day of shooting on The Dark Side of the Earth – the original amateur version. “Today made a very bad start to principal photography,” I wrote in my journal in 1995, as half the actors forgot about the filming and didn’t turn up.
It’s also been over five years since this blog started. So what do I have to show for these five years, other than a blogroll of rambling nonsense? I have a lovely 35mm pilot of which I’m very proud, certainly. I also have almost two hours’ worth of behind-the-scenes podcasts and documentaries, and I wonder if there’s a way for these to reach a wider audience. In the new year we have a meeting with Film Education, a charity that provides schools with learning resources based around major films. It would be great for other people to be able to benefit from the trials and errors of the Dark Side. Aside from Media Studies, there are plenty of other areas of the curriculum that Dark Side could tie into – science, (e.g. the principles of lighter-than-air craft), geography (extreme climates), history (the Victorian era), English (archaic language, Victorian literature), art (production design), drama studies, even maths and technology.
And on that thought I shall leave you. Have a very happy Noel (Christmas, not Edmonds). I hope you can get wherever you want to go for Christmas through all the snow, since there are literally millimetres of the stuff all around…
The Dark Side of the Earth: November 21st, 2010
David Cameron told me to. That’s my excuse.
On Thursday I attended the premiere of Coming Home. Coming Home is a short film that Col and I worked on, about a group of soldiers tracking down a rogue major. Unaccustomed as the director is to public speaking, he asked me to give a talk instead. The aim was to attract more filmmakers to the screening, as well as the business types who normally attend Light Films’ events. I gave a whistle-stop history of my filmmaking experiences in 45 minutes, mainly focusing on Soul Searcher, but also covering Dark Side. Although the audience took a while to warm to me, by the end they all seemed really interested. A few people said afterwards that the talk had inspired them, which was nice to hear.
The Dark Side of the Earth: November 15th, 2010
This morning I uploaded The Dark Side Guide to Shooting on Film. Again, there wasn’t room to include everything; I’m really not joking when I say that aspect ratio could fill its own feature-length documentary. I’m sure there’ll be some people who will take umbrage at my use of the term 2.35:1, when in many cases the true ratio of anamorphic is 2.39:1, but such subtleties were beyond the scope of the podcast. And I hope that the costs outlined don’t put people off, as 16mm can be shot for a good deal cheaper – you could shoot a ten minute short for UKP10,000 (total budget) if you kept your shooting ratio tight and hired a DOP with their own kit.
The partner podcast, The Dark Side Guide to Digital Intermediate, will be coming in January or February, and will navigate the torturous pathways of film post-production.
Aside from a couple of funding applications in progress, things are now winding down for Dark Side until the new year, but don’t worry – I’m sure I’ll still find random things to blog about.
The Dark Side Guide to Shooting on Film
Aimed at filmmakers used to working on video who want to move up to shooting on film, this guide covers all the major decisions you’ll have to make, including gauge, aspect ratio, stock, lens and crew. The costs of 35mm are also revealed. I shares everything I learnt about shooting on film while making the demo sequence for my fantasy-adventure feature The Dark Side of the Earth, starring Benedict Cumberbatch (Sherlock), Kate Burdette (The Duchess) and Mark Heap (Spaced, Green Wing).