Projector Films - new ideas for film makers

Film 2.0 ideas going on right now!

2008-07-21T09:43:00.001+01:00

A great guy that I did meet at the Screenwriters Festival was David Lemon, writer of the new film Faintheart. David's a great guy and a very supportive and open writer. So no dirt to dish there. For shame.

Therefore, instead this post is about how Faintheart got made. Hazzah!

Faintheart was the film that came out of the MySpace Movie MashUp competition last year. So a quick turn around as you would expect with a social networking project. Just a recap; the movie mashup was an open competition where directors could upload their showreel with a chance to direct this £1m film. The same for actors looking to be in it. Composers etc.

This system does kind of work. Chris R Wright from Small Town Folk landed a part for instance which is really a great boost and a fantastic opportunity for him.

But in another way it doesn't work. The winning director was Vito Rocco. I'm a fan of his short film Goodbye Cruel World (which you can watch here) and I think he'll be great for Faintheart. The winning director simply had to get the most votes and the most views. However Vito had the backing of Slingshot (a film production company) who put 3 interns on the job of getting people to vote.

At first my thinking was - that's not in the spirit of it. But then my thinking changed to 'Hey, if its a level playing field then lets get in there'. In other words - I should have been equally agressive.

On related news; Alex Jovy has set up his own way of using the film 2.0 vibe. Voting, ITV style. Vote for the people who audition. It's all over at ItsSourMovie.com An interesting model, but personally not for me.

If you know of any more mashup / film2.0 then let me know. If your interested in a cheekly little competition then check out Mike Figgis with his 'tell a story in 5 photos' effort over at Sony.

Technorati Tags:Faintheart,MySpace,Film2.0.

Barbara Machin on what makes a great TV series

2008-07-16T13:54:00.002+01:00

What makes a great TV serial? What makes a good TV writer? How do we create the best TV shows? These are questions that Barbara Machin is wrestling with everyday. Here are some quotes from her that I captured on 2 separate occasions at the Screenwriters Festival. While TV long running serials and soaps are not my thing I must admire her passion and dedication and I celebrate that here...

A short bio: Barbara Machin is an Emmy award winning television writer with over fifty hours of prime-time television to her credit. She has had, productions on all the major British TV channels and has many TV films to her name, specialising in long-running series including 'Waking the Dead' and 'Casualty'. With 'Waking the Dead', Barbara secured the award for the Best Drama Series at the 2004 Emmys.

On new ideas...
"Innovation is a must. We should be giving the audience not what they want, but what they never dreamed of. Offering a surprise, delivering characters that are really real - thats what we must do. Surprise and real characters have become the territory of reality TV. But that's our job! That's what we should be doing! We must be the most exciting thing in the room. Are we being bold enough?"

On creating a new series...
"The 'smash and grab' technique of making a series doesn't work. Why are we shooting when we don't have a full plan? Instead let's over plan. Let's map out not just this series but series 2 as well - all BEFORE we shoot a single frame."

On writing for serials...
"The good news is that serials are a great place for writers to learn. The bad news is that the pressure to turn around so many episodes means that new writers don't get the support they once did. But this is the world so we should live with it."

On writing for established series...
"In fact, serials are a great way to get your stories out there. They are like a framework to weave in your ideas. Don't see them as a straightjacket. See them as a method to tell your stories, about your issues, smuggled in under the radar"

I say...
Some of those phrases really work for me. Especially about the challenge to be 'the most exciting thing in the room'. This carries extra resonance for me as today there are more distractions, more competition for people's time, more things in the room.

Also, I like her idea about being bold. But I think I'd go further. We should be bold in our careers as well as bold in our storytelling. As writers, are we bold enough to find other ways to tell stories? TV is no longer the only show in the town, no longer the only thing in the room. We don't need to smuggle in our ideas anymore. We don't need to make our ideas fit their format. We can go elsewhere.

Photo and bio fromGloucester Uni.
Technorati Tags:writing,TV series,TV.

Phone Philms

2008-07-14T10:53:00.001+01:00

David Lynch says this...

But that reminds me of a post I've been wanting to write for a while about the benefits of watching a film on the phone. Yes, that's right - the benefits.

Initially I agreed with Lynch. That a small screen was a small experience. That perhaps the only up side was convenience. If you couldn't see a film in another way, due to time, then it was a poor substitute - but never mind, just live with it.

However, there is something else. Something great about using the phone. Something that I didn't imagine would matter. An unexpected upside. It is the fact that you hold it in your hand, that it is close, personal. You are holding the fictional world in your palm and only you can see it and hear it. Other people are around you. But they aren't invited (unlike the cinema) - it is just you and the story. On your own.

That up close and personal interaction with the screen suits some stories and not others. That is obvious. Imagine an Alan Bennett monologue. That would be a very intense experience. 2001 - wouldn't be.

So it is a new way to reach an audience in a new way. And not worth dismissing completely. In the same way TV is not cinema. It's different.

But its still about people and their stories. So we should be writing for it. Phone films - or should it be Phone Philms.

Cheers to Suki for link
Technorati Tags:david lynch,youtube,phone philms,iPhone.

Storytelling the old fashioned way

2008-07-10T13:32:00.000+01:00

Right. If you want to know how to tell a story watch this. And listen. It's 25 minutes long. Sorry. But there you go. Watch it anyway. Trust me.

Where do creative people come from?

2008-07-08T21:03:00.001+01:00

Screenwriters Festival: Epilogue

2008-07-06T19:34:00.000+01:00

I've got some great guest speaker talks to upload over the next few weeks including some inspirational advice and helpful techniques. But here I simply wanted to give an overview of the festival and say thanks to all the great writers I met. Three thoughts...

One: TV is still the traditional route for writers. But TV isn't what it used to be and is really struggling. The shows that used to be the good training ground (soaps etc) are now under so much pressure they can't develop writing talent like they used to. Which everyone says is a shame. But there you go. The end.

Two: Writers forget their craft in person. Guys - if you are giving a lecture then remember the story telling devices that you use everyday. Don't leave them at the door! Some talks lacked the powerful presence and intrigue that you knew the writers had. If I had to give over some of my money to a writer based on their performances on stage I'm not sure I would have done. Everything is an opportunity to show off craft.

Three: You have to go your own way. Other people are successful because they are who they are with all the things that have made them unique. You can't be Mike Leigh. Because Mike Leigh is. So what do you do that others don't? Do that.
Bonus thought: Writers can talk. Poor old Stuart even lost his voice!

Pics stolen from Lee Thomson and Jason Arnopp.

Screenwriters Festival

2008-06-30T20:16:00.000+01:00

Hopefully I'll see as many of you blog readers at the festival as possible. I won't go over the agenda here as it is already on-line here.

Here are some questions that I want to explore:

Will we see a new format emerging for web writing rather than just using TV methods and layout?
How can we remember to write from the heart and not from the text book?
Should we talk about people, what they do and how they feel AND NOT about characters and motivations?
Is the balance of power shifting? A good script has so many homes now. Do we feel that? Or not?
What needs adding or taking away for the next version of The Scriptwriters Life?

Who wants to go to the cinema?

2008-06-29T15:57:00.000+01:00

From a recent visit to Albania...

Wouldn't you be more tempted to go to the cinema if it was like this?

Technorati Tags:cinema,albania,outdoor cinema.

How to work on New Ideas - in animation form

2008-06-25T16:35:00.000+01:00

As you know recently I've been working on a question. The question is; how can work ideas up into projects.

A good question. One I would ask. But luckily this is a paid gig as well.

In past posts... ZeFrank had a go at answering, via the medium of a catchy song. And I did some interviews around the subject too with the Dailymotion dudes.

Well. Ta-dah. Here is what I handed in, at vast expense, to the corporate clients who wanted to know the big answer. How do we make ideas work for us. As writers and all round talented geezas we probably know this, perhaps subconsciously. So you may enjoy this cheeky refresher and wonder why people in business find what we do naturally - to be so hard. Of course, in return, I steal plenty of ideas from them - that's where things like The Scriptwriter's Life comes from.

Beachcombing
Uploaded by martonhouse

Technorati Tags:Ideas,Dailymotion,Brainstorming.

Small Town Folk

2008-06-23T09:27:00.001+01:00

Small Town Folk is a film I've been following for a few years now. I first met the film makers when they came along to one of my script writers workshops. They have been making this film for 4 years now. But it is out today on DVD and you can get it here.

Today we all went down to HMV and I banged on the counter and demanded a copy which everyone signed for me. Sweet.

I mention it really because, as writers, as film makers, as web film makers, it is important we celebrate these moments. It keeps us going and inspires us. This film was made for zero budget, in spare time and with passion. Now its out there. It is the greatest film ever - of course not. But it does have a unique style and Peter Stanley Ward, the director, has used his own location of the New Forest and run with it. He has taken a Deliverance theme and shifted it to his home turf and maximised the potential of his resources.

Here's to their next one.

(apparently the film has been bootlegged - that's when you know you've made it!)

Ideas sponge

2008-06-22T14:55:00.000+01:00

Over at the film 2.0 project Mr Vista I need your help. So far we've had a few Vista fans (is that vistarenos, nah, how about vistarites or even better, yep, vistarons) already send in ideas for series 2 of the big V man's adventures.

So far...

Mr Vista and the microwave dinner
Mr Vista and the satnav
Mr Vista and the air raid bunker (!)
Mr Vista and the incredible disappearing pay cheque
Mr Vista and the full bladder
Mr Vista and the vision of tomorrow
Mr Vista's guide to MSN smilies for the real world

However...
If you have an idea for a Mr Vista episode then leave them here by the end of June.

Over to you Vistarons.

Weekend viewing

2008-06-21T08:53:00.000+01:00

A couple of entertaining 'youtubes' (if that is a noun) for the weekend. Both of which are classic web-film era style.

One: Words animated to the Abbott and Costello sketch "Who's on first". Its remix / hack heaven.

Two: A new one from Where is Matt. Half a million views in a day. And now people know who he is when he goes places to dance. A global web video star.

Circumference style, but no cigar

2008-06-17T16:25:00.000+01:00

Thanks to the ever well-informed Danny Stack for spotting these two articles about a topic oft mentioned on here - how we as writers and filmmakers manage as sources of money change...

The first one is about Shane Meadows new film which is funded by Eurostar. The reason being that the film is called Somers Town and includes the new Euro-ed up St Pancras. The budget is estimated to be about £500,000 - as you may know I estimated the budget for Circumference to be £300,000. So this figure seems to be sticking. What I don't like about this project is still the fact that it has an unclear or muddy contract with the audience. Also - absolutely no talk of the idea of giving it away for free. If Eurostar are pumping in a half mil then it seems a bit (a lot) cheeky to ask me and you to cough up as well. But then these issues are the issues of today.

Also, how do we as writers feel about these pressures? Can we be precious? Should we? Should we see these films as paid gigs and that is that?

Personally, with my projects, I'm cool with it so long as it is honest and everyone wins - free film, paid by a company, and we all know it. The Circumference way. It makes sense to me and a proposition based on honesty. The opposite to this is underhand and cheesy practices where everyone loses. Some examples of which are in the second article. For shame.

Not a real publicity image obviously but rather a cheeky mock up by yours truly. Euro star image from here.
Technorati Tags:adverts,product placement,Film2.0.

Scriptcloud - a new way of looking at your script again

2008-06-13T14:59:00.001+01:00

Last year I wrote about Scriptcloud by my friend Stewart McKie.

Good news - it made it into Nature magazine as an example of a useful tool for analysis. Check it out if you haven't already.

The link again.

Myself as if on The One Show

2008-06-12T14:44:00.001+01:00

A little while ago I went to meet the guys at Dailymotion about how they work - all part of my interest in gatekeepers and spotlighters. Anyway, here is the final film presented by yours truly in a bright red shirt. Enjoy.

What I learnt from Dailymotion
Uploaded by martonhouse

Click or turn off

2008-06-11T19:22:00.000+01:00

From here...

I was having dinner with a group of friends about a month ago, and one of them was talking about sitting with his four-year-old daughter watching a DVD. And in the middle of the movie, apropos nothing, she jumps up off the couch and runs around behind the screen. That seems like a cute moment. Maybe she's going back there to see if Dora is really back there or whatever. But that wasn't what she was doing. She started rooting around in the cables. And her dad said, "What you doing?" And she stuck her head out from behind the screen and said, "Looking for the mouse."

Here's something four-year-olds know: A screen that ships without a mouse ships broken. Here's something four-year-olds know: Media that's targeted at you but doesn't include you may not be worth sitting still for. Those are things that make me believe that this is a one-way change. Because four year olds, the people who are soaking most deeply in the current environment, who won't have to go through the trauma that I have to go through of trying to unlearn a childhood spent watching Gilligan's Island, they just assume that media includes consuming, producing and sharing.

Thanks to chris stack @ deepstructure for heads up.

Battle or Ballet?

2008-06-10T22:00:00.000+01:00

A long time ago (2 months!!!!!) Chris Stack wrote about a book he had read called "A History of American Screenwriting"

Here is a quote from the book that he liked. And I blog about it now as it has stayed with me as a thought. It is discussing the relationship between Orson Welles and Herman Mankiewicz:

Screenwriters mourn their entire careers over their failure to meet that one director, that one empowered, inventive, and most of all sensitive filmmaker who could understand the writer's most profound ambitions and serve as a spur and a goad, a best creative pal, to bring them out. So too, on their part, directors wish for that one writer who could put down on paper for others, make a narrative out of the magnificent, never-seen-before images that flash through their consciousness in their half-sleep, what gordon craig called his "left-handed ideas". This rarely happens. For all the talk of collaboration in filmmaking, the metaphor is most often battle...success, if it comes, derives from a random coupling, an ad hoc agreement on goals and intentions plus extraordinary luck.

I like it because this idea of 2 people working together (in battle or in ballet) extends far beyond the film world or this specific relationship. And whatever our own minor battles if we share a clear goal - we'll be okay.

Character types and my cup of tea.

2008-06-09T09:46:00.000+01:00

If you want to explore a character think about how they would react at an airport when the coffee machine breaks down for 5 minutes! The amount of variation and complexity is enormous.

Tim, at the airport, with a tea.

Storydust source we all know and hate

2008-06-08T12:48:00.000+01:00

Kipling West says...

I am inspired by spam; taking something that is intrusive, annoying & stinky, and seeing beauty (or at least a bit of entertaining weirdness) in it. Spam, like another common commodity, is plentiful, everyone deals with it daily, and it can be a rich fertilizer if cultivated appropriately.

New ideas are everywhere if we look out for them. For more nonsense see SpamTin

More spotlighting tips

2008-06-04T12:24:00.000+01:00

Thanks to Suki for the link...

How to be a keymaster

2008-06-02T15:17:00.000+01:00

Last time I wrote about the new gatekeepers - or what eventually I concluded were a group of people who needed a new name. Perhaps spotlighters - people who throw the follow spot of attention onto certain films.

So today's post is about - how do we work as filmmakers with spotlighters? Four tips have come out of my discussions with various spotlighters:

One:Recency is everything.
If you are trying to get spotlighters to look at your film it had better not have been up for more than 4 days. If it has, delete it and upload it again - unless it has had loads of hits.
Two:Be a tart.
Cross posting is not usually frowned upon. Exclusives are not expected but they may be requested. Spotlighters assume you may have uploaded elsewhere and are cool with that. That way, an offer to make it exclusive to a certain site becomes a bargaining chip.
Three:Serial Killers
A series of films is more attractive than a one off.
Four:You know - actually... speak
Everyone is on line. No one phones. So phoning up makes a difference, a real difference. Email, in this case, is for the great unwashed. Cut through the crap and get on the phone.
Five:Tomorrow's news, today!
Talk about future plans. I spoke to Dailymotion about Mr Vista 3 weeks before we even shot it.

Good luck and get uploading.

The new gatekeepers (and how to be a keymaster)

2008-05-30T14:05:00.000+01:00

There are a new set of gatekeepers in town.

In the old days, to get your film noticed, you had to go through 'gatekeepers'. These are people who you have to get past in order to succeed, they guard the success gate. That might make you think of Cerberus. But in the real world a festival programmer is an example of a gatekeeper - you need them to pick your film in order for it to be shown. A commissioning editor is another example, a distributor is another. Peter Broderick reckons that most films have to get past 7 gatekeepers on average before Joe Public* sees it.

Ages ago I did this diagram to sum it up.

The democracy of the internet, blogs and wikis has led to a new way of films being noticed. Putting your film on-line for people to see involves going past zero gatekeepers. This 'new' way also makes it easier for the writer (or filmmaker) and the audience to work together directly and have a 2 way conversation.

But something else has happened. The rise of the content manager. They are new and slightly different. They like the idea of the 'new' way of working, of letting the web 2.0 philosophy work, of allowing films to live and die by the audience directly. However they are reluctant gatekeepers.

I'm talking about the people who pick what goes on the homepage of video website. Whatever is on the homepage of YouTube or Dailymotion or Revver does best in terms of viewing figures. By well I mean 100 times better.

"Hey Tim, this is opinion, not fact."

Well, here is my case study. This version of Mr Vista was featured on Dailymotion homepage thanks to their support for the project. It has had 40,000 views on their site. I then did another version which I asked them not to feature as it was just for festivals etc. So basically the same film. This time it got only 247 views.

So perhaps the success of our on-line films does lie partly in getting in with these new gatekeepers. Clearly, an excellent film that engages the audience is a given for success. Maybe they are not gatekeepers, which seems a bit negative, but rather enablers or accelerators. Either way, understanding them and their needs is becoming crucial. What do they want? What are they looking for? What appeals? What doesn't?

That's what I'll be looking at in the next post.

*Other names allowed
Technorati Tags:Revver,Viral,Dailymotion,YouTube.

Google Earth for films - first on Earth? Maybe.

2008-05-28T00:59:00.000+01:00

As part of my whole Google Earth script thing going on at the moment I did an extra bit of work - as I do. This is based on a light hearted road movie documentary that I did a few years ago called "Wimborne Road - is it too long?". As you can see from the image above I used a map interface (on screen all the time) for the film - as I've always been keen on new ways to present stories.

Now I've replaced all that and you can watch the film right in Google Earth.

Simply download this file and open it from Google Earth. If you don't have Google Earth then get it, its free.

If you click the play button then I fly you through the journey. Want to watch any of the adventure then simply click the little map pin and YouTube shows you the relevant bit. Genius.

Not sure if its a World's first etc. But maybe.

Click here to download the kmz file.

Check out... or not... who knows

2008-05-25T17:55:00.000+01:00

To help me with my new script my good friend Steve Keevil has been feeding in some links to me. These are social networking / on line, off line / 'distances we put between ourselves' tit bits. He has been doing it for the past 4 weeks or so. He is a one man story dust collector.

Here are some of the things he found that may be of wider interest... or not... but probably...

This movie is being funded by donations and shares - they have nearly half a million pounds so far. Not chump change. (note: check out the Mr Vista style of the thermometer)
Dropbox is in beta. But it will be great for writers. It is a place to upload your files to and then access them from anywhere. Perfect for people on the move or collaborating or wanting to show stuff to producers etc and change it live.
The media 2.0 workgroup is a collective of thinkers on the future of media. Good for anyone who wants to work in the media and keep ahead.
MyLatestPiece shows how you can use the new Google friend connect to add comments to your static website or film. Good for drawing up a fan base. I wish we had this when Circumference was first launched.
BrightKite is social networking based on location - so online yet offline!
Seesmic is getting a lot of press elsewhere - but is essentially a forum that runs on video rather than text.

2008-05-22T19:34:00.000+01:00

As regular readers will know I am working on a new script about the gap between the offline and online world - with google earth being a metaphor. In fact, that's not what its about at all (its about the distances that people create between each other) but everyone always remembers the Google Earth bit.

Why Google Earth? Well, for me, it examines the idea that we all love the distance it offers. The fact that we look at the world from above and from a safe vantage point. People are messy. Maps are safe.

Last night I met up with cartographer Elanor McBay as part of my research and exploration around this idea. She says the big difference between maps in the past and maps now (eg maps online) is that now you are always at the centre. That's a fundamental shift. And an idea that I may try to get in to the script somehow.

But she also had another idea from her writing days that reminded me of the Bruce Block graph. She says she would also struggle with a story until she drew a map of it. Just one more new idea around visualizing words. Rock on.

Image from this blog.