THE WATERSPRITE FILM FESTIVAL
Posted by William at 3:44 pm on January 10th, 2012
One of the best things about having a student film was being able to tour the student film festival circuit, meeting like minded students and inspiring industry figures. Fortunately however it looks like I get to relive the good old student filmmaker days! But this time as a jury member for THE WATERSRPITE FILM FESTIVAL.
A film I directed in my second year at uni, ‘Who’s Afraid of the Water Sprite?‘ leant the festival its name after sweeping the board during the festivals inaugural year. Something I know the entire crew are very happy about, as we get to go back to Cambridge every year for this fantastic festival. Last year the brilliant Bill Nighy closed the festival and this year Director of the last four Harry Potter films, David Yates, takes the honour.
I’m currently watching the short listed films, scribbling notes enthusiastically. Picking the winners will be tough. So I cant wait to get together with the other jury members to discuss this fantastic crop of young talent.
Please see bellow the trailer for the film which gave the festival its name.
WHO’S AFRAID OF THE WATER SPRITE?
★★★★★ out of 5 iTunes
★★★★★★★★ out of 10 IMDB
‘THE BEST STUDENT FILM WE HAVE EVER SEEN’ Royal Television Society
‘THE MOST SOPHISTICATED AND TECHNICAL OUTSTANDING STUDENT FILM I HAVE EVER SEEN‘ Franzi Florack Head of The International Student Film Organisation
‘COMPLETELY CHANGED THE WAY I SEE STUDENT FILMMAKING‘ iTunes Review- Taylor Lockheart-Lang
Winner of 9 international awards including the Royal Television Society Award for Best Drama.
‘Who’s Afraid of the Water Sprite?‘ is now being developed into a feature film entitled ‘The Rising’ with Emmy award winning producer and former chair of BAFTA Hilary Bevan Jones. ‘The Rising‘ has received development funding from the BFI.
of off the 70’s
Posted by William at 11:11 pm on December 9th, 2011
So here it is- the 1970’s public acces TV show inspired music video I directed for The City Shanty Band!
The official video for Howlin’ Wind filmed at Mount Pleasant Studios
Directed by: William McGregor
Producer: Tom Nash
DOP: Sam Heasman
Editor: Iain Whitewright
Set Design: SETS APPEAL
Stylist: Lily Silverton
1st AD: Mark Lacey
Visual Effects / DIT: Emily Greeley
Focus Puller: Karl Clarke
Camera Assistant: Chris Kentish
Gaffer: Simon Carter
Electricians: Dominik Palgan & Taras Bondarchuk
Sound Recordist: Tom Whetmore
Playback: Liam Clayton & Aidan Shaw
Floor Runner: Becky Sands
Stills Photographer: Michael Delaney
Very special thanks
Steve Walker
Tattoos by: Jon Bishop
The Rising- development of my first feature film.
Posted by William at 12:43 am on November 13th, 2011
I envisioned doing regular updates on my writing- but every time I started to write a post it felt a bit counter intuitive- why write a blog post about writing- just keep writing! But anyhow, I would like to share something of my experience as I delve into the unknown. So here goes: I spent the last two weeks away from my directing duties at The Mill, to focus on the script for my first feature film, The Rising, I spent the first week in Wales, soaking up the atmosphere with a walk in the morning before sitting down at my lap top in a tiny little cottage in Snowdonia. The film is very much influenced by landscape and our relationship with the environment around us. So it was very important to be able to write in this explorative way. This trip was made possible due to the development funding from the BFI, so Im very grateful to them for their support.
Iv been working on an outline for about a year now, this has fluctuated in length from one page to ten, the structure and story changing many times. So when it came to start the script I already had a good idea of the story I wanted to tell, in addition to a good understanding of my protagonist and the story thematically. Of course I’m finding surprises and changes as I go, but thats all a part of the fun. I know its a cliché- but Im very much appreciating the phrase ‘Writing is re-writing‘. In a way you have to sit down to write something, which at the point of sitting down, your not capable of writing, you have to find and develop the story beyond your best. Relentlessly pushing your ideas and your self- to better your work. This is how I feel good work is made, or else your just being lazy and you will not be doing yourself or your ideas justice.
Here’s a few of the pictures I took when wondering around the mountains, as with my writing I tried to let the themes of my story influence my photography. The script and imagery developing in tandem.
POLAROID – OUR SMOKE AND MIRRORS 48 ENTRY
Posted by William at 1:10 pm on November 5th, 2011
So he here it is- the film I produced with Benny Burdock for the Smoke and Mirrors 48 Hour Competition. Directed by the brilliant Rob Savage.
The film has already attracted some great attention, being showcased on The Real, Write Shoot Cut and promoted by Raindance. A testament to the talented team that made it happen.
Rob, the man with the vision behind the film, worked tirelessly with DoP Sam Heasman, Editor Riccardo Servini and the cast of Tom Geoffrey and Faith Knight to create a stunning film which builds to create an intimate and fractured atmosphere, which I feel perfectly enhances the themes of the film.
Also heres a great graph created by Rob which shows the linear and emotional story. Im loving the simple use of smileys!
Fittingly, heres a polaroid of a few of the crew celebrating wraping the 48 hour shoot- a few well deserved beers in hand.
SMOKE AND MIRRORS 48
Posted by William at 11:33 am on October 27th, 2011
After the success and immense amount of fun experienced doing the London Sci-Fi 48 Hour Competition its understandable that my team would be very excited about the prospect at another similar competition- perhaps the passing months have removed the memory of pain and sleep depravation! But anyway, I received an email from a couple of the team that made our onedotzero selected ‘No Escape‘- looking to have a crack at the Smoke and Mirrors 48 Hour Competition. However sadly the timing did not work well for me due to prior commitments directing for The Mill and writing my first feature film The Rising for the BFI.
However I encouraged the team to do the competition with the young and very talented director Rob Savage in my place. We meet Rob through the London Sci-Fi 48 hour competition and I’m personally a big fan of his work. So this should be some collaboration! Iv been producing with the No Escape producer Benny Burdock, helping with locations and casting- its amazing what gems can be hidden away from past location scouts and castings, im glad I keep notes on that kind of thing! So anyway its all shaping up very nicely so Im very excited to see what madness they come up with in 48 hours. And although I wont be on the shoot myself Il be keeping track of progress and looking forwards to seeing the end result.
Here’s Rob’s film from the London Sci Fi 48 Hour competition. He shot it himself the talented bugger!
DBA IN SPACE – My first comedy drama!
Posted by William at 4:04 pm on October 17th, 2011
So over the past couple of months I’v been working on an online comedy web drama, an interactive challenge which will see one lucky person win a trip to space! The series is a project made by The Mill with UK software giant Red Gate.
Its my first ever comedy and I have to say I enjoyed it immensely. The nature of shooting comedy changes the vibe on set, never mind the way Id shoot a scene. Learning to work with wider lenses was big change from my usual style, I love 80mm to 100mm lenses, so shooting between 25mm- 50mm was a bit of a departure from my norm, which at first felt a bit against my instinct. But in doing this I learnt how to work in a new style, which will definitely inform my future work. It was also an immense amount of fun to allow the comedy and action to play out. Little tricks like starting the scene well before the script begins not only helped the actors to get a head of steam but also produced some amazing moments between Brad McGehee, Nell Mooney and Ken Collard, Ken joining us for a very entertaining day of shooting. The style of coverage in comedy allowing more improvisation and obviously guiding the look of the film, which was beautifully crafted by DoP Chris Sabogal.
Here’s the trailer to wet your appetite:
The initial response has been incredible with some fantastic feedback on Twitter. Episode 3 was released today with a further 11 episodes to be released over the following four weeks. So check out www.dbainspace.com to watch the series and if you happen to be a DBA (Data Base Administrator) you could even win a trip to actual space!
Heres a few of the tweets #dbainspace:
CITY SHANTY BAND MUSIC VIDEO
Posted by William at 3:32 pm on October 15th, 2011
This time last week I spent the day at Mount Pleasant Studios shooting a music video for the City Shanty Band, an 11-member band described by the Daily Mail as a “hackney-based a cappella group” which as the CSB website points out “is wrong because we’ve got an accordion and a drum – silly fascists.”
The Video was shot by Sam Heasman, a DoP who I have been working with since my first year in University, it was great to work with Sam and the rest of the crew, predominantly comprised of friends I attended Uni with back in the day. Working with a profesional team who are also good mates made the shoot a very relaxed and enjoyable experience.
The simple concept was to shoot a video as if the City Shanty Band where making an appearance on a 1970’s public acces TV show. It was great fun to play with the look, Sam experimenting with different filters and even stockings over our Cooke zoom lens, which produced some fantastic retro feeling images on the Arri Alexa.
We also had a fantastic team in Sets Appeal and Lily Silverton who did a wonderful job with production design and costume respectively, art direction is so important in creating a period feel and they did a fantastic job.
The Bands new album is released on the 11th of November with the music video released alongside. So watch this space!
(On set photography by Michael Delaney)
NO ESCAPE SELECTED FOR ONEDOTZERO
Posted by William at 10:05 pm on October 2nd, 2011
Im very excited to announce that a film I directed in the London Sci-Fi 48 hour film challenge No Escape has been selected for screening at the onedotzero_adventures in motion festival 2011.
The festival showcases the most progressive new short films, feature previews, live audiovisual performances, talks, workshops and director Q&As.
In Screen International’s 25th anniversary issue onedotzero directors Matt Hanson and Shane Walter were named as one of the top ten visionaries of the UK film industry alongside Ridley Scott, Chris Nolan and Lynne Ramsay.
The Guardian Film Unlimited described its work as the most, crucial groundbreaking festival of the early 21st-century.
So you can understand my excitement in having a film selected for the festival, never mind one which was made in 48 hours film competition. No Escape will screen on November the 27th In the BFI’s NFT1 in the New British Tallent 2011 screening- A captivating showcase of fresh work by the UK’s brightest sparks and styles in animation and indie filmmaking today.
A big thanks once again to the crew that made it happen:
Ben Burdock – Producer
Adam Etherington – DoP
Katie MacGregor, Kerrie Hughes – Production Design
Iain Whitewright – Editor
Robin Schlochtermeier – Music
James Kennedy – AD
Karl Clarke – Camera Assistant
Ed Bowen Carpenter – Focus Puller
Dominic Burges – VFX Supervisor / 2D Artist / Sound
Tom Slinger – Concept Design
Stuart Turnball – 3D Artist
Harry Wormald – Matte Painter
Maxime Chais – 2D Artist
Emily Greeley – DIT
Lily Markham – Costume / Make Up
Rowan October – Sound
Tom McGregor – Runner
CAST: Jamie Kenna and Rachel Bright.