Cannes 2010

My latest short The Triumph of Venus will have its first international outing at the Cannes 2010 Short Film Corner from May 12th. However due to ill health I will not be attending myself, instead my good friend Jack Marshall will be over there pressing his own projects and TToV. The first public showing for The Triumph of Venus will be in the USA during August at The Washougal International Film Festival.

The Triumph of Venus - First Results

With a great thank you to Jack Marshall I can announce that my short film The Triumph of Venus is launched on the film festival circuit. The world premiere will be at Cannes in the short film market place (Short Film Corner) and the first public showing will be in the USA at the Washougal International Film Festival.

My feature script The Pied Piper Killer has almost completed its proof reading stage and then I must decide how to proceed. One thought would be to go for crowd funding and produce the film myself... this would require around £80k (cash). If I could attract a crowd of around 300 then a contribution of little over £250 would get the film made. Of course my current health problems really mean that this could be just too much. However, my experience with other producers leads me to believe that if I want one of my scripts actually produced, then I need to take the short film approach and get on and do the job myself!

The Triumph of Venus

The Triumph of Venus is off and running, with Screeners sent to three film festivals; The Cannes Short Film Competition (France), The Washougal International Film Festival (USA) and The Norwich Film Festival (UK). Now is the time for lots of sustained finger crossing! Once I have a file in the recommended format (from our stalwart editor Jack Marshall) for the Cannes Short Film Corner then this market place will be the films premiere (unless we get into the Competition!!!!). The current screener has a small continuity error which hopefully Jack will be able to correct shortly. When this version is available then several other festivals may be hearing from brokenarrowfilms! Follow this blog for progress reports.

Finally, my new feature film script The Pied Piper Killer is currently being proof read so there’ll be more to say about this soon.

Shutter Island - Review

Yesterday I was luck enough to be sitting in a comfortable West End cinema seat at a preview showing of Shutter Island. If you are a film goer that likes to relax back and allow the film to wash over you; then Shutter Island has enough visual stimuli to satisfy you. However, if films make you think and you enjoy trying to solve a good mystery then I’d avoid this film. The mood music tries desperately to enhance the mystery but in reality the film is transparent and then it’s a long wait until the end, which is admittedly rather well done. To make a feature the plot needed so must more death, as a short film it would have been a winner!

The Pied Piper Killer

The Pied Piper Killer is the new name for my feature By Degrees. I’ve been fiddling with the script and I’m now very happy with its 103 pages. In any event it’s now printed and my dear wife will be proof reading and critiquing the work over the next week or so (wish me luck!).

My other feature The Bloodline is still stuck in the mud having obtained an almost non-existent priority with my Producers (Oh, if only we could do without them!).

However, there is good news about my short The Triumph of Venus…. It’s now officially entered into the Cannes 2010 Short Film Competition (lots of luck wishing here please!) and will shortly be entered into the Cannes 2010 Short Film Corner (which is the Cannes market and not a competition). Well done to Jack Marshall who edited the film!

By Degrees

There is one advantage of being a little physically weak for a while and that is that one can turn ones attention back to writing. I have just completed a 100 page first draft for my low budget feature By Degrees... naturally I think that it’s brilliant at the moment... what I’ll think when it comes to my first review in a few weeks time is another matter! The first big test for the script will be my wife, who will be proof reading soon... wish me luck!

Visitors to my website will notice that By Degrees does not yet appear on the site. This is because I have been experimenting (using a shadow side) with a complete re-write of the site. So watch this space!

And as for my short The Triumph of Venice this is still in post but should be ready in a week or two for it's first festival entry!

The Vet and the Pornstar

It is more than possible that I have lost a few readers due to my long absence. However, I do have a good reason I've been ill!

This has not stopped the post-work on my short The Triumph of Venus but it has meant that I've had to leave it in the hands of my friend Jack Marshall .... overworked as he is, he has managed to produce a great edit (including underwater shots and other effects) which should be ready for Cannes 2010. I've also managed to put in some work on my low budget feature, which has a working title of By Degrees.

I had an email from an LA actress friend of mine (Paula Labaredas) , which brightened my spirits as she sent a clip of her latest film The Vet and the Pornstar. It's an interesting take on traditional film making and I wish it well. Click here for the clip and here for the IMDb entry.

Variant D4 and Daybreakers

If any reader has visited brokenarrowfilms.co.uk they may have seen, amongst the projects listed, the feature film script Variant D4. This Vampire story was written some years ago, long before the recent popularisation of the sub-genre. But as it requires a “real” budget I’ve pushed it back and back to promote cheaper projects such as the feature The bloodline and short films like A Question Of Content and my current project The Triumph of Venus. And of course I have worked on other peoples projects like the feature film script Babbage for Frame On Frame etc.

So why bring this up?

Let me tell you:

Yesterday I went to see the Austrian film Daybreakers . It’s a good Vampire yarn and well produced, well worth a visit even if you’re not a total sub-genre fan. However, the point is that the film contains many of the themes and circumstances contained in Variant D4!

It does not put pay to the D4 project entirely but if it did ever get made (and personally I think my story is even better than Daybreakers – {of course I would say this!}) it would be considered to have been inspired by Daybreakers. So, just in case it does get made I will now be able to point to the many, many (somewhat wishful thinking here!) people who have read this blog and visited the website to vouch for D4’s originality. Egotistic or vain is that?

The Bloodline

The logjam on my The Bloodline feature film project may have moved slightly as a result of a meeting with the main Producer over the holiday. Hopefully, he will soon be in a position to take the Portuguese version on by engaging our nominated writer. In the meantime I’ve polished up the English version and added a little more interplay between the two main characters, which goes some way to satisfy a wish of the Producer, without making a major change to the structure of the story.

Regular readers will remember my blog on the technical issue we had with my short The Triumph of Venus – I’m happy to report that Jack Marshall has demonstrated how we can fix the frames using Adobe After Effects.... well done Jack!

First Cut The Triumph of Venus

The Jack Marshall has completed the first cut of my short The Triumph of Venus. We still have a few issues to deal with, music, shot selection and a tricky technical problem, but it looks like we'll have something we can put into the Cannes Short 2010 Film Competition and the Short Film Corner.

The technical issue relates to a few frames that need correction or replacement during what I call the candle scene. The frame above indicates the problem, the frame below indicates a rough correction... can you spot the difference? Well, you would if the image was projected on a full sized cinema screen, which must be the aim for our final version!

My feature script The Bloodline polish is going well and has been helped by the experience gained making two shorts.

New Year

For much of last year and back into 2008 I was involved in the Babbage feature film. Although no longer on the project, collaborating with Frame On Frame has help to polish up my script methodology. With this in mind I’ve started a review of my own feature, The Bloodline. I hope to tighten up the latest version so keep reading this space. Over the break I was able to speak to my producer and hopefully 2010 will provide an opportunity to take this project further. In the meantime Jack Marshall has made good progress in editing my short The Triumph of Venus and hopefully a rough cut version will be available soon.