A View From The Bridge

Arthur Miller is arguably one of America's greatest playwrights and as a humble writer myself it was a tremendous pleasure to see the master's work at the Duke Of York theatre yesterday. As an example of inspirational writing his A View From The Bridge is difficult to match and for me, at least, probably impossible! Ken Stott gave his all in a very demanding and energy sapping role. He was ably supported by the rest of the cast, which I'm very happy to say included my son in his first west end role (albeit of tiny proportions!). Well done to everyone... I'd recommend it to any aspiring writer of topics relating to the human condition and as a great play to the rest. The show opens to the general public after the press night next week. I'm sure it will get magnificent reviews and it's six month run will be a success.

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Evaluation

Reading is not an automatic fun activity for a writer, in particular it can be difficult to read your own work with objectivity. Imaging then evaluating other peoples work! With my Associate Producer hat on I'm taking part in the selection process to appoint a writer for the next draft of my feature The Bloodline. It was easy with the first writer as we had a film to judge... however my Producer liked it and I hated it! The next two writers we are judging by reading their scripts. If there is a magic way of identifying a great script I'd like to know it, and so I suspect would Working Title! It's easy to identify bad writing but good to great is harder and I don't envy all those readers for the BBC or Film 4 trying to shortlist worthy submissions for a deeper evaluation. But the work must go on!

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Deflation

A dark day for the economy but a deflated day also for the Associate Producers and all the rest of the men, women and children involved in Chris Jones’ short film Gone Fishing. Yesterday the Oscar nominations were announce and although Chris knew that he was in the last ten for selection, in the end Gone Fishing did not make the cut. As Chris would say “onward and upward”! The silver lining being that Chris has been able to appoint two Sales Agents to promote the film.

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Charity My Friend

What is your reaction to the begging bowl? Personally I don’t like to be pushed, so I’m going to apologise in advance for this blog. Most people give something to charity most years and there are almost as many ways of doing this, as there are honourable homes for your spare money. I tend to give in two ways, membership of cultural organisations such as The Art Fund, English Heritage and The National Trust coupled with the disposal of all copper coins I’m given in change into charity tins. However, after attending this years Royal Film Performance (see archive sidebar links 9/12/08) I thought that I’d have my cake and eat it. What can be more cultural than Film and Television and where would you find the unsung heroes of the industry? Why selling you that Cinema ticket or something similar. Therefore the Film & Television Benevolent Fund (CTBF), who stage the Royal Film Performance, and specialise in helping those heroes of the industry in times of need, seemed like an ideal candidate for my largesse. But here is the dark side, today I became a member of CTBF without spending a penny! How, you ask? Have you forgotten Christmas already! My daughter is the Business Development Manager for the Cure Parkinson’s charity so it gave her great pleasure to purchase my membership as her Christmas present to me. Smiles all round and what’s more this could be an annual event! So what’s stopping you from checking out the CTBF (and don’t forget Cure Parkinson’s!)?

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Downturn

As a filmmaker (or would be!) you cannot avoid getting involved with money, so I’ve been thinking about the current downturn. Can it be explained? As a writer I’ve written a little story, which crudely illustrates the situation, at least, to me! I hope you find it useful?

Jean was a lucky girl, she won £1000 on a government scratch card. She loved collecting porcelain and in four weeks time there was to be a local auction. She decided to put her money aside for four weeks in a new business called FirstBank.com. In Jean’s land banks could not charge or give interest. Jean’s deposit was FirstBank.com’s first customer and, as was the custom, 10% of the deposit (£100) was placed into a reserve fund (which already had £100 stored as a matter of law). The remainder (£900) was available to loan.

This was lucky for Frank, who knew of the auction and loaned £900, on a short-term basis, from FirstBank.com. In this country it was illegal to hold £900 or more at home, as a crime prevention measure, so Frank put the money into another new bank, SecondBank.com. Frank was SecondBank.com’s first customer and £90 (10%) was put into reserve (which already had the mandatory £100) allowing £810 to be loaned out.

How lucky for George, as just before the auction started he loaned the £810 from SecondBank.com on a long-term basis, with a repayment plan of £10 per month.

The auction room required payment by cheque or cash, after the sale, and so Jean and Frank took cheque books to the auction. George took his £810 in cash. Between them they had £1000, £900 and £810 respectively to spend on the day. At this stage readers should note that the original winnings of £1000 has become £2710 spread between three people!
On the day of the auction Jean out bids Frank and George for a piece of porcelain and spends her £1000. She pays by cheque and leaves with her purchase. In disappointment, Frank leaves but George purchases another piece for £800 cash then goes to SecondBank.com to repay £10 of his loan. Readers should note that of the £1000 winnings £1800 has been spent between Jean and George!

Now when the auction room presents Jean’s cheque to FirstBank.com they have only £200 reserve but fortunately for them Frank’s loan was due to be repaid on that date. However, when Frank goes to SecondBank.com to collect his £900 to repay FirstBank.com, he finds that they only have £190 reserve and the £10 of George’s first repayment. The rest of the £810, loaned to George, is not due back for months! SecondBank.com must seek a loan of £700 from the government or go bust but this takes time to arrange.

In the meantime Frank defaults on his loan of £900 from FirstBank.com and therefore FirstBank.com cannot honour Jean’s £1000 cheque and the auction rooms cannot pay its staff.

The £1000 put into the economy by the government, in the form of a scratch card, has become £2700 due to banking policy and was not a problem (if the money kept revolving), but once a demand is made, which is too great to be met, the entire system collapses.

And the net result is that the auction room made one man redundant and the government had to bailout FirstBank.com for £800 and SecondBank.com for £700. They also paid the redundant worker £300 for the period he was out of work. Thus the £1000 pumped into the economy lead the government to spend a further £1800 when the merry-go-round failed (a staggering 180% increase in the money supply!). If our little story had taken account of interest payments, bundled debt packages and the like then you’d have realise that this fictional country had been heading for financial thin ice for some time!

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International Rescue

Regular readers will recall the technical problem I ran into on my short A Question Of Content. Briefly for newcomers, my short was filmed using a Canon XL1 digital SD camera with a Red Rock M2 filter attachment to give a film effect to the digital recording. During the process the image is reversed and therefore needs to be rotated by 180% during editing. I had intended to edit the film myself but I found that either my machine (Aspire 7112WSMI), operating system (XP Media Center), background processes or the editing software (Adobe Premiere 6.5) produced quality issues (pixelization strobing) on the rotated footage. Investigations seemed to point towards Adobe, but at this stage International Rescue (in the form of Jack Marshall Cambridge Film International) stepped in to save the day. Jack uses Avid editing software, which seemed to "flip-flop" OK. Further than this, he took over the editing role as the Avid clip grading/colour adjustments/balance etc was superior to the Adobe S/W (thanks Jack). Yesterday, Jack and I spent much of the day going over his initial edit whilst also getting an important pickup shot in the can. We then spent a few minutes going over the early edit of his own short Intruder (which is already looking pretty good {shot on a semi-HD camera}) so we had a most successful day.

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BAFTA

A happy evening at BAFTA (around a year ago) for the private premiere of Gone Fishing the short film by Chris Jones. As an Associate Producer and featured Extra I have taken much pride in the success it has achieved since it's first public showing at Cannes 2008. It is therefore a little sad to report that Chris' film did not get nominated for Best Short for this years BAFTA awards. Still as Chris has frequently said his main aim is the Oscars.... so watch this space! The film has already won a string of awards so there may not have been room for a BAFTA in Chris' flat anyway!

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Lethargy

The pace of life is slowly picking up, after the post Christmas lethargy, as my Producer has sent me a feature film to watch. It was made by one of a shortlist of candidates that my Producer and Director designate have suggested should write the next draft of The Bloodline. As the current exclusive owner of The Bloodline copyright this is a big step for me to take, but as a co-Producer I also recognise it as an essential one (particularly as the story may well be transferred to a European country). Watch this space!

Jack Marshall (cameraman/editor) on my short A Question Of Content is coming over at the weekend for a couple of pickup shots and to finalise the edit, so I guess I’m going to have to start motoring myself soon?

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The Duke Of York

I do not intend to use this blog to plug anything but I have made an exception for A View From The Bridge. This is an Arthur Miller play and is due to open in about 10 days time at The Duke Of York Theatre in the West End. The play stars Ken Stott. And the reason for the plug? My son is in the cast and it's his first West End production! I hope the whole cast break many "legs"!

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Jack Marshall Films

Today I received Jack Marshall’s latest cut of my short A Question Of Content. The grading is looking good and I do believe that we may yet get something we can take to Cannes 2009. Well done Jack... he put aside is own edit of Intruder to complete the latest AQOC cut! This good news inspired me to look again at my Director designate’s lukewarm comments about The Bloodline feature ReWrite, I’ve sent a rebuff to my Producer, so it will be interesting to see what comes of it… watch this space! I’ve also sent a copy of the script to Jack and Len Evans of VIP Ltd (my other Producer at Pinewood) so you'll need to check back here if you’d like to know what they made of the ReWrite!

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Katie Melua

I'm still trying to avoid picking up on one of my many outstanding projects! The excuse today is a phone call from my Producer. He tells me he has a meeting with our Director designate tomorrow, to discuss the best way to take The Bloodline feature forward, so I may as well wait and see how that turns out.


In the meantime I've been listening to some music and I'd like to recommend Lucy In The Sky performed by Katie Melua. She is reported as worth £18m... not bad for someone in their early twenties! Enjoy!

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Battlestar Galactica

Traditionally one does a review of the year at this time, but until today my Laptop had other ideas so you’ve been lucky enough to miss it! However, you’ll find my first ever blog (14 January 2008) here and you can follow the links if you missed anything, and have nothing better to do!!!!??

I hope you all had a splendid holiday… but are you now suffering from a post Christmas melancholy? Is the thought of the “work” ahead dragging you down? Or can’t you wait to get back to the grindstone? Regular readers will know that I have several projects at various stages of development, so in theory I have plenty of creative outlets at my disposal… but since that somewhat lukewarm response to The Bloodline ReWrite, by the Director designate (see previous blog), I’m in something of a malaise. Therefore instead of being productive I’ve been enjoying Battlestar Galactica Series 4, DVD’s from Lovefilm. It’s not as good as series 3 (e.g. the Grace Park, mixed marriage, subplot seems to be on hold) but it’s a dead easy way of passing a day or two!

Grace Park Battlestar Galactica - More amazing videos are a click away

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