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The Zero Film Festival (ZFF) 2009 - My trip to LA

Last year, when I went to LA for the first Zero Film Festival, it was the first time I had ever been that far away from home by myself. The benefit of coming back this year as an alumni was that I had learned (often the hard way) how I could make this trip a lot easier and cheaper for myself. It also helped that the pound was slightly stronger in relation to the dollar this year. I got a good deal on a flight (with British Airways, which are a good airline to fly with as they have much better in-flight entertainment than, say, Virgin Atlantic), and before I knew it I was back in the comfort of the Downtown LA Sheraton. When I arrived I noticed they had installed free wi-fi in their lobby, which was an enormous advantage – it meant I didn't have to drag my arse (and my laptop) across the street to Starbucks every time I wanted to check Facebook.

Mere hours after arriving I headed down to The Standard – a hip, kooky hotel in the heart of Downtown LA – for the Opening Night party, which was great (a lot better than last year's Opening Night festival, which took place in a converted warehouse apparently owned by the Cuban Mafia). The view from the rooftop of the skyscrapers was spectacular. The rooftop itself was impressive too – I believe it's where the final shoot-out in 'Crank' was filmed, so anyone who's seen that will know it's pretty cool and unusual. There's a pool, fake grass, waterbeds and some other funky furniture. I got there when the party started, and it took a couple of hours to really get swinging, so I helped myself to some of the free champagne, and pretty soon I was swinging myself! I don't normally drink champagne, but by the the end of this trip I had pretty much drunk my body weight – after all, it was free! At the party I bumped into a few familiar faces, including the organisers Richard Hooban, Stephen Strauss, Joanna Lai and Brad Bores – all wonderful, hard-working people. I also met a few other film-makers, and talked to them about their work and films in general.

One person I met at the party was a British guy called Tom Cole, who was part of an interesting experiment called the 30 Day Feature Film Challenge (http://www.30dayfeaturefilmchallenge.com), whose aim was to conceive, write, shoot and edit a film in a month. I applaud the ambition, and so far they've gotten some incredible support. I'm still not sure what the film is about though, but I'll check it out when it's done. I didn't stay until the early hours as I had been awake for about 24 hours at that point, so I went back to the hotel. However, I was still buzzing from the champagne, so it took me a good hour to get to sleep. The next morning I decided I needed to have a routine for the days I was there so that I didn't just fritter my time away. So each day I got up, read Dan Brown's The Lost Symbol for an hour (loved it), went to the hotel gym to pump some iron, and then surfed the net for an hour or so. Thursday was the only day of the festival where the film program didn't start until the evening, so I spent the morning walking around Hollywood Blvd. where I went to see 'Ninja Assassin' (which wouldn't come out in the UK until January). It was great fun – silly but knowing, and surprisingly violent! I also visited Wendy's – their 'Baconator' burger is heaven! That evening I went to the Downtown Independent Theatre where the festival was primarily held. Highlights of the first day's program were: two features called 'Bicycle Lane' and 'So Long Lonesome' and a short called 'The 20 Second Rule'.

'Bicycle Lane' (http://www.imdb.com/title/tt1326195/) was about a guy trying to get to a girl's birthday party on the other side of town on a bike. It was a little bit stretched for it's running time (too many passages of him just cycling), but it was frequently hilarious, the main actor was superb and it had a really sweet ending. 'So Long Lonesome' was an romantic drama about a young guy trying to get over the death of his girlfriend after being visited by her in his dreams. It had a little too much naval-gazing, but the two main actors played really well and made the relationship very real and affecting. 'The 20 Second Rule' (http://www.imdb.com/title/tt1427957/) was a very funny short about a tele-marketer who has a curse put on him making him saying very rude things, which he doesn't realise until he gets fired.

I started Friday with my usual routine of book, gym, internet, and then headed down to the Theatre for the first of two 12 hour film marathons! Someone who was also there for most of the screenings was Caleb Green, a film-maker from Texas with a short playing the following night. He was a really nice guy (and, as I would find out the next day, a very talented writer/director) and became one of the people I got to know best during my trip. Friday's program started off a bit slow, with an incredibly pretentious documentary called 'Soul Biographies', which was basically people who had lived sad or tragic lives talking about how they'd learned to feel slightly better. Parts of it were inspiring, but for every interesting person interviewed there were three who were unutterably boring. That was followed by a good feature called 'Tiger' (http://www.imdb.com/title/tt1532577/) about two models who fall in love in Tokyo, but the spark soon fades. It was clearly influenced by Lost In Translation, but the two leads gave it it's own personality. That was followed by a very fun and colourful music video for a song called 'I Just Want To Sleep With You' by a band called The Rambles. A great video for a great song – check them out on MySpace. Then came my film...

Considering it was a midday screening on a weekday, there was a good turnout. And they all seemed to like it – the laughs were in the right places, and I got some nice comments afterwards. I'm now a film-maker with two films that have screened at festivals – awesome! Some great films played that evening as well: two shorts called 'The Cake' and 'Latte America', and a feature called 'Modern Love Is Automatic'. 'The Cake' (http://www.imdb.com/title/tt1514061/) was a hilarious story about a guy who puts an engagement ring in a slice of cake which he serves to his fiancé, and when she starts choking on it he thinks back to times when he's jokingly said 'I'll kill you, honey' etc. and he realises it could look really bad if she dies. She coughs it up, but there's a killer ending (which I won't give away – although I think I just did by phrasing it like that!) . 'Latte America' (http://www.imdb.com/title/tt1500534/) was one of the most unusual things I've ever seen – it was an experimental tale about an alternate America where coffee is banned, and there are 'coffee junkies' who hide in their bedrooms and drink all day. However, that wasn't the unusual part – it was filmed entirely backwards! All the actions were performed backwards, and all the lines spoken backwards, and it was then played forwards and subtitled (as all the lines came out as jittery gibberish). It was insane, yet there was genius in it's madness.

'Modern Love Is Automatic' (http://www.imdb.com/title/tt1322953/) – the best feature I saw at the festival – was a black comedy about an apathetic nurse who decides to become a dominatrix for no reason other than boredom, and her bubbly room-mate who all always tries her best ... and fails. It gets a little slow in the final act, but it is full of moments of deadpan comic genius, and superb performances. I also feel the need to mention one other film I saw that evening – it cost $20,000 of the director's own money to make, and featured two naked women (who apparently represented two sides of one woman's personality) arguing over whether her nipples could be seen through her jumper. Seriously. It was one of the most pretentious films I've ever seen – the kind of thing that gives 'film-makers' a bad name. There wasn't that much production value in the film, so I assume the exorbitant price tag was primarily spent on convincing people not only to spend their time working on it, but to put their name on it. Oh well, it takes all kinds to make a festival.

A cool thing happened on the way to the theatre the next day – a film crew were filming something a couple of blocks away, and among them I saw Jesse Eisenberg (from' Adventureland' & 'Zombieland'). He was talking to someone – obviously the film's director – and it wasn't until I checked his IMDb page that I realised that the person he was talking to was David Fincher, and they were making his next film 'The Social Network'! How cool is that? Anyway, when I got to the theatre I started my second 12 hour marathon, although sadly the films weren't as good as those on Friday's line-up. Something I noticed from this year's festival – nearly all the best films were comedies, or at least films that didn't take themselves too seriously, and nearly all the weakest films were the pretentious ones. It could be just my personal taste, but it's something film-makers should bear in mind (I'm looking at you, Woody Allen). That's not to say there weren't some good films on Saturday – the shorts 'Baju', 'Lilly', 'Newlyweds' and 'Ripe' were all great. 'Baju' was about two young men from different street gangs who are thrown into the army together, and are forced to decide whether or not to carry on their feud. Despite nicking a fight scene idea from 'Eastern Promises', it was well made and made some good points. 'Lilly' was about a simple Italian man whose dog dies, and his struggle to get him to a special pet cemetery in Milan - it was slow-burning tale, but very emotional.

'Newlyweds' (Caleb Green's film) was a hilarious story – which took place almost entirely in a car – about two young Evangelical Christians newlyweds driving off on their honeymoon. They're so excited about having sex for the first time, but on the way they realise that their upbringing has left them completely clueless about how to please or even love each other without offending Jesus. Deeply religious types would no doubt be shocked and offended by it, but I think it's important that films like this are made, if only to show how restricting and unhealthy a strong religious upbringing can be. Finally 'Ripe' – the last film I saw – was a great little drama / comedy about a young couple and how the madness of LA affects their relationship over the course of a day. It made some good points about relationships, and had made a couple of nice jibes at preppy party 'types' (including an anaemic guy who bruised himself to create 'body art' – genius). There was a weird incident that evening – 'Colin', the £45 british zombie movie, which I saw at Raindance a couple of months ago – was supposed to play, but there was a scheduling complication. You see, Sundance also wanted to show 'Colin', so they demanded Marc Price (the director) remove it from Zero, so that it could be considered. So Marc removed it from the Zero line-up, and then they decided they didn't want to show it at Sundance after all, so he lost out on both. Add to this the fact that since last year Sundance have added a 'no budget' category to their festival, and you could say that there's a (justified) rivalry between them and Zero. Oh, well.

The closing night party was fun (apart from one weird guy who liked to take my picture. A lot) I drank a lot of champagne, chatted with some of the evening's film-makers, and gave out loads of business cards. The next day there was one film showing, and the Audience Choice awards (which I have enquired about but haven't back yet), but unfortunately leaving a day later would have added several hundred pounds to my flight (as well as another night at the hotel), so I had to go back on Sunday. Before I left, however, I went for breakfast at the IHOP across the street from the hotel. I did the same thing last year before I left, and I decided to keep the tradition going, because I love their food. If you're going to the US soon, I highly recommend sampling their (deservedly) world-famous pancakes! The flight back was smooth and uneventful. I didn't see any films on the plane as I saw three on the flight out ('Julie & Julia' – very good, 'Ice Age 3' – quite good, and 'The Time Traveller's Wife' – okay) and also I'd seen quite enough films over the last few days. Before I knew it, I was back in grey, drizzly Britain. That's one thing I really love about LA – in December you can go out in a t-shirt, and you might even catch yourself sweating every now and then. I can definitely see myself living there one day when Hollywood comes a-calling!

Happy holidays everybody (see? I'm picking up American sayings already!)!

- Eric

Posted on Wednesday 9th December 2009

Big news!

After nearly a month of nothing to report, big news ... “MULTIPLAYER” GOT INTO THE ZERO FILM FESTIVAL IN LOS ANGELES! I also sent in "I Bet You", but unfortunately that wasn't accepted. On the one hand I feel kinda bad that Josh's film didn't get in and mine did, but I'm still very proud of 'I Bet You', and I know it will get into other festivals. However, I must say I'm quite proud that 'Multiplayer' was accepted, given that I made it practically by myself in my own room. It's showing on Friday 7th December, which means in that in a week and a bit I'm off to La-la-land again! Flight prices seem to be going up and down like kangaroos on honeymoon, so I'll wait and see if I can catch them at a low point. This time I'll make sure I avoid some of the more costly mistakes I made last time (like taking a $40 cab ride somewhere when there a bus that'll get me there for a couple of bucks). Hopefully I'll meet some cool people, see some great films and have a good time. Anything else that happens is a bonus.

Ever get deja vu? Didn't you just ask me that?

- Eric

Posted on Saturday 21st November 2009

Raindance Film Festival 2009 + Shane Meadows

Another year, another Raindance Film Festival. That means another week of working very early morning shifts, long days walking around London and expensive train journeys. This year I went armed with copies of 'I Bet You' (which I managed to give to nearly every British director who had a film playing at the festival) and a stack of business cards. Rather than do several blog entries about it, here are some capsule reviews of the films I saw and the events I attended ...

Films from the festival:

“Bomber” - A lovely little road movie about an elderly man making a trip of atonement to Germany, and his dysfunctional family who tag along. It's slight but charming, and there are a couple of wonderful performances in it. By a strange co-incidence I actually knew one of the actors from a film-making course I did a few years ago.

“Exam” - By far the best film I saw at the festival. A real-time thriller set in one room about 12 candidates who turn up at an entrance exam for a mysterious company. Brilliantly written and directed with a great ending (which is what these high-premise films live or die by).

“Colin” - The infamous zombie movie shot for £45. It's low budget is both it's weakness and its charm. It's refreshingly low-fi, but sometimes the camera is so shaky it makes Paul Greengrass looks like Woody Allen (God, could I be any more pretentious?) Still, it's inspiring that a film made with such modest resources can achieve the level of exposure that 'Colin' has.

“Down Terrace” - An awkward comedy/drama about low-level gangsters in the British countryside. A few good bits aside, it was kind of a rambling mess with little discernible plot of point. However, Nick Frost was at the screening, and I got to meet him afterwards (for about two seconds, but still!)

“The Philosopher Kings” - A well-made but ultimately depressing documentary about janitors at American universities. They were all nice people, but the point of the film seemed to be “once life has robbed you of your spirit and ambition, grab a mop and seek comfort in clichés for the cameras”.

“Resurrecting The Street Walker” - the second best film I saw at the festival. A well-scripted faux-documentary about a struggling film-maker trying to complete an 'unearthed' horror film. Some great performances and a chilling ending (which, admittedly, I saw coming – but it didn't matter because the build up was so good).

“The Director's Cut” - I didn't see this one all the way through (there was a seminar I wanted to go), but from what I saw this was very much the work of a film school graduate – by that I mean it had a clear three-act structure, was technically well-made, and had the stiffness of someone who had been taught how to make films rather than having learnt it for themselves. A shame, because there was decent premise and some funny lines in it.

“Deadline” - A horror/thriller starring Thora Birch and Brittany Murphy. Well made, I guess, but the plot was nothing I hadn't seen done a hundred times before and better. Thora Birch was as good as always though.

Seminars / Events from the festival:

“Guerilla Marketing Your Script” - This guy called Bill Martell did several of these seminars on how to succeed as a script-writer. He's sold 30 scripts, so at least from a business point of view he knows what he's doing (but a quick glance at his IMDb shows the types of movies he writes aren't exactly Oscar fodder – more like bargain basement fodder. Still, he had lots of handy little tips on how to get your work noticed by the right people, and I'm sure I'll follow some of those tips in the near future.

“Low Budget Make-Up Workshop / 'COLIN' Q&A” - In this seminar they showed how to make fake blood, fake wounds and fake burns for around 47p. The effects weren't of the highest-calibre, but they certainly impressive given the cost of the resources (coffee grounds, treacle, food dye and latex). The Q&A was interesting – Marc Price (incredibly nice guy) as his team basically talked us through how they made their film with literally no budget, relying on favours and the support of friends. It reminded me of me and Josh's experience making 'I Bet You'.

“Live! Ammunition!” - Raindance's celebrated 'pitching' evening. I'm starting to wonder if it really is the business opportunity they advertise it to be – most people there are so nervous and over-prepared, the pitches that win are usually the ones that are coherent and short, rather than the best ideas. And for that reason I was more than a little ticked off that my pitch for the Chav Musical didn't make the top three – I pitched it well, within the time limit, and the audience genuinely responded to it. I'll chalk it up to the fact that half the panel were non-Brits, who probably didn't know what a 'chav' was.

“Structural Freaks” - Another of Bill Martell's courses, which was more of a lesson on the different ways of structuring a script, rather than how to solve structural problems when writing. Interesting, but not essential.

“Meet The Sales Agent” - A seminar on how to get your film sold once it's made. The key piece of advice seemed to be: get a sales agent and get it sold before you make it (pre-sales etc.) Good advice, but not that helpful for those of us with little-to-no real industry connections yet.

I also saw several other films in addition to the ones I saw at the festival ...

“District 13: Ultimatum” - a sequel to a French action film which was famous for it's stunning parkour (free running) stunts. As a slice of no-brainer action fun, it was unbelievably great, and the action was even better than the original.

“Toy Story in 3D” – still a flawless film. The 3D was just the icing on the cake. I'm generally not in favour of new films being made in 3D as I feel it makes film-makers focus on the wrong things when framing shots etc. (I'm looking at you, Robert Zemekis) However, I think converting existing movies into 3D is a great idea as it lets you experience old classics in a new way.

“Up” - quite simply, a masterpiece. You'll laugh, you'll cry, it'll change your life. No, seriously. Another triumph for Pixar, the most consistently brilliant film-makers in the world.

“Le Donk & Scor-zay-zee” - Shane Meadows' new micro-budget mockumentary, and quite probably the high point of the whole week. The film itself was absolutely hilarious, as was the Q&A afterwards with Shane himself and Paddy Considine (who came in character!). I went with Josh, and we managed not only to get a picture with Shane, but we gave him a copy of 'I Bet You' as well! Maybe he'll see it and maybe he won't – either way, it was a great experience, and a brilliant way to round off the week.

Until we next rub shoulders in the saloon bar of life,

- Eric

Posted on Tuesday 20th October 2009

"I Bet You" on IMDb, "Take 2" script complete + Michael Jackson tribute online

A VERY long gap between blog posts this time. My deepest apologies. “I Bet You” has been finished for a while now, and we've gotten great responses from people who have seen it. It didn't get into the Raindance Film Festival (typical, since we nearly killed ourselves to send it in before the submission deadline), but rest assured I will be hitting that festival hard this year, handing out business cards and DVDs. It may not have gotten into a festival yet, but something it does have is a page on here, and an IMDb page...

http://www.imdb.com/title/tt1494757/

You may also notice on the page the newly created trailer, and the (if I say so myself) deliciously ghoulish poster for it. I should note that any similarity between the screenshot on the poster and the final shot of 'Inglourious Basterds' - Tarantino's latest masterpiece - is purely co-incidental, as we filmed 'I Bet You' several months before 'Basterds' came out (Josh and I had a mini-falling out over that movie – the first time he went to see it he left halfway through, saying it was 'boring'. Appalled by this I convinced him to give it another shot, after which he admitted it was, in fact, great. Too bloody right.)

I finally got around to recording that Michael Jackson tribute song I wrote a couple of months ago, and I posted it on YouTube where I've gotten some lovely responses. The one thing about it I might re-do is the vocals – I had to record them in my bathroom using the microphone on my camcorder and so the sound is a bit tinny. If I can find some way to record them professionally I may even try and put it on MySpace or iTunes. The video can be found under the 'Music' section of my site. Also, while I was on YouTube I found the Orange advert I took part in a while back (I appear 7 seconds in for a split second)...

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TUgzO6Zk1tc

In script news, “Take 2” is finished, now all Josh and I have to do is wait 9 years until we're old enough to do it! Recently Josh and Ben have both come up with ideas for films that they'd like to make – I'll report more when their ideas are more fully formed. My Chav musical script is nearly finished – the music and lyrics are written, so now it's just the in-between dialogue that needs polishing. There is also idea Josh and I had which could possibly be our next feature. It's called 'Tenner' and, in a nutshell, it's a series of interconnecting stories (only two of which are written so far) following 24 hours in the life of a ten pound note as it's passed from person to person. Tone-wise we're going for something like 'Lock, Stock & Two Smoking Barrels', only with more comedy than violence. Time will tell which one of these becomes my next project.

- Eric

P.S. Something I noticed when I was looking through the timetable for this year's Raindance Film Festival was that quite a few of the films deal with either prostitution or suicide – if only we'd kept that depressed hooker character in 'I Bet You' we might have got in!

Posted on Tuesday 22nd Septemer 2009

"I Bet You" completed! Michael Jackson RIP

I've been meaning to update my blog since I got back from Denmark last week, but this morning's shocking news has prompted me into action. As you no doubt have heard, Michael Jackson, The King of Pop and the greatest all-round entertainer who ever lived, has tragically died aged 50. It's devastating news – all my life I've been a huge Michael Jackson fan (in fact, some of the earliest camcorder footage my parents have of me is me dancing around the living room like a nutter to 'Bad', aged 3) and now I'll never get to see one of my idols in concert. My thoughts and deepest sympathies are with his children and his family.

I felt that if anyone deserved to have a song written about them to commemorate their memory, it's MJ, so after watching the news I went downstairs to my piano and wrote this song in 15 minutes flat. It's the first time I can recall I've written music and lyrics simultaneously – I guess I was just inspired by my memories of this musical genius. Here are the lyrics ...

'This Is It' (in memory of Michael Jackson)

When I turned on the news today

They told me that the king had passed away

I can't believe it, it's so sad

What do you say to news like that?

And when you think of all the joy he gave us

He wasn't Bad and certainly not Dangerous

Maybe a little Off The Wall

A little crazy, aren't we all?

This is it, my friend

You weren't Invincible in the end

HIStory will prove

That there was no one quite like you

And I don't think there ever will be

Not to them and not to me

The world has lost a true sensation

The kind that comes along once a generation

It was your voice that made you unique

Your caring ways and your lightning feet

This is it, my friend

You weren't Invincible in the end

HIStory will prove

That there was no one quite like you

And I don't think there ever will be

Not to them and not to me

I might record the tune and post it on here soon.

Anyway, in other news ... I was selected to be in that Orange advert after all! I thought the notification date had past, but I was called up out of the blue in Denmark and asked when I was free for filming. There was quite a lot of confusion between various people over what day I was supposed to come in, but in the end it was all sorted out and I ended getting paid very handsomely for a short period of filming. I'm pretty sure that in the advert I will be fully seen, albeit only for a split second (the editing of the advert will be very quick-cut – you'll understand what I mean when you see it).

The big news, however, is that “I Bet You” is fully completed! I have now made two feature films – not bad, considering I'm still only 23. I have to say, I'm very pleased with it – 4 months of shooting, re-shooting, writing and re-writing and it all came together (like a synchronised orgy – bad joke, sorry). It was hell getting it done in time to send off to Raindance though – an evening of final editing, which I thought would only last until 10pm wound up taking until 2am! After LOTS of rendering and burning complications, we made the final deadline – I was so relieved, I can't tell you. Now we just have to send it off to as many festivals as we can, including Zero – they should accept it, considering I'm alumni now!

This week I also somehow managed to make a 2 minute version of 'Multiplayer' and entered it into the Virgin Media Short competition. It was quite tricky, and it's JUST within the specified time limit, but I was pleased with it – I got a couple of nice comments from people about it. The top 12 shorts are will be shown in cinemas around the country, and the winner gets £30,000 to make a short film – that would come in very handy for my chav musical (which is still on the slate), so fingers crossed! Finally, the script for “Take 2” is now 90% complete, and it's quite amusing if I say so myself – even more farcical and self-referential that the first one (if that's possible!)

RIP Michael, you now join the pantheon of immortal musical geniuses – Lennon, Presley, Mercury, Hendrix etc. May you all get together and perform the ultimate great gig in the sky!

- Eric

P.S. Transformers 2 sucked - Megan Fox's hotness, Shia LaBoef's acting and John Tutorro's comedy were the only things that made it watchable.

Posted on Friday 26th June 2009

"I Bet You" 99% done, and a new Actor credit on IMDb!

It's been an interesting few weeks. First of all, that big day of filming which Ben, Josh and I had planned didn't happen – Ben was ill so we did it a week later. And although we did get a lot done, another big day of filming was required this Thursday to get the opening and closing scenes done, the latter of which required some serious stunt-work by Josh and myself. When you see the film you'll what we had to put ourselves through, but hopefully it'll be that much more effective on screen. Still, for the last two days I've ached in places I didn't know I had (the things we do for our art, eh?). We're now ACHINGLY close to finishing (literally in my case) – we have one more scene to do - which I'm not in, but which I have to film – and a couple of pick-up shots to get. By this time next week we should have wrapped filming on our second feature film. Wow. Now we've just got to edit it and send it off to Raindance before the final deadline on June 17th. Can we do it? We'll see ...

In other film-related news ... last year I joined The Casting Suite, an agency for background artists - that's 'extras' to you. They send you an email every week with casting opportunities, but they're mostly uninteresting. However, a couple of weeks ago they called for extras to appear in a low budget feature film called 'The Kid' starring Rupert Friend, Bernard Hill and Natascha McElhone, so I applied. A week later I was dressed in a suit playing an extra in a funeral wake scene. The good thing about it was I was the only extra under 40, so by default I landed the role of the widow's son (I'm not credited, but at least I'll be on screen). Then they asked me back to appear in a club scene, which I did today – and I deserve a freakin' medal for doing all that dancing whilst in so much pain! However, it was worth it – I managed to give the director my business card (so he could be reading this right now – Hi Nick!). The director, by the way, was Nick Moran – you probably know Nick as Eddie (Sting's son) from 'Lock, Stock And Two Smoking Barrels'. As it turns out he's a very good director and a nice guy. Even if he doesn't get in contact (which I suppose is probable - Alfonso Cuarón and Quentin Tarantino never did), I got some experience, an IMDb credit and a bit of money out of it. Not too shabby.

One unifying thing I've learned about film-making – be it professional or amateur – is that there's always a LOT of waiting around, and filming ALWAYS takes longer than you think it will. I've lost count of the number of times I've said to Josh during filming “You know what I liked about 'Take'? Filming was finished in two and a half hours!”, and he always agrees with me (even if he did get sick of hearing it very quickly)!

Three more mini-bits of news – Firstly, on Monday I am going to edit a two-and-a-half minute version of 'Multiplayer' for the Virgin Media shorts competition. Secondly, in addition to 'The Kid' I also auditioned for a part in a new Orange advert through The Casting Suite – I'll hear this week if I got the part. And lastly, I recently discovered that writing songs can be much easier if you have lyrics first – I've never written that way around before, but I was leafing through a book of Beatles lyrics recently, and against all odds I discovered a song of theirs I didn't know (I thought everyone was born knowing all the Beatles lyrics instinctively - John Hannah, you lied to me!). Anyway, I sat down and tried to put music to the words, and within ten minutes I had a great tune. I also tried the same thing with some unused Bernie Taupin lyrics, and whaddya know – I came up with another great tune in ten minutes! I feel like I've entered a brave new world of strange possibilities ...

Hope you've had as good a night as 'Diversity' (apologies to people who don't follow Britain's Got Talent)!

- Eric

Posted on Saturday 20th May 2009

"Multiplayer" finished and up on YouTube! Plus, updates on "I Bet You" and a New Project!

Well, it's been a while since my last update, but I have news to report - my new short film 'Multiplayer' is finished and up on YouTube! You can also view it on the Short Films section of the site. It took 3 nights to film and 2 days to edit, and I'm quite pleased with the end result. However, one lesson I learned while making it is - whether you're going to use a dedicated microphone or the one on the camcorder, pick one and commit! I filmed half of it with and half of it without, and to compensate for the differences in sound I had to pile on several tracks of static to make it consistent. Also, if you look super-duper carefully, you can just about see the joins on the double shots. However, that's partly the beauty of YouTube – by reducing the file size (and therefore the image quality) it becomes less obvious where the joins are, and therefore more impressive to behold. Who says everything has to be pixel perfect? (Well actually, I do – ever since I bought my new Blu-Ray player, I find myself shunning anything that isn't HD!)

I've gotten some very positive feedback on it from friends and some fellow film-makers – Josh even reckons it's the best thing I've done, which was flattering, considering - apart from the odd bit of camerawork - I did the whole thing myself. The ending has confused some people, so let me just say that it's meant to be subjective – I don't know if they were his brothers or figments or his imagination; they're whatever you want them to be. However, I think I'll do a shorter version that ends when Eddie leaves the room – the end-on-a-joke version.

On my last update I said that hopefully 'I Bet You' would be finished by the end of April – well, that was wishful thinking. Apart from one full day of filming (in which we got a lot done) we haven't done much. At the moment I reckon we've filmed 60-70% of it. However, tomorrow Josh, Ben and I are heading to the woods to film a couple of (hopefully) grisly death scenes. After that, we should be about 90% done. I have to say, I can't wait to see the finished version.

I've also recently started working on a new project, which (unless 'Stairway' gets discovered and picked up) will probably be my next short film. It doesn't have a title yet, but in a nutshell it's a mini-musical about a chav who organises a nation-wide protest after the government initiates a clamp-down on benefit scroungers. I've written the basic story and the five musical numbers, and now I'm working with a Sami (a friend of mine, who did the still photography on 'Take') to write the script and the lyrics. Hopefully it'll be a funny, satirical, ironic romp with some catchy tunes. However, one thing's for sure – it'll require a LOT more people than 'Take' or 'I Bet You' to make.

Next week Im going to work on laying down some music tracks, hopefully write a bit more, and start thinking of festivals to send 'Multiplayer' to.

Live long and prosper (the new 'Star Trek' movie is awesome, by the way - and this is coming from a non-Trekkie!),

- Eric

Posted on Friday 8th May 2009

Filming begins on "I Bet You" + "Take" now viewable on IMDb!

It's taken several weeks (as well as many of our country's top scientists) but I finally managed to upload 'Take' onto IMDb, in its entirety. Now anyone can watch it by going to the title page. I also uploaded one of the posters I had printed up when I went to the Zero Film Festival.

I usually have a few writing projects on the go, but recently I've had six going at once! Among them is a short film that I'm planning to shoot at the end of the month, called 'Multiplayer', which will feature me playing several roles, a la 'Multiplicity' (that film where Michael Keaton plays several versions of himself). Also, just over a week ago, Josh, Ben and I filmed the first scene for "I Bet You", which is a feature film that Josh came up with (although I'm helping with the screenplay). We have a bigger cast on this one than we did on 'Take' (not hard, considering 'Take' only had 6 cast members - two of which were non-speaking parts), and they're mostly people who were impressed with 'Take' and wanted to be involved with our next project. Filming went well, and it is my hope to have both "Multiplayer" and "I Bet You" finished by the end of April.

Lately I've been thinking a lot about films that deal with the end of the world, no doubt triggered by the anticipation of Zach Snyder's "Watchmen" adaptation (which I saw in IMAX on Sunday - I thought it was great). Anyway, while I was on holiday in Florida in February I came up with an idea for my own end-of-the-world story, which I've been slowly piecing together ever since. It's a weird kind of film I have in mind - more of a puzzle than a story, much like David Lynch's 'Mullholland Drive'. So lately I've been absorbing every apocalypse-related film I can find - 'Watchmen', 'Deep Impact', 'Armageddon', 'Fail-Safe', 'Southland Tales', 'Dr. Strangelove' and 'V For Vendetta' (a personal favourite of mine). It's probably counter-productive to have so many projects going at one time, but hey - you can't stop the creative flow!

Keep those juices flowin',

- Eric

Posted on Tuesday 10th March 2009

"Take" has an IMDb page (and so do I!)

After 'Take' played at the Zero Film Festival, withoutabox (the website that handles film submissions) gave me a code to get 'Take' it's own IMDb page. Since I practically live on IMDb, I think it's pretty damn cool that a film I've made is on there - and since I wrote and directed it, I now have my own page too. Double coolness! The page has actually been active for about a month already, but I've waited with announcing it on here to give me time to fill the page out a bit. Now it has a trivia, page, a FAQ, a memorable quotes sections and two clips uploaded - the trailer and a 12 minute clip.

I also have the option of uploading the entire film on there - I've been trying to do that for the past few days, but the film is a huge 3.7GB file, and my mac always craps out at the last minute when I try and upload it. This is very frustrating, as I have quite a few people who want to see the film, and it was be so much easier if they could watch it on IMDb rather than me having to keep burning copies and sending them out. I'll work it out somehow. You can also upload posters and stills (for a fee), but I think I'll wait with that until the pound gains a bit more strength - the payment has to be made in dollars and right now the pound is the lowest it's been for several years. Great time to go on holiday in America, huh? Bloody typical. Anyhoo ...

Here's the links to 'Take's IMDb page, and mine:

http://www.imdb.com/title/tt1339181/

http://www.imdb.com/name/nm3232457/

Unfortunately, on IMDb you do get a lot of trollers who go around giving films they haven't even seen a 1. I know everyone's entitled to their opinion, but a 1? Seriously!? I don't think I've ever seen a film so bad I've given it a 1. It's really annoying because it's dragging down the average rating. So, if you're reading this and you have an IMDb account, and you feel strongly about this kind of unfair method of film appraisal, go ahead and rate 'Take' a 10 and I'll leave something shiny in your stocking next Easter. Or whatever.

Happy (very) belated new year

- Eric

Posted on Wednesday 21st January 2009

The Zero Film Festival (ZFF) - My trip to LA: Part III

On Saturday I felt I needed a break, so I went to Universal Studios – it was much like the Universal Studios in Florida, except this has the famous back-lot tour, which was great (I saw where the 'Back To The Future' set used to be before it burned down) – the 'War of the Worlds' plane crash set was particularly amazing. While there I also saw “Australia” at the local cinema – it was good. A bit too long, but a great old fashioned epic. The ride back to the hotel was interesting though – I got this free shuttle service to and from the park, and the driver took TWO AND A HALF F*£&ING HOURS to get me back to my hotel. The idiot drove me to downtown LA via Koreatown – wouldn't it make sense to drop people off in order? I seriously considered demanding my money back even though it was a free service! Needless to say I gave the driver and earful of abuse, but I don't think he understood me – he barely spoke English.

After that ordeal I seriously considered not going to the Closing Night party – I am so glad I went. It was the best night of the festival. There was free booze, I met all the film-makers (some very cool people), and there were bands playing on the roof. At about 3am the LAPD broke the party up because we were making too much noise – good times! I grabbed several dozen business cards and walked back to the hotel, very drunk and singing 'The Night Sky' by Keane – excellent walking-home-while-drunk song. It was an awesome end to an awesome week. Sunday was straightforward – I treated myself to a rack of ribs at I-Hop (a great diner) and caught the plane home.

As I write this, it's Tuesday evening. I am suffering from only slight jet-lag, which made my full day at work much harder - why I thought I'd be up for it the day after I got back I have no idea. Nevertheless I'm glad that my trip was so successful, and I'm eager and enthusiastic for Josh and I to get started on our next film – a violent revenge thriller called “I Bet You”, which we're co-writing and (possibly) co-directing as well. With any luck we'll be back at the Zero Film Festival next year!

Happy holidays o' melting pot that is America

- Eric

Posted on Tuesday 9th December 2008

The Zero Film Festival (ZFF) - My trip to LA: Part II

I've actually seen some films now – fancy that! Ironically, the first film I saw was one of my favourites - “Joey and Jerome's Artistic Meaningful Independent Film”. It was a brilliantly funny short about two guys trying to make the kind of pretentious 'important' film that the Sundance film festival loves to show (incidentally, I found out on this trip that 'Take' didn't get into Sundance – never mind, it would have interfered with my family's trip to Florida anyway). It was hilarious and the guys who made it are well worth watching. Later on I saw “Kin” (the only other British film at the festival – I'm so honoured!), which was well-made, well-acted etc. but incredibly depressing. It's seems that most film festival films are either depressing docu-dramas about sick/dying people (I saw another one of those on Thursday - “Schism” - also very well made), or amusing oddities where the cast essentially screw around in front of the camera.

On Wednesday evening I saw perhaps my favourite feature of the festival – an inventive comedy/mockumentary called “Railed”. Basically it follows a bickering couple (played by actors) on a cross-country train ride, and the hilariously loud and inappropriate arguments they have along the way. The people on the train (who are real members of the public, unaware that this is a film) offer their advice to them, and their insights are funny, moving and bewildering in equal measure.

The day after that (Thursday), I got royally screwed by my hotel. What happened is: I wanted to go to a good old fashioned American mall, so I asked guest services where the nearest big one was. He told me the Glendale Galleria was my best bet (and credit to him, it was an amazing mall – the biggest in Southern California), but when I asked him if there was a bus going there he said “no, no – get a cab, it takes 15 mins”. Firstly, that “15 minute” cab ride cast $40(!?), and secondly, on the way back I found a bus that stopped near the hotel – the cost? $1.25. I mean, it's no secret that hotel staff must get backhanders for providing cab drivers with fares, but come on!

Anyway, that night I saw “This Can't Be Life” directed by Franco Clarke – really nice guy. The film was good – very Spike Lee inspired – and when it lacked in professional sheen it made up for in passion and spirit. Also that night I saw “The Collective” - a mystery thriller set in New York (somewhere between 'The Da Vinci Code' and 'Eyes Wide Shut'). It was very good – the most professionally-made film at the festival (which, I found out later, had already secured distribution before the festival – lucky git).

Friday, finally! The world premiere of “Take”! I must say, given that most of the films at the festival were attended by their cast, crew etc. and I was the only one there representing “Take”, I was pleased with the turnout I got – not so few to make me feel depressed, and not too many to make me unbearably nervous. It's pretty nerve-racking watching your work on the big screen – cinema make the good parts better, but they also make the flaws more obvious (most notably the dubbing and the shaky camera near the beginning). When I was watching it, I was so glad that “Take” was one of those films that gets better the more you get into it – the last 10 minutes went down particularly well. Overall, the screening was a big success – the audience laughed in all the right places, and afterwards I got nothing but compliments. People thought the long takes were amazing, that Josh and I were very naturalistic, and they thought the dialogue was great too (You love me! You really love me!) Afterwards, Richard (the festival director) told me I had the best turnout for a matinee performance - yay!

Later on Friday I also saw “The Wanderer”, a documentary about a guy wandering through Thailand, Bangkok etc., basically in search of pussy. It was entertaining, but slightly lacking an overall message/point. The guy's voice also got slightly annoying after a while, but I'm glad I saw it. The last film I saw (in it's entirety at least – I only caught the last hour of the closing night film) was “The Closer She Gets” - a totally un-sugarcoated account of the director's mother's battle with cancer. I have to say, it's up there with 'United 93' as one of the hardest films I've ever had to sit through. It was brilliant though (if you can say that about a film with subject matter like that) – emotionally devastating. But I'm glad I went - it was directed by Craig Ouellette, one of the guys I did the radio show with, and one of the nicest guys I've met while over here.

Final part coming soon ...

- Eric

Posted on Saturday 6th December 2008

The Zero Film Festival (ZFF) - My trip to LA: Part I

Barely three weeks after I got the email telling me that 'Take' was accepted into the Zero Film Festival, here I am in sunny LA (Actually, that 'sunny' part was a lie. It seems that I've brought the English weather with me – ever since I arrived it's been incredibly foggy. I feel pretty stupid having brought both sunglasses and suntan lotion). I've never been to California before, and I've never travelled alone before, so this trip has brought with it a strange mix of excitement and nervousness.

On Monday, after an 11 hour plane trip (during which I watched both the best and the worst films of the year – 'The Dark Knight' and 'The Happening') I arrived at LAX and took the shuttle to the Sheraton in Downtown Los Angeles. The hotel is really nice, but everything is so expensive – luckily I'm getting a half-price rate because I have a film in the festival, otherwise I would have stayed elsewhere. After getting settled in, I wandered down to the Opening Night event, which was about a 15 minute walk from the hotel. It took place in this cool warehouse-type place, which, later on, the festival director told me was owned/controlled by the Cuban Mafia – of course, he didn't know that when he booked it (I wondered who that huge guy at the front door with the machine gun was!)

The opening night event was good – they showed two short films and a feature then had some bands play. Unfortunately I only stayed for the two short films – by this time I had been awake for 24 straight hours and I could barely keep my eyes open. However, I did meet some nice people, including the festival director Richard Hooban and two film-makers called Pete and Craig. I walked back to the hotel, which was pretty brave (Downtown LA late at night isn't exactly quaint old Surrey – I'll get a cab back in future) but I got back safely and slept for about 11 hours. I needed it.

On Tuesday morning I walked down to a local printing house Richard told me about to order some promotional materials for the film. Luckily the flyers I designed just about met the specifications required for the printing (a miracle, really – considering I designed them pretty much in Word) and they said they'd be ready the next day – really nice guys (check out their website – www.indieprinting.com). That evening I was picked up by Richard (along with Craig – the Singapore-based Australian film-maker I met the night before) and taken to Loyola-Marymount University to do a guest spot on KXLU, a local indie radio station. Richard had contacted all the film-makers in the festival who had travelled in from abroad and asked them if they'd like to appear on the radio to promote the festival and their film – naturally, I jumped at the chance.

We were told we were going to go live on air at 7pm, but when we got there we found out there was a scheduling error – a basketball game was airing at that time. Actually it turned out to be a blessing in disguise, because it meant that we could pre-record the show instead, and it would air the next day at 10am. Mark Gordon, the guy who interviewed us, was great fun – he's interviewed some very successful Oscar-winning people before (including Quentin Tarantino – wow) and he was really enthusiastic about the whole thing. He really dug the genuinely independent nature of the festival – because apparently so many of the so-called 'independent' film festivals in America just show studio-funded films. Because of the delay in recording and the LA freeway traffic, by the time we got back Downtown I was too tired to go to the Tuesday night after-party, so I just went back to the hotel. I feel guilty being here in LA and not having experienced much of the actual festival yet, but I guess I'll just have to make up for that over the coming days.

As I'm writing this, it's Wednesday morning and I'm listening to the show online - I'm currently sitting in Starbucks with my laptop (I know, I'm a cliché. But at least I'm not writing a screenplay in public – I'll save that for the plane ride back). I'm streaming the radio station from here because the wireless access in the hotel is ridiculously expensive – just like the breakfast (when I ate breakfast at the hotel yesterday morning – for the first and last time – and discovered the buffet was $20, I pretty much grabbed as much fruit as I could carry and took it back to my room). Anyway, I'm listening to myself on the radio being interviewed and I'm thinking 'this is pretty damn cool'! (I was a bit worried for a minute because they had an interview about some random opera production first, which I had no idea about - but who cares? I WAS ON THE RADIO!) The interview was great fun and hopefully it'll get some people to come along to the screening on Friday.

Now I'm gonna go pick up the promotional postcards, flyers and posters I ordered yesterday, spread them around town and catch some flicks at the festival. I'll write more in a couple of days.

Don't stop believing, streetlight people.

- Eric

Posted on Wednesday 3rd December 2008

Big news!

After nearly a month of nothing to report, big news ... “TAKE” GOT INTO A FILM FESTIVAL IN LOS ANGELES! How frickin' awesome is that? On Saturday morning I got an email from the organiser of the Zero Film Festival telling me that I was accepted, and to be honest it still hasn't sunk in. It's so gratifying that all that work that Josh, Ben and I put into this project has paid off. It's showing on Friday 5th December, which means in two weeks I'm off to La-la-land! The last three days have been a blur of checking out hotels, booking flights etc. (curse the ever-falling value of the pound!) I don't know what to expect from the trip – at worst I get 6 days in sunny LA, meet some fellow film-makers and an IMDb page for 'Take' – that'll do me!

I'll write more when my plans are more solidified – at the moment my head is kind of all over the place (but in a good way).

My undyin' luv to y'all

- Eric

Posted on Tuesday 18th November 2008

The trailer for "Take" is up!

After a week with no film festivals to go to, and not even a lot of regular film-watching (what's wrong with me?), I thought it was time I updated my blog a little. So yesterday I edited together a trailer for 'Take', so that those of you who haven't had the honour of seeing it can at least have a preview. I think the trailer works quote well - making a good trailer is an art in itself. You have to accurately depict the overall tone of the film, you have to reveal enough so that people have some idea what the story and main characters are all about, but you also have to be careful not to give away too many twists - because there's nothing I hate more than a trailer that gives away the whole damn story (actually there are lots of things I hate more than that, but they do annoy me).

Anyway, it's available for viewing on the 'Take' section of the site - give it a look, even if you're one of the fortunate few who's seen the film in its entirety. And, if you have a moment, I'd greatly appreciate you rating the video on YouTube.

Go forth and prosper (hand thingy)

- Eric

Posted on Tuesday 21st October 2008

The last few days of the Raindance Film Festival 2008

Well, the 16th Raindance Film Festival is over, and although I didn't hit it quite as hard as some people, I saw four films (four and a half if you count PVC-1) and attended four events, which isn't bad considering I live an hour away. Here's a recap of what I saw / attended in the last week ... on Tuesday 7th I went to a seminar on Online Film Distribution. It was quite interesting - the internet is certainly a great place for film-makers to gain exposure, if not money (yet). They talked about Raindance.tv, the organisations' website where film-makers can upload their films and get paid every time someone watches it. I would upload 'Take', but that would disqualify it for next year's festival, so I'll wait and see if it gets in first.

On Saturday I saw 'One Day Removals', an independent Scottish film directed by a guy called Mark Stirton, who was at the screening - nice guy. The film was very low-budget (it was made for around £30,000) and shot on DV, but it was very good. There was an enormous amount of swearing in it, but somehow the actors' Scottish accents made it sound chummy and casual. It's basically about two removal guys who, over the course of one morning, keep accidentally killing people, and the more they kill the harder it is for them to go to the police. It was very funny and although the acting/editing/filming was a bit rough around the edges, that just lent it a home-made charm. The director and a few of the actors were there to talk about the film, and they also gave out DVDs. I snagged a copy, and, in a sneaky move, slipped the director a copy of 'Take' at the same time - I just figured it couldn't hurt to get a little professional feedback from an up-and-coming director. Here are the websites for the director and his production company.

www.stirtonproductions.com

www.stirtonproductions.com/ODR_front.html

The last film I saw was the final film of the festival - a British horror / thriller called 'Hush'. It was quite good - the characters were all from Yorkshire so their accents grated on me a bit, but the director certainly knew how to crank up the tension, and the climax garnered a well-deserved round of applause. They also gave out the festival awards - this was quite amusing as most of the winners were film-makers from other countries who had gone home already! I didn't bother going to the Closing Night Gala - I was hot, tired and didn't fancy a repeat of the Opening Night Gala where I just walked around a busy bar with a drink in my hand. Still, it was a good festival, and I'm glad I went. My next step with 'Take' is to make a trailer for it and maybe it's own website.

Other mini-movie reviews of films I saw in the cinema over the past week ... "Death Race" - a pure guy's film. Fast cars, hot women, Jason Statham - how can you go wrong? I thoroughly enjoyed it - the best B-Movie of the year (and Joan Allen's line "Alright cocksucker, fuck with me and we'll see who shits on the sidewalk!" gets my vote for best-worst line of the year!). "The Rocker" - this is out on Friday, I just saw a preview courtesy of seefilmfirst.com. It's basically 'Old School' meets 'School of Rock', with the guy who plays Dwight in the American Office substituting for Jack Black. I didn't expect much, but it was surprisingly enjoyable - not hilarious but constantly amusing with some decent music too (at least I thought so). And even though Christina Applegate was in it, I didn't loathe her as much as I usually do. There was one particularly memorable line - after a great performance, the band's manager says to them "John Lennon just rolled over in his grave ... to hide the boner you just gave him!"

And two films I rented over the past week ... "All The Boys Love Mandy Lane" - a decent teen slasher with some decent gore and an alright twist. "I'm Not There" - a horribly confused 'portrait' of Bob Dylan, in which he's played by 7 or 8 different actors, ranging from Christian Bale and Heath Ledger (both awesome as always) to Cate Blanchett (overrated, as usual). If you liked "8 1/2" by Fellini, you'll probably like this, but I thought it was maddeningly pretentious and overly abstract. It also painted Bob Dylan as an incredibly frustrating guy - poetic and wise when he's singing, vague and annoying in conversation. A (mostly) well-acted mess.

There you have it.

- Eric

Posted on Tuesday 14th October 2008

Live! Ammunition! 2008

I haven't seen any more films at the Raindance Film Festival over the past few days, simply because I've had to work, but I'll make sure I see a few more before the festival ends on Sunday. I did, however, for some unknown reason rent 'Made of Honour' (an appallingly cliched rom-com that squandered the talents of leading lady Michelle Monaghan, who was both sexy and hilarious in 'Kiss Kiss Bang Bang') and I introduced my mother to 'The Godfather' (she's always annoyed when it beats 'The Shawshank Redemption' in any Greatest Films poll, but now that she's seen it she can understand why it's so revered).

Last night I went to an event that Raindance hosted - Live! Ammunition! 2008. It's an evening hosted by BAFTA where guests are invited to 'pitch' movie ideas to a panel of industry professionals - producers, distribution executives, head of developments for various production companies etc. Basically what happens is, you pay £5 to participate, and then you get 2 minutes to describe your idea to the panel - they give comments and at the end of the evening they pick 2 runners up and a winner who gets all the fivers. It was a good, fun evening - some people (including yours truly) came armed with business cards, scripts and DVDs to give to the poor, unsuspecting members of the panel. I gave them each a copy of 'Take' but I didn't pitch any of the scripts on this site - instead, I pitched an idea I came up with a couple of days ago. Below is what I pitched, almost word-for-word (I used notes, you see. But I still kept eye-contact - that's very important when pitching)

"My pitch is for a horror/slasher called 'Fun House', and it's set in one of those old-fashioned carnival funhouses, which anyone who's seen 'Pinocchio' knows has plenty of nightmarish potential. Now, most of these types of film usually end with a couple of teenagers - usually a guy and a girl - all breathless, tearful and hugging each other, having survived a night running from a killer on a rampage. Well, 'Fun House' has two twists - firstly, the house itself is the killer, and secondly, this is how our story starts - not ends. You see, this story is told backwards, in the style of 'Memento'.

So, we start with the boy and the girl escaping from the fun house and we keep flashing back to earlier and earlier in the evening, seeing how each member of their original party was individually picked off. The night before, there were 7 kids - the girl and boy who survive plus five other boys - and one night at their local carnival they sneak into an old, run-down fun house for a laugh. Throughout the night, the five other boys die in a variety of nasty surprises and booby traps - kinda like a sadistic version of 'Home Alone'! Then, at the end of the film (which, chronologically, is the beginning) we discover that the whole night was concocted by the boy who survived, just so that he could protect and get close to the popular girl and eliminate the five boys - who were his major competition for her affections - in the same go.

It's 'Saw' meets 'Irreversible'!"

... That's what I pitched - that pitch is copyrighted, by the way. Personally I think, done well, it could be a really disturbing and original entry to the teen slasher genre. The panel's comments on it were "good idea", "change the title" (it's a working title anyway) and "it depends if it's done well". Fair criticisms. I didn't win, sadly - a documentary called 'School Days' won, which had the good (albeit slight) premise of documenting an average school day in many different cultures. Personally I thought the runner-up was the best - basically, a male model is dumped by his girlfriend for a cyborg he was the basis for. Genius, if you ask me. You could definitely tell the people who were veterans of this event - some people read blandly from note cards, some people spent their time promoting themselves rather that selling their idea, and some people couldn't adjust the length of their pitch after the time was cut down from 2 minutes to 1 to accommodate everyone within the time.

I didn't expect to win, although I think I did better than most. However, the main highlight of the evening for me was getting my film and my business cards into the hands of real industry professionals - my website address is on the card, so who knows? Maybe they'll visit, check out my scripts and get in contact. They could even be reading this blog right now. Damien, Rhodri, Janet, James - if you're reading this, I appreciate you taking the time to explore this site so thoroughly, but the good stuff's on the Scripts page! Get over there! But seriously, I'm grateful you took my cards and my DVDs and I really would love to here from you.

- Eric

Posted on Tuesday 7th October 2008

The first few days of the Raindance Film Festival 2008

The Raindance Film Festival began on Wednesday, and I was there for the opening night film "Choke". It's the new comedy from Fight Club author Chuck Palahniuk, and it stars the great Sam Rockwell - you probably know him best as Wild Bill from "The Green Mile", or Guy Fleegman from "Galaxy Quest". I'm too lazy to write my own synopsis, here's one from IMDb ... "Sex addict and colonial theme park worker, Victor Mancini, has devised a complicated scam to pay for his mom's hospital bills while she suffers from an Alzheimer's disease that hides the truth about his childhood. He pretends to choke on food in a restaurant and the person who "saves" him will feel responsible for Victor for the rest of their lives."

I thought the film was excellent, up there with Tropic Thunder as one of the funniest films of the year. Sam Rockwell was superb, naturally, and the supporting cast were great too - especially Anjelica Huston and Kelly MacDonald. I'd describe the story as Fight Club meets One Flew Over The Cuckoo's Nest, but a comedy! It goes on general release in November and I highly recommend you see it when it comes out. After the film came the after party - I hardly got any networking done at the party (it's pretty hard when you're on your own in a noisy bar and you don't know anyone) but I did meet a few fellow film-lovers as well as the Head of the festival, Elliot Grove. He remembered me from the film course I took with him last year, but then again, he could just be saying that. So all in all, a decent evening.

The second film I saw at the festival was "Gardens of the Night" on Friday, which was a drama about a boy and girl who get abducted from separate families by a man who convinces them their parents don't want them anymore - and then there's the inevitable abuse. The boy and girl bond and look after each other as they grow up. 8 years later they're living on the streets - she's prostituting herself and he's stealing cell phones - when she finds out her real parents are still alive she goes back to them but ends up missing her 'brother'. How about that, I wrote my own synopsis! The film was good - the story was a little unfocused but the acting (especially from Tom Arnold who played the abductor, and the little girl) was great. A downbeat but well-made drama - worth seeing, if you like that kind of thing.

And in the evening I went to see "PVC-1", a Greek film about terrorists who put a collar bomb on a woman, shot in one continuous take. Now, I'm a sucker for movies with long takes (just look at my first feature film 'Take') but unfortunately the screening was a total disaster - there were no subtitles. Now, I have no problem watching subtitled films - in fact, when the film is in a foreign language, they're pretty damned essential! First the screening was delayed an hour, and once it finally started people began leaving after about 10 minutes, once they realised the subtitles were never coming. Then one of the organisers came in and apologised and said they were trying to find a subtitled DVD of the film. By this time, half the people had left. It was a real shame because, as I said, the premise looked really interesting and I really wanted to see it. I feel sorry for the film-makers, because it pretty much ruined the film's chances of winning the audience award.

Oh, and in addition to Film Festival movies, I also saw "Taken"on Thursday and "How To Lose Friends & Alienate People" on Friday. 'Taken' was surprisingly good - a bit of a by-numbers thriller, but it's nice to see Liam Neeson playing a role that would normally be given to Jason Statham. 'How To Lose Friends...' was good too - there was nowhere near as much prat-falling as the trailer led me to believe, and even though the story was basically a mish-mash of 'The Apartment' and 'The Devil Wears Prada', Simon Pegg was as likeable as ever and Megan Fox was unnervingly hot.

Whoa - 4 films in 3 days! I need to go lie down ...

- Eric

Posted on Saturday 4th October 2008