FEATURE DEVELOPMENT FUNDING FROM THE BFI!
Posted by William at 6:51 pm on September 24th, 2011
I am very excited to announce that the BFI have granted my feature film project ‘The Rising‘ full development funding, with production penciled for next Summer.
This is fantastic news as it means I will be able to finish the script in addition to furthering my location scouting and concept art. I have been working on ‘The Rising‘ with Emmy award winning producer Hilary Bevan Jones for over a year now, support from the BFI something we have been dreaming of attaining. Actually pitching ‘The Rising‘ at the BFI HQ will remain engrained in my mind for a long time.
The BFI, formally the UK Film Council, has produced some of the best British films of past years. Including: The Kings Speech, Fish Tank, Brick Lane, Sunshine, This is England, The Last King of Scotland, Nowhere Boy, Harry Brown and many many more.
Im exceptionally excited about the BFI backing ‘The Rising‘, my first feature film is looking more of a reality every day. The plan is to take a month of from directing at The Mill to finish the first draft of the script. I will endeavor to blog about my writing experience over the next few weeks…… and we journey into the unknown.
Location Recce
Posted by William at 12:50 pm on September 1st, 2011
So last weekend I jumped on a mega bus to Cardiff with Benny Burdock (Producer) and Katie MacGregor (Production Design), we then picked up our hire car and went camping in the forests of deepest darkest Wales. The plan being to spend the weekend location hunting, partially for a couple of projects already in development and partially to see if the locations would spark any concepts for the project in my last blog post. I love working from an environment, the atmosphere and landscape of a place inspiring a concept. Especially when working on a small budget its good to use what you have, especially if that raises production value and your creativity.
I took a 7D along for the trip, shooting video of each location. Testing the lenses and the lighting in each location at different times of the day and with different weather conditions. I tried to get as much variety for each location as possible. When using natural light its important to know what you can get- so a grade test with all of the footage has been very helpful. Im not a fan of overcast conditions for shooting, but it was good to test shooting in these conditions. Heres a few graded stills taken from the footage.
AS YET UNTITLED SHORT FILM
Posted by William at 8:19 pm on August 16th, 2011
A section of wall in my Brixton bedroom is dedicated to current projects, its a cork board endowed stretch of post it notes, clippings and general stuff I need to absorb. At current there are 7 projects on this wall, all in pre production. But I shan’t bother you with em all for now- just the one short.
This as yet untitled project is nestled amongst a mix of feature, short, comercial, online drama and music video productions. However it is possibly the one I am currently most excited about. Its an adventurous little project to be shot in The Gower Peninsular, Wales. The project is something of an experiment for me as we dont have a script. At this moment in time we have a camera, crew of 5, cast of 2 and accommodation, with a few locations in mind. Later this month we will travel to The Gower and plan out a few story ideas before returning for the shoot at the end of September.
The project came about as a response to the long running projects I currently have in development, films can be made for £££££££’s or they can be made very cheaply, sometimes you just want to break out from the system and get shooting without the funding. As with the 48 Hour Film Challenge I entered previously- the result being NO ESCAPE. I was so happy with some of the elements of NO ESCAPE and enjoyed the creative process so much that Im looking to recreate something like the same working environment with this short film. I love the idea of working on the fly, having the freedom to take a film any direction you want with no lengthy pre production tying you down. Just you, your team and your dream. You really learn about your creative ideas and direction when you are forced to make decisions with hardly any time to think things through, something subconscious happens and I find that exhilarating.
Thats not to say a film shouldn’t be meticulously planned mind, I just like to shoot a lot and try it both ways. Projects like this are an incredible experience and can throw up some interesting results that inform your work on a greater level.
The film is to be Produced by The Mill’s BENNY BURDOCK, whom I teamed up with on NO ESCAPE. Returning from NO ESCAPE is also KATIE MACGREGOR (Production Design) and The Farm’s IAIN WHITEWRIGHT (Editor), completing the crew is TOM WHETMORE (Sound), I was lucky enough to work with Tom on my book trailer for Walker Books- FLIP and BLOOD ON MY HAND’S. I will be self shooting, something I always enjoy.
Our cast is made up of the talented RACHEL BRIGHT, another NO ESCAPE stalwart and NICO MIRALLEGRO of UPSTAIRS DOWNSTAIRS fame. A very exciting young actor indeed, who as it happened I meet on twitter.
“NO ESCAPE” SCREENING @ THE APOLLO CINEMA WEST END
Posted by William at 9:07 pm on July 10th, 2011
This Saturday I indulged in something of a small cinema crawl, starting at the Apollo Cinema Piccadilly Circus for the screening of No Escape on a screen of epic proportions for the London Sc-Fi showcase. I always get a bit edgy before any of my work screens, sitting in a cinema of people hoping that the projectionist knows what he is doing and doesn’t project a cropped version of your film, or something equally daft. I needn’t have worried however as this turned out to be one of the best screenings Iv seen of my work, with the best sound (and by that I mean LOUD!) best projections and to the largest scale Iv seen my work. We also nestled into the perfect seats, slap bang in the middle of the cinema just above the centre of the screen, immersed in the films on show. Seeing your work at this scale rather than a production monitor, or at best a 40″ grading monitor, holds many a difference.
The way a shot sits on a screen minimum 4 times your own hight is obviously different to how you see it on the edit play out monitor. Its something that I always try to keep in mind when making a film, when choosing frame sizes and even when cutting the shots. Having not previously viewed No Escape in a cinema I was very interested to see how the film sat on the big screen. I have to say I was actually very happy, In fact Im reluctant to see it in any other way from now on! The bigger and louder the better.
After the screening at the Apollo we had to rush of the The Kilburn Film Festival for the Brain Wash screening, which included No Escape. Providing another opportunity to scrutinise the film on a large scale. The screening went down well and there was a great selection of films shown by the Brain Wash team. I would recommend anyone to check out there site (http://www.brainwashonline.co.uk/) and to make their way to any of the future screenings, which are held in London, Paris and New York.
The Little @ International Short Film Festival Detmold.
Posted by William at 7:57 pm on June 19th, 2011
The Little is my owl endowed short film and a reciprocate of the coveted Coca-Cola Cinemagic Innovation Award. Last week it continued its festival run screening at the International Short Film Festival Detmold. Sadly I missed the screening due to a week spent working on pitches at The Mill. However I heard tell from those in attendance that the festival had a lot to offer with screenings and workshops. So worth checking out for 2012 if you haven’t already: www.fest-der-filme.de
Here’s the little film itself….
“THE LITTLE uses no dialogue, a mind-blowing meld of live animal work and CGI and a simple story to create something that feels entirely unique. While I’m biased due to my irrational love of owls, it reminds me of the tone of film I was shown as a kid when family films weren’t afraid to scare the kids” Bradley Porter EatSleepliveFilm.com
NEW JOB! – DIRECTOR AT ACADEMY AWARD WINNING COMPANY, THE MILL
Posted by William at 9:02 am on June 10th, 2011
Yesterday I was very excited to sign a contract with the BAFTA and OSCAR award winning Visual Effects Company, The Mill. I will be joining The Mill as an in house director. The Mill have recently produced ads such as the Nike Write The Future commercial featuring Rooney with that beard and the Magners Bee’s advert. Other clients include Adidas, Converse, Old Spice, Nissan, Budweiser, Audi , Volkswagen, Porsche and Heineken to name a few.
I will be working with The Mill to direct commercials and other content for both the web and theatrical release. So the next few moths should be a very exciting time!
New Talent Award
Posted by William at 7:42 pm on June 1st, 2011
I received a nice package in the post this morning from the National Film Festival for Talented Youth, in the form of their coveted New Talent Award.
NFFTY is a fantastic festival held in Seattle, which I was very upset not to be able to attend (especially after seeing the opening party video bellow). But being the lovely people that they are they sent my award in the post. Ta NFFTY!
Using the Wescam Red one Helicam unit
Posted by William at 12:18 pm on May 6th, 2011
On a recent job in Portugal I had the great furtune of being able to use the Wescam helicam unit with a RED ONE camera, there are only four of these bad boys in the world! So I was very excited to get in the air and try it out.
The Red one is attached to the helicopter inside a giant sphere containing all kinds of motion control and stabilisation wizardry. The camera operator then sits next to the pilot with a control deck, which looks like an over sized nintendo controller from the early 90’s. I then get to sit in the back of the helicopter and comunicate through my headset to both the camera operator and pilot.
We had an hour to get all of our footage, which was an intense experience in itself. Directing aerial footage is unlike most directing experiences. You are literally staring at the monitor eyes peeled giving second by second direction to the camera operator and pilot to get the exact shot you want whilst traveling at up to 150mph (and on occasion only meters above the ground, tree tops or even breaking waves!). The three dimensional movement created between the camera control and helicopter flight path is something which gives aerial footage such a dynamic feel, I loved playing with this cross axis dynamism. It helped to produce an incredibly uprising effect, adding great drama to the aerial landscape shots.
I will definitely be pushing to use this system again on future projects, what it can bring both aesthetically and dramatically is unachievable in any other way. Just a shame its so damn expensive at £1K per hour for the chopper alone!
