MICRO-BUDGET SELF-DISTRIBUTION Corona pre to post in 1 month

See the links list (screenshot to right; scroll down the blog to find links lists on the right side) for other examples of filmmakers showing gutsy determination despite very limited resources to produce and gain distribution for full-length feature films. Especially Coz (Corrie) Greenop (Wandering Rose, or Demon Baby in the US market) and Harry MacQueen (Hinterland). Coz used a broken back to inspire his £40k horror, and social media to get distributor meetings in Cannes, leading to a US DVD release and a multi-million 2nd feature. Harry, an actor, a £10k inheritance to shoot a social realist drama, and a limited theatrical distribution deal with Curzon Cinemas' screenings with Q and A's for members plus Ilkley Film Festival.

This new example has the spirit of Shane Meadows' infamous five day shoot, £48k Le Donk and Scor-Zay-Zee about it...


Spotted a rather excellent example for all of you of fast, determined real-world media production. A Canadian director has scripted, cast, location scouted, costumed/set dressed, filmed, edited/post-productioned, cut a trailer and now released (self-distributed) through VOD platforms Corona. A little exploitative perhaps, but nonetheless when it's easy to make excuses for yourself you could maybe ponder this example. He's done this all in March.

Coronavirus: the movie is somehow already here – but are we ready for it?

I can't see any specific release details yet - perhaps he can't do it all?! Info should appear on the IMDB page. Or on his own website...

Lux film fest 2019

Attending a screening inspired a near-100% AS coursework production last year, and with the host of guest speakers (actors, directors, writers, crew) doing post-screening Q+As, not to mention that most of these Indies won't gain distribution here beyond the festival, its well worth a look...

Not all have trailers, some are kickstarter funded; I've put together a playlist of what trailers I could find, + linked these or a web page. If you've never seen Educating Rita - take this chance to do so!!! Never Grow Old and Gwen look especially interesting, and Robert the Bruce has provoked much debate...

PLAYLIST LINK

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Fri 13Sep @ Kinepolis Kirchberg @ 19:00: Opening & ExtraOrdinary (IE, 94 mins), by Mike Ahern&Enda Loughma

Weird black magic satire...

BIFS 2018 Indie film fest

http://www.bifilmseason.lu/current-season

You have a great example of an Indie festival on your doorstep. Co-sponsored by the British and Irish embassies, but featuring many films which are co-productions with various EU nations (including Luxembourg, eg Eaten By Lions), the festival also gives you an opportunity to hear from ... and directly speak to a range of film directors (and actors, producers...).

That's quite a line-up!!! See the site for screening dates

Here's the list with Wiki link, or other as available + a trailer playlist

NB: some of these contain swearing. Any BBFC age rating is listed, but many are pre-release (use trailers and descriptions as a guide). Do bear in mind that UK ratings are routinely much higher then in BeNeLux. Synopses from BIFS.

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Playlist Link

Any guest speaker/s in red.

Black 47 (IE / LU / US) [official] Lance Daly (director) BBFC: 15 Fri 21st 830 Cinematheque
Genre : Drama - Duration: 96 mins
Synopsis : Set in Ireland during the Great Famine, the drama follows an Irish Ranger who has been fighting for the British Army abroad, as he abandons his post to reunite with his family. Despite experiencing the horrors of war, he is shocked by the famine's destruction of his homeland and the brutalization of his people and his family.

CONVERGENCE Tangerine dream: celebrate death of 35mm?

Tangerine dream? This iPhone-shot movie had critics raving, making a big wave upon its Sundance Film Festival screening, and is cited below as an example of why we should celebrate the passing of 35mm and its replacement with digital. (NB: the trailer features strong language) Read more at theverge.com, BBC, Techradar, Guardian and nofilmschool.

From the Wiki. Also detailed in BoxOfficeMojo.

Most articles about digitisation tend to bemoan the undermining of celluloid and the 35mm film, but this one celebrates the democratising improvements it has brought about, shaking up a conservative industry with high barriers to entry.
Sample:

VR virtual reality cinema coming

IN THIS POST: short overview of some major technogical changes from digitization, then a focus (TBC and rolling updates) on VR


The film industry, at times reluctantly, has embraced a series of new technologies over recent decades, and the disruptive forces of digitization always seem poised to transform what at heart is quite a conservative industry, locked into franchises, the star system (changing?) and dominated by a mere 'big six' companies despite all the changes.

As with cassette tapes, you may have been born after the VHS tape disappeared from the high street

DVD meant they could:

1. re-monetize back catalogue [long tail...]; just as the music industry got millions to replace their tapes/vinyl with (sonically inferior!) CDs so too did the movie industry make billions from VHS tapes being replaced
2. the monetizing went further with editionalising: usually starting with a vanilla (movie only, perhaps a trailer added) edition, and leading over time to any combination of special, collector's, ultimate (etc) edition, not to mention director's cut, with commentaries and other extras to push sales, plus footage cut for cinema release

Geek.com headline, 2014.

'71 Distribution and Marketing

This overlaps with other posts, but as there are a lot of images, a new post makes sense.

OVERVIEW: KEY POINTS
This is a film with wider ambitions, and arguably a more commercial approach, than most of Warp's productions - as it should, with its ambitious £5m budget*, twice that of Four Lions. UPDATE, 2016: BUT...It flopped, despite the awards, critical acclaim, and gaining distribution in the US and 10 more territories (12 total including the UK) for a worldwide total of $3m: $1.6m UK,, $1.3m US and just $355k from 10 other territories. *According to this Screen article (cited in Wiki) it was £8.1m

According to IMDB, it is getting theatrical releases in France, Spain, Greece, Germany, Canada, USA, Australia, Middle East (eg UAE, see section below). However, we have seen past Warp films such as Tyrannosaur getting distribution in multiple territories, but not getting any marketing spend to give it a real chance (its specialist LGBT distributor didn't issue a trailer, and it limped to a mere $22k). The absence of any information on its US distributor does not augur well.

IMDB company list.

Boxofficemojo: Not every distributor took up the option for a theatrical release.

OPENING WEEKEND: This has become a key figure - if it is lower than expected a film is likely to be labelled a flop and the odds are high that the public will be deterred from seeing a 'flop', while distributors may hold back on further prints and marketing investment. What is significant about the table above is that almost all of '71's national releases saw most of the entire box office raised in the opening weekend - it failed to get a wider, longer release beyond then. The UK figure, in contrast, is just 21% - in this case it built well by word-of-mouth, as I saw first-hand at Bradfor's National Media Museum, where a low opening night (Friday) turnout would be hugely boosted by a review in that day's Guardian (UK broadsheet/quality) newspaper.

COMMERCIAL? COUNTER-TYPICAL FOR WARP? MAYBE NOT...
The 'commercial' element lies in pushing the action/thriller genre over the setting or any real exploration of the issues raised.

FESTIVAL Aesthetica Warp masterclasses and more York November 2015

The ASFF has attracted important industry figures. ASFF tag.

One of the 2015 masterclasses is focussed on convergence

I've led trips twice to the ASFF, a film festival that screens short films + music videos in unusual venues around York, linked to the magazine Aesthetica (focussed on photography and other media arts), and its been a great experience for students - here's an account by one student.

Another 2015 masterclass

The masterclasses have been superb, and simply ideal - we've heard directly from the likes of Barry Ryan (senior producer at Warp Films), Danny Cohen (cinematographer on several Warp and Working Title movies, including Dead Man's Shoes and Les Miserables if memory serves me right?!), and Craig McNeil and James Harman (respectively, music video producer and director for the world's largest music Indie, Beggars Group and his long-term editor).

A topic I've blogged on a few times...

BELOW: Details, links, prices

F for Feminist rating?

Not recent news, but just encountering this now by clicking through a few times from an article in today's paper' ... on about the 5th article in, spotted this...

Bath Film Festival had added an additional F rating to 17 of the 42 films it was screening, denoting a strong female influence as lead actor, director or writer (primarily, other times were considered too).

Many of these would easily fail the Bechdel Test!

Given just how bad the industry is overall in representing femalekind, or giving influential behind the camera roles to women, I have to wonder what impact this might have if the BBFC took it up. You could ask yourselves which of the films we study would rate this.

Ideas can rarely be viewed in simple black or white, good or bad terms though ... Bridget Jones' Diary, with its female director, original writer (of the novel) and lead would certainly get this rating ... but its at best questionable whether this is a positive representation of women.

Bath film festival goes Wild with F rating for feminist films
Here's another intriguing one - a female only audience stipulation refused by a cinema -
Centre cancels 'illegal' women-only screening of film by Jewish director.

Ilkley's Coz Greenop - £30k debut Wandering Rose

****  Director Corrie Greenop will be in IGS to talk to students, and take questions, about his experiences in the film industry, from self-producing his debut feature and striking a US distribution deal after a successful pitch in Cannes, to getting offers for new productions. Lunchtime, Wednesday 25th March in K5. Feel free to bring cold food and drinks, but no hot food or drinks! ****

THE BASICS:

• Corrie was a Media student here at Ilkley Grammar, who went on to film school and is now completing a MA centred on screenplay writing
• He self-financed and self-produced his directorial debut, Wandering Rose, a horror movie
  
• It was filmed in Scotland, following an offer of assistance from Scottish agencies and failure to get such co-operation from Yorkshire agencies
• Shot in just 12 days, it was produced for a mere £30k!
• The setting may have had aesthetic appeal but also presented practical challenges: the small cast and crew alike had to help out lugging the filming equipment around, not least up a steep hill or

  

  The US distributor changed the film title!

  two!
• The film features another former IGS Media student, Theo Wightman (pictured below), whose own film-making talent can be seen in his Media productions The Cellar  and Party to Hell (a slasher film opening and trailer), as a cast and key crew member. 
• Coz took the financial gamble of attending the Cannes Film Festival, highly prestigious but equally expensive, and this, along with a specially-arranged London screening, paid off with distribution deals in the can for DVD and VoD releases
• The US distributor decided to change the film's name (see the IMDB entry); this may not be an accurate reflection of Coz's vision, but may yet pay dividends with enhanced sales...
• Coz is now in talks with production companies to take on much higher budget projects

Please note: the BBFC rating is tbc; based on the US rating, this could be 15, but may end up as 18. The trailer below contains no graphic imagery, but does reflect the theme of horror, and could be considered as fitting the BBFC 12 rating.



THE STORY IN TWEETS, HEADLINES + QUOTES...