Moviscope 34

movieScope 34

Movies From An Insider’s Point Of View

34 34

May/June 2013

ABCs of Death British directors discuss modern horror Crowdfunding Veronica Mars and the future of funding Star Trek Into Darkness Roger Guyett creates stellar VFX

9 771751 135006 May/June 2013 £4.95

The Iceman

Video on Demand

A threat to independent filmmaking?

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MICHAEL SHANNON IS...

THE ICEMAN

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America’s most exciting actor on seeking the truth in every character, from Kuklinski to Zod

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Issue 34 May/June 2013

Contents

24 Fps 06 Location Focus

Panama's strong economy, tax incentives and commitment to growing its filmmaking infrastructure are making it a paradise for international productions.

10 Industry Insider

Analyst Michael Gubbins examines why the growth of digital cinema and on-demand platforms may pose a very real threat to independent content.

12 Skillset Trainee Diary

Camera trainee Richard Davis reveals how the Skillset Film Trainee Placement Scheme, and experience on films like The Muppets...

Again and Kick Ass 2, has given him a solid start to his career.

14 Script Talk

Screenwriting expert Danny Munso examines the current state of the spec script market, and explains why original ideas are making a comeback.

16 Finance and Funding Payroll and production services experts Sargent-Disc Ltd explain how independent producers can benefit from employing creative strategies when it comes to funding.

18 Distribution

Mick Southworth and Martin McCabe discuss how a decline in studio production could bring opportunities for the independent sector.

22 Announcements

From HD storage to DSLR backpacks and a new pocket-sized digital cinema camera, we take a look at the latest tech for filmmakers.

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34 MICHAEL SHANNON

“I enjoy getting to venture outside of myself, and getting to imagine living very different lives. It's like taking a vacation from yourself."

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Contents Issue 34 May/June 2013

Features 26 Crowdfunding

With Rob Thomas' Veronica Mars Kickstarter project generating recordbreaking donations, as well as headlines, we examine what impact its success may have on independent filmmakers.

34 Michael Shannon

Ahead of his roles as real-life assassin Richard Kuklinski in The Iceman and Superman nemesis General Zod in Man of Steel, the actor sits down for a full and frank career interview.

42 The ABCs of Death

British directors Jake West, Simon Rumley and Lee Hardcastle discuss their contributions to this groundbreaking horror anthology, and debate the current state of modern genre filmmaking.

52 My Brother the Devil

Having recently accompanied her debut film on its US release, director Sally El Hosaini writes exclusively about her American road trip, and the important lessons she learned about filmmaking along the way.

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Insider's P.O.V

Reviews

24 Justin Nappi

58 Theatrical

Hollywood's latest wunderkind producer explains why it's so important to take a hands on approach at every stage of a film.

30 Ang Lee

The Oscar-winning Life of Pi director on why 3D was so essential in connecting audiences to the story.

Editor Nikki Baughan and critic James Mottram discuss Joss Whedon's contemporary adaptation of Shakespeare's Much Ado About Nothing.

Plus reviews of The Company You Keep, Our Children, Before Midnight and many more.

You can find additional and extended reviews on our website, www.moviescopemag.com.

40 Matthew McConaughey

After making his name with romantic comedies, the actor reveals why he's now choosing challenging films like Killer Joe and Mud.

46 Roger Guyett

ILM's Visual Effects Supervisor takes us behind the scenes of his stellar effects for Star Trek Into Darkness.

50 Craig Armstrong

The composer discusses his working relationship with director Baz Luhrmann, and their latest collaboration The Great Gatsby.

56 Diane Kuo

The projectionist turned digital colourist reveals the tricks of her trade.

“What I took from the book [Life of Pi] was the idea of taking a leap of faith and embracing something you can't understand."

Director Ang Lee www.moviescopemag.com

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Editorial Issue 34 May/June 2013

Contributors

I’m not going to lie; I love my job. One of its true joys is being able to indulge in and showcase the work of those I genuinely admire. This issue has been no exception, as I have been able to immerse myself in the world of one of my all-time favourite actors. (He’s likely one of your favourites, too) It was in the front row of the Odeon West End where I first discovered Michael Shannon, during a London Film Festival screening of Bug in 2006. Having been attracted to the film by its excellent director, William Friedkin, I found myself confronted by a performance of such raw intensity that I simply could not get it out of my head. I still haven’t. In his portrayal of an unhinged war veteran holed up in a hotel room he believes is infested with insects, Shannon displayed a courageous power that—as any dedicated cineaste will know—does not come along all too often.

If it seems I’m waxing rather lyrical, I make no apologies; in the years since, Shannon has proved what was obvious to me; that he is one of the most exciting actors of his generation.

Consider some of his most memorable roles; matricidal Brad Allum in Werner Herzog’s My Son, My Son, What Have Ye Done?; tormented, family man Curtis LaForche in Jeff Nichol’s Take Shelter; unhinged cop Bobby Monday in David Koep’s Premium Rush; darkly fervent Agent Nelson Van Alden in TV hit Boardwalk Empire; real-life hitman Richard Kuklinski in The Iceman; and General Zod in upcoming Superman reboot Man of Steel. All fascinating, multifaceted and undeniably difficult to love, but all utterly enthralling thanks to Shannon’s natural approach, which ensures his characters remain empathetic even when extreme in thought and deed. In a frank and entertaining career interview (p. 34), Michael explains that, while he may have a reputation for playing characters on the edge, to him it’s all about finding the truth behind any personality, no matter how edgy.

While blockbuster The Man of Steel—and Shannon’s take on Zod—is one of the talking points of the summer, another subject is making waves at the other end of the scale; crowdfunding. Long the domain of low budget, relatively unknown filmmakers, it has hit the news recently thanks to the success of Rob Thomas’ Veronica Mars Kickstarter campaign. Industry and fan opinion about these ‘bigger’ projects encroaching onto precious crowdfunding space has been divided, with many asserting that they will divert attention—and cash—away from those filmmakers who really need it. With the help of documentary maker and successful Kickstarter user Sarah George, we examine the affect these bigger projects may have on the crowdfunding model (p. 26). It’s another fascinating discussion.

Nikki Baughan, Editor

movieScope magazine Ltd Bridge House 105 3 Mills Studios Three Mill Lane London, E3 3DU United Kingdom Tel: +44 (0) 845 094 6263 Twitter: @movieScope www.movieScopemag.com Publisher & Editor-In-Chief Rinaldo Quacquarini Editor Nikki Baughan Sub Editor Naila Scargill Art Director Simon Edwards Cover Photograph The Iceman © Lionsgate

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Creative Consultant Jaime Biazotti Litho Pensord Press www.pensord.co.uk Subscriptions +44 (0) 845 094 6263 or visit www.movieScopemag.com Advertising Media Pack available online at: www.movieScopemag.com or by calling +44 (0) 845 094 6263

Stephen Applebaum is a film journalist.

Nikki Baughan is the editor of movieScope. @rollcredits Anton Bitel is a film writer and academic. @AntBit Helen Cox is editor of New Empress magazine and a freelance film critic. www.newempressmagazine.com James Clarke is a freelance film writer.

Richard Davis is a camera trainee taking part in Creative Skillset's Craft and Technical Skills Academy's Trainee Placement Scheme.

Simon Edwards is a freelance film critic and movieScope's art director.

Sally El Hosaini is the writer/director of My Brother the Devil.

Michael Gubbins is a journalist, consultant and chair of the Film Agency for Wales. @michaelgubbins Eddie Harrison is a freelance film writer.

MaryAnn Johanson is film critic and creator/editor of www.flickfilosopher.com Martin McCabe is one of the UK’s most experienced film distributors.

James Mottram is a freelance film writer and author of four books on film.

Danny Munso is a screenwriting expert. @dannymunso Rinaldo Quacquarini is the publisher and editor-in-chief of movieScope and shareholder in EnderLegard.com @movieScope Limara Salt is a freelance film journalist.

Sargent-Disc Ltd provide payroll and production services to the film industry.

Naila Scargill is movieScope’s sub editor and editor of Exquisite Terror magazine. www.exquisiteterror.com @exquisiteterror Tom Seymour is a freelance film critic. @TomSeymour Mick Southworth is the Director of The Works Film Group.

Bren Sritharan is a freelance journalist.

Amber Wilkinson is a freelance film critic.

Josh Winning is a film critic and writer.

movieScope is published bimonthly in January, March, May, July, September and November by movieScope Magazine Ltd. Subscription: 6 issues for £20.79/$37/€30 plus shipping. movieScope is available from all good newsagents across the UK, Europe and USA. Visit movieScopemag.com for an interactive map to locate an outlet closest to you. No part of this publication may be reproduced by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying, recording or by any information storage or retrieval system without the express written permission of the publisher.

The opinions expressed in movieScope Magazine articles and advertisements are those of the individual authors and advertisers respectively and should not be considered in any manner as expressions of the management or official policies of movieScope Magazine Ltd. For information on reprints and syndication, please contact Editor-In-Chief@movieScopeMag.com The title “movieScope” and logotype are registered trademarks and service marks of movieScope Magazine Ltd. Copyright 2013. All Rights Reserved.

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24 Fps Location Focus

The Jewel of Central America

Panama’s strong economy, tax incentives and commitment to growing its film industry are making it a paradise for international productions.

Situated on the isthmus joining North and South America, Panama has long held a fascination for explorers thanks to its lush scenery and strategic location. Yet only a few filmmakers have used the country as a location; in the half century since Raoul Walsh filmed his 1958 war thriller The Naked and the Dead in the country, just a handful of projects have followed suit; most notably The Tailor of Panama in

From lush greenery (above) to beautiful beaches (below), Panama has a plethora of unspoilt locations

2001, Quantum of Solace in 2008 and Contraband in 2012.

In 2013, however, a raft of international productions are descending on Panama, including Hands of Stone, which stars Edgar Ramirez as the legendary Panamanian boxer Roberto Duran with support from Robert De Niro; Paradise Lost, which sees Benicio Del Toro take the role of legendary Colombian drug baron Pablo Escobar; and episodes of US TV show The Hero starring Dwayne ‘The Rock’ Johnson. And it’s not just Panama’s stunning landscapes which are attracting such global attention, but also its burgeoning economy and the government’s renewed dedication to supporting and growing the local film industry so that the country may compete as a location at a global level.

Economy and Incentives In recent years fiscal strength has become as intrinsic to Panama’s DNA

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as its geography; the country has one of the fastest growing economies in the buoyant Latin American region. Growth has averaged almost nine per cent a year over the last six years and forecasts predict that it will continue on this trajectory through 2013 and beyond.

While the official Panamanian currency is the balboa, which replaced the Colombian peso following the country’s independence in 1903, in practice the country is dollarised; coinage is Panamanian, but US dollars are legal tender and used for all its paper currency. In addition, the balboa itself is fixed with the United States dollar at an exchange rate of 1:1; an attractive prospect for any international producer, as it means that fluctuating exchange rates do not have to be calculated or factored into any production budget. Additionally, a 2012 report by the Economist Intelligence Unit found Panama to be one of the 10 least expensive cities for visiting foreigners, particularly important when looking after the needs of an entire crew during a shoot.

There are other incentives specifically geared toward the film industry. In 2012, the government passed a new law that offers a 15 per cent cash rebate to international producers who spend over $3m of their production budget in Panama. (Unlike similar schemes in Puerto Rico and Colombia, there is no limit on projects coming into the country.) The temporary importation of all film equipment into the country is tax-free, with no deposit required, while the implementation of reduced or non-existent immigration service fees and reduced visa rates for film and audiovisual production companies mean that getting cast and crew in and out of the country is a painless procedure.

And for any production looking to take advantage of the low-cost local labour,

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Panama has no payroll tax and work permits are free.

Businesses within the film industry looking to locate to the PanAmerica Corporate Center, a dedicated business hub on the western border of the Panama Pacifico Airport, can take advantage of Panama’s Special Economic Zone status, resulting in significant tax, legal, immigration, customs and other fiscal benefits.

Support and Infrastructure The Panama Film Commission, a division of the Ministry of Commerce

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and Industry, is dedicated to supporting the producers and directors of projects shooting in the country. They provide a onestop shop for all film permit and production needs—including the acquiring of visas and work permits before the crew arrives in Panama—and work closely with other governmental departments to facilitate any size of shoot.

The Film Commission also holds a comprehensive directory of local providers of equipment and services relating to film and television

Right: As well as stunning natural scenery, Panama boasts modern urban skylines

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24 Fps Location Focus

production, including location scouts, make-up artists and catering crews, as well as production and location guides that are all available through their website.

“Our bilingual staff is available to help you find the ideal location and ensure that you make the most of your production and filming in Panama,” the Commission states. “We work together with service providers, location scouts and managers, as well as other government authorities and private organisations, so that we can meet your project’s needs. We handle everything so you can focus on your production.”

Locations In a 2009 poll commissioned by Variety, which included hundreds of location managers, unit production managers, cinematographers, directors and assistant directors, Panama was chosen as the location with ‘Best Visual Appeal’. And that’s not surprising; while it may be close to the USA—Panama City is just over six-and-a-half hours flight from LA and only five hours from New York; a hop, skip and jump in logistics terms—the country has a diverse and abundant topography which includes tropical rain forests, beaches, volcanoes, deserts, islands, 40 ecological reservations, five natural parks, preserved historic landmarks including the iconic Panama Canal and several UNESCO World Heritage Sites.

It’s also worth noting that many of these landscapes are unexplored by film and television productions, and so have never been seen on screen before.

In addition to Panama’s stunning scenery, there are modern city skylines and urban areas boasting both architectural diversity and multi-ethnic culture. And all of Panama’s locations benefit from a year-round tropical climate that’s free from natural disasters.

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Above: Panama City is the country's urban hub

Testimonial

Victor Barriga, Quantum of Solace “Filming a James Bond movie is always a challenge, and we fully surpassed it in Panama,” says Barriga, Quantum of Solace’s production manager in Panama City and Colón City for 12 weeks of shooting in 2008. “Panamanians are really enthusiastic about the idea of cinema and glamour, which makes logistics really easy with the government and public in general.

We worked hard and enjoyed the process, but most importantly we did it on schedule. Because of Panama’s great geographic diversity, we were able to film two completely different sequences of the movie; in Panama City, as La Paz, Bolivia, and in Colón City, as Haiti.

“We contracted more than 350 professionals as crew from the Panamanian film industry, all of whom performed a great job.

“The development of the tourism industry has provided the infrastructure throughout the country [needed] to facilitate the transportation of film equipment, while the infrastructure provided by the former US military bases aid in the production process.

The strategic geographic position of Panama also facilitates access and its function with commercial services aids in the importation of necessary equipment for the film industry.

“Finally, the most important aspect is that all of the aforementioned benefits are provided amidst the comfortable lifestyle that is required by large international productions.”

Useful Links

Panama Film Commission www.pfc.mici.gob.pa Director Arianne Marie Benedetti can be reached at abenedetti@mci.gob.pa International Film Festival of Panama www.iffpanama.org ●

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24 Fps Industry Insider

The Invisibility Dilemma

Michael Gubbins examines why the growth of digital cinema and on-demand platforms may see independent content disappearing…

Put the words ‘crisis’ and ‘film industry’ into Google and you get almost five million returns. The idea of crisis underpins industry discussions at festivals and conferences, though they are now often given an ostensibly positive spin—you don’t sell many tickets reminding the industry which creek they are in and how short they are of paddles. But are we looking at the right crisis?

The current film debate is largely about threats to the industrial structure of film, in terms of investment, finance and revenues.

Anyone with a memory longer than the last decade will affirm that ‘crisis’ in that sense is pretty much the default position of the film industry.

We are currently nowhere near the rock bottom of the 1980s, when the idea of an existential threat to cinema seemed all too real. And the arrival of VHS and then DVD, which helped resurrect the business-lest we forget-was vigorously opposed by much of the theatrical business. Back then, the supposed threat was framed by the narrow concerns of sections of the industry, but the real issue then, and now, is what we might call the ‘invisibility dilemma’.

Broadly speaking, each innovation brings a choice between increasing access at the expense of the existing business model, or protecting existing positions and risking losing the demand on which new business can be built.

Previously, the supposed battle was between home entertainment and theatres; today, it is between anytime/ anywhere access and physical sales.

For the big corporates of film and media, the experience of the coal mine canaries of the music industry has forced a change of attitude.

From initial angry opposition to all change, the music business response

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Sean Stewart (above) of Fourth Wall Studios believes we have entered a 'fifth age of storytelling' with interactive projects like Call Alert (below) replacing traditional film

was a story of retreat, repositioning and eventual acceptance of the once unthinkable, such as the deals with Spotify, YouTube and the iTunes cloud-based Match service.

Hollywood has tried to make sure that the same mistakes are not made and, rather than burying its head in the sand, has sought to ensure that the new digital economy works to its benefit. The majors have dictated the shape of the new world to a disturbing extent, from the DCI specifications for digital cinema to the VoD platforms they choose to support.

Indeed, supported by increasingly sophisticated use of social media and cross-media marketing, the reach to global audiences has become stronger, resulting in ever more gargantuan franchise releases.

In 2005, there were 14 films with production budgets above $100m; by 2011, that had risen to 24. The independent industry, however, still has a bad habit of not spotting the oncoming dangers until it has reached the point of crisis.

Independent film is more reliant than Hollywood on the shock of the new but there are reasons for concern about how new talent will find audiences,

particularly outside the big countries with large internal markets. Film, of course, has never been an easy option for the newcomer. It has been a business characterised by obstacles and ruled by gatekeepers. The cost of filmmaking ensured that it was open to very few, and yet there was at least a degree of social mobility in film and television. People from a range of backgrounds could learn trades and some eventually take leading creative or business roles on merit. (The fact that women in particular were so often excluded says more about social attitudes that still need to be fought than the weaknesses of the theoretical meritocracy of the craft trade.) There were, and remain, hopes of a more democratised business, open to all, and one in which the audience is not simply the passive recipient of content profitable enough to distribute or which cultural powers—such as state broadcasters and critics—felt was good for them.

The landscape today is, in many ways, more diverse. The cost of entry to filmmaking and the ability to market and distribute films using social media has created the means for film, in its broadest definition, to find audiences.

Over recent years, services such as YouTube and IndieFlix have found smart micro payments that have added up to occasionally significant sums. Knowledge of audiences has dramatically increased in the digital age and every filmmaker has the potential to speak directly to existing and potential fans. So what’s the problem?

The music world and publishing both suggest the possibility of a world that remains dominated at one end by corporate giants but in which a new world of micro-scale production, close to its fans, is increasingly thriving. Around the

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One To Watch Ben Lewis Documentary Filmmaker After graduating from Cambridge University, Ben spent time working at MTV News. From there, he began making documentaries, beginning with The King of Communism: The Pomp & Pageanty of Nicolae Ceausescu in 2002. His latest film, Google and the World Brain, was nominated for a Grand Jury Prize at the 2013 Sundance Film Festival. world, hyper-low-budget work is finding audiences and that may continue to grow with a range of media outlets and social media opportunities, plus support from public bodies and festivals. Most makers of low-budget films, however, do not want to be makers of lowbudget films; they want to paint on larger canvasses, and a few even fancy the notion of making money.

A recent piece of academic research from two UK universities suggested there has been a narrowing of the social base of those working in media and film, partly because there is no career structure any more. This means that today’s would-be content creators need to start with at least some independent wealth, or a healthy contacts book.

There are other obvious areas of concern: the vast increase in the amount of available films to watch, from the 75 per cent increase in films made in Europe over the last decade, supported by public money, to the digitisation of a vast archive. And the diversity of the current environment is itself under threat. History suggests digital change always starts with a free-for-all land grab and ends with near monopolies.

A recent survey by media consultants Simon-Kucher & Partners suggested that 90 per cent of online content would be behind a pay wall in the next three years. With terrestrial television rarely bringing challenging independent film to mass audiences, pay walls and subscriptions may lead to

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ever more fragmented demand, with the new and adventurous disappearing.

Some of the more radical transmedia activists suggest this is all inevitable; that we are simply reaching the end of an era in which film was the means by which a culture expressed its ideas. Perhaps, as leading transmedia advocate Sean Stewart, of Fourth Wall Studios suggests, we are entering a ‘fifth age of storytelling’ of interactive, crowd-sourced and collaborative content, supplanting the one-tomany approach of movies. If that sounds like a trite simplification and that there is room for thrilling and challenging film at the centre of cultural life, then the ‘invisibility dilemma’ needs to be addressed before it becomes a crisis. ●

“Pay walls and subscriptions may lead to ever more fragmented demand, with the new and adventurous disappearing.”

What training have you received?

My best training was not to go to film school; instead history taught me how to tell stories and history of art told me how to make images. I worked at MTV in the nineties, writing MTV news. It was the world's silliest job but it was also the greatest place to learn on the job. I got loads of experience shooting short reports.

What kind of projects attract you?

I like unusual off-the-wall stories that make you think at first ‘Why make a film about that?’, and then when you watch the whole film you think ‘Ah, now I understand’.

So I used communist jokes to get people to feel what it was like to live under communism, and Google’s book scanning project to critique the internet. In my art market film The Great Contemporary Art Bubble, I was really using contemporary art to critique the global economy and zeitgeist.

What’s the best advice you’ve been given as a documentary filmmaker?

Basically watch movies and documentaries, and always think ‘where have they put the camera?’ Analyse the story, break it down, understand the decisions behind the sequence of images and words. Take notes. Listen to your critics; films are made by teams of people not by egotistical visionaries. Actually I recommend Michael Rabiger’s books; basic but invaluable.

Tell us the most significant moment in your career so far.

Getting to Sundance, probably, with Google and the World Brain. Though the watershed moment was when Nick Fraser from BBC’s Storyville commissioned my film Hammer and Tickle; that encouraged me to follow my own madcap ideas, leading to my cult series Art Safari.

You ‘ll die happy when…

I have produced a few films that dared to try to change people’s minds, and take on the billionaires.

Supported by the Skillset Film Skills Fund, as part of A Bigger Future 2 (www.abiggerfuture2.co.uk)

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Promotional Feature Creative Skillset

Trainee Diary: Camera Department Trainee Richard Davis takes us behind the scenes of the Skillset Craft and Technical Skills Academy’s Trainee Placement Scheme.

The film trainee placement scheme, managed by the Skillset Craft and Technical Skills Academy, provides young filmmakers with paid work experience on a current film that has contributed to the Skills Investment Fund.

Here, camera trainee Richard Davis reveals how working on films like The Muppets... Again and Kick Ass 2 has given him experience that is helping him build a successful career.

How did you get involved with the Skillset trainee placement scheme?

Whilst working on a television drama in 2012, I got introduced to [trainee placement scheme co-ordinator] Jackie Alexander by the focus puller I was training with at the time. Jackie informed me of the scheme and that the applications process was about to begin. The whole idea seemed great so, two reference letters and an interview later, I managed to get a place.

What department are you working in?

I am a camera trainee and, through the trainee placement scheme, have found work in the camera department as a Digital Imaging Technician on Disney’s The Muppets... Again and also in the video department on Universal’s Kick Ass 2.

Who do you work most closely with, and what have they taught you?

On my latest film, The Muppets... Again, I have been working as a DIT trainee on the splinter unit alongside splinter unit DIT Peter Welch. Peter comes from a background of camera assisting and operating, so while I have learnt the ins and outs of our DIT workflow, I have also been picking up techniques and advice about camera assisting.

I’ve learnt much about how to properly integrate this still relatively new role of DIT into the existing structure of the camera department. I’ve also learnt

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Above: Camera trainee Richard Davis feels that the scheme has enabled him to become 'much more confident in my existing skills and knowledge'

that having an attention to detail and pride in your work is key.

What are your main responsibilities?

My main responsibilities come in the form of setting up our DoP’s high quality monitor trolley in the morning, providing timecode for camera and sound and quality checking all footage before release to the lab. This includes creating copies of footage shot, syncing of picture and audio, making notes and creating dailies that are then placed on to an iPad for viewing overnight.

How would you say your skills have developed during this placement?

I have found that I have become much more confident in my existing skills, and my knowledge in areas such as how digital cinema cameras process and handle data has hugely improved.

I’ve also learnt about new pieces of kit that I hadn’t previously worked with, such as the Red Epic and Colorfront Express Dailies software.

Is the placement scheme what you expected it to be?

The scheme had definitely taken me by surprise as I didn’t expect to be

working on two big feature films so soon after making my way in to the industry. Finding features work would have been hard for me otherwise, as I knew very few features crew, but the scheme really helped me get involved.

What has been the most exciting, inspiring or positive moment during the placement?

The most exciting moment was definitely seeing the Muppets and their puppeteers in full flow for the first time and realising just how talented they are to make you believe what you see is real.

What are your career plans now that you have this experience?

I plan to take the skills I have gained on this job through to more camera trainee work and eventually camera assisting work, safe in the knowledge that I can understand the post-acquisition side to the camera department and how to work in a large team.

Find out more about the Skillset Craft and Technical Skills Academy at www.craftandtech.org ●

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24 Fps Script Talk

Has the Spec Script Returned?

Danny Munso examines the current state of the spec script market, and explains why original ideas may be making a comeback.

A short time ago in a film industry not so far away, screenwriters could command salaries commiserate to some of their actor colleagues. Those days are long gone, however, and will probably never return. The really sad part about the current state of the spec script market isn’t that writers aren’t getting paid large sums of cash, it’s that only a few are getting paid for specs at all. But there are signs that things are changing, and we’ll talk about what that means for you as a writer.

The spec boom of the 90s carried over nicely into the new millennium, cresting with the 2005 sale of Déjà vu, written by Pirates of the Caribbean cowriter Terry Rossio and his friend Bill Marsilii. That script, which eventually led to the Denzel Washington starring film, commanded a $5m price tag on the open market. But things took a sharp downturn from there. The WGA strike of 2008 was a major culprit, but so were the failures of major spec sales like The Long Kiss Goodnight, A Knight’s Tale and many more.

Then came the recession, and studios took it on the chin. As a fan of films, you may be disappointed by Hollywood’s original screenplay output but, if you run a company, why would you take risks that may cost you your job? That’s why sequels, franchises and existing properties are all the rage at the moment; a film studio is more comfortable green-lighting a story based on a bad TV show than taking a chance on a writer’s original idea.

As ridiculous as The Dukes of Hazzard seems in retrospect, the studio thought it was a sure thing. That’s just reality. Franchises and existing properties are not going away.

The last three years have seen an uptick in spec sales, however; we’re not talking significant numbers

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Below: This year's Olympus Has Fallen began life as a spec script

Opposite Page: Shane Black (with

Lethal Weapon director Richard Donner © AMPAS) was a spec script success story in his early career

here, but things are trending upward.

Although 2012 didn’t have as many as the previous two years, the prices were more robust—an important sign for screenwriters. Even more encouraging is that a lot of the major sales are not going to established names. People in the film business know Shane Black because he racked up a number of great sales in the early part of his career including Lethal Weapon and The Last Boy Scout; amazingly written action scripts, no matter what your opinion of the finished products.

There’s no Shane Black dominating the market this time around—he’s too busy directing Iron Man 3. Rather, we have unknown writers—first-time authors or industry vets who have yet to get serious credits—making the money and headlines this time.

Hollywood is a rough place for a new screenwriter, but that climate is improving. Is it ideal? Is it perfect? No, but it’s the best it’s been in a while.

So what is the best way to write that spec that studios are now more receptive to making? The answer lies in the dreaded ‘high-concept’ area.

Like it or not, simple stories told well are not what get your foot in the door.

If that’s the kind of story you have, you may be better off going down the indie route. Similarly, if you see your story as something you want to direct yourself, then going down the studio spec route is not for you either. When studios shell out high-five and sixfigure deals for scripts, it’s not so a writer/director can make their personal story for the world to see. It’s for a movie that can attract big names, and make the studio big money.

A high-concept story can work both ways, of course. Those same high-concept scripts that made screenwriters millionaires in the late 90s and mid-2000s were the same ones that audiences weren’t interested in seeing at the box office, causing some of the trouble we’re currently in today. But Hollywood isn’t really one to learn from its own mistakes, so high concept is still the way to go. Just last year, the hottest idea going around town was about terrorists taking over the White House.

Coincidentally, there were two scripts being sent around with that similar premise—Olympus Has Fallen and White House Down; they both sold and they both come out this year. So, if you

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One To Watch Muriel d’Ansembourg Writer/Director Muriel d’Ansembourg lived in New York and Amsterdam before settling in London. The short films she wrote and directed during her studies at the London Film School have won numerous awards, and her graduation film, Good Night, received a BAFTA nomination and a theatrical release in the UK. Muriel is currently writing her first feature length script whilst continuing to make short films.

take just one thing from this column, it’s that if you had a White-Houseunder-siege spec, you’re out of luck.

The two most popular spec genres remain action and comedy—if you can combine the two, even better!—with horror also being added to this boom.

For reasons explained in previous columns, horror can be made cheaply with minimal star power. They are the most profitable films a studio can make, and recent spec trends have shown they are clearly looking for them.

But how do you make your spec script stand out? Well, we don’t have room to get into writing tips here— although if you read this column regularly, you already have a good idea. But there is a weird twist to some recent spec sales that you might be able to adopt: ephemera.

Scripts are now being delivered with more than just the screenplay.

A 2011 spec sale script called One Night in Compton was accompanied by a website and several R-rated trailers. I recently read a great spec from the 2012 Black List that had an artist-rendered cover—the first

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I’ve seen for a spec. There are no rules anymore; sending websites, trailers, art and music with your script is all entirely possible.

If you are an aspiring writer, now seems to be the time to strike. It’s impossible to tell how long this uptick in spec sales will last. If we’re all lucky, it’s here to stay and we will begin to see a flood of great, new, original work hitting theatres. But why chance it?

The time is now. ●

“There are no rules anymore; sending websites, trailers, art and music with your script is all entirely possible.”

What training have you received?

Through a BA in screenwriting I learned how to turn my love of storytelling into a script. Later, during my MA in Directing at the London Film School, I gained hands-on experience in making films, and the screenwriter in me came to understand that certain things might look great on paper but don’t always work when you’re shooting them. As a director I have come to find that rehearsing with actors can also be a great tool in writing.

What kind of projects attract you?

At this moment it’s powerful dramas that explore the rawness and excitement of life. I always hope for a strong dynamic combined with personal moments between two people that generate a visceral reaction. Stories that push boundaries while maintaining an honesty.

What’s the best advice you’ve been given as a director and/or writer?

To get a truthful performance make sure actors truly ‘listen’ to each other. It’s advice I got through Directing Actors by Judith Weston. Without listening, a dramatic scene becomes about two actors’ performances instead of about an event in that relationship. Listening allows actors to affect each other, and create moments that build the emotional power of a scene.

Tell us the most significant moment in your career so far.

Receiving a BAFTA nomination straight out of film school.

It’s something you simply don’t expect. Suddenly your film floats to the surface and doors start opening.

You’ll die happy when…

When I manage to accept death, but at the moment I find myself wishing I could create more time to make all the films that are living and growing inside me. I hope I get to make a couple of films that have the potential to stay with someone long after they leave the cinema.

Supported by the Skillset Film Skills Fund, as part of A Bigger Future 2 (www.abiggerfuture2.co.uk)

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24 Fps Finance and Funding

Financing: The Whole Picture

Sargent-Disc Ltd explain how independent producers can benefit from employing creative strategies when it comes to funding.

For independent producers, the process of film financing remains time-consuming and complex. As the financial landscape continues to be unpredictable, production partners are required to maintain a keen awareness of all opportunities available to producers in raising funds for their latest projects. More than ever, it is important to understand all components of production finance.

International competition to create incentives for film production is becoming increasingly evident. Earlier this year, France approved proposals to raise the ceiling of the Tax Rebate for International Production (TRIP), from €4m to €10m. Part of the intention is to attract inward investment to compete with neighbouring countries such as Belgium and Luxembourg, which have, in recent years, been used as cheaper alternatives. Additionally, the ‘soutien’ allows producers of qualifying French feature films to be rewarded with a share of the production’s distribution success to invest in future productions, loan repayment or development finance.

Indeed, countries across the globe are constantly reviewing their incentives to enhance their global presence.

“Legislation continues to change in the US and around the world,” says Joseph Chianese, executive vice president of EP Financial Solutions, “with the US and international territories continuing to offer new incentives or modifying existing incentive programmes.”

Similarly, the UK’s Enterprise Investment Scheme (EIS) is available for producers intending to raise finance through equity, and provides tax relief to private investors who may otherwise be unwilling to invest in what is considered a high-risk business venture. Producer Pippa Cross has demonstrated the potential of this method after successfully raising

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Above: Ken Loach's The Angels Share is 'an example of the film finance patchwork common to independent film'

finance for Summer in February through vanilla equity investment, which involved multiple investors. Additionally, the Seed EIS, which was introduced last year for small new companies, has been used as a viable option for producers seeking development capital.

For a production with a strong pitch that offers artistic merit or proven public interest, there is the possibility of accessing discretionary investment from public agencies. While highly competitive and of a subjective nature, this funding can contribute a proportion—and, in rare circumstances, the entirety—of a production’s finances. In the UK, the BFI Film Fund supports an average of 20 independent productions per year. Further afield, similar institutions such as Telefilm Canada, the Korean Film Council (KOFIC), the Netherlands Film Fund and the New Zealand Film Commission also provide funding for national productions. Eurimage, the Council of Europe fund for the co-production of European

cinematographic works, has a funding programme for producers of films coproduced within its 36 member states; lobby groups have been campaigning for Britain to rejoin following its controversial withdrawal in 1996.

There is also the option to secure pre-sales, although this can be quite challenging for independent producers who, without a strong track record, cannot always entice investors with the promise of a strong cast list. “With the reduced availability of soft monies, more producers are having to look to international sales agents to put up an MG [minimum guarantee] or bring in pre-sales in order to get their films financed,” says Andrew Orr, managing director of Independent. “Commercial financiers also want to see that level of market support to give them confidence in the project.”

The Angel’s Share, winner of the 2012 Festival de Cannes, Prix du Jury is an example of the film finance patchwork common to independent films.

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One To Watch Jack O’Connell Actor

It was structured as a co-production with Italy, Belgium, UK and France, with pre-sales to Spain and France and the UK, and equity support from the BFI, France 2 and Studio Canal. “A lot of the money for our films comes from France,” said producer Rebecca O’Brien.

“But that is our best territory so it makes economic sense for it to come from the people who appreciate our films most.

For The Angels’ Share the BFI came on board with a nice healthy investment.”

One of the most interesting recent developments in film finance methods has been the use of reward crowdfunding. With the proliferation of Internet users and the dormancy of traditional funding methods, producers have sought to target potential finance through social media platforms such as Kickstarter and Indiegogo, using a reward system that corresponds to the size of each donation. In March, writer and producer Rob Thomas launched a campaign to fund the movie adaptation of the television show Veronica Mars on Kickstarter. The goal of $2m was reached within just 11 hours, and by the end of the campaign one month later, it had garnered $5.7m. Perhaps an exceptional case, but there have been other, more modestly successful filmmaking campaigns.

Writer Charlie Kaufman, along with Starburn Industries, successfully launched the Anomalisa crowdfunding campaign in September last year, with the motivation that the animation be produced ‘outside of the typical Hollywood studio system’. It raised more than double its goal ($200k) and was, at the time, the second most highly funded Kickstarter project. These campaigns illustrate the power of social media, and suggest the possibilities open to producers through the democratisation of film investment.

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The UK film tax relief and the new UK tax relief for high-end television and animation potentially offer producers additional choices on appropriate ways to structure their productions, subject to a range of factors such as the intended budget, running time and release platform strategy. High-end television productions with budgets exceeding £1m per hour of footage, and which pass the UK Culture Test, will be eligible for tax credit. Left Bank Productions’ Mad Dogs and Strike Back were filmed in South Africa last year due to attractive tax breaks; chief executive Andy Harries has said the company now has “many other large-scale projects in development and this incentive will allow us to make them in the UK whilst supporting the UK’s creative community”.

As the national reputation for providing excellent production facilities, infrastructure and services continues to excel, maintaining good financial management is crucial. Christine Corner, partner, Grant Thornton UK LLP’s TV and film team, stresses its importance to “ensure that all financiers provide their finance on time and that all liabilities incurred can be paid in a timely manner thus maintaining the reputation of the producers within the industry.” The Sargent-Disc team believes this to be core to the success of independent production, and gladly offers its services to support the UK’s international presence.

Sargent-Disc has over 25 years experience of providing payroll and production services to the film industry.

Their expertise allows clients to concentrate on their creative vision, free from the distraction of technicalities.

Sargent-Disc, together with their affiliate team EP Financial Solutions, are presenting the Creative Strategies for International Film Financing seminar at the 2013 Cannes Film Festival ●

Jack O’Connell grabbed audience’s attention with his portrayal of troubled James Cook in popular drama Skins. He’s also starred in various UK films including Harry Brown, Eden Lake, This is England and United and takes his first major film lead in the upcoming The Liability, in which he stars as a young lad who falls into an underworld of murder, sex trafficking and revenge. Later this year Jack will take the role of Calisto in prequel 300: Rise of an Empire, and he is currently shooting both prison-based drama Starred Up and Ireland-set thriller 71.

What training have you received?

Secondary school drama lessons which were compulsory.

From there, I got referred to the television workshop in Nottingham; after auditioning, I went twice a week into an environment where I felt we could trial and error and eventually put on some really decent productions. We had performed at the National Theatre by the time I was 15. Any other training happens on the job for me; luckily I’m eight years in and no-one’s exposed me, yet.

What kind of roles attract you?

Challenges. Characters which aren’t my own, I have a lot of interest in playing those. Sometimes I’m not cast in those roles, though, so at times I get what I’m given—but that seems to be happening less these days so I’ll keep working towards the challenges.

What’s the best advice that you’ve been given as an actor?

I think the most important lesson was to have your character nailed, to know him or her so that you can just flow. Some require more research than others but, either way, if you believe it, the chances of anyone else believing are better, surely?

Tell us the most significant moment in your career so far.

I’d say playing Sir Bobby Charlton [in United] was my personal significant moment. I saw that the feedback was positive from either attending screenings or reviews, and that gave me a much clearer outline of how to properly perform somebody and not fake it.

You’ll die happy when…

Whenever...

The Liability opens in UK cinemas on May 17, and 300: Rise of An Empire will be on general release from August 2

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24 Fps Distribution

Film Release Slot Machine

Mick Southworth and Martin McCabe explain how a decline in studio production brings opportunities for the independent sector.

The evolution of independent UK production has seen many false dawns over the last 20 years. Yet, oddly, during a time of worldwide financial apocalypse, a potential diamond is sparkling in the dark. We might just be looking at a potentially positive transformation in our fortunes, and the way we view and do our business. It could even be that if these new opportunities are fulfilled, they could revolutionise the sector and help focus the commercially smart to reach audiences of which they could only have dreamed of previously.

Right now, there are fewer UK tax incentives to provide production funds.

No Section 48 or 42. British Screen is gone. Financially, the BBC and Channel 4 are on their collective nuts. You can’t count on the BFI to wade in, and nearly every indigenous distribution company or sales outfit is on the breadline. As for equity investors prepared to take a punt… well most of those are either living in padded cells or helping the police with their enquiries. So what’s all this positive message stuff?

The fact is that studios are simply not making the level of production output that they have in the past, and this at the very time that the lines of communication and delivery are opening up in front of us. Sure, we all know that DVD sales are diminishing globally, but that is mostly because the traditional high-street DVD carriers are dropping dead before our eyes—and that’s unlikely to be through lack of people wanting to consume movies in some form or other. Lest we forget, the market for home video was worth some $18bn in 2012, 80 per cent of that still reflected in physical sales or rentals and an increase percentage wise on recent years. In the UK, however, Woolworths, Zavvi, Blockbuster and HMV—despite recent financial restructuring—are

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Above: TV deals with the likes of Netflix-which has recently debuted its first original series

House of Cardsare still of critical financial importance to the studios

all now largely a thing of the past in regard to the financial importance they once represented to producers and distributors. This is as much an indication of the requirements and sophistication of the customer as it is of the decline of the DVD industry.

But that’s an aside. Going back to the studios, we must determine why they are currently making so few films, and why this provides such a glowing opportunity for the independent sector.

The studios have always been, and will continue to be, geared for volume. They have massive output and turnover requirements and even when they start looking to cut back on staffing levels— as we have seen in recent months—

they nonetheless strive to retain huge market share because that is what keeps them able to fulfil their worldwide TV output deals.

Indeed, television remains the key profit centre for the majors. Global pay and free to air network sales are, in some respects, the studios’ bestkept secrets. Existing output deals with key partners such as HBO, Sky, Starz and their brethren continue to underpin most studios’ bottom line. New broadcast outlets largely maintain this hunger for studio-quality features and programming when looking to fill airtime and distinguish their offerings in the marketplace. Recent insurgents in the sector, such as the near ubiquitous Netflix, further feed this demand with ongoing catalogue acquisition and renewal and now original production; see House of Cards and Hemlock Grove, etc. One only has to consider the recent acquisition of Disney’s first-run pay TV window by Netflix from Starz in the US, starting in 2015 at some $350m+ per year, to appreciate that no matter how things change they essentially remain the same—from a studio perspective at least! One Time Warner corporate executive was recently quoted as saying that TV now provided at least 80 per cent of the conglomerate’s annual profits.

Despite the vicissitudes of prevailing economic conditions, studios remain remarkably robust in their profit profiles and continue to adapt to the overall diminution of the once indomitable packaged goods business. They have achieved this by at once refining and rationalising their product offering—with a renewed focus on easily branded high-concept tent-poles and microbudgeted genre pictures—and effectively driving down above-the-line production costs and reliance on ‘star power’ whilst cultivating and engaging with new markets and distribution methodologies.

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To wit, they are actively licensing to new media platforms and outlets (Amazon, LoveFilm, Hulu, YouTube, etc.) with these licensing fees beginning to compensate for the offset in BD/DVD sales. Foreign revenues and yields also continue to grow despite a slowdown in domestic box-office results. The BRIC economies represent a significant part of this growth, with China in particular the focus of renewed distribution and co-production efforts. With the recent success in the Chinese market of mainstream action titles such as Looper and Skyfall and the unique

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Chinese variant release of Marvel’s Iron Man 3, this is only likely to be the start of the monetisation of this particular market by Hollywood.

Similarly, VoD, SVoD and Digital Download are continuing to grow and beginning—just—to represent a significant revenue stream driven by an increasingly diverse range of delivery systems and technologies, studio willingness to be more flexible with their release windows and more effective marketing of the consumer proposition despite the continuing entrenchment of the exhibition community. Fox’s recent

Right: As highlighted by the likes of Iron

Man 3, 'China is the focus of renewed distribution or coproduction efforts'

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24 Fps Distribution

offering of Prometheus, Hitchcock and Taken 2 as branded hi-def digital downloads a month prior to their respective BD debuts is certainly a portent of a shift in corporate, if not yet audience, appetites. As surely is the recent appoint of Warner’s longserving home entertainment and digital head Kevin Tsujihara to the position of company CEO, as the digital space looks to drive these revenue opportunities.

Therefore in this financial landscape the studios’ emphasis has to remain clearly on the massive-budget tent-pole movies required to feed their vast catalogues and act as a locomotive to lead sales from the front.

The victim here is the once prevalent midrange film, the $15–30m movie that studios now seemingly perceive as an unnecessary distraction, rather than a cash cow element of their production activity going forward.

And it is probably because of this that smart independent producers have started to customise their products to requirement. Studios are beginning to buy in third-party ‘commercial’ films, having now come to their collective senses and thankfully deserted the Sundance Film Festival-driven buying frenzy of a few years back, when everyone had their own specialist ‘arthouse’ acquisitions brands. Remember Warner Independent or Paramount Vantage? The switch to buying in more overtly commercial product, sometimes just for an indigenous territory, is a result of the emergence of the more accessible tastes of giants such as LoveFilm and the aforementioned Netflix, abetted by the VoD and PPV product providers and, lest we forget—eventually—profitable streaming. Technology is our friend and we must embrace it. It will eventually liberate independent production, and that day gets closer with the passing of every straight-to-Netflix TV product such

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Above: Fox has offered titles such as

Hitchcock as highdef digital downloads ahead of their DVD and Blu-ray releases

as Arrested Development and Amazon’s forthcoming Zombieland TV spinoff.

The majors and the mini-majors, such as E1, Lionsgate and their ilk, have this power base for blanket delivery. Thus they have superior market clout and, of course, vast infrastructures. But they need product to flow through them. Think about it; the big cash burn for these guys is the cost of the production itself.

It can threaten their basic existence if it goes completely tits up. So, it makes sense to buy in selectively as a way of padding out that schedule.

Another argument in favour of thirdparty acquisition is that a third-party producer is probably far better able to strike competitive deals to bring the movie to the screen in good order and at a price that makes sense. Being cynical, the profit margin probably exists in the excess that the studios would have to apply these days. What selfdisrespecting supplier is going to offer Warners, Fox, Paramount, Universal or Sony a huge discount on a one-off transaction? Proof in point? Once again we are seeing fallen giants like MGM rising up to the new dawn of technology and getting the cheque book out to

buy aggressively from the independent sector. None of us saw that coming a few years back. Yet there is that old Lion growling out from screens again, and it’s good to see him back.

So, does this distribution-pull rather than production-push mean we can all put the champagne on ice because we have the phone number of a senior exec at a studio who we happen to know needs a few movies to fill the multi-territory TV output machine he’s in charge of? Of course not; nothing in life is ever that simple. But it does highlight that ambition, ability, occasional opportunity and a little bit of luck can be a potent mix.

We don’t need to point out that right now we stand in the rubble of the worst financial crash in living memory. Yet, the odd thing for the small business person is that the giants of our trade are hurting worse than anybody. That is both an opportunity and a risk. An opportunity because we can at last sell our products to them thanks to that economic restructuring and their need to take us seriously. And a risk because, well, if you stand next to a giant, they sometimes step on you by mistake... ●

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24 Fps Announcements

Products and Accessories

From HD storage to DSLR backpacks and a new pocket-sized digital cinema camera, we take a look the latest tech for filmmakers.

Blackmagic Design Pocket Cinema Camera and Production Camera 4K

G-Technology Professional Workflow Storage

Blackmagic Design have introduced two new models to their camera family: the Pocket Cinema Camera and Production Camera 4K. Aimed at independent film and documentary makers, the Pocket Cinema Camera comes equipped with a Super 16mm sized 1080HD sensor; a super-wide 13 stops of dynamic range; built-in SD card recorder for Apple ProRes; lossless compressed CinemaDNG RAW capture; and active Micro Four Thirds lens mount for attaching Super 16 cine lenses. Focus, setting control and playback is controlled via the built-in LCD display. (RRP: $995) By contrast, the Production Camera 4K is a new high-resolution, professional 4K digital film camera featuring a large Super 35mm sensor with global shutter; 12 stops of dynamic range; built

G-Technology have announced their new Evolution Series of storage options for creative professionals working with 2K and 4K digital cinema workloads.

The G-DOCK ev features a two-bay, hot-swappable Thunderbolt-equipped docking station with interchangeable and expandable external storage modules to make the transfer, editing and distributing of content throughout the workflow scalable, efficient and reliable. Uniquely, the G-DOCK ev ships with two 136MB/s, 1TB removable and portable G-DRIVE ev external hard drive modules with USB 3.0, which can either be used in configuration or as standalone external hard drives for added flexibility.

Also announced was G-Technology’s new G-DRIVE PRO with Thunderbolt, a compact 3.5 inch external desktop hard drive that delivers SSD-like performance with transfer rates of up to 480MB/s able to support compressed 4K and multiple streams of 2K, HDV, DVCPro HD, XDCAM HD, ProRes 4444 and uncompressed SD workflows. The G-DRIVE PRO is available in either a 2TB or 4TB capacity (RRP: £554.95 and £674.95 respectively) and will be available summer 2013. www.G-Technology.com / @GTechStorage

in SSD recorder; precision EF mount optics; and ProRes 4:2:2 (HQ) file recording. It is primed for use across a multitude of applications, from live video production to television episodics and features.

(RRP: $3,995) Both cameras are expected in July. www.blackmagicdesign.com

Petrol Bags Digiback DSLR Backpack for DSLR Cameras Petrol Bags’ new Digiback DSLR backpack is the latest in the company’s extensive range of high-performance equipment protection solutions for DSLR video creatives.

Ergonomically designed, highly practical and packed with innovative features, the Digiback allows quick and easy access to the backpack’s contents from a number of strategically placed zips. The top lid of the Digiback unzips to reveal an upper compartment contoured to fit a DSLR camera (with lens attached), while the rear zipper exposes the pack’s interior which is sub-divided by a number of removable compartments for storing a wide range of camera lenses and accessories. There is even enough space to securely stow a laptop or iPad. Camera accessories or lenses stored in the main body of the Digiback can also be accessed from either side of the backpack via two dual directional easy-glide zips, while double-sided exterior mono-pockets are perfect for holding additional accessories.

RRP: £210 www.PetrolBags.com / @PetrolBags

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28/04/2013 19:14:35

01

Insider's Point of View Justin Nappi: Producer

The Deep End Despite his young age, producer Justin Nappi is already forging a successful career with projects like Arbitrage, At Any Price and Adult World. He explains why it’s so important to take a hands-on approach when building a career. Interview: James Mottram Talk about making an auspicious start to your career. Launching Treehouse Pictures with producing partner Kevin Turen in 2010, Justin Nappi, 25, has just seen their debut film Arbitrage garner star Richard Gere a Golden Globe nomination and some of the best reviews of his career. Meanwhile, Treehouse’s second feature, Ramin Bahrani’s At Any Price, starring Zac Efron, competed at the Venice Film

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Festival last September. With three further prestige titles— Adult World, All is Lost and Are We Officially Dating?—all now in post-production, Hollywood is certainly watching…

Your first film was Arbitrage. How did you get involved?

I was working with a producer on a film in Paris when I was finishing school, and she introduced me to Nick [Jarecki, Arbitrage’s director] in Los Angeles. And through Nick, I met my future business partner, Kevin Turen. We all built a friendship first and then from that, a working relationship. The script was a fantastic script.

It’s interesting when you get a writer-director too; you find more of a heart to something. I knew from when I first met Nick he was going to make this movie with or without me. He knew exactly what he wanted.

When you were in university, was producing what you wanted to do?

It was definitely on my mind.

I went to a business school before I went to NYU: Hofstra University. I only went there for a year before I realised it wasn’t fully what I wanted to do. I’d lived in New York my whole life; I grew up in Syracuse, New York.

My father is an entrepreneur, businessman—he’s into energy, power plants. No one in my family is in the film industry!

So producing is a natural fit for you?

Yeah. We’re very hands-on, Kevin and I. We’re there from the beginning to the end. That’s the easiest way to learn something; I’m very much a visual learner.

And I enjoy it. I enjoy the process of putting the little pieces of the puzzle together—is it going to work, is it not going to work? I like to say every film is like starting and closing a business. You execute it differently every time. They’re all different experiences.

What attributes do you need to be a producer?

I think people skills is definitely something you need; there’s a lot of face to face. Being a producer, there’s many different aspects of it, and I guess one of them is the day-to-day communication— always being a sounding board or a voice listening to different problems, whether it be from the director or the crew. Just being there at all times, being accessible, to help in any form and then just having the business knowledge, making sure it all makes sense.

How do you see the business evolving, especially with the economic restraints on independent movies?

The model is changing. I think I’m coming in at an interesting time, where you’re going to see more things like Arbitrage, which showed that the day-and-date model really works, releasing theatrically and video at the same time. You’re going to see a lot more of that.

Then there’s Netflix, with [Internetonly shows like] House of Cards. I think it’s an interesting route and

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Young producer Justin Nappi (opposite,

on set with Richard Gere) has had great success with Arbitrage (below left), and Adult World (bottom) has recently premiered at Tribeca Film Festival

I think the studios are looking at that now and reworking the way they go about filmmaking.

Do you have ambitions to direct?

I’d like to say eventually, but it’s not on my mind really. It’s more about getting projects made; just making great pieces of material. All of our films are different. It’s not like we just do horror films or comedies at Treehouse; we like to do auteurdriven films.

Which is presumably why you got involved with J.C. Chandor, who made Margin Call?

Yeah… Margin Call, the performances were great—and that was shot over very few days; the actors had very little time. And I think he did a fantastic job with that film.

You’re partnered on his new film All is Lost, starring Robert Redford. Is it really all based around one character?

Yeah. It’s going to be a fun one! Redford went through a lot on that film; it’s literally just him surviving in the water… The

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script was 40 pages; very little dialogue. As a performance piece, we thought it was a very interesting route to take.

You’ve also clearly set out to build relationships with actors,

too. You’re working with Zac Efron on two films: At Any Price and Are We Officially Dating?

Yes, we fostered a great relationship on At Any Price. We became quite close. We’re very similar in age, doing what we’re doing in our careers, so I think that really helped. It was like summer camp, filming in Illinois for a month-and-a-half on At Any Price. So we built a very good relationship and kept in contact.

And Tom Gormican’s script [for Are We Officially Dating?] was a Black List script of two years ago.

I loved it and I thought it would be perfect for Zac. We were in Cannes last year, and that’s when I first had him read it. He instantly loved it.

What was it about the script that drew him in?

It’s very much a film about the process of growing up and

maturing, turning into an adult.

He’s at that age where he’s in his mid-twenties and he’s enjoying himself and he’s working very hard. It’s very relatable to him, so I think that really enticed him to want to do the film… And he’s taking a risk, doing the film for cost. There were no trailers on this film.

Finally, what can you say about Adult World?

We shot in my hometown of Syracuse, which was nice. It’s director Scott Coffey, who made Ellie Parker. Emma Roberts is a poet who works in an adult video store. And John Cusack is a professor and poet and he mentors her, teaching her that her crazy goals and aspirations should be subdued—it’s like at NYU, kids are always like, ‘I’m going to be the next director’, without going through the process or the work. ●

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Feature Crowdfunding

HasVeronica Mars Changed Crowdfunding Forever?

With the Veronica Mars movie project breaking all Kickstarter donation records, many are proclaiming that the face of crowdfunding has been forever changed. Nikki Baughan examines just what impact the project’s success will have on grassroots filmmakers who have made crowdfunding their own.

At the time of writing, Rob Thomas’ much publicised Veronica Mars Kickstarter project has just closed. After smashing its $2m goal in 10 hours, it went on to amass over $5.7m in financial contributions over the course of just one month; an astonishing 91,585 people from over 20 countries backed the project, breaking several Kickstarter records in the process. Most of those pledging money fell into the smaller $1–$100 categories but there were individuals who donated thousands.

While Veronica Mars may be the most high-profile project to have turned to crowdfunding,

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Rob Thomas and his team are certainly not the first established filmmakers to have sought funding in this way. Celebrated screenwriter Charlie Kaufman (Being John Malkovich, Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind) launched a Kickstarter campaign in September 2012 for his stopmotion animation Anomalisa. It raised over double its goal of $200k. And, just as we went to press, filmmaker Zach Braff (Garden State), announced that he had launched a Kickstarter funding page for his new film Wish I Was Here, with the hopes of raising $2m-and was well on his way to smashing that total.

It’s clear then, that while crowdfunding may have once been the bastion of grassroots, super-low-budget filmmakers who struggled to access traditional funding models, increasingly bigger projects are now reaching directly to their potential audiences to secure their budgets. It’s fair to say that they have good reasons for doing so; Thomas had been trying unsuccessfully to convince Warner Bros.—who own the rights to Veronica Mars—to make a movie for years, for example, while Kaufman is adamant that Anomalisa can only thrive outside of the studio system. And

somewhat ironically, but entirely unsurprisingly, the willingness of backers to put hands in pockets seems to increase the more well known the project or filmmaker; perhaps the benefits of having a helmer with experience or the desire to be part of a community of fans who are—as Thomas and star Kristen Bell kept reminding Veronica Mars funders—literally coming together to save the day.

While the fans may have come out in force to support Thomas, Kaufman and Braff, reaction to these potentially game-changing projects has been mixed, with Twitter proving the usual hotbed of debate and

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dissension. Critic James Rocchi actively discouraged his 8,000plus followers from supporting the Veronica Mars project, calling it “food stamps for the one per cent”, while writer/director Joe Swanberg (V/H/S, Drinking Buddies) questioned the fiscal logic behind the whole endeavour.

“So WB just put themselves out of business,” he tweeted. “If the audience can pay to create the movies they want, we don’t need studios anymore, right?”

Of course, these 140-character-or-less commentaries don’t tell the whole story. Drill a bit deeper into the success of Veronica Mars and it becomes less a story about crowdfunding and more about the effectiveness of good branding.

The project had the benefit of a large and devoted fan base, built up over the show's three years and 64 episodes, which was vocal in its continued support even after it was taken off the air in 2007. It also possessed a

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major asset in recognisable lead actress Kristen Bell, who was extremely proactive during the campaign. The majority of donors were undoubtedly existing fans of either the show or its star, so effectively the groundwork had already been done; the opening of the financial floodgates was the final—and self-proclaimed ‘last-ditch’—stage of a long and rocky process for Thomas.

That said, the crowdfunding response to Veronica Mars undoubtedly surpassed all expectations, and Warner Bros. will certainly be taking a closer look at how they can involve potential audiences in the gestation of future projects. “Warner Bros. [is] treating us like a guinea pig, in the best way,” Thomas said in an interview with HitFix. “They want to see if this model works and they made the calculated decision… that we were a good test case for this. We just happened to be the right show at the right time, got to be the first one out of the gate.

If it works, it works, and [Warner Bros.] could start doing more of these. And you know that if it works at one studio, that they’re not going to be the only studio in town that will be trying it.” Similarly, other content producers have expressed an interest in the model.

TV creator Shawn Ryan intimated that crowdfunding may be a way for him to breathe new life into his cancelled show Terriers, tweeting that he is “very interested to see how this Veronica Mars Kickstarter goes. Could be a model for a Terriers wrap up film”.

It seems, then, that crowdfunding may be poised to become an additional revenue stream for bigger projects, studio and independent alike. But what does that mean for those low-budget, unknown filmmakers who rely entirely on crowdfunding donations to get their projects off the ground? If studios elbow their way into Kickstarter or Indiegogo or Sponsume, will that mean less money for those at grassroots level? Thomas certainly doesn’t think so. "I think what Veronica Mars has done is brought

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Feature Crowdfunding

Kickstarter to the masses,” he said in an interview with The Hollywood Reporter. “More people are now familiar with Kickstarter, and more people are browsing Kickstarter for other projects, [who] now understand what it is and what it does than before we launched our campaign. I think we’re bringing more eyes to that site, so I think that has to be good for indie filmmakers.”

Somewhat surprisingly, perhaps, this opinion is

also shared by independent filmmaker Sarah George, who has successfully run several Kickstarter campaigns and is a member of D-Word.com, an online discussion forum for documentary professionals.

“In my opinion, the only downside is if it starts to feel exploitative; corporations making insane money from the goodwill of crowdfunders without returning any benefits,” George says of the concept of sharing Kickstarter

space with major players. “But I believe that people know the difference.

“I don’t look at the crowdfunding landscape from a perspective of scarcity,” she continues. “I think there’s enough enthusiasm to go around, and I think that enthusiasm is very projectspecific. I’m actually very curious to see what happens with equity crowdfunding, because I think that could be a huge gamechanger for commercially viable projects. But, I do think that incentive-based crowdfunding is here to stay, and will continue to be a sustainable source of funding for independent artists and a rewarding experience for their backers.”

Indeed, George believes that this renewed interest in—and publicity surrounding— crowdfunding can only be of benefit to all creatives who are invested in their projects, and that the motivations of both content creators and their supporters will remain fundamentally unchanged.

“I think we are still in the early days of crowdfunding, and I believe it’s here to stay,” she asserts. “I expect to see a surge in creative output precisely because everyday people now have the opportunity to commission work that speaks to them. My sense is that in an increasingly fragmented media landscape, we may come

to see the work we fund as an individual expression of personality and taste. Rather than tune into a network as an aggregator of content that serves a particular dynamic, we may be more inclined to become curators of our own personal media art collections that we are happy to pay the artists directly to create.

The best part of crowdfunding is that it is a two-way street. The future audience is excited to bring an artwork to fruition, and the artist is eager to embrace a community of support.”

George raises an important point, that, despite recent high-profile successes and potential studio involvement, crowdfunding is likely to remain the domain of the small, targeted project rather than the commondenominator blockbuster. In terms of budgets, Veronica Mars’ $2m ask is comparatively very small, as is the $5.7m they raised; it’s almost impossible to imagine a Kickstarter project bringing in anything close to the $100m-plus that the likes of Oblivion and Iron Man 3 chew through. Any project that big will have studio support, mitigating the need for the public to stump up their hard-earned until they queue up at the box office.

Thomas himself understands that crowdfunding won’t be right for every project, stating in an interview with Wired that their success “will be an important pioneer for a certain type of film.

“I think we are still in the early days of crowdfunding, and I believe it’s here to stay.”

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I’m not convinced that this will revolutionise how most movies get made, but I think there’s an opportunity now for projects that are similar to ours—that have some public support before they launch on Kickstarter.

“With this model, it’s almost a marketing device, a way to judge if there was enough interest in a movie this size,” Thomas continued.

“For a Friday Night Lights movie or a Freaks and Geek movie or a Chuck movie, I think it could be a possibility. I think this opens up a door. What I’m interested in as a writer is [if] a writer optioned a book and brought on an actor with some name value—if that combination could raise the money on Kickstarter to make a movie.”

Thomas' project may have been a successful marketing tool, but it does remain to be seen just how much of the donations received will translate into the film’s budget, despite Thomas’ assertions that 100 per cent of the fans’ money will go into making the film. “It’s all going to the budget of the movie,” he told Wired. “The back end of the movie is divvied up like any other movie that gets made. The stars of the show will get a piece of the back end; the producer will get a piece of the back end. Clearly Warner Bros. will own a big part of it. I think there’s a scenario where everybody wins; where Kristen and I get to make the move we’ve been hoping to make, where fans get to see the movie and where

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Warner Bros makes money on it as well.”

While the optimism that surrounds this project is palpable, no real mention has been made of the cost of the ‘perks’ that have been purchased by funders. Everything from posters to T-shirts, and DVDs to autographed pictures will need to be manufactured and shipped around the world, and fans will need to be accommodated at various premieres—not insubstantial costs. (Other perks, including being followed on Twitter

by Kristen Bell, answer phone messages recorded by the cast, naming a character in the movie and appearing as an extra in the film have less of a fiscal impact.)

Only time will tell who foots the bill for the fulfilment of these incentives—and, indeed, whether those funders who will be receiving digital or physical copies of the film will be prepared to pay again at the box office.

Of course, not all filmmakers who turn to crowdfunding can afford such a wide range of perks—and many have come unstuck when trying to fulfil funder demand—but, as George explains, running a successful crowdfunding project goes way beyond merchandise.

“I think the biggest risk is to not ask for enough money to do justice to your film and story,” she says. “Your backers expect you will deliver what you say you will.

Make sure you ask for what you

really need—and then it’s your job to explain why you need what you need. I think that’s particularly true for filmmakers because so many people are shocked to learn what it really costs to make and finish an independent film. I think it’s crucial to understand from the beginning that you are entering into a relationship with your backers. It’s pretty simple, really: treat them the way you’d like to be treated!

“I just completed a Kickstarter campaign which raised $12,497 to make a short documentary called Dwayne’s Photo,” George continues of her own experiences, “about Dwayne Steinle and his family-run photo lab in Parsons, Kansas, that’s become the last place on earth to process Kodachrome. My campaign was fairly modest, but of course I was still nervous! I can’t say for sure why it was successful, but it really mattered to me that I conduct the campaign with integrity. I wanted everyone who participated to feel good about it. I started by putting together what I thought were some very cool incentives; I was genuinely excited about the rewards and that meant it was easier for me to invite people to participate. I also make an effort to include the makers of the rewards in the campaign. Like a good old-fashioned 12-step programme, it helped to take one day at a time. I constantly created short-term goals that I was fairly confident I could achieve.

“For most of us, it isn’t easy to ask family, friends and complete strangers for money. Much easier

Independent filmmaker Sarah George (opposite page) believes that there is enough room on crowdfunding platforms for projects like Veronica Mars (previous pages) and Anamolisa (opposite, bottom) and her documentary Dwayne's Photo (above and below)

to ask people to participate in something you are passionate about! I used my campaign updates and social media feeds to engage people by crafting a narrative and sharing my reasons for making the film. Focusing on the story also served as reminder to myself of why I was doing it.

At one point in the campaign I was struck by the ‘Zen’ of crowdfunding. I realised that it requires the practice of letting go, of control, ego and outcome. You just have to focus on enjoying the ride, the people you connect with, the things you discover, and trust that somehow it will all work out.

If you believe in your story, and you know you have an audience, then it is very empowering to reach out and engage them directly. Crowdfunding also taps into the phenomenon of the kindness of strangers, and it’s true that it is an antidote to the accumulated cynicism of everyday life. It reminds us of our shared humanity.”

For more information about Veronica Mars, Anamolisa and Sarah’s documentary Dwayne’s Photo, visit www.kickstarter.com ●

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Insider's Point of View Ang Lee: Director

The Abstract Idea of God Oscar-winning director Ang Lee may have pushed the boundaries of 3D effects with his adaptation of Life of Pi but, as he explains, it is a deeply personal piece of filmmaking. Interview: Tom Seymour ‘Thank you, movie god,’ Ang Lee said, looking upwards, as he accepted the Best Director Oscar for his adaptation of Yann Martel’s bestseller Life of Pi. The Taiwanese director broke new ground with his deeply spiritual spectacle of a boy adrift in the ocean with a tiger, advancing the medium of computer-generated 3D imagery; indeed, only four shots in the film are of a real tiger. Yet the film is undoubtedly the work of a man deeply committed to the creation of reality; the director took his crew into the heart of a storm off the coast of Taiwan, as he wanted them to observe the ocean’s churning intensity at its deepest point, before building the largest water tank ever made. As the film comes to DVD and Blu-ray,

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Lee sits down to discuss his own faith, the language of 3D filmmaking and the movie god that kept him going.

When you first read Yann Martel’s Life of Pi, what did you take from it?

What I took from the book was the idea of taking a leap of faith and embracing something you can’t understand, that can’t be proven; that is abstract. That is a better deal than just remaining with rationality. I share some of the cultural drift the book has, in terms of my own personality and personal identity. I loved the way Yann Martel used FrenchCanada, French-India, the idea of ethnic minorities and colonialism. I loved his symbolic use of characters; that I do share

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Ang Lee with his Best Director Oscar (opposite © AMPAS) for his groundbreaking adaptation of

Life of Pi (below)

in my work. That identity can be elusive, and sometimes you have to latch onto things. The zoo is a paradise to Pi, and I think it acts like a religion to him; something that can offer comfort, both in life and in the afterlife.

The idea of Pi lost in the ocean, facing the abstract idea of God, was something I found deeply compelling. I was brought up as a Christian by my mother, but when I was 14 I stopped praying and going to church. I got into Buddhism and existential works, so I share the loss of paradise and innocence, the forced embrace of reality.

Life of Pi has very little dialogue; were you influenced by silent cinema?

I’m not necessarily the biggest film buff, but I did watch some silent movies when making Pi. It’s about telling the abstract visually, and expression through watching, and in that way it’s similar to silent film. A lot of the film is in silence, but we’re not in a silent movie era, so I was trying to bring back that innocence by creating another dimension: 3D. I think we’re at the beginning of 3D filmmaking, so there’s an equivalent there with the end of silent cinema.

How did you blend the metaphysical aspects of the novel with a sense of cinematic reality?

Filmmakers are greedy. We want to impress people by expressing ourselves. But, as a medium, cinema is photorealistic. Most of the movies we watch, we see ourselves: our own faces making expressions. Filmmakers hook onto that; you follow stories that

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Ang Lee believes that his use of 3D has helped audiences become totally immersed in the story of Life of Pi

are about human faces. So there’s an inherent realism in cinema that doesn’t exist in painting or literature or music. By heritage we have to be more realistic, and rely on a more emotional flow.

Believability is paramount, and we must achieve that in production.

The great ideas will be brought back to earth in production. When you’re reading the book, Pi could be every man. But, by the time you make the film, he becomes what he is. You have to have someone to watch, so you’re locked in realism; it’s the best way to lure audiences into the abstract world.

How did you ensure that the 3D knitted with the fabric of the story?

I like to make movies holistically.

It’s like how your body works, or how your qi [life energy] flows. If

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you have a problem in your foot, you don’t cut it off; you look at the rest of the body. Filmmaking is the same; everything must be directed so as to be expressed in a lively way, as a whole. It all comes together.

Did you ever consider making the film in 2D? I didn’t think I could do the film in 2D. It’s a water film without a big star, and then you have CG characters—the tiger and the boy in the boat. 2D in many ways is very limited, and I think 3D allows you to be more immersed in the story. But when I began making Pi, I didn’t really know anything about 3D beyond cartoons and cheap horrors. But I decided that the new dimension would open up new possibilities, a new deal

maybe. The learning process is both confusing and inspiring, because filmmakers don’t know the film language yet. How do you express yourself in a language you don’t know?

How long did it take you to get to grips with 3D filmmaking?

When you have a film that’s costing £250,000 per day, with 3,000 people employed, it’s difficult to give yourself the time to learn it properly. I’m still a novice, I must admit. But everyone is trying to learn this new language, from your cinematographer to your lighting crew, right down to your audience. It’s frightening how unknown it is. Which lens do you choose, for example, to gain a sense of depth? You would think a wide-angled lens would achieve that, because that’s what you do in 2D. But it’s the opposite. 2D has been part of our lives for 100 years. With 3D, you’re groping in the dark. But slowly you begin to understand how it works in terms of miseen-scène, staging, transition and montage. I think I’m only just touching the beginnings of it.

Life of Pi is available on 3D Bluray, Blu-ray and DVD from April 29 and on digital platforms from April 15 from Twentieth Century Fox Home Entertainment ●

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28/04/2013 19:35:42

School of Life

Thanks to roles in the likes of Take Shelter, Boardwalk Empire and The Iceman, Michael Shannon is easily one of the most exciting American actors working today, and stands on the cusp of Hollywood superstardom thanks to his forthcoming role as General Zod in Man of Steel. In an exclusive career interview, Shannon reveals to MaryAnn Johanson why his desire to venture outside himself has resulted in such a stunning and varied career.

Michael Shannon has been in a lot of bad big movies you don’t remember him in. Pearl Harbor. Bad Boys II. Michael Shannon—one of the most intriguing, most electrifying American actors working in film today—was in Kangaroo Jack, folks. (He’s got a fair idea about why you don’t remember such things.) And maybe you’ve missed the array of intriguing roles in little-seen indies, many of which have counted amongst their acclaims raves for Shannon’s galvanising—and

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often provocatively jittery— performances. But it seems unlikely that you will be able to avoid Shannon after this spring, when a one-two punch of juicy screen appearances is destined to make him a household name.

In The Iceman (above right), he brings a, well, icy, uncomfortable cool to the true story of mob enforcer Richard Kuklinski. But it will be when he assumes the mantle of big-budget comicbook supervillain General Zod in the Superman reboot Man of Steel that Shannon will morph

from indie darling to major Hollywood player... for better or for worse.

Talking about his work, Shannon exudes a philosophical diffidence when analysing his own choices, yet doesn’t hesitate to cut down what he sees as mischaracterisations or misapprehensions about the characters he has played and what has led him to them. And his transitions to and from TV—he has a recurring role on the hit Prohibition-era drama Boardwalk Empire—and film, and from indies

to blockbusters—he burned up the screen as a terrifying bad cop in last summer’s otherwise breezy actioner Premium Rush— have given him a perspective that some will find unexpected.

“I enjoy getting to venture outside of myself quite a bit, and getting to imagine living very different lives,” Shannon says about what drew him to acting.

“It’s like taking a vacation from yourself and going somewhere else. Being an actor is like a school of life—you can learn about different people and different

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places. If I wasn’t an actor I probably would have a much more cloistered existence.”

On screen, Shannon has portrayed a startling variety of men, some on the extreme edges of human nature—Kuklinski the mafia hit man comes close to being a serial killer in his sociopathy—and some mentally disturbed, from the almost gentle overprotectiveness of the safetyobsessed family man in Take Shelter to the paranoid drifter in Bug (right) who makes the viewer as itchy as the delusional

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insects under his skin make him.

Does he find himself particularly drawn to such characters for the school-of-life lessons they offer, or is something else going on?

“I’m not very good at answering that question,” Shannon admits, after a long pause. “People who watch my work or think about what I do draw that parallel a lot more often than I do. I don’t read scripts and look for crazy people. I just read scripts for the story, to see if I enjoy the story and see if I think it’s worth telling. I think there’s a lot of movies that get made that aren’t

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Feature Michael Shannon

really worth anybody’s time, either the people who made them or the people sitting and watching them.

I’ve been in some of them… But some of them I actually think may have some value to somebody.

So that’s what I’m shooting for. I do a movie like Take Shelter not because I was salivating at the prospect of playing someone with mental illness. I do a movie like that because it’s about the world,

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and the state of being human in this world that’s so increasingly kind of horrifying. How do you cope with that experience as a human being and being responsible for your family’s safety and well-being? That’s what I’m thinking when I’m reading a script.

I’m not thinking, ‘I like it because he might be crazy.’”

And yet Shannon does have guidelines that help him pick

his next part. “The Iceman was kind of breaking a rule for me," he says. “I’m not really interested in crime-saga caper-thriller gangster mafia things. There have been other ones that have come my way and I’ve just said, ‘get it away from me'. But I found that Iceman was so focused on Kuklinksi and on the double life that he led and I found that interesting. I look for complexity more than anything. I

look for something that I feel will be challenging and difficult.

It’s like diving in the Olympics: the more difficult the dive, the more interesting it is to do... and to watch.”

Indeed, the intensity that Shannon brings to the screen is utterly gripping; it’s a unifying factor that tends to lend the viewer the sense that there is a brand of Michael Shannon character. Is the industry being taken in by this misconception, too?

“Yeah, people do that,” he says.

“They think they’ve got everything sorted out. And that’s fine, that doesn’t really affect me. Casting directors are doing that probably because they can’t get me to do [a role]. So they’re trying to get someone else to act like me.

Whatever they think I act like.” He laughs, but turns serious again almost instantly. “But I don’t think anybody would say that to my face. I find it insulting. I’m not sure why. I guess I should be happy that I’ve become an archetype.

“It seems like, no matter what I do, there’s always gonna be people comparing one thing to another and saying, ‘I see a theme,’” he continues. “That’s fine; that’s how the human mind works. It’s fascinating if you think about someone like Jimmy Stewart. You think, oh yeah, he was great at playing Jimmy Stewart, in every movie he did he was Jimmy Stewart. And yet if you look at the variety of movies he made, the spectrum of stories he told and directors he worked with, it’s kind of awe-inspiring.

He actually managed to do a variety of different things, and yet, in your mind, when you think of Jimmy Stewart, you think of him as one thing. It’s an optical illusion, I guess.”

The optical illusion lingers even as Shannon has taken on the difficult task of an actor bringing real people to the screen, even though his approach when portraying a real man has been quite different

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With every project he chooses, from Premium

from his other roles. In 2010’s Joan Jett biopic The Runaways, for instance, Shannon played the wonderfully frenzied rock manager Kim Fowley. “I was actually pretty terrified doing that part, this idiosyncratic human being who’s not quite like anyone else I’ve ever seen or met in my life. He had very specific mannerisms and a very specific way of speaking, and I worked very hard to try and capture him... according to some people to a degree of success. It wasn’t spot on. But it’s hard, it’s hard work.

It’s not like, ‘oh, I’m gonna show up and be crazy'.”

Approximating Kuklinski on screen in The Iceman was even trickier, however. “There’s a couple of books about him, but I was discouraged from reading too much because it’s hard to know what the truth is. When you listen

“It seems like no matter what I do, there’s always gonna be people comparing one thing to another.”

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to Kuklinski himself talk it’s hard to know when he’s telling the truth about how he really feels about anything. The one thing I felt, watching the interviews [prison interviews with Kuklinski are available on YouTube], I always felt bad, kinda like I am staring at a lion at the zoo, poor guy. From my outside vantage point, I hear people talking about how he’s a monster and cold-blooded, but I just always saw a very sad human being who realised that he had really messed up colossally.

And the enormity of that kind of pain, it’s not manageable. It’s not like he could cry and feel better. I wouldn’t claim to be a Kuklinski expert by any stretch of the imagination—there’s people who know him much better than I do, particularly his family. But I do think there’s value in trying to show his life in some way.”

Simultaneous to seeing him play the shadowy Kuklinski, audiences will also watch Shannon take on the decidedly dastardly General Zod in Man of Steel. Zod is a far more cartoonish character, made an icon of evil

by Terence Stamp’s villainous performance in 1978’s Superman; yet, while Shannon found this portrayal “truly terrifying as a child”, his influence has been kept to a minimum as the actor attempts to breath as much real life into the character as possible.

“Zod is a general—what a complex and interesting thing to be,” says Shannon. “I mean, generals are fascinating

Rush (left) and The Iceman (opposite) to Machine Gun Preacher (below), Michael Shannon always looks for those 'stories worth telling'

characters. They have so much responsibility. They’re capable of ordering great violence, but in the service of what they see to be the right thing to do. So I just approached it from that point of view.”

“I think one of the reasons I got the job, other than just dumb luck, is that it was really important to them—[screenwriters] Chris Nolan, David Goyer, and

[producer] Chuck Roven, and everybody involved—that Zod be less like a pure villainous evil person,” Shannon continues.

There’s certainly some twirling of the moustache here and there, because that’s what makes it fun, right? But inherently it’s not schlocky. At least it didn’t feel that way when I was doing it.

Maybe I’ll see it and be horrified.

I dunno.”

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Feature Michael Shannon Shannon laughs at this, but Man of Steel is by far the biggest role in a big film he’s had, which has to be nerve-wracking. Yet when talking about it, he makes it sound as if the shoot were a relaxed one.

“The great thing about [director] Zack Snyder is he somehow manages to help you forget that the movie you’re making cost like $5bn,” he says.

“He keeps things very down to earth. And he’s a lot of fun to work with; he’s a very charming, funny person, someone you enjoy being around. So you’re not feeling this constant pressure— man, this better be perfect because it’s costing an arm and a leg. That doesn’t happen on his sets. Not that I saw.”

But surely an indie set is a more congenial one? “Small films, honestly, can be kind of torturous,” Shannon reveals.

“Iceman was a very high-pressure situation. We didn’t have a lot of time. The last week of the shoot, they were debating whether they were gonna be able to shoot the whole script or not; we were running out of money. It’s not fun.

You’ll have producers saying you have to go home [because of worries about overtime costs] and you’re trying to shoot the most important scene in the movie.”

Well, then, certainly the long-form storytelling of serial

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television is more conducive to the actor’s craft of breathing life into a character. As with Nelson Van Alden, the conflicted lawenforcement agent Shannon has played over three seasons of Boardwalk Empire?

“I think it seems like I spend a lot of time on it, but the truth of the matter is... Take Season Three.

They started shooting the season in February, and they go till mid-September, maybe even into October,” he says. “That’s a long

time: six, seven months. I worked 15 days in the course of that.

That’s not much time, and those days were all spread out. Whole episodes would go by that I’m not even in. I have to show up and hope that everything comes back— the story, the mannerisms, the voice, the whole thing. Because you don’t spend a lot of time with it, it’s very random. You don’t know when the season starts how many episodes you’re gonna be in, which episodes you’re gonna be in, how

many days you’re gonna work; you don’t know anything. It’s like running out into a storm with an umbrella in front of your face and hoping you don’t get hit by a bus.”

It would appear, therefore, that Shannon does not to share the widespread feeling of many fans and critics that modern TV is doing a much better job as far as character development and interesting storytelling goes...

“I’m not a convert. I don’t buy into that,” he asserts. “At the end of the day, television is about keeping people watching a show. It’s like perpetuating story and interest, perpetuating an audience. Even beyond the point where whatever morals or theme or idea you started with has been well explored. And film is not that way. Jeff Nichols writes Take Shelter, he’s not hoping that after the end of Take Shelter you’ll want to see more Take Shelter. He’s coming up with a story that has a beginning, middle, and end. But TV’s like a tractor beam, trying to keep you sitting there. It’s a trick.

I mean, how many seasons of Breaking Bad do you really need?

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The basic premise has been fully explored. The guy gets sick, he starts selling drugs, and he turns into a bad guy. The inherent story of the show has been told.”

The actor is equally as candid about the other biases that serious fans often have, that the films being made by Hollywood studios could take more risks.

“Oh, they have their own cross to bear, you know. That’s a difficult job. I wouldn’t want to trade places with any of those people,” he says. “Because it’s not art—they’re being asked to make money, and they know it. And they want to

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squeeze as much art in there as they can; they appreciate the art, the craft of filmmaking, they’re connoisseurs of it, but they’re beholden to whatever gigantic corporations they’re owned by to make money. So, when I look at something like Man of Steel... I think Man of Steel is a very risky movie, even though it’s based on a superhero that everybody is very familiar with and is very well loved by a lot of people. But the way in which they tell the story and the way that Zack has shot the film is going to be very surprising, I think.”

So, despite his excellent track record in independent cinema, Shannon seems to remain sympathetic to the work of the studios. “I think every time those people drive to work they’re taking a risk. It’s a very highpressure environment; I don’t know how they do it. The ones I’ve met, the people who run the studios, all seem to be very calm and friendly people. They must be Zen Buddhists or something!”

The Iceman opens in UK cinemas on June 7, and Man of Steel is on general UK release from June 14 ●

Above: Shannon with Chloë Sevigny in My Son, My Son,

What Have Ye Done?

Opposite: As troubled Agent Van Alden in Boardwalk

Empire (top) and in Jeff Nichols' Take Shelter (bottom)

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03

Insider's Point of View Matthew McConaughey: Actor

Shake it Up Having made his name in romantic comedies, Matthew McConaughey has taken a rather different path in recent years, with films like Killer Joe, The Paperboy and the forthcoming Mud, in which he plays the titular fugitive who is helped by two young boys. He explains why it’s so important to keep taking on new challenges.

Interview Stephen Applebaum Having made a lot of romantic comedies like Failure to Launch, Fool’s Gold and Ghosts of Girlfriends Past, you’ve started making smaller, more left-field films like Mud, Killer Joe, Magic Mike, and The Paperboy. Did you consciously decide to change tack?

Yes, there is a conscious choice.

I wanted to shake some things up and do some different things for my career. I said no to a lot of things that maybe I would have said yes to 10 years ago, because I was really looking for some new challenges. New kinds of original characters that maybe I haven’t seen before, or ones that live on the fringe.

Interestingly, the new films were all made outside Hollywood…

Yeah, I looked the other day at the films and it was like independent, independent,

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independent, independent…

What does that mean? Mud doesn’t look independent, but it’s less than $10m. The Paperboy didn’t look independent. It’s just that really interesting human characters are showing up in the independent films.

Does this say something about Hollywood?

Maybe there is a larger gap now with the bigger budget movies that the studios want to make.

Obviously there are the comicbook characters that are these big tent-pole movies. But I guess what I’m saying is, these films I’ve done don’t feel like the IFC Channel.

They’re not experimental films, but they are independent films. And I hope I can keep getting some of these kinds of roles and keep working with directors like the ones I have recently, I would love to keep doing that. And if those

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Matthew McConaughey has chosen interesting projects over recent years, including The Paperboy (opposite

page), Killer Joe (below) and the forthcoming Mud (bottom)

things can become something that translates to more people that would be great.

Mud isn’t as dark as some of your other recent characters; what appealed to you about him?

He was just a wonderful character. The language of this guy, I had never read language like that. This is the way Jeff [Nichols] writes. The superstitions, the unconditional love he has for this woman [played by Reese Witherspoon]; he was a dreamer, living in the clouds, and he stays there. It was exciting to do.

Mud is a rites of passage movie; have you had any similar experiences in your life?

I’ve had many. There’s rites of passage in affairs of the heart—I think everybody can remember their first heartbreak; that can just floor you. Everyone can remember the first time they’re in love, too, and that’s a high. There is no better drug than that. And I had a big rite of passage when I graduated high school and went to Australia as an exchange student, on my own.

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I ended up in a very small town, population about 300. I had come from high school where, at 18-years-old, I had just got my freedom. I had a job. I had a little cash in my pocket. I had a girlfriend. I had made my grades.

I had saved up some cash.

Everything was like green lights and I went there and everything was gone. I didn’t have any family, friends, a car—all those crutches were gone. I got in some situations that I had to handle where we had some real communication differences, and I didn’t have anyone to rely on but myself. So it was a really introspective time. I don’t think I would be doing what I am doing if I didn’t have that year.

Why not?

Well, it was about finding out who I was. It was me and me, is what I say. It was almost monastic. I did a lot of writing and had a lot of introspection, where before then I was much more extroverted. I had one full year of it and saying, right now I am going insane, but there is something about this year I will

understand later on. In hindsight that was a great period in my life.

I was forced to get to really know myself and ask myself a lot of questions, and come away with a lot of them unanswered.

You have a settled family life now; does that help with the work?

Comfort and stability at home definitely help a man fly more outside of it. So there is some connection there with the work that I have done. It can’t be complete coincidence that I am choosing and doing the work that I have been doing the last two years, and have also become a father.

Do you mean it enables you to go to the darker places, like in Killer Joe? I have thought about that. What is that with all this light in my life?

In a way it does make it easier to go be the absolute killer. And it’s fun to then swing back; fun to have different energies.

How did you handle the now notorious scene where you, as Joe, abuse Gina Gershon’s

character with a piece of fried chicken?

Well, we knew what we had to do—it was written—and we probably both had that scene tabbed. And then you just do it. Joe is taking control of the household, directing the household, conducting the lesson to be learned. So I just said, ‘let me do it'. She was fighting back. I had to get her under control.

Director William Friedkin said he took Gina to one side for that scene and shouted and swore at her to get her to where he wanted her to be; how do you react to that directorial style?

That was the way that he felt he needed to communicate, at that time. If you’re asking me, everything he did, in my POV, all of his outbursts and everything you hear about how wild he is, it all has intent and reason. From what I could tell it all had reason to get a certain effect, which he got!

Mud opens in UK cinemas on May 10 ●

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28/04/2013 16:49:57

Feature The ABCs of Death

The

ABCs

of Genre British filmmakers Simon Rumley, Jake West and Lee Hardcastle sit down with movieScope’s Anton Bitel to discuss their horror anthology The ABCs of Death, the logistics of making a movie with 26 international directors and the state of the genre at large.

ANTON BITEL None of you is exactly a stranger to the short film. What are its attractions?

LEE HARDCASTLE It’s really easy to nail a short film, give it a punchline and focus. The short film format is just a really cool way to exercise that muscle.

SIMON RUMLEY With this project, I had a feature script that I’d written, which I wasn’t sure would ever get made because of its subject matter. So I took the idea of the feature and turned it into a short just to explore a different kind of world. You have to tell a different kind of story, or maybe a similar story but in a fraction of the time, so it brings its own challenges.

JAKE WEST Normally you have an anthology which has a

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wraparound story, whereas this was much more of a concept; that appealed to me, because I don’t think anything like it had been done. It’s almost like a snapshot of what these directors were all thinking at that time. For me as a discipline, it was interesting going back and doing a lessthan-four-minute short, because the idea of telling a story within that timeframe just required really focusing the idea. It’s almost like telling a joke: you’re looking for a setup and a punchline.

ANTON Lee, you won a competition to have your claymation ‘Toilet’ included in The ABCs of Death, and yours was the only segment that other contributors could see in advance for reference. Its influence is obvious on Anders Morgenthaler’s segment ‘Klutz’ and Ti West’s ‘Miscarriage’, both with their focus on toilets, but do you think your piece also set the tone for the overall collection? Is there even a consistent tone in The ABCs of Death?

LEE No, I can’t really say there is a consistent tone. It’s a proper mixed bag. Any similarities in the short films are pure coincidence.

I don’t think any of the directors knew what the others were doing.

JAKE I think this is the bold move of allowing 26 directors to do what they want; you were going to get a very rollercoaster-y variance in terms of tone and mood. So that’s one thing that does make the film both intriguing but also very unpredictable. So, for different audiences there’s certainly going to be films in there which they like and then stuff which they really don’t like. From my perspective I like the idea that it’s just going to take you on this wild ride through the alphabet in a weird way that you’d never thought about before, without the traditional linking story which is the hallmark of every other anthology picture.

SIMON Generally speaking it’s funnier and goofier than I thought it was going to be. People think it’s a horror film because it’s horror directors, but there’s nothing

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scary in it, which is ironic because that’s how it’s been marketed around the world. It’s not a scary film; it’s anything from funny to disturbing. Tonally, I think it is all over the place, which is a good thing—but I guess if you’d got non-horror directors at times it might have been more meditative, which I think would have been interesting.

ANTON Simon, arguably Jorge Michel Grau’s ‘Ingrown’ and your ‘Pressure’ are the only deadly serious and sociopolitically engaged pieces in the collection.

Would you have taken a different approach had you seen the other contributions first?

SIMON It’s interesting in terms of my place within the horror genre. I look at everyday life and

see the horror of that, rather than having monsters and throwing lots of blood on the wall. To me, the reality of life is a lot more disturbing than what horror directors create. More and more people see film as a form of escapism rather than as a form of art. If you go back to the seventies, film is art, and it’s an intellectual exercise and at times it’s an intellectual challenge.

Nowadays, people want to see the White House being blown up.

Film is increasingly going away from art to this fairly inane aspect of commerce, which I think is quite sad. So yeah, let’s get serious for a while.

ANTON Simon, in Adam Wingard’s comic contribution ‘Quack’, which coincidentally also features

Below: Thomas Cappelen Malling's H is for 'Hydro-Electric Diffusion'

Opposite: Lee Hardcastle's 'T is for Toilet'

animal snuff, a character declares, ‘Nobody gives a shit about animals’, yet the impact of your segment relies in part on the very opposite being true.

Do you think animal death is a greater taboo in cinema than human death?

SIMON Absolutely, which is actually very much why I did it. Someone said to me, ‘You should make a film with children and animals;

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Feature The ABCs of Death that’ll be way more commercial.’

So I’ve done this. In a horror film, it’s widely acceptable to see 20 people get stabbed to death and have their heads cut off, as opposed to seeing one kitten get stomped for a relatively good reason. It is a taboo, and horror is about breaking taboos. You look at any good horror film, whether it’s Nosferatu or Freaks or A Serbian Film or The Texas Chain Saw Massacre or The Exorcist—these are all genre-defining moments in cinema where the audiences have really been challenged.

ANTON Although you all worked on it independently of each

“The best stuff that pops up in the genre is always the stuff you don’t expect. That’s why people are tired of remakes.”

Jake West

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other, The ABCs of Death is a collaborative film. Is there a support network amongst indie genre directors?

JAKE Probably the great thing about being a genre director is when you get to go to festivals.

FantasticFest is very much a place where you get to meet your peers, and I do think we have a sense of camaraderie.

I probably know about 60 or 70 per cent of the directors involved [in ABCs] because I’ve met them at festivals. The best thing about The ABCs of Death has been when we’ve been going to festivals with it afterwards. Hanging out with a lot of the guys, we just have a terrific time.

SIMON With the genre films especially, everyone’s very supportive of each other.

The people who make these kind of films also like these films, as opposed to England where most directors are fairly standoffish and actually not that pleasant to each other.

In the genre world, it’s a nice bunch of people, and there’s very little competition as such.

In five years time, when some people have gone on to be more commercially successful and others haven’t, it’ll be interesting to see how that changes people—but, as I said, everyone’s doing it together, everyone’s struggling. It’s a very positive community, I’ve found.

ANTON What do you think of the state of the genre now, and where would you like it to go?

SIMON I think genre’s in a paradoxical state. On the one hand, it’s very closeted, suffering from the more commercial Hollywood aspects, and everyone’s still looking for found-footage movies—like, for fuck’s sake, let’s move on—and people still think genre’s Halloween 8 or whatever.

But on the other side you’ve actually got that whole ABCs of Death crowd, the FantasticFest crowd, or whatever you want to call it, where I do think for the first time in actually quite a long of time

you’ve got a bunch of directors who are also writers—Ti West; Adam Wingard; Simon Barrett; Jorge Michel Grau—who are coming out with original stories, with vaguely original styles, and I think in that respect it’s quite exciting. These guys are getting to do biggerbudget films, and it’ll be interesting to see whether that originality stays or goes down the pan.

JAKE The best stuff that pops up in the genre is always the stuff you don’t expect. That’s why people are tired of remakes and stuff, because we know all of those tropes; we know the beats of how those films are going to play out.

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As we get a bit older as filmmakers we’ve seen a lot of those films represented to us very many times, so we’re looking for stuff which is more original, and that’s why, when you get people like Guillermo del Toro doing such stuff, you get something a bit more interesting than you would get from somebody doing Halloween remakes.

Honestly, I don’t know where the genre is going, because I think it’s down individually to where different directors might steer it in terms of their imaginations. One of the good things about new technology and the stuff that we’re seeing,

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Left: Anders Morgenthaler's 'K is for Klutz'

Below: Jake West's 'S is for Speed'

Opposite: Marcel Sarmiento's 'D is for Dogfight'

like The ABCs of Death, a lot of it was shot on hand-held cameras, and the fact that you can get equipment now, and you can go out and do stuff a lot cheaper, I think that’s why we’ve got a much more thriving indie scene.

But what you’re seeing so far is

work at the lower-budget end of the spectrum, because people are finding it hard to cross over to get bigger amounts of money to do the riskier projects in terms of finance, so I guess it depends who’s successful enough to be able to talk somebody with lots

of money into giving it to do a really insane idea. So I would like to feel optimistic, because I think that there’s always going to be talent emerging.

The ABCs of Death is available on DVD and Blu-ray from June 3 ●

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04

Insider's Point of View Roger Guyett: Visual Effects Supervisor

To Boldly Go (Again)…

ILM visual effects supervisor Roger Guyett takes us behind the scenes of his two-year journey on Star Trek Into Darkness, for which he also served as second-unit director, and discusses his successful collaborative relationship with director J.J. Abrams. Interview: James Clarke What was the chief creative challenge for you and your team with Star Trek Into Darkness?

Working on the first Star Trek (2009) was a real highlight of my career; I was very pleased with how [it] turned out. When I read the first draft of this new movie, it was spring 2011; I went down to the Bad Robot offices and, even from that first draft, I was completely on board! When you come back for a second movie you’re trying to recapture that energy, partly by being self-critical and reexamining the first movie.

Certain things I wanted to explore more, and see how we could build the effects into the

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story. You might be inspired by the happenstance of how the pieces come together. You’re constantly supporting the story; spectacle isn’t enough to carry the film.

How would you describe your working process with director J. J. Abrams?

J.J. focuses on a continuity of story throughout, and how to support and embellish that world. Working with him, he’s incredibly energetic and he has so many different talents and a great understanding of images. He’s one of the auteurs of modern film. You have to keep your game face on working with him, and you want to perform.

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Roger Guyett (opposite) and his ILM team worked on 500 to 600 shots on

Star Trek Into Darkness, which stars Benedict Cumberbatch, Zachary Quinto and Chris Pine (bottom, from left)

J.J. tends to work in two different ways. He’ll do pre-viz, but he’ll also do rehearsals on set to bulk out an idea. He likes the freshness of responding to a location or a set; he doesn’t use storyboards as much as he used to. In Trek, a lot of pre-viz involves combining the art department and VFX department in solving problems for the director. J.J., more than most, certainly tends to have his ideas stack up on each other.

What were your day-to-day responsibilities on the film?

Ninety per cent of my job is about making choices, setting the visual tone of a film’s visual effects. As a VFX artist, the fact that you’re contributing an enormous amount to a film like Star Trek, a lot of your work is evident; it’s right there in your face. Each piece of work is a shot. At ILM, we’re doing 500–600 shots for Star Trek Into Darkness. Every day we do a review of every shot in production. At least 60 to 70 per cent of the day is spent reviewing, and then 25 per cent of the day is about work coming up. The remainder is planning and doing day-to-day administration.

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Are there any particular moments or elements that you’re particularly proud of in Star Trek Into Darkness?

The thing I really learnt on the first one is that you just have to

crack on with it and not think about the pressure of it. One of the things I learnt is that if you respect the franchise and you can do something cooler with it, then people accept the

changes. Creatively we set that universe up and so we started to think how we could embellish it but still make it feel familiar and have the same energy. What I walked away with from the first

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Below: Zachary Quinto as Spock Bottom: Guyett describes director J.J. Abrams as 'one of the auteurs of modern cinema'

one was an understanding of how that world worked. The great thing about Star Trek is that you are balancing real science with the great opportunity to create images inspired by real events, or, say, real space photography, for example. When you look at warp, I love those images, the dragged colours [as the Enterprise speeds away]. I would like for the effects to be elegant.

For us it was about bringing in other aspects of the world we’d established, recapturing the energy of the first movie. A lot of the time with the stuff we’re doing, if you turn the sound off you’d see another level of the worlds, like what life on the ship is like. Star Trek established the idea of the Enterprise, and the new movie has the chance to explore it more.

So much has changed in the two decades you’ve been involved in VFX; what do you consider the next major evolution in visual effects could be?

The biggest thing I can see happening is that the experience

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of a film is going to change.

It’s interesting to me that the concept of a film still stands. We’ll probably see more digital humans and more complicated scenes.

The great thing about movies is that it’s still all about a good story. People want to escape, and in the future they might do it in a more immersive, real-time way.

Maybe it’s a game and you put on a suit and you move around a virtual world. Also, young people now have less of a nostalgic attachment to film. Even though there are differences between photochemical and digital, you’re still doing the same kind of thing. Someone will invent a more immersive experience, realtime experience.

And do you think some elements will remain the same?

There’s always a lot of selfsacrifice involved. It’s a really hard business. Doing VFX work,

you become heavily involved in the creation of the cloth that you’re making the movie from.

Getting educated in the field now is a completely positive thing.

You are creating images, so for me, you have to understand technically how something has to be done. Look at the world around you. I just get excited about a painting, or a photograph. You develop that sense of creating images. You’re entertaining people; exciting them. You want to engage people.

It’s about how you lead the audience through a world. Visual effects is filmmaking and you’re creating all of the pieces.

Star Trek Into Darkness opens in UK cinemas on May 9 ●

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05

Insider's Point of View Craig Armstrong: Composer

A True Vision Composer Craig Armstrong explains how he combined original songs and modern music to bring The Great Gatsby to life, and why his collaborations with director Baz Luhrmann always result in audio gold. Text: Eddie Harrison Craig Armstrong’s career as one of the world’s most influential screen composers has led him to collaborations with directors as diverse as Oliver Stone (World Trade Center, Wall Street: Money Never Sleeps), Peter Mullan (Orphans, Neds) and Taylor Hackford (Ray). But it’s arguably his work with Baz Luhrmann that has been the most influential, seamlessly integrating iconic pop-culture songs with orchestral compositions on the hit soundtracks for Romeo and Juliet and Moulin Rouge! Their third

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feature together is Luhrmann’s adaptation of F. Scott Fitzgerald’s classic novel The Great Gatsby, with a cast featuring Leonardo DiCaprio, Tobey Maguire and Carey Mulligan.

“Baz Luhrmann initially asked me to go to Sydney in winter 2011 to look at some rough film, and discuss what he needed,” says Armstrong of the process. “As with Romeo and Juliet he wanted me to do the original score, but this time with two other elements, one of which was about capturing the jazz elements of the 1920s period, and the other was arranging some

of the songs which were being created or featured in the film. I went back to Sydney in April 2012 to explore the ideas in more depth, and by then I’d had a chance to do research into the period. We had some recording sessions in Los Angeles in summer 2012, and then—as we did with Moulin Rouge—Baz came to Glasgow just before Christmas for some final decisions before we spent six weeks recording the final score in London’s Air Studios.”

Just as both Romeo and Juliet and Moulin Rouge! spawned successful soundtrack albums featuring Armstrong’s orchestral compositions alongside original and classic songs, so The Great Gatsby sees Armstrong’s compositions joined by new music from Beyonce, The xx, Jay-Z, Gotye, Florence and the Machine and more.

“When we were researching the sounds of the 1920s, we went back to artists like Bix Beiderbecke and also looked into more obscure areas, where we happened on material like Conlon

Nancarrow and his Study for Player Piano,” reveals Armstrong. “We even looked into what the early electronic music people were up to. On top of that, we added elements like Bryan Ferry’s ‘Love is the Drug' and Jay-Z; Baz loves his popular music and, as with the arrangements we did on his other films, the challenge for me is to knit it all together.”

Indeed, Armstrong asserts that the fundamental key to the scoring process is finding the musical through line, which helps the audience get the best from the story.

“The main thing for a composer is emotion, and making the soundtrack work for the emotions of the picture,” he says. “Gatsby is a fascinating book, so short and economical that it’s almost like a poem, yet every human emotion is covered in it. Baz has created these amazing party scenes that look great in 3D, but my job was to find the emotional core. Gatsby can’t let go of his first love, and it destroys him when he discovers that you can’t repeat the past.

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For Baz Luhrmann's The Great Gatsby, which stars Leonardo Di Caprio as Gatsby (below

and opposite, with Carey Mulligan as Daisy), composer Craig Armstrong (bottom © Renzo

Mazzolini) was tasked with underscoring the grandeur, folly and tragic romance of the story

At the time, America was seen by many as a classless society, it’s something which wasn’t discussed before Fitzgerald came along, but Gatsby discovers the truth behind this lie; even if he hadn’t made his money illegally, through bootlegging, he would never have been accepted by society.

“I think what makes you feel for Gatsby is that he’s a man who hangs onto a true vision; he believed he’d found a true love and wouldn’t let it go,” Armstrong continues. “That’s why this story still fascinates people; yes, it’s very American, but also universal in that it’s about basic human emotions.

The 3D is a great storytelling tool, but it doesn’t change the emotion of a scene.”

And to realise this story on a grand scale, Armstrong’s brief was to create a musical score illustrating both the grandeur and the folly of the times, but also capturing the intimacy of a tragic romance.

“You focus on creating themes for each of the main characters, but until the point when Baz comes

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to Glasgow, it’s all up in the air,” explains Armstrong. “He likes to have everything in the air and keep on juggling until you finally have to make some decisions. So I might end up with 20 or 25 themes and expressions. Maybe 10 of them are main themes for Gatsby himself,

with some darker than others to express his mood. Baz takes the music away and listens to it; he remembers the pieces so well, that he frequently will remember a piece I’ve written that I’ve actually forgotten about myself. And when we met up in Glasgow, we pulled in all the strands, and finalised the pieces that we’d create orchestral arrangements for.”

Armstrong’s own portfolio of work is one that keeps expanding; he’s recently contributed to Oliver Stone’s television show The Untold History of the United States, and a new album featuring collaborations with Scott Fraser, Brett Anderson from Suede and Paul Buchanan from The Blue Nile is due out later in the year. And Armstrong also scored a notable success in 2012 by writing an opera based on Ibsen’s Lady From the Sea. “I’m constantly flitting between genres,” he says. “It annoys a lot

of people, but that’s just the way I like to work. I might work in film one day, opera the next; I’m simply not interested in the divisions that people perceive between genres.

“You probably do have a bit more control when you are writing an opera than a film soundtrack— at least on an opera, nobody bothers you until you’ve finished it. But I’d like to do more classical work alongside what I do with film; I try not to think of the differences between the forms, only the connections. In Britain, it seems to be harder to move between different disciplines in the way that Phillip Glass or John Adams have done. But I want to keep moving between them, and my work with Baz really helps; it’s just so much easier to write music when the film itself is really good.”

After opening the Cannes Film Festival, The Great Gatsby will be in UK cinemas from May 16 ●

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28/04/2013 17:07:01

Feature My Brother the Devil

My Brother the Devil An American Adventure Sally El Hosaini’s debut feature, My Brother the Devil, won multiple awards on the international festival circuit and proved a hit with UK audiences last year. Having just returned from the USA, where the film was released in 12 cities, the director—and former movieScope One To Watch—writes about what her American road trip has taught her about the business of filmmaking.

Since finishing My Brother the Devil 16 months ago, I’ve been pretty much living out of a suitcase. The film has screened at over 40 festivals around the world—of course I didn’t go to all of them, but I went to a fair few.

Sarajevo Film Festival was my favourite; it’s a fascinating city and the outdoor screenings they put on were magical.

I’ve just got back from New York and LA, where I was supporting

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the film’s US release. We opened in 12 cities across America. Next we are releasing theatrically in Canada and Germany and then coming out on DVD in Australia and New Zealand.

Before I made the film all I could focus upon was getting it finished to the best of my ability within the limited money and time we had. I hadn’t realised or anticipated that I would still be working on it over a year later! Like stubborn children,

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films have a way of holding onto you no matter how you try to peel them off. Only now, after returning from the US, am I finally having some closure.

The film has been released in the US and Canada by Paladin, in partnership with 108 Media Co. Mark Urman set up Paladin three years ago after cofounding and running ThinkFilm and, prior to that, he was co-president of Lionsgate Releasing for four years. So, although we were teaming up with a new indie distributor, I was actually working with established people who had a lot of experience of the North American market. Previously, I had been extremely hands-on with our UK distributor, Verve, and had worked closely with them on the UK strategy and release. So, by comparison, I was slightly less involved with the US release, but was still part of the process. I was

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disappointed not to have had creative involvement in the US poster and trailer though. What was particularly exciting for me, however, was that Paladin/108 had a different target audience to the one Verve had aimed the film at. So, I got to experience two very different distribution campaigns, with different marketing strategies and materials. To have the opportunity to go around the block twice with the same film, but in different ways, has been a fascinating lesson in marketing and distribution.

Mark Urman believed from the outset that a theatrical presence would be critical in establishing our identity in the marketplace. He wanted us to enter the US properly, and that was primarily through using our awards pedigree and critical acclaim. Our first American city was NY, where we opened at the Lincoln Center and at the

Landmark Sunshine Theater— in fact we were at Landmark Theaters in all 12 American cities.

The Landmark chain is the US equivalent to the Curzon chain, and therefore ideally positioned to reach our target audience.

It was extremely important that I accompany the film to the USA; as the filmmaker you are a valuable and vital asset when it comes to distributing an indie film. This is especially true of a first film, because distributors can exploit the ‘new talent’ label.

It’s a filmmaker’s medium. Most indie films are labours of love that have a personal connection to the filmmaker. Having me present to do Q&As and to attend bespoke preview screenings with ‘tastemakers’ was essential in terms of building an audience and creating word of mouth. It was an intelligent tactic as it meant there was already buzz before the

Director Sally El Hosaini (above) knew how essential it was for her to personally support My Brother

the Devil's American release

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Feature My Brother the Devil

“One night we shared the marquee with the Rocky Horror Picture Show.

That was an image worth tweeting.”

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film opened. Of course when you target this kind of audience you also rely heavily upon good local reviews, and we were thrilled when we received rave reviews in the NY Times and Village Voice. This really helped us bring the US cinephiles in. How it goes in your first city impacts the rest of the release; luckily for us it went very well.

While I was in the States my schedule was packed. I was grateful that one of the lead actors, James Floyd, joined me. We did Q&As nearly every night. We also had to do advance press for all 12 cities, so that meant long days of back-to-back interviews.

Some are face-to-face, but there were also a lot of phoners and Skype interviews. By the end of a press day you have no idea who you’ve said what to! We also had live radio shows, numerous pre-recorded filmed interviews and were on Huffington Post Live.

And then you wake up the next morning; it’s Groundhog Day, and you do it all again. Despite how tiring it is I know it’s a privilege.

British films don’t have a very good track record of traveling to the US

so I’m incredibly lucky to be having these experiences at all.

Personally, the press and promotion is my least favourite part of the process, but it’s an essential part. I’m a creative and there’s nothing I want more than to stay eternally in the writing, developing, directing and editing stages of a project. That’s what gets me truly excited. But it’s a film business and so you have to develop that producer/business chip in your brain. My Brother the Devil wouldn’t have been made if I hadn’t done that. There’s always going to be that tension where art and commerce meet.

I must admit, however, that after 16 months I’m tired of talking about the film, particularly when my head and heart are filled with the new projects I’m working

on. I’m currently developing two screenplays, one set in London and the other an American story, and these are my current passions. So naturally it’s hard to generate the same level of enthusiasm for a film you’ve spent over half a decade talking about already. During Q&As I felt disingenuous to always be answering the same questions in the same way so I would often try to mix it up. Sometimes that worked and other times… I got tongue-tied and handed the mic to James! But I do always enjoy sharing the film with new audiences. Especially when the film moves them. You realise that this thing that has been inside you for so long now has a life of its own. It’s for other people now. It doesn’t belong to you any more.

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It was fantastic to bring the film to an American audience, and the highlight was selling out screenings at NY’s Lincoln Center, including a midweek daytime screening. The Lincoln Center has an older demographic, largely OAPs, and they had to turn people away! They really loved the film.

In the UK I’d been lead to believe that older audiences wouldn’t like an ‘urban’ film about youth like mine; in NY I discovered this wasn’t the case at all. Indeed, my favourite part of the US release was seeing the film up in lights on

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the American marquees. We don’t have marquees here so it was a special sight. One night we shared the marquee with the Rocky Horror Picture Show. That was an image worth tweeting.

Even though the US trip was exhausting, I’ve definitely learnt a lot from the experience that I will take with me into my upcoming projects. Filmmaking is a longdistance sport. As a filmmaker you need to develop your stamina because it doesn’t end when you make the film. I’ve learned how to deal with jet lag and to always

pack Berocca and echinacea! I’ve also learned to relax and enjoy the press and promotion more.

My default setting is ‘serious’, so I used to be incredibly earnest when I first started doing press.

I wanted to make sure that I was answering all the questions precisely. Now I’m much more relaxed and have even been known to crack a joke…

My Brother the Devil is available now on DVD. For more on Sally’s work follow her on Twitter @sallyelhosaini or Facebook www.facebook.com/ sallylovesfilms ●

My Brother the Devil star James Floyd (above and

opposite with co-star Fady Elsayed) accompanied Sally and the film to the USA

28/04/2013 17:18:09

06

Insider's Point of View Diane Kuo: Digital Colourist

The Culture of Colour

Starting out as a projectionist in Taiwan before moving to India to colour grade Bollywood films, Dubai-based Diane Kuo has worked in places as varied as Indonesia and Taiwan and on myriad films from Bollywood drama to science fiction. Here, she explains how culturally important colour is when conveying story and meaning. Interview: Helen Cox What, in your opinion, is a colourist’s top priority?

I think the most important thing for me to do is to make the picture look nice throughout the whole film, because in reality things might go wrong during the shooting.

Sometimes the sunlight changes a lot; sometimes you have different formats of camera or different types of exposure. With the extras, there is a huge difference in skin tone. My priority is to fix the lighting issues that occur during the shoot.

Has your experience as a projectionist in Taiwan helped you in your role as a colourist?

While I was working in the cinema I had to deal with a lot of film print.

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Every day I had to stitch them and upload them into a reel so I was quite comfortable with film in my head. The film has to go through many rollers and it’s quite complicated. The most difficult part was making sure it never got scratched. I was quite lucky. It never happened. I watched movies every day, again and again. That kind of film look is burned into my memory which helps me when a client asks for a certain look.

Why did you choose firstly to work on Bollywood films?

A lot of people ask me this question. They make very beautiful films involving tragedy and love, vibrant colours and

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Digital colourist Diane Kuo (opposite) has worked on things as diverse as sci-fi movie Intruders (below) and commercial projects (bottom)

dramatic acting and singing and dancing. I think at that age I got attracted by all that spice in their movies. That’s why I went to India.

I wanted to experience that.

And was it then a big shift to go from Bollywood to work on an independent science fiction film?

For me, there is no difference. I’m still doing the colouring. I think the moment I enjoyed the most is when my clients look happy when they leave the room. When I work with different groups of people it helps me to learn about different types of film, and how they need different types of treatments to fit into a different type of market. With independent film, however, you can have more space to play around and you don’t have to worry about the super-stars looking handsome enough.

Do the challenges of being a colourist remain the same whatever genre you’re working in?

The biggest challenge is to understand what your client wants and reproduce the image that’s in their mind; to understand the meaning of colour and how it is presented in different cultures and how the colour tells the story, getting the right contrast and saturation between colours. One

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picture you can colour grade ten different ways but you have to communicate with your client and you have to make a decision about which one will go well with the story. It really helps the story and helps the audience to understand that image.

If you want to make the image look very seductive you should make it strong red or if you want romance you want things to look a little bit red but not too strong, maybe towards the pink side.

It depends on the story and sometimes maybe the culture because different regions have

different understandings of beauty, so it’s not just like there’s a rule; there is always possibility.

Do you have a favourite frame or shot you’ve worked on, or is it impossible to choose?

I do choose a favourite frame from each job I do and I save them in my gallery, but I think it’s impossible to pick one out of all of them. They are my babies and they are all depicting so many talented people’s work. It’s never just me.

It’s the DOP, the director. When I look at my favourite moments, those frames, I just feel very glad that I ever worked on those jobs with those people.

How have evolving technologies helped your role throughout your career?

I have been using DaVinci since I started doing colour grading, I use different types of hardware and software and I think they all have their own advantages when it comes to the pictures. They keep updating the software and updating the technology. DaVinci is still my first love; I’ve been using

it for almost 11 years. It’s really improved a lot you can use it for anything you need to do.

I also think for many colourists, Custom Curve is their best friend.

With Custom Curve you can manually create a set of mid-points for your picture; if your picture is too flat you can choose a point you want to adjust and bring down the curve. It’s very useful to create a certain look without damaging the picture quality.

And how do you make sure you’re evolving along with that technology?

You have to keep an open mind, watch a lot of films and TV commercials. Keep practicing because it’s like when you take a picture. The first one you’re never happy with: the lighting is not right, the smile is not right. You just have to keep practicing and you will have a lot of difficulty when you know that a picture or a colour looks nice but your client doesn’t want it. It’s because they don’t expect that; they expect whatever was agreed to. You have to be understanding! ●

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Theatrical

Much Ado About Nothing: In Conversation

Director Joss Whedon Screenplay Joss Whedon, from the play by William Shakespeare Stars Amy Acker, Alexis Denisoff, Nathan Fillion, Clark Greg, Fran Kranz, Jillian Morgese DoP Jay Hunter Editor Daniel S Kaminsky, Joss Whedon Locations Santa Monica, California, USA Opens June 14

movieScope editor Nikki Baughan and critic James Mottram discuss Joss Whedon’s Much Ado About Nothing, which updates Shakespeare’s classic comedy about two pairs of lovers to a contemporary setting.

JAMES MOTTRAM I’m not a great fan of contemporary versions of Shakespeare, generally. Considering Whedon made it in 12 days with a bunch of actors he knows very well in his own house, it’s a brisk fun adaptation, but it just didn’t do a lot for me personally.

NIKKI BAUGHAN I really enjoyed it. I thought Whedon’s decision to keep it to a single location was inspired, because it made it quite intimate. I also loved the performances, particularly Alexis Denisoff as Benedick, Nathan Fillion as Dogberry and Amy Acker as Beatrice. They are just so endearing.

JAMES Denisoff and Acker were very good.

The moments where they are both hiding from

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the others, overhearing the conversations, those scenes were probably my favourites as they worked really well.

NIKKI It is very funny at times, and everyone had such great comic timing. And I’m not big fan of modern Shakespeare adaptations either, but I thought this translated really well.

Sometimes Shakespeare told in modern times really jars and feels forced, but I really liked the way they integrated both worlds. The use of iPods to play music and iPads to relay the news of the ‘soldiers’ coming home, that was cleverly done and not over the top.

JAMES There was a version of Hamlet with Ethan Hawke in 2000 which did the same thing, although obviously the technology wasn’t as up to date. I didn’t think this offered anything particularly new.

I guess I didn’t really see why it had to be contemporary—but then you could argue that could be my prejudice towards those

sorts of films. You could also argue it’s a vanity project but he’s pulled it off well enough.

NIKKI I kind of get the feeling that he made it for himself, and he made it for his friends… I don’t think he would say any different. It’s his friends, his house, I think it’s an experiment for him, something so very different to the big budget stuff he’s doing on the big screen.

He’s going back to his roots, in a way, and I loved seeing him do that.

JAMES Yes, he definitely did make it for himself, it’s true. I think there’s integrity to that.

I just personally enjoyed Kenneth Branagh’s 1993 version more. This was bright and breezy, if you’re looking for a lightweight piece of cinema. If it gets Joss Whedon fans to start watching Shakespeare that’s great.

NIKKI It’s not plodding, inaccessible or tragic, it’s just a lot of fun. ● ● ● ● ● Nikki Baughan ● ● ● ● ● James Mottram

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29/04/2013 11:44:40

Mud

Journey to Italy

Our Children

Inspired by the work of Mark Twain, this slowburning romantic thriller marks the third film

by Jeff Nichols, whose 2007 Shotgun Stories and his award-winning 2011 follow-up Take Shelter have already distinguished him as one of America’s hottest directorial talents. Like its predecessors, this tale of two boys who help a fugitive boasts an authentic sense of place; with an almost Malick-like appreciation for nature, nothing ever feels fake in Mud. A tanned and tattooed Matthew McConaughey is impressive as Mud, the escaped criminal hiding out on the banks of the Mississippi, who recruits the young Ellis (Tye Sheridan), and his friend Neckbone (Jacob Lofland) to help him make good his getaway—and get word to the love of his life, Juniper (Witherspoon). With small roles for Nichols regular Michael Shannon and Sam Shepard, it’s a fine ensemble cast.

Yet there’s something about Mud that doesn’t quite stick. With the story seen through the eyes of the boys, particularly Ellis, it’s really a quietly rendered comingof-age tale, told with a pace as meandering as the Mississippi. Sadly, the final act drifts into predictably violent territory—missing the spiritual and psychological qualities that made Take Shelter such a special experience.

Unquestionably, though, Nichols is a gifted director; Mud will surely prove to be a minor footnote in what will be a major career. ● ● ● ● ● James Mottram

English married couple Katherine (Bergman) and Alex Joyce (Sanders) travel to Italy to oversee the sale of an inherited villa. Spending so much time together soon leads to much bickering and it soon becomes clear that their marriage may not survive this journey.

At 60 years old, Roberto Rossellini’s Journey to Italy is vintage cinema, both in terms of its age and its aesthetic. But while it may now seem desperately old-fashioned—gender stereotypes, for example, are laughably antiquated–the film received criticism on its release because it was deemed as too progressive. Doing away with traditional narrative conventions, it introduces a beforeunseen realism to the screen, allowing Katherine and Alex’s story the natural space to breath and setting the groundwork for the European neo-realism movement.

And it’s this that gives Journey to Italy an ageless charm. Despite not being the most sympathetic of characters, Katherine and Alex are nonetheless engaging thanks to their sparky dialogue and heartfelt emotional wranglings. Around them, the Italian countryside is, thanks to this new restoration, more resplendent as ever, cinematographer Enzo Serafin’s camera drinks in the sundrenched landscape and the museums and ruins Katherine visits alone; itself a neatly handled metaphor for the film’s contemplations of past, present and future. ● ● ● ● ● Nikki Baughan

The harrowing conclusion to Our Children is revealed moments into the runtime. A woman lies weeping in a hospital bed, talking to somebody off-screen and repeating a single phrase: ‘You’ll bury them in Morocco?’

The woman is teacher Murielle (Dequenne), and her journey towards despair began when she fell in love with Moroccan-born Mounir (Rahim). Initially their romance is unshakably sweet but Mounir ultimately answers to his surrogate father figure, Andre (Arestrup), and, over the time it takes Murielle to birth four children, Andre’s control of Mounir causes significant strain within their relationship.

Though the pacing of this film can be, at times, pedestrian, director Joachim Lafosse handles the distressing subject matter with tact and taste. The performances are brutally honest; particularly that of Dequenne, who gradually disintegrates into isolation and despondency as the woes of perpetual motherhood take hold.

The film further succeeds thanks to Lafosse’s unwillingness to cut away during moments of awkwardness; he is intent on showing the discomfort of this dysfunctional family unit. It is this that keeps the tension levels high, even though the audience has already been privy to the stomach-turning finale (made more disturbing with the knowledge that it is based on real-life events). ● ● ● ● ● Helen Cox

Director & Screenplay Jeff Nichols Stars Matthew McConaughey, Reese Witherspoon Opens May 10

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Director Roberto Rossellini Screenplay Vitaliano Brancati & Roberto Rossellini Stars Ingrid Bergman, George Sanders Opens May 10

Director Joachim Lafosse Screenplay Thomas Bidegain, Joachim Lafosse & Matthieu Reynaert Stars Émilie Dequenne, Tahar Rahim, Niels Arestrup Opens May 10

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Theatrical

The Company You Keep

The Iceman

Just like his contemporary Clint Eastwood, Robert Redford is a cinematic presence of such longevity that it’s impossible not to see echoes of past roles and familiar character traits in each new project. And so it is that his latest, The Company You Keep—for which he takes the role of both director and lead— evokes the earnest determination of All the President’s Men and the political posturing of Lions For Lambs (albeit distilled), with a splash of The Sundance Kid’s energy and spirit thrown in for good measure.

Redford is Jim Grant, a small town lawyer doing his best to care for his young daughter after losing his wife in a car accident. When he is asked to represent Sharon Solarz (a brief but intense appearance from Sarandon), who has turned herself in 30 years after her involvement with a botched bank robbery, Jim declines. When local reporter Ben Shepard (LaBeouf) turns up on Jim’s doorstep, determined to get to the truth about Sharon’s involvement with radical Weather Underground Organization (who were behind the robbery) everything changes. After Ben outs Jim as Sharon's fellow activist Nick Sloane, Nick is forced to embark on an increasingly desperate journey to reveal the truth.

Like many of director Redford’s films, this is a solid, traditional piece of filmmaking. It’s methodically paced, with Ben’s investigation and discoveries keeping the audience clued in every step of the way; essential, given

Michael Shannon is fast becoming Hollywood’s go-to guy when a film needs an injection of menace. After raging his way through Take Shelter and Premium Rush-and before he sets his ‘loose cannon’ rolling in Man of Steel – the Kentucky native blitzes this noir thriller as real-life hitman Richard Kuklinski.

Despite his lofty height, Shannon proves surprisingly nimble as Kuklinski, a regular guy who’s hired by mob heavyweight Roy Demeo (Liotta) in 1975. Splitting his time between putting bullets in people and lying to his wife (Ryder, brilliant), Kuklinski seems destined for such violence—and possibly an early grave.

There’s no doubting Shannon. Magnetic and mesmerising, he’s a gift for director Ariel Vromen (Danika), who otherwise struggles to find the nuance in Kuklinski’s story. Instead of creating a biopic that gets inside the mind of its troubled subject, Vromen’s film often feels like a by-the-numbers thriller with little to add to what we already know about the real man.

A stylish but flawed period piece, The Iceman does have a few tricks up its sleeve.

There’s a fantastic, tense scene between Shannon and James Franco’s Marty that highlights Kuklinski’s moral confusion, while David Schwimmer and Chris Evans put in excellent turns as, respectively, a bumbling lackey and fellow assassin (who drives an ice cream truck). ● ● ● ● ● Josh Winning

Director Robert Redford Screenplay Lem Dobbs, from the book by Neil Gordon Stars Robert Redford, Shia LaBeouf, Susan Sarandon, Julie Christie DoP Adriano Goldman Editor Mark Day Locations Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada Opens May 31

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the story’s sprawling cast of characters and frequent conversational reminisces. Despite the occasional action sequence, usually involving Nick doing his best to outrun the authorities, the film is driven by its (weighty, nostalgic) dialogue and characters.

Redford has certainly assembled an impressive cast around him. It’s truly fantastic to see such stalwarts as Julie Christie, Nick Nolte, Richard Jenkins, Chris Cooper, Brendan Gleeson, Stanley Tucci and, of course, Sarandon given meaty roles as now-reluctant former activists, and relative youngsters Terrence Howard, Anna Kendrick and Brit Marling also shine in their small number of scenes. But it’s Redford and LaBeouf to whom the film belongs; as the pair dance around each other, Redford is given ample chance to get his teeth into worthy speeches about responsibility, truth and the exploitation of idealism, while LaBeouf showcases energy and charisma as a man determined to write the news.

It’s just a shame, then, that, after all this carefully plotted, intelligent drama, the climax wraps everything up in a neat, trite bow that sees the blistering narrative simply fizzle out. Yet, as a treatise on the human consequences of political activism—and as a piece of welcome, old-fashioned intellectual filmmaking—The Company You Keep is worth seeking out. ● ● ● ● ● Nikki Baughan

Director Ariel Vromen Screenplay Morgan Land & Ariel Vromen, from the book by Anthony Bruno Stars Michael Shannon, Ray Liotta, Winona Ryder Opens June 7

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30/04/2013 14:18:33

Before Midnight

Director Richard Linklater Screenplay Richard Linklater, Julie Delpy & Ethan Hawke Stars Ethan Hawke, Julie Delpy Opens June 21 Richard Linklater, Julie Delpy and Ethan Hawke’s third snapshot of the life of Celine (Delpy) and Jesse (Hawke) is a satisfying mix of fairy-tale romance and brisk banter that celebrates long-term love and the power of friendship.

We encounter the pair at the end of a holiday in the Greek southern Peloponnese.

It’s almost a decade after Before Sunset and they are settled in Paris with twin daughters (Jennifer and Charlotte Prior), and have a good relationship with Ethan’s son Hank (Seamus Davey-Fitzpatrick).

A prologue of sorts sees Ethan pack Hank off on a plane back to mum and cleverly sets the scene for conversations to come, where the lightness of what is being said masks the weight of heavier emotions. We are also treated to a debate on the philosophies of love courtesy of a group of Celine and Jesse’s friends back at their holiday villa, though this is signposting which the viewer hardly needs.

What we want is to get the couple to ourselves. When we do, their conversations— many shot in beautiful long, single takes— have the natural cadence of long-term love. These exchanges are the heart of the film, where positive passion can slide into something altogether more negative as unresolved resentments surface but which, through love and laughter, is never beyond the point of redemption. ● ● ● ● ● Amber Wilkinson

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Everybody Has a Plan

Director & Screenplay Ana Piterbarg Stars Viggo Mortensen, Soledad Vilamil, Sofia Gala Opens May 24 Multi-lingual actor, poet, painter, musician and photographer: Viggo Mortensen can do it all. Yet, even with such ample talents in his arsenal not even he can lift Everybody Has a Plan above its painfully average level.

Mortensen portrays twin brothers with very different lives; Pedro works as a beekeeper in the sweeping landscapes of Argentina’s Paraná Delta region and mixes with the wrong crowd, while Agustin is living the quiet life as a married paediatrician in Buenos Aries. But despite being on the verge of adopting a baby with his wife of eight years, Agustin is frustrated with his life and takes advantage of his brother’s death to start afresh in his hometown. Soon, however, he’s forced to deal with the mess his brother left behind.

First-time director Ana Piterbarg creates a beautiful portrait with the bleak surroundings and wisely lets her multi-tasking leading man carry the film and its themes of duality. Yet, for a narrative about criminal underworlds, it lacks a surprising amount of bite. The criminals are never menacing enough to intimidate, and Agustin’s unexplained decision to leave his life behind on a whim never feels authentic.

Viggo Mortensen is one of those people you could watch in anything, but unfortunately there’s not much to Everybody Has a Plan without him. ● ● ● ● ● Limara Salt

Hummingbird

Director & Screenplay Steven Knight Stars Jason Statham, Vicky McClure Opens June 28 On the run from a military court martial, exSpecial Forces soldier Joey Jones (Statham) finds himself homeless on the streets of London. Breaking into an empty apartment, he assumes the identity of the wealthy owner to take on the city’s criminal underworld. As he becomes deeply embroiled in the hidden horrors of city life, Joey’s only salvation comes in the form of kindly nun Dawn (McClure).

Hummingbird is a film drawn in broad strokes and urban clichés; a disappointment considering it’s written by Steven Knight (also making his directorial debut), the screenwriter behind Dirty Pretty Things and Eastern Promises. From the Chinese mafia members to the homeless community, all characters are two dimensional, existing purely to provide motivation for Joey’s rampage for justice. The female characters suffer most; all, whether prostitute, nun or gang leader, are portrayed as victims, in need of Joey’s salvation.

Statham does his best to grapple with the psychological aspects of his character – Joey suffers from post-traumatic stress syndrome– but ultimately this is just another version of his familiar avenging angel character. As Joey crashes his way through the underbelly of London, given a neon beauty by cinematographer Chris Menges, the narrative gets increasingly trite and, by the time his relationship with Dawn reaches its peak, all credulity is lost. ● ● ● ● ● Nikki Baughan

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Theatrical

The Comedian

Director & Screenplay Tom Shkolnik Stars Edward Hogg, Elisa Lasowski, Nathan Stewart-Jarrett, Steven Robertson, Brett Goldstein, Gerard Murphy, Jamie Baughan DoP Benjamin Kracun Editor Pierre Haberer Location London, UK Opens May 31 If you’ve ever been to London, you’ll know that filmmakers love to glamorise it. From Notting Hill’s sunny street markets right through to this year’s trippily glossy Welcome to the Punch, the London on film often isn’t the same London we all know and love. (Hell, even murky underground slasher Creep wasn’t above shoving on a tinted filter.) Not so The Comedian, a film that has London in its heart and under its nails. It’s as much a poem to our beloved capital as it is a celluloid imprint of its every grubby alley and strip-lit night bus.

Ed (Hogg) is the comedian of the title. Like many joke-spitters, he comes alive when performing but off-stage it’s a different story.

His high voice rings wearily over the opening credits as he works a soul-crushing call centre job. On stage at a small comedy club, though, he bellows, spraying the audience with pithy, angry observations. As we enter his life, we find him living with Elisa (Lasowski), but his (platonic) love for her is shaken when he unexpectedly falls for young artist Nathan (Stewart-Jarrett).

Torn between two loves and two lives, Ed wrestles with a life-changing question: who is the comedian, really?

It’s a question that director Tom Shkolnik isn’t in a rush to answer. Armed with a set of filmmaking rules that sound more like how not to make a movie—only one take per scene, no story-planning ahead of

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shooting—Shkolnik has bolstered a film that feels organic and lived-in. It’s less of a story than it is a document of London life, though it still manages to be quietly, pervasively moving.

Hogg is magnificent. Flawed. Funny.

Frustrating. Looks-wise, he’s an odd cross between David Tennant and Jared Leto, and he’s utterly convincing as an arty type whose closed-mouth charisma can’t help but attract others. The scriptfree approach also comes up trumps; the dialogue feels natural and unshowy. Most impressive of all is the gay romance at the film’s core; a refreshingly realistic rendering that doesn’t bow to convention (and leads to an unsettling bus confrontation). In that, at least, it echoes 2011’s equally perceptive Weekend.

The Comedian isn’t merely a ‘gay film’, though. It’s not that easily classifiable.

Instead, it’s a thoroughly modern drama that cherry picks elements from a contemporary city environment to tell a story that many will be able to relate to.

That is The Comedian’s main strength; smudging the line between reality and fiction, it feels like just one story in a larger tapestry. Hogg himself sums the film up as a ‘deeply felt and gently human piece’. It’s also a British film with real punch. Don’t miss it. ● ● ● ● ● Josh Winning

Spike Island

Director Mat Whitecross Screenplay Chris Coghill Stars Elliott Tittsenor, Nico Mirallegro, Jordan Murphy Opens June 21 Manchester in 1990 has become a lionized cultural moment in recent pop history and it provides an intriguing setting for British coming-of-age film Spike Island. Gary ‘Tits’ Titchfield (Tittsenor) and his band, Shadowcaster—Dodge (Mirallegro), Zippy (Murphy), Little Gaz (Adam Long) and Penfold (Oliver Heald)—are the raffish teenagers obsessed with the Stone Roses, desperate to attend their famous gig at Spike Island to get their demo tape in the hands of their idols.

The film ticks all the boxes of a recentperiod piece—the soundtrack is lovingly crafted, the clothes and haircuts feel authentic and the obligatory joke about Maggie Thatcher is present—but it all rings slightly hollow. The Mancunian twangs and bucket hats fail to mask the tired character arcs and signposted plot; it has the Baggy trappings, but not the Northern soul.

Performances are capable all round, with the boys doing an adequate job of showing some spark of fellowship. As Sally, a potential love interest, Emilia Clarke is pleasant yet irritatingly devoid of characterisation.

The fertile Madchester territory is often a burden, the filmmakers too enthralled with the period to provide any reasoned context or perspective. Spike Island ultimately falters too much, but when it does work it’s a nice enough ode to the glorious insularity of youth. ● ● ● ● ● Bren Sritharan

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