La Cage Aux Folles

On Wednesday I found myself at a loose end because my Babbage preproduction meeting was put off until next week, so my wife booked us into a West End theatre. Not exactly my thing, but there I was in the Playhouse watching La Cage Aux Folles. The audience really enjoyed the show and entered into its vibrant spirit, however for me I thought that the transvestites were a little too cliché and the lead gay somewhat hammy. Having said this it wasn’t a bad show; in fact it was well acted and the song & dance routines lifted up the somewhat simplistic plot to make an evening at the theatre worthwhile. Go see it if you enjoy being washed by a glam performance.

I’ve been thinking about a short-short for Cannes 2010 and I’ve already changed the title from “Bath Time” to “Martian Eclipse” as I think this will capture the essence of the theme better. Watch this space for more on this during the year.

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email:- brokenarrowfilms

Last Chances

Just over a week ago Jack Marshall and I (mostly Jack!) produced the final cut (if there is such a thing?) of my short A Question Of Content. It was a devil of a job to get an uncompressed Quick Time file of quality out of AVID, as for some reason the compressed mpegs (used to make DVD VOB files etc) were of a higher quality when viewed on a PC (suspicion falling on the interlacing associated with the larger files). By Thursday this week I was able to send off final cut DVDs and QT files to the Washougal International Film Festival ( where AQOC has been accepted) and the 11th Annual Milwaukee Short Film Festival (where selection is pending). Thanks Jack (who worked through a cold to complete the job!)!

Trevor Hughes is off to the US in a few weeks time (to raise funds) so our production meeting this week may well be our last opportunity to get the Babbage feature film script in a good shape for the investors. Watch this space!

Time is running out, for this year at least, for my other feature film script, The bloodline, but once we got a Portuguese version we should be able to move forward next year. My main Producer and the Director designate have been discussing principle cast but I can’t say any more at this stage.

Time has run out for my Creative Writing refresher course (until October anyway) but my last piece was very well received and it may form the basis of a short-short for next year’s Cannes. Watch this space!

Be Part Of The Miracle!!
email:- brokenarrowfilms

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.

Be Part Of The Miracle!!
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brokenarrowfilms

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!

Be Part Of The Miracle!!
email:-
brokenarrowfilms