Arrested development: the importance of having the right producers onboard

It has been a long time since I had the time, focus and energy to write a proper blog update. The summer has flown by with busy ‘summer fun stuff’, a busy workload at the agency, selling our house and looking for a new home... and the developments (!) of my feature project, ‘Shadows’. This blog is about the trials and tribulations, the hopes and the disappointments and the false dawns and frustrations of film development.

Sometimes I get the
feeling  I've been here before!

As the summer winds down, is 3D doing the same?

Here's an excellent article about the trends for 2D vs 3D. Well worth a read.

Microbudget film

I recently read an article about microbudget filmmaking on the excellent website Filmmaker Magazine.

The piece was very pertinent to how I work and spoke, in part, to the aesthetics I aspire to and am drawn to.

I'm not one for written manifestos like the Dogma movement, but I do believe that microbudget filmmaking can be a choice and an ethos. It allows for a voice to be heard rather than be drowned by the big bucks and interfering execs.

Now more than ever, with the advent of affordable HD technology, desk top post-production and avenues of online promotion and (maybe soon) distribution, there is more of a reason -- and more of an avenue -- for independent filmmakers to get out there and create a sea change.

As I develop my project, Shadows, I have my eyes focusing more and more on this option of filmmaking with levels of creative freedom and democratic production we have maybe never seen before.

To read the article by Scott Macaulay, just click here.

Film and photography: the converging lines... part II

I didn't mean my initial post on this subject to be a series, but I came across this video which makes for interesting viewing for anyone for, against, or unsure about the possibilities of shooting serious 'stuff' on a DSLR...



I guess I will be revisiting this subject in the future!

Ping Service

Film and photography: the converging lines... part I

I think it is fair to say that filmmaking was born from photography but, like the proverbial prodigal son, it beat its own path, merging attributes of photography, theatre, music and paintings to create a commercialised mass spectacle (although purists may argue that movies are made up of 24 stills projected, one after another, every second).

A Canon 5D Mark II DSLR mounted on a rig by Redrock Micro