Archive | November, 2009

Bilbao Film Fest 51, the end is nigh…

I will keep this entry short as over the next few days I will ruminate over the extreme experience that was Bilbao 2009 – I have a lot on my mind too. I will also, as per tradition, stitch the two webisodes together to create a single webisode of the experience. Onwards and upwards! Chris [...]

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Bilbao Film Fest 51, the first few days… (get me some GREEN FOOD!)

Bilbao Film Fest 51, the first few days… (get me some GREEN FOOD!)

 Red meat, omelette, bread and beer. That’s what I am living on here in Bilbao, at the 51st film festival they have hosted. And the diet is a symptom of the relentless screening schedule of over 80 short films, giving only a few moments sometimes to grab some Pinchos (like Tapas) from a local café, [...]

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ZINEBI 51 – Day one in Bilbao

ZINEBI 51 – Day one in Bilbao

The Bilbao Film Festival has just kicked off – ZINEBI 51 – which translated from local language and dialect means, Cinema Bilbao 51 (51 being the number of years the festival has now been running – amazing huh! And don't you love that poster? Terrific stuff). Bilbao is in Northern Spain, and I must say, [...]

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Sky Movies Movie Geek Show Now Online… Special Report from the Screenwriters Festival 2009

A couple of weeks back I was a speaker at the Cheltenham Writers Festival (day 1 blog here, day 2 blog here), which was a fantastic event. I recommend you go next year as it’s such good value and superbly organised. During the event, I was interviewed by Sky for the Move Geek Show, which [...]

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Is BluRay finally taking off?

Is BluRay finally taking off?

Last week we received more orders for Gone Fishing on BluRay than we had in all the moths since it was released (and I just put them all in mailers today – see pic)! About half were from the USA, and the others from the UK. Could this signify that BluRay has finally got a [...]

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Postcard from down under… what does it all mean?

Postcard from down under… what does it all mean?

Over the last few years I have got to know a film maker down in Australia, Simon VanDerSpoel, who both contributed to ‘Gone Fishing’ and also made a doc called Spitfire Guradians – I recorded a Podcast with Simon about Spitfire Guardians some time back, you can listen here. I also met up with Simon [...]

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'Ink' gets ripped and torrented…

'Ink' gets ripped and torrented…

I just got an email about a film called INK – many of you will have heard about it. Indeed, we recently interviewed the film makers for the upcoming Guerilla Film Makers Pocketbook. So the story this far is… just a few days before the big fanfare release in the USA, ‘Ink’, a US produced [...]

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Where the heck does it all come from?

Where the heck does it all come from?

That’s what Lucia, my lovely girlfriend often asks – ‘where the heck does it all come from?’ ‘The incubation process is the power of your subconscious mind to use all your knowledge and experiences to solve a specific problem, and its efficiency is dictated by time, creative orientation and ego…’ That kind of sums it [...]

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I will send the prize to the embassy of your country in Iran…

I will send the prize to the embassy of your country in Iran…

I just received an incredible email from Iran…! Here’s what it said… ‘Congratulation. This is to inform you that the film "Gone fishing'' has received silver prize of the festival. It contains 5 Golden coins plus silver statue of the festival. I will send the prize to the embassy of your country in Iran…Mahshid Karimi, [...]

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Have you made a 'film' or a 'movie'?

Have you made a 'film' or a 'movie'?

I have received a pile of emails from film makers after I revealed all the stats from the ‘Gone Fishing’ film festival run over the last year. Many were expressing frustration that it appears film makers are often unwelcome in their own countries (bizarrely, some US producers could not get into American festivals but did [...]

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Working at a school for wizards…

Working at a school for wizards…

Having an open and frank conversation with young people is always a challenge. And that’s what I did today, at the Barbara Speake Stage School – with a group of about 50 or so aspiring performers, aged between 11 and 15… A long and deep chat… about wizardry! That’s what I believe we story tellers [...]

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Gone Fishing, the festival data is complete!

Gone Fishing, the festival data is complete!

Well it’s nearly complete. The problem is that I keep getting invites to more festivals, and so, like the making and selling of a film itself, it just keeps going on and on. I am not complaining as it is a fabulous distraction to be invited to wonderful festivals around the world, but it’s not [...]

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Make your life easy and avoid the Christmas rush!

Make your life easy and avoid the Christmas rush!

It’s getting to that time of year isn’t it – the terror of Xmas shopping for friends and relatives when you have no clue what they could want! For me it’s even worse in reverse, when my close family and friends keep asking ‘what do you want for Xmas…?’ and I just don’t know – [...]

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Request from Down Under for Oscars Insider Tips…

Request from Down Under for Oscars Insider Tips…

Yesterday, I got an email from an Australian film maker who is now in the running for the Oscars, just as I was this year with Gone Fishing. As I have had a numbe5r of querries this week regarging the Oscars, I thought I would share his thougts and my response. Here’s his email… My [...]

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Rushes Chat Tracks for Gone Fishing Go Live on Workshop Website

Rushes Chat Tracks for Gone Fishing Go Live on Workshop Website

A couple of weeks ago, editor and Eddie Hamilton and myself sat down and spent a whole Saturday recording a chat track over the rushes for Gone Fishing – that’s nearly three hours of unedited 35mm footage, including main unit with sync sound, second unit, pickups days and of course the high speed Phantom slow [...]

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