Moviescope 36

movieScope 36

Movies From An Insider’s Point Of View

36 36

Oct-Dec 2013

Franchise Finance The enduring business of sequels The Small Screen Why big screen talent is flocking to TV Israeli Cinema The filmmakers revolutionising an industry

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October-December 2013 £4.95

Inside Llewyn Davis

INSIDE LLEWYN DAVIS

Music as character in the Coen Brothers’ masterpiece

Video on Demand

Financially sustainable business model or flash in the pan?

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Issue 36 October-December 2013

Contents

24 Fps 06 Territory Focus

With stunning landscapes, a dedicated infrastructure and financial incentives, Poland is fast becoming a destination of choice for international productions.

10 Industry Insider

Industry analyst Michael Gubbins examines how changing consumer demands are driving the VoD revolution, and why there is still a long way to go.

14 Script Talk

Screenwriting expert Danny Munso explains why finding a good manager is the most important thing any new writer can do for their career.

18 Finance and Funding Dave Morrison, of Nyman Libson Paul, explores why the UK is so appealing a destination for tax credit tourists.

20 Distribution

Mick Southworth and Martin McCabe explore the history of the film franchise, and why it’s still such a lucrative business model.

24 Announcements

From high-performance SSDs for AV professionals to a new doc-style camera from ARRI, we take a look at a selection of products from IBC 2013.

38 INSIDE LLEWYN DAVIS

“I feel like I’ve been preparing for 33 years for this role. In retrospect, I can say that everything I’ve done has prepared me for doing this [film]." Oscar Isaac, Actor

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Contents Issue 36 October-December 2013

Features

Insider's P.O.V

Reviews

30 VoD

26 John Krokidas

58 Theatrical

The increasing number of Video on Demand platforms is making it easier than ever to discover new films. But is it a financially viable business model? Experts Roger Jackson (KinoNation), Yan Vizinberg (CineCliq) and Peter Gerard (Distrify) discuss the realities of VoD.

38 Inside Llewyn Davis

Star Oscar Isaac and music producer T-Bone Burnett discuss the intimate relationship that the Coen Brothers have with music, and how it can become a character in its own right.

44 The Small Screen

A plethora of big-screen talent, including Ron Howard, Cillian Murphy and Holly Hunter, explain why television projects are now offering them more exciting opportunities than film.

54 Israeli Cinema

Big Bad Wolves directors Aharon Keshales and Navot Papushado explain how genre filmmaking is helping to kick-start a revolution in Israeli film.

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The writer/director explains why it’s taken him 10 years to bring his debut feature, Kill Your Darlings, to the screen.

34 J.C. Chandor

The filmmaker behind surprise hit Margin Call on why he’s chosen one-man drama All is Lost as his follow up film.

42 Liz Garbus

With Love, Marilyn, the documentary filmmaker goes beyond the legend of Marilyn Monroe.

48 Alex Gansa

The co-creator and executive producer of smash TV hit Homeland shares the secrets behind must-see television.

52 Amit Gupta

It’s been a rocky road to bring British comedy Jadoo to the screen; the independent filmmaker tells us how he stayed focused.

56 Slawomir Idziak

The Polish DoP explains why he’s so determined to pass on the craft of cinematography to a new generation.

movieScope editor Nikki Baughan and critic James Mottram discuss Beat drama Kill Your Darlings .

Plus reviews of We Are What We Are, Inside Llewyn Davis, Don Jon, The Railway Man and many more.

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

“I realised the most important thing is to not lose everybody their money and to make a good movie.

[Then] they'll invite you back."

J.C. Chandor, Filmmaker www.moviescopemag.com

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Editorial Issue 36 October-December 2013 ‘Jack [Warner looks upon] the making of movies as like any other kind of factory production, requiring discipline and order rather than temperament and talent. His job is not to make artistic triumphs… but to make 60 pictures a year on a budget of $25,000,000… Of the 214 Warner pictures released from January 1933, to the end of last year, only one has not yet returned its negative cost and 85 per cent have returned more than negative and distribution cost, thus contributing to the corporate profit. This does not mean that they were good pictures. It means that they didn’t cost very much to begin with and that every one of them hit its budget on the nose.”

Jack’s most important savings come from the way he handles talent and ideas, which are the really expensive ingredients of a movie… Jack permits no temperaments around him except his own.’

‘Warner Bros’, Fortune Magazine (December 1937) I came across the above extract current in my bedside reading, Inside Warner Bros (1935-1951) by Rudy Behlmer (George Weidenfeld & Nicolson Ltd, 1986). It’s a fascinating collection of memos and letters culled from almost two decades of filmmaking at Hollywood’s powerhouse, and reveals just what tight control Jack Warner had over every single project— and individual—under his studio’s roof. The passage above really sums up the essence of his approach and, indeed, the essence of filmmaking; that perpetual struggle between the business and creative which is as relevant today as it was over 75 years ago.

While modern budgets may be spinning out of control, modern filmmakers continue to strive for glory. While for some that might mean creative achievement, for most success is always measured in box office receipts. As viewing habits evolve that bottom line remains as crucial as ever, and many are putting their faith in VoD to plug the gap left by the dwindling home entertainment market; and, possibly, to support or even take over from traditional theatrical releasing. But, while VoD technology may be making it easier than ever to access film content, the financial benefits are less clear. We asked three leading experts whether VoD really is a sustainable business model for the future of film; you’ll find their (surprising) answers on page 26.

However you watch films, it’s always a joy to discover a new masterpiece—and the Coen Brothers seem to have a habit of delivering one of those on a regular basis. Their latest, Inside Llewyn Davis, is a look at the life of a struggling 1960s New York folk singer, and we spoke to star Oscar Isaac and music producer T-Bone Burnett about the Coens’ intimate relationship with music (page 34). Their insights, like the film itself, are a joy.

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 Inside Llewyn Davis © StudioCanal

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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

Contributors Nikki Baughan is the editor of movieScope. @rollcredits Anton Bitel is a film writer and academic. http://rantbit.wordpress.com / @AntBit Helen Cox is editor of New Empress magazine and a freelance film critic. www.newempressmagazine.com Simon Edwards is a freelance film critic and movieScope's art director.

Michael Gubbins is the co-founder of SampoMedia and the chair of the Film Agency for Wales. @michaelgubbins Amit Gupta is an independent filmmaker and director of Resistance and Jadoo.

MaryAnn Johanson is a film writer and creator of www.flickfilosopher.com @maryannjohanson Martin McCabe is one of the UK’s most experienced film distributors.

Kat McLaughlin is a freelance film critic. @coconutboots Dave Morrison is a partner at Nyman Libson Paul and Chairman of the Institute of Chartered Accountants’ Entertainment and Media Group. www.nlpca.co.uk James Mottram is a freelance film writer and author of four books on film.

Danny Munso is a screenwriting expert. @dannymunso Chris Patmore is a freelance writer. @krisht Rinaldo Quacquarini is the publisher and editor-in-chief of movieScope and shareholder in EnderLegard.com @movieScope Limara Salt is a freelance film writer and critic. @yourturnheather Naila Scargill is movieScope’s sub editor and editor of Exquisite Terror magazine. www.exquisite terror.com @exquisiteterror Mick Southworth is the Director of The Works Film Group.

Hugo Wilkinson is a freelance film critic.

Josh Winning is a film critic and writer.

movieScope is published quarterly in January, April, July and October by movieScope magazine Ltd. Subscription: 4 issues for £29.95/$55/€45 including 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 Territory Focus

Poland

With stunning landscapes, dedicated infrastructure and financial incentives, Poland is a location of choice for global productions.

Polish cinema has undoubtedly come a long way in the eight years since the Polish government approved the Cinematography Act (2005), to help kick-start the industry. While previously best known for historical epics and art-house fare, which rarely travelled outside the country’s borders, modern Polish cinema is more likely to be associated with Oscar contenders and award-winning young filmmakers making a name for themselves at international festivals.

Much of the credit for this rejuvenation should be given to the Polish Film Institute who, under the stewardship of Agnieszka Odorowicz, Poland’s former Deputy Minister of Culture, have proactively supported a new crop of emerging talent with a steady flow of financial support, generating impressive results at the domestic box office.

In 2012, films like Agnieszka Holland’s In Darkness (which made $6.4m at the box office), Leszek Dawid’s You Are God ($7.8m) and Piotr Trzaskalski’s My Father’s Bike ($2.7m) all made it into the top 20 at the domestic box office. This is an impressive trend which has continued in 2013, with Wojtek Smarzowski’s crime thriller Traffic Department firmly entrenched at the top of the box office, having made $6m and counting.

The industry is not looking to rely on home-grown talent alone, however.

As a signatory for the European Convention on Cinematographic CoProduction, Poland is also actively encouraging foreign filmmakers to its shores with a string of co-production treaties and a network of 11 regional funds (with three more likely to be added in the near future).

One such fund is offered by the Krakow Film Commission, a relatively

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Poland’s stunning scenery (above) and cutting edge facilities like Alvernia Studios (below) are attracting productions from all over the globe

recent subsidiary of the more established Krakow Festival Office, which is tasked with supporting and encouraging both domestic and international productions to the Krakow and Malopolska regions.

In addition to assisting with the practicalities of on-location shoots such as permits, location recces and production logistics, the commission is able to offer financial support to productions able to demonstrate their commitment to promoting the region, its residents or businesses in any way

which may positively contribute to the local economy.

Projects which have already taken advantage of this fund include Marcin Krzysztalowicz’s Manhunt and Prashant Chadha’s India/Poland co-production Aazaan, which shot on the streets of Krakow before moving on to Germany, France, Thailand, China, Morocco and South Africa. In 2013, the Krakow Regional Film Fund, chaired by Rafał Orlicki, has selected eight projects—three features, three documentaries and three animations—to share a funding pot of PLN 983,500 (£196,650) While Krakow offers a fantastic range of locations and the requisite support, the region is also home to Poland’s largest—and one of Europe’s newest—studio complexes. Located less than 30 minutes by road from the city centre, Alvernia Studios is a huge cluster of inter-connected, domed buildings that would look more at home on an arid lunar surface than in the Polish countryside. The brainchild of Stanislaw Tyczynski, one of Poland’s foremost entrepreneurs and former owner of private commercial radio broadcaster RMF, the studio

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is a unique, yet functional mix of ‘Art Nouveau meets HR Giger’. In fact, it’s no coincidence that the whole place feels more like the set for a sciencefiction film rather than a working studio.

Described as a perfectionist, Tyczynski designed all aspects of the studio; the result is exceptional attention to detail.

Touted as a filmmaking one-stop shop, the facility is able to combine

Left and overleaf: Alvernia Studios may look like something out of a science fiction film, but it’s one of Poland’s modern facilities

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cutting-edge film services with financial investment in selected domestic and international co-productions, including the 2012 Nicholas Jarecki-helmed US/ Polish co-production Arbitrage and the recently announced team-up with US producer Brett Ratner for the Agnieszka Vosloo-scripted Magnitude 9.

While Alvernia may not have the cavernous sound stages of its rivals, such as Budapest’s Korda Studios or Prague’s Barrandov Studios, its facilities are by no means diminutive.

The studio’s two main dome-shaped sound stages each measure 2000

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One To Watch

24 Fps Territory Focus

Eben Bolter Cinematographer

sq. metres in size and 16m in height, with one dedicated entirely to blue screen for motion-capture shoots.

Indeed Alvernia has invested heavily in this technology by opting for a mobile 24 x 16 megapixel Vicon camera set-up, which is able to capture the movements of multiple actors simultaneously.

Although the whole complex is equipped with the latest digital technology, the studio is also able to accommodate 16mm and 35mm celluloid shoots through their onsite Kodak Imagecare certified film processing laboratory and digital intermediary studio, capable of scanning film up to 4K resolution.

And, in keeping with its one-stop shop ethos, Alvernia also has an audio recording studio with facilities for ADR, along with a large live performance area and a screening room for colour-grading. Further Dolby certified audio mixing facilities

are connected to the rest of the studio and post-production areas by a secure, high-speed network.

On site post-production and visual effects services aside, the complex also offers a substantial wooded backlot for exterior shoots supported by fully equipped mobile units including lighting, motion-control rigs and catering.

With on-site expansion currently underway, a newly opened office in Mumbai and work on the recently released Bollywood blockbuster Bhaag Milkha Bhaag under its belt, Alvernia’s steady progress as Poland’s international production hub is indicative of the many reasons filmmakers are choosing the Krakow Maloposka region for their productions.

Useful Links

Polish Film Commission www.film-commission.pl Alvernia Studios www.alvernia.com l

Eben is a rising talent in cinematography, who has built his career creating a wide range of evocative, modern imagery on a large number of challenging and diverse narrative films. Eben has completed 12 indie features over the past three years, including Confine, which was nominated for best UK feature at Raindance Film Festival 2012. In LA, Eben shot road movie Bruno and Earlene Go to Vegas, which was distributed by Peccadillo Pictures, and more recently he has completed the feature films Greyhawk, directed by Guy Pitt and starring Alec Newman, and Chicken, directed by Joe Stephenson and starring Yasmin Page and Scott Chambers.

What training have you received?

The catalyst for my career was attending Raindance’s 99-minute film school with a friend, which opened my eyes to the possibility of actually making films. Since then I’m a mostly self—taught DP; I’ve read almost every book on cinematography out there, as well as watched most of the how-to videos the web has to offer. I’m a big believer in learning by doing and, as such, I’ve shot 12 features and over 100 short films over the past three years, with countless promos in-between.

What kinds of projects attract you?

I’m naturally drawn to dark dramas and thrillers, but as a DP I believe variety is crucial for progression so I’m always looking for scripts from any genre that inspire or move me.

What’s the best advice you’ve been given as a DoP? I love Roger Deakin’s philosophies on filmmaking, and one in particular always sticks with me; that there’s no one right way to do things. Cinematography is a craft that is judged subjectively. It’s sometimes important to know the rules so you can understand what breaking them can mean, but sometimes doing things your own way is what will make your work stand out.

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

Signing with my agent Kate Kotcheff at Wizzo Features, who represents some of the best feature film DPs in the UK. You’ll die happy when…

It can be hard to quantify success in film, but I hope to one day be at the top of my profession and get the chance to shoot those films of real weight and significance that become part of film history. If I’d shot Blade Runner or Lawrence of Arabia, I could rest very happy. www.ebenbolter.com

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24 Fps Industry Insider

VoD and the Consumer

Industry analyst Michael Gubbins discusses changing consumer attitudes to on-demand, and why VoD still has a long way to go.

Ernest Bevin, foreign secretary in the radical 1945 UK government, famously described his foreign policy as being able to “buy a ticket at Victoria Station to anywhere I damn well please”.

His words spring to mind after a summer of analysis of dozens of user surveys on consumer attitudes to watching films on different devices.

Some of the data comes from a series of BFI-backed experiments in day-and-date releases of films in cinema and on VoD, and sometimes DVD and free-to-air television; these ranged from all-star ensemble piece A Late Quartet to Ben Wheatley’s trippy take on the English Civil War, A Field in England.

Those reports will be released in due course, but in the meantime it has been interesting to take a broader look at consumer attitudes to the emerging on-demand world. And, unlike the industry’s often esoteric debates on the subject, surveys show Mr. and Mrs. Consumer follow the Bevin line; they want to be able to buy a film on any platform and watch it wherever and whenever they damn well please.

So, all aboard the VoD train to a brighter on-demand future, then?

Certainly, everyone in film is along for that ride, like it or not. And there are genuine reasons for optimism. Some of the subscription VoD services (such as Netflix, LoveFilm, Sky and even some indies, including UniversCiné) are now paying serious money—and occasionally silly money—for digital rights. The battle for subscribers has also seen the commissioning of some new content; Netflix’s original web series A House of Cards even earned an Emmy nomination.

On the other hand, it is wise not to get too carried away given that VoD, in all its many guises, is still in

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its infancy. The best policy is to begin with understanding demand. The surveys reveal more complexity to consumer demand than is suggested by that Martini culture—‘anytime, anyplace, anywhere’—cliché.

Indeed, it is useful to see three different dimensions to demand: • Experience • Ownership • Access The first of these has, rightly, been getting more attention of late. One fact that consistently asserts itself in research, and which ought to be the exhibitor mantra, is that cinema is not a platform.

Above: Consumers are increasingly demanding that a wide range of films, including A Late

Quartet, be made available on multiple VoD platforms

Polls show that audiences see going to the cinema as an activity with value above and beyond any individual film. The business model works on creating and maintaining a sense of event and occasion. The year so far has been a mixed bag, with some failed blockbusters on one side and the continuing growth of ‘event cinema’, such as opera and director Q&As, on the other.

Experience is important to all platforms, of course. iPads, Smart TVs, faster broadband, etc., have, and will, improve the on-demand offer. But the foundations of VoD business models and, to some

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extent, the future of film come down to two trends: ownership and access. While not necessarily mutually exclusive, these are distinct and different.

Four or five years ago, the industry assumed the future depended on digital downloads. Rampant piracy took a big bite out of the notion that a download boom would replace lost DVD revenues. Consumers also found little to be loved in owning a file, particularly when it was generally played on a device that did not match the quality of television.

A second issue for the download market has been space on the

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Top: Increasingly mainstream films like Bachelorette are being released on VoD simultaneously with theatrical

Above: The VoD revolution has also resulted in the commissioning of original content, including Netflix series House of Cards

hard drive. It has taken the world a long time to understand that disk space is not a free commodity.

Notwithstanding the still reliable Moore’s Law about the everincreasing processing power of a chip and better compression technology, films quickly eat up the bits and bytes.

Finally, the price of a download has been an obstacle. The aggressive—and possibly, in retrospect, ill-advised-discounting of DVD has dramatically reduced what consumers see as a fair price for a film. As a result, a big change in consumer habits has now set in.

Ownership has, in many ways, given way in the on-demand world to access. Music is now fully engaged with this new reality, and film inevitably will follow suit. Possession of an individual file is becoming less attractive than a subscription which allows permanent access to vast stores of content. And it is the subscription VoD (SVoD) giants, such as Netflix and the now Amazonowned LoveFilm, that are dictating the pace.

But the industry needs to address issues that this promising new source of finance and revenue throws up.

A unified voice would be helpful,

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24 Fps Industry Insider

although the challenges to different parts of the value chain make that difficult. These are: • Transparency • Visibility • Market confusion • Interoperability • Consumer price points • The effect on download and television prices The last two are matters in need of further research. The price consumers are prepared to pay for ‘Premium VoD’,

simultaneous with, or even before, theatrical release is particularly important if it is to become a key factor in acquisition prices.

Interoperability remains a crucial issue for downloads, with consumers showing little patience for buying film from one source (e.g., iTunes) and finding it won’t play on all their devices.

The consumer confusion that comes with 700 services currently available in Europe, for example, will probably resolve itself through failure, acquisition

Below: Ben Wheatley’s A Field

in England enjoyed an experimental distribution strategy, being released in cinemas, on VoD, DVD, Blu-ray and Film4 simultaneously

and merger. The visibility of both indie films—particularly those without theatrical success—and of indie VoD sites is not likely to find a quick fix, particularly with the vast amounts of available content; being seen may be a matter of improved marketing techniques and more attractive content.

Crucially, that top issue of lack of transparent data ought to be more of an obsession for the film industry. You cannot base an industry strategy or a sustainable business model on the kind of partial or often non-existent data currently available.

So we circle back to poor old Ernie Bevin. Within a few short years, he found his Victoria station ticket didn’t even get him across Europe, never mind the world. Similarly, there’s a long way still to go until the tensions between consumer choice, industry business models and self-interested platforms and services resolve themselves into a free and open market.

Read more about VoD as a sustainable business model on page 30 l

“You cannot base an industry strategy or a sustainable business model on the kind of partial or often non-existent data currently available.”

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24 Fps Script Talk

The Importance of Managers

Screenwriting expert Danny Munso explains why finding a good manager is the most important thing a new writer can do for their career.

“I have an agent.” That’s the most impressive thing a new screenwriter can say to someone, short of “I have been hired to write the new Batman movie”. To get an agent is more than a genuine boost to a career; it’s validation. To fellow writers, it gives you a certain status. To Hollywood producers, it’s an asset you need to make them listen to anything you have to say.

Although there are always exceptions to the rule, an agent is a necessity if you want to work inside the Hollywood studio system. But if you are an unproduced writer, an agent should not be your first stop any more.

These days, and for new writers in particular, it is essential that you have a manager.

So, what’s the difference? It’s a pretty significant distinction, although they both have one unfortunate thing in common: taking a small percentage of your earnings. An agent deals in three things: getting you a job; getting you a good deal for that job; and getting you an even better job next time out. Your agent is there to protect and serve you from a business standpoint. They put you in the best position to succeed and earn the most amount of money.

Your manager, on the other hand, doesn’t dip their hand too much into those waters. They can play a role, much as an agent can get involved in creative decisions, but for the most part your manager is there to make you a better writer. The line is blurry, to be sure. Both of them want you to succeed so they can succeed, but think of your manager as the one who is more invested in your career from a grassroots perspective. They identify the areas in which you need to improve, and give you the tools to do so. As one writer (who asked not

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identified for fear of offending anyone) who penned one of this summer’s biggest films told me, “I love my agent, but my managers are the ones that turned me into a great writer. I would be out of the business if they didn’t help me get better.”

For proof that managers are becoming increasingly vital to new writers, look no further than the Black List, the Bible-like publication that lists the year’s best screenplays.

There are 78 scripts listed in the 2012 version of the Black List, and only eight of those writers are not represented by managers. In fact, a few of them are represented only by managers, showing that the right company can still get their clients

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out there without the aid of an agency. It’s also further proof that breaking into Hollywood without a manager is becoming near impossible.

Increasingly, agents are looking for writers already represented by a management company. They want to know they are getting a close-tofinished product when they sign you.

Your manager will be the one who looks at multiple drafts of your tortured masterpiece. Then, after they look at each draft, they will help you try and improve it. They will be the ones you float that ‘crazy’ idea to, and even help get your movie pushed into production.

They are the ones sending you out on meeting after meeting after meeting; introducing you to producers who may

Opposite page: Diablo Cody’s (image

© A.M.P.A.S) manager was crucial in helping her get her debut screenplay,

Juno (above), made; she went on to win an Oscar for it

Overleaf: JJ Abrams is involved in the production of 2012 Black List favourite script Wunderkind,

by Patrick Aison

want to work with you and trying to find the right level of talent for your script.

Some managers will be even more hands-on in bringing your film to the big screen. One of the bigger management companies, BenderSpink, not only help set up your script with talent, but they also serve as producers as well. Diablo Cody’s manager, Mason Novick, helped get her Oscar-winning script for Juno made and was a producer on that project. When you get a manager, you are getting someone who is almost as interested as you in getting your film made.

But here’s the biggest reason for unproduced writers to be interested in getting a manager: they are actively seeking new material. Send your script

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One To Watch

24 Fps Script Talk

Paul Davis Writer/Director

Paul is the London-based writer/director behind the feature documentary Beware the Moon (the making of An American Werewolf in London) and short films Him Indoors, starring Reece Shearsmith, and The Body, starring Alfie Allen.

to an agency, even a lesser one, and it will likely go straight in the trash, either for legal reasons or sheer disinterest.

But most management companies list their intentions on their websites; not only are they looking for new writers and new stories, they will often tell you what kind of stories they are after and exactly how you should submit it to them.

The danger for new writers is, of course, the same as with agents: not all managers are good. In this Internet age, there should be no reason for you to engage with management companies not worth your time. If a company doesn’t list their credits on their site, that’s a bad sign. Or take a look at the Black List, write down all of the different companies represented there and start querying.

Not only do you know they are reputable, but they are obviously serving their clients very well.

So while it’s absolutely true that getting an agent can immediately validate your job to others and is

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eventually a necessity to a lucrative screenwriting career, strongly consider making the attempt to get a manager.

For new writers, it is your best chance to break into the industry. The odds are already stacked against you, but a manager can be the one to help you break down the door. l

“The odds are already stacked against you, but a manager can be the one to help you break down the door.”

What training have you received?

I’ve not actually received any formal training as a filmmaker. My academic background is in cinema history, but was purely a theory-based qualification. The first time I ever picked up a camera was to make the feature documentary Beware the Moon in 2007. It was from there that I got the filmmaking bug, and realised what I wanted to do for the rest of my life.

What kind of projects attract you?

First and foremost, I’m a genre guy. I saw my first horror film aged three, and just fell in love with the world of celluloid shockers from then on. I’ve always been more of a Hitchcock/De Palma guy when it comes to scares. I’m not totally opposed to gore (one of my favourite films is Evil Dead II) but I prefer the big FX stuff in moderation. On the flip side, I also grew up on Laurel & Hardy, Abbott & Costello and Chaplin, so I’m very much a child of comedy as well as the scary stuff. I guess that’s why my films always seem to be a mixture of both; but again, it’s about using them correctly and selectively within the story you’re telling. I’m looking to do something out and out scary next.

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

Just that there’s no right way of doing it. Nobody else can see the vision that you have in your head, so you just have to do the best you can to translate that vision to the screen with the resources you have at your disposal.

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

All three movies have been pretty significant for me so far.

Getting to work with John Landis and Rick Baker (the two people I was first aware of in the film industry thanks to Michael Jackson’s Thriller) on Beware the Moon; getting to direct Reece Shearsmith in my short film Him Indoors; and then to go straight from that to something of the scale of The Body. It’s been so exciting I can’t wait to see what’s next.

You’ll die happy when…

I get a feature film that opens theatrical internationally.

That’s the dream right now. I’m happy just to ride the wave. www.kesslerboy.com

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27/09/2013 15:36:27

24 Fps Finance and Funding

Welcome to UK PLC

Dave Morrison explores why UK film production facilities, locations and credits are proving so appealing to tax credit tourists.

‘The tail should not wag the dog’ is an old adage used by tax experts when advising clients who are too focused on tax advantages rather than commercial considerations. So, when looking at financial incentives on offer to film and TV productions in any given country, one really should look at the bigger picture: namely commercial practicalities including transport costs; local expertise; facilities; and whether the headline incentive on offer is really as good as it seems.

So, where does good old UK PLC stand in a competitive world market? Warner Bros.’ investment in UK facilities would seem to indicate that the UK is a desirable base, and there have certainly been enough major films made here over the years to demonstrate that the local workforce has the skills to do the job. Furthermore, there are several

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Below: With companies like Warner Bros investing in the UK with their new Leavesden Studio, an increasing number of foreign productions are being attracted to the country

renowned studios in the south east offering world-class facilities, so the UK seems to tick a lot of boxes. We know that the UK can deliver, then, but what about cost? One needs to consider not only the cost of goods and labour, but also currency exchange rates and logistic costs. And local incentives, such as Tax Credits, need to be factored in too.

Local costs often reflect local infrastructure and accessibility.

Remote or undeveloped areas, for example, often prove cheaper in accordance with the natural economic laws of demand and supply. But is the local workforce up to the job, or is there a cost of shipping in expertise?

And what are the implications of local labour laws, such as those found in France? As for exchange rates, they are unpredictable; as it is not the remit of this article to indulge in

too much economic theory, let’s skip exchange rates and move on to local financial incentives.

Before comparing what may be on offer around the world, it may be useful to remind ourselves what the UK offers. Apart from Lottery funding via the British Film Institute (BFI) or a national agency (Creative England; Creative Scotland; Film Agency for Wales; Northern Ireland Screen; and Film London) or regional body (Screen South; Northern Film & Media; and Screen Yorkshire), the headline incentives are the creative Tax Credits.

For film and certain top end TV and animation productions, a producer can receive up to 20 per cent of qualifying UK production costs in cash. As always, there are a number of hoops to jump through, but that is the headline UK production incentive.

Because the UK is a member of the European Union, it is subject to EU State Aid restrictions on subsidising industries. Consequently the incentive is deemed to be ‘cultural’ rather than ‘industrial’. It will come as no surprise to discover that other EU countries which have incentives are subject to similar restrictions, and that their incentives tend, consequently, to broadly resemble what is on offer in the UK—with subtle differences.

The German incentive (DFFF), for example, is set at 20 per cent like the UK, but is limited to €70m in total annually, spread around all recipients, so there is always a risk that the money can run out. Germany, however, also has a lot of local state incentives which can either compensate or enhance this. France offers its TRIP incentive for foreign producers, again at 20 per cent but capped at €10m per project. Lesser developed countries in the EU, including Hungary, have also been offering tax credits of

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20 per cent with some success but, again, it is well worth checking that the funds are not capped and that local infrastructure and skills meet requirements. So, with the UK having no restriction on how much may be applied for, nor how much is available in total, it scores well in comparison with other European countries.

(Where a project has ‘core production expenditure’ of more than £20m, however, the UK Tax Credit is likely to be restricted to 16 per cent rather than 20 per cent.)

Looking beyond Europe, where there are no EU-imposed restrictions, the range of incentives includes some interesting models, some at national level and others more regional. For example, in the USA incentives are found on offer from individual states and other more localised areas.

Canadian provinces also provide competitive incentives. It is easy to get drawn in by seemingly high percentages, but questions must be asked. Some incentives, for example, are based on all local activity, whereas others may be restricted to, say, local labour costs. If a 40 per cent rebate based on labour costs only equates

“It is easy to get drawn in by seemingly high percentages, but questions must be asked.”

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to 15 per cent of total costs, the UK’s 20 per cent incentive may actually yield more. Manitoba in Canada offers a choice, either 45 per cent of labour costs or 30 per cent of production costs, and this can be enhanced with other bonuses. The numbers look good but the location and winter climate may not suit everyone.

Mauritius, Malaysia, Columbia and Abu Dhabi boast good headline rates but, as ever, check compatibility!

Some tax credits really are what they suggest: a voucher that the owner can use to settle a tax liability.

Assuming that the producer is not based in that particular territory, it is possible that they do not have a tax liability, so they are allowed to sell it on to a local taxpayer. Inevitably, a local taxpayer is not likely to pay full price for the voucher so, consequently, the headline percentage is unlikely to be realised. An example is Puerto Rico, which offers 40 per cent on money paid to local residents, whilst payments to foreign talent attract a lower credit of 20 per cent.

New York has recently added an incentive which means that a film shot elsewhere could still benefit by engaging in postproduction there, with better rates when undertaken further upstate.

The political landscape in the USA, however, includes some who question whether the incentives offered justify the economic stimulus they create and, consequently, incentives are sometimes liable to change or even to disappear.

Closer to home, Ireland and Belgium continue to offer incentives which, prima facie, benefit the investor with their Section 481 relief and Belgian Tax Shelter schemes respectively.

With the right structuring, this can have a flow-through cost benefit to

Above: Joss Whedon will shoot his sequel to The Avengers at the UK’s Shepperton Studios in 2014

the producer but is unlikely to be replicated in the UK any time soon, particularly given the government’s previous experiences with so-called Sale and Leaseback Schemes. (The subsequent proclamation was the introduction of the Film Tax Credit, with a view to ensuring that producers, rather than investors, got the cash.)

Subject to size limitations, however, it is still possible to finance a film using the Enterprise Investment Scheme (EIS), so that investors get UK tax breaks. A £5m movie funded through an EIS structure could obtain 30 per cent (£1.5m) in tax breaks for investors, plus up to £1m Film Tax Credit; add in some regional funding, plus worldleading facilities and personnel and it’s no wonder that the UK is an extremely attractive location indeed.

Dave Morrison is a partner of entertainment accountants Nyman Libson Paul, and chairman of the Institute of Chartered Accountants’ Entertainment and Media Group l

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27/09/2013 12:57:52

24 Fps Distribution

And the Next One, Please!

Distribution experts Mick Southworth and Martin McCabe explain why the business of franchises is still as lucrative as ever.

The old adage that lightning never strikes twice clearly does not hold true when it comes to the world of filmmaking. Only recently, horror sequel Insidious: Chapter 2 has stunned box-office watchers with its recordbreaking September US opening of $41m, making it the second highest

The Hunger Games: Catching Fire (below) and Thor:

The Dark World (bottom) are just two of the many franchise films being released over the next few months

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opening horror film of the year behind director James Wan’s own The Conjuring. It’s of note that both pictures were not only from the same filmmaker but also the same production shingle, Blumhouse Productions, and that both were produced for a tiny budget of about $5m apiece. As our US cousins are prone to say, ‘you do the math’.

(Indeed, as we went to press, it was announced that there is an Insidious 3 already in the works.)

It is now standard accepted practice to milk the value from a successful movie and thus create a valuable franchise in the process.

In both 2011 and 2012, the highest grossing seven films were all sequels. And this year alone has seen further iterations of: Die Hard; G.I. Joe; The Hangover; RED; Kick-Ass; Despicable Me; The Fast and the

Furious; Monsters, Inc.; Grown Ups; Pitch Black; and Star Trek, to name but a few. Indeed, there continues to be a seemingly never-ending conveyor belt of re-hashed film fodder: upcoming releases we can look forward to include new outings for—deep breath— Thor; James Bond; The Avengers; Star Wars; Finding Nemo; X-Men; The Conjuring; Spider-Man; Jurassic Park; Avatar; Mission: Impossible; Superman (now with added Batman); Captain America; Planet of the Apes; and many others. And the UK industry is far from immune from sequel-itis, with new chapters for The Woman in Black, The Sweeney, Street Dance and Nativity all in the works.

For the purists out there, it would be easy to discount the whole franchise sector as greedy, cash obsessed and totally devoid of any artistic merit whatsoever. And, to be honest, that is a fairly reasonable summary when one considers the comical unsuitability of some of the films chosen for sequels—Speed 2: Cruise Control, S. Darko and More American Graffiti, anyone? There is, however, no avoiding the fact that this arena can be a hugely important breeding ground for the development of significant mainstream commercial talents that may not otherwise have been able to stretch their artistic legs.

Take such examples as: J.J. Abrams (Mission: Impossible III); Rupert Wyatt (Rise of the Planet of the Apes); Justin Lin (The Fast and the Furious: Tokyo Drift); and, perhaps most famously, James Cameron (Piranha II: The Spawning).

While it may seem like a modern phenomenon, the origins of the franchise stretch further back than you might assume. Indeed, the tradition is nearly as old as the movies themselves. George Méliès followed

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up A Trip to the Moon (1902) with The Impossible Voyage (1904), both based on popular Jules Verne stories. Louis Feuillade’s Fantomas is arguably the cinema’s first film series, with its five feature-length silent chapters about a French criminal mastermind, released between 1913 and 1915. In the 1920s, The Jazz Singer, cinema’s first ‘talkie’, was followed up by The Singing Fool, raking in even more money for Warner Bros. The 1930s saw Universal Pictures launch its series of classic monster pictures, which gave rise to numerous sequels over the next two

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decades and established a template for franchise cinema which was rapidly adopted across all genres.

The tradition was also adopted on this side of the Atlantic. In the UK, Hammer Pictures’ colour remakes of Universal classics and Rank’s Carry On series put numerous bums on seats throughout the ‘50s, ‘60s and early ‘70s. But it was another British icon that arguably created the template for the modern franchise, the 1962 release of Ian Fleming’s Dr. No kick-starting a love affair for Bond that continues to this day.

Right: Insidious: Chapter 2 has become the second highest grossing horror film of 2013

27/09/2013 13:04:57

One To Watch

24 Fps Distribution

Audrey Lam Writer/Director

Today, IP is king and the theatrical sequel is largely the main driver of studio profits. The release slates of the majors, studios and indies alike are driven by ‘properties’ that are either sequels or can lend themselves easily to further profitable iterations in cinemas and across other mediums. What was once considered the province of quickie-quota pictures and second-run billing is now venerated to A-list status, as genre pictures have come to significantly define modern cinema. And it’s unlikely to change any time soon. Following the recent box-office disappointment of would-be franchise The Lone Ranger (below), Disney CEO Bob Iger commented that: “We still think tent-pole strategy is a good strategy.

That one way to rise above the din and the competition is with a big film; not just big budget but big story, big cast and big marketing behind it.”

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Indeed, Disney, with its wealth of original and acquired IP (Marvel; LucasFilm; Pixar; Disney Princess; etc.) is fast becoming the standard-bearer in the new age of franchise and transmedia exploitation. Increasingly, this financial model is seen as a lifesaver for some struggling studios and independents alike. One only has to look at recent box-office returns for companies such as Lionsgate and MGM to see the contribution made to their respective bottom lines by sequel properties. Cost of entry is also diminishing, as canny players like Blumhouse and Radius hark back to an earlier time to create low-budget genre franchises such as Paranormal Activity and The Purge, which can be easily exploited throughout the full range of release windows to previously unheard of profit multiples.

Even the bargain bucket end of the market has seen previously moribund franchises reinvigorated by Hollywood money guys looking for an even bet investment on something that, at the very least, has some kind of recognisable appeal.

To look at the world of film franchises in a simplistic way, however, it is easy to understand the problems that many have in regard to its integrity and quality of product. Ask people what they thought of a sequel, for example, and they almost invariably respond with that predictable, almost knee-jerk reaction that ‘it wasn’t anywhere near as good as the first one’. In our book, sequel or not, you pay your money and you take your chances. The fact of the matter is, just because someone has a sweet tooth, they will probably still be underwhelmed by that second serving of sticky toffee pudding. It’s not that they have gone off it, it’s just that they have had a little too much… l

With a passion for film and photography, Audrey’s work has been exhibited at festivals and galleries internationally including London Film Festival and Brisbane International Film Festival. Her first feature, Faraways, screened in competition at the 2013 Encounters Festival, where she was one of 10 up-and-coming filmmakers showcased in the festival’s Future Encounters initiative.

What training did you receive?

I studied film and photography at Queensland College of Art. Going to art school was a really great way to be around other artists and see how they approached their work. Seeing lots of different films and art has also taught me a lot.

What kind of projects attract you?

I’m drawn to people and places I know; their history and their sense of being, what’s familiar and unexpected about them. I moved to London a few months ago and it’s exciting discovering things. It’s fun working out what I’m attracted to about this city.

What is the best advice that you’ve been given as a filmmaker?

A few people have said to me, just keep working all the time. It’s really true. You can get hung up on a project that might need more time. Working on different things can make you a bit more patient about each project; they can feed off each other even if they seem quite different.

A friend who recently finished his first feature said he planned to make another short while preparing for his next feature, that it’s important to staying excited and familiar with making films.

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

When I made Faraways I realised I could build a film with people and places that were there around me. It seems so obvious, but before that my work was much more about imagined and constructed places. Also it mattered to me that I made it without thinking about it too much logistically—it was shot really quickly, although it took me a while to get around to finishing it.

Having it screen at festivals, and having an audience at Encounters has also been really great.

You’ll die happy when…

I come back in my next life as Buster Keaton. www.audreylam.net

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27/09/2013 15:40:08

24 Fps Announcements

Products and Accessories

From high-performance SSDs for AV professionals to a new doc-style camera from ARRI, we take a look at a selection of products from IBC 2013.

ARRI AMIRA Documentary-style Camera Arnold & Richter Cine Technik (ARRI) used 2013’s IBC show to launch the AMIRA, their new rugged, doc-style camera designed for single-operator use where long periods of shoulder-mounted operation is necessary. Featuring the same sensor as the ALEXA, the camera can record HD 1080 or 2K direct to in-camera CFast 2.0 flash memory cards, and has a dynamic range of more than 14 stops.

Other features likely to be welcomed by users in the field include a quick boot-up time—ideal for ‘run-and-gun’ shoots— an innovative multiviewfinder, the ability to shoot at 200 fps slow motion and a number of pre-loaded, in-camera grading looks based on 3D LUTs. The AMIRA is scheduled to ship in early 2014.

RRP: TBA www.ARRI.de

Angelbird SSD2go Mobile Solid State Drives for AV Professionals Although regarded as the new kids on the block, Austria’s Angelbird Technologies have wasted no time in establishing themselves as pioneers in the field of high-grade solid state drives (SSD) for AV professionals. Their wellregarded SSD2go range of portable drives are made to the highest specifications using only Grade A Intel® or Micron® synchronous MLC flash, and offer a number of unique built-in safety mechanisms to ensure data remains safe in the event of an unexpected power loss.

These lightweight yet robust drives are no slouches either, serving up real-world data transfer speeds of up to 460MB/s achievable via USB3.0 in the SSD2go range, and up to 560MB/s over eSATA 6Gb/s with the SSD2go PRO range. Drive capacities range from 128GB to 640GB; that can be doubled when opting for the SSD2go TWIN configuration. All SSD2go

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models are covered by a minimum three-year warranty and are available in a variety of customised colour/style configurations.

RRP: From £279.99 (excl VAT) for the 128GB model www.angelbird.com

Thuraya SatSleeve Satellite Sleeve for iPhone Dubai-based mobile satellite communications company Thuraya have claimed an industry first with their innovative product, which transforms a regular iPhone into a fully-featured satellite smartphone.

Simply dock your iPhone into the Thuraya SatSleeve, launch the bundled app and have instant access to all the functionality of a regular iPhone (including phone calls, emails, text messages and social media apps) across more than 140 countries covered by the Thuraya satellite network.

Ideal for recces or any location where regular terrestrial coverage is lacking, the SatSleeve provides up to three hours of talk time (36 hours standby) and even comes equipped with an emergency call button, allowing you to make a call to one predefined number even without your iPhone docked. Airtime is available via a pre-paid Thuraya SIM card with outgoing calls/data costing from £1.10 ($1.60) per minute. There is no charge to receive calls or text messages.

RRP: £395 (excl. VAT) / $600 www.thuraya.com/SatSleeve

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27/09/2013 14:39:16

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27/09/2013 08:54:19

01

Insider's Point of View John Krokidas: Writer/Director

The Beat Goes On

It’s taken more than 10 years, but American filmmaker John Krokidas is finally making his feature debut. Kill Your Darlings, a tale of a formative year in the life of poet and Beat icon Allen Ginsberg (Daniel Radcliffe), has garnered festival wins at Palm Springs and Venice, as well as nominations at Sundance and London. Here, Krokidas reveals his long, strange journey to success. Interview: MaryAnn Johanson Why choose to focus on Allen Ginsberg for your debut feature?

Ginsberg was one of the seminal artists of my adolescence. I found his collected works, and I was terrified. I felt like I was reading a dirty novel, because he was so open about his sexuality, and about his passion and his politics. I remember wishing I could be as brave as him.

Then, 10 years ago, my best friend and co-writer, Austin Bunn, came to me with the idea of writing a play about David Kammerer [an acquaintance of Ginsberg’s who was murdered

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during the poet’s year at Columbia University]. I said, ‘Why don’t we collaborate on this?’ To find that there’s an origin story this dramatic about the artist that you’ve worshipped all these years is incredibly exciting.

There have been other films about the Beats in recent years and while they certainly didn’t hide Ginsberg’s sexuality, it wasn’t as great a factor as it is in your film. Was that important to you?

Austin and I looked to see which character had the biggest emotional arc over the year

this movie takes place, 1943 to 1944, [and] who was the most affected by the murder. That was Ginsberg. He starts off as an awkward, nervous kid from New Jersey, and by the end he gets kicked out of school, writes the first piece of work, and declares himself an artist, a poet and a rebel. We wanted to tell this story as the birth-ofan-artist story, and to not deal with sexuality would be missing a huge part of who he was as an artist, and what made him so unique. This wasn’t just a time when being gay was something

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It’s taken writer/director John Krokidas (opposite page) a decade to bring Kill

Your Darlings (below) to the screen

that could cause bullying on the high-school playground.

In many places it was illegal, and his work did cause a huge censorship trial which went to the Supreme Court. And it’s Allen’s awakening, his decision to find his own voice and to set out a new vision, that would become the Beat movement.

When I watched the film I found myself feeling a little jealous that we don’t have anything like their counterculture happening today…

I was jealous, too! I went to film school so determined to start

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a film movement that I created a name for it: the Nouvelle Vague.

I intentionally put the word ‘vague’ in there so it would give me time to figure out what the tenets of the movement would be. I wanted to do something authentic and unique to my generation. That’s a pretty universal feeling. I wanted this film to feel relevant to today, as well as being historically accurate to the 1940s, because I wanted a young audience to be able to emotionally relate to it. These guys, they stayed up till three in the morning, like

we all did, talking about our passions and how no one’s telling the truth, but then they actually did something about it.

They created a counterculture that persisted throughout the decades. We don’t see that much in the world today.

[Daniel] Radcliffe mentioned to me the other day that if we could only pull the plug on every smartphone and laptop for a week, maybe we could let the next revolution begin. If this brings one person’s pen back to their journal, if somebody writes a poem, if somebody goes into the

garage and pulls out their guitar, then good. I’ll feel that this is a job well done.

You’ve given Daniel Radcliffe his first really grown-up role on screen. Were you at all worried about the Harry Potter association, whether some people might come into the movie expecting a light fantasy?

I think that one of the great things about Daniel's fans is that they understand that he takes on these different roles as he gets older, and wants to expand himself as an actor and an artist.

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Daniel Radcliffe (bottom and below with

Ben Foster as William Burroughs, Dane DeHaan as Lucien Carr and Jack Huston as Jack Kerouac) puts in an astonishing performance as Allen Ginsberg

The thing that made me truly confident that we were going to be okay: one teenaged girl found a script, and posted it on an IMDb message board. I had to watch my script be subjected to hundreds of reviews by teenaged girls [laughs]. But the good thing is that they liked it!

What were some of the challenges you faced graduating from short films to features?

Getting it financed is the biggest one. When you’re making your first film, obviously it’s a lot easier to get it made if you’re doing something on the micro-budget level, with just a couple of actors in a room. But I wrote a period piece, and it’s a drama, and it required a huge cast in order for an investor to want to sign on so it would be financially viable.

The month before we started shooting, it was really a race to the finish to get the financing agreement signed in time. Then, when I got on set, I was terrified!

The bond company is watching you the first day [and] you can still be fired. It had been so long

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since I’d been on the treadmill, I wondered, is this going to work out? Do I still have the ability to do this? But by the end of the day I was feeling extremely confident, and that was a beautiful thing.

I think like all first-time directors, I was scared of working with movie stars. Having to tell all these veterans what to do was a little intimidating at first.

What made it less intimidating is [that] I studied acting as an undergraduate, and I highly encourage any young directors to do this. I was a horrible actor myself, but having had the training, and knowing what being that vulnerable is like, I found I was able to talk to actors in their language.

How did you keep your enthusiasm up during the decade of ups and downs it took to bring the film to the screen?

I say that in anything I do, there has to be something that pisses me off to keep me going!

When this movie fell apart, as it did twice over the last 10 years, the thing that emotionally fuelled me was the fact that in 1944 you could literally get away with murder by portraying your victim as a homosexual. This isn’t just a moment in American history; it’s still extremely relevant today. If you look at what’s going on in Russia... It’s happening in some countries in Africa.

This isn’t a political movie by any means, but having that connection to it, when I was ready to give up, would remind me that this was something I needed to share with the world.

Kill Your Darlings plays the London Film Festival on October 17 and 18, and opens in UK cinemas on December 6 l

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27/09/2013 15:43:07

Feature VoD

The Reality of With changing audience viewing habits demanding a new approach when it comes to distribution, many are heralding Video on Demand as the future of film. But is VoD really a financially realistic and sustainable business model, or does the illusion of choice mask minimal returns? We asked three leading experts for their opinions on this essential issue.

Interviews: Nikki Baughan

Roger Jackson Co-Founder, KinoNation

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VoD

KinoNation is currently doing research into the financial realities of VoD. How challenging has that been?

It’s really difficult to research. We are lucky because we have our own data; hundreds of films from all over the world that we are putting onto multiple different VoD platforms. That informs us about what works and what doesn’t.

But the million-dollar question people always ask me is ‘I’m a producer. I have this film. Can you give me an indication of how much money it will make on VoD?’ Which is still next to impossible to answer.

About six months ago we hired Rufus Williams, an

Australian filmmaker who also has a PhD in statistics from both Oxford and Harvard, to build us a metric-based ranking system which we’re calling KinoFactor.

It’s still very much a work in progress, an attempt to provide an objective, numerically-based ranking system that doesn’t have the subjectivity of a curator.

Basically, it takes various aspects of a particular film—how many festivals it has played in; the talent attached; the producer’s track record; the IMDB rating, social media presence; etc.—and gives it a score out of 100. When we show that to producers, it can be a bit of a wake-up call, but they have to understand

that there aren’t many films that get 99 out of 100! It’s a useful tool for them, and it’s a useful tool for our VoD outlets; because we have so many films in our catalogue, it’s hard for those who want to cherry-pick the ones they think will perform best.

When a film does make it to a VoD platform, they have three main ways of generating revenue: subscription, transaction and through advertising. How responsive are filmmakers and audiences to breaking up films with adverts?

Filmmakers are usually OK with it, after they have had a little pause for thought. When somebody uploads their master files to

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us, we ask them to complete a pretty big superset of metadata.

Included in that metadata, they define—down to the frame—where the ad breaks are. Of course, the last thing you want is for the ad to occur in the middle of a scene. Do filmmakers make a lot of money by having ads in their films? No, not really, but they certainly get far more viewers than they would have done.

One of our beta-test partners is Viewster.com, a Zurich-based platform that’s growing very fast and available all over the world.

They are both ad-supported and transactional; for any movie, the end user can either say ‘I want this free, but with ads, or I want to pay $3 or $4 to watch this film’.

And of course something like 96 per cent of users chooses the free ad-supported option.

With so many VoD platforms out there, how should a filmmaker be choosing when and where to release their film?

First of all it makes sense for filmmakers to be sophisticated in their release date scheduling with VoD. They should be thinking about windowing. For a film that’s in post now, for example, a filmmaker should be thinking, ‘From around January or February 2014, I want to be exclusively on the transactional sites when I’ll do marketing push one.’ And they need to make sure that their pricing is consistent; it just sends confusing signals to the market if it’s £2.99 on one site for a 48-hour rental and £3.99 on another site. They should then define a second window, which would be opening it up to subscription and advertising supported sites.

So windowing didn’t go away; in fact, it’s thriving. It’s still the way the studios do it now; theatrical, sometimes dayand-date VoD, sometimes even ultra-releases, which is VoD before theatrical, followed by DVD and then the pay-per-view / subscription based VoD window.

You speak about windowing and marketing strategy, but how savvy are you finding filmmakers

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are when it comes to distributing their content via VoD? The understanding level is definitely all over the place. The more sophisticated filmmakers definitely get that there is such an abundance of supply; that just being on a VoD platform will get you some organic sales and views, but not enough. You’ve got to take it seriously, and you’ve got to be prepared to spend some money.

Whatever your budget is, you need to be prepared to spend at least half of that on talent. Talent is mission critical. Even if it’s only a half day by a serious name talent, then you can put them on the poster. But equally important is the idea of reserving enough money for marketing. The studios are the savvy ones, who know that a $40m film needs another $40m for print and advertising.

Indie filmmakers are not going to be able to pull that off, but they do need money for things like a decent graphic designer, who is going to be able to have poster art in multiple languages. And online advertising, so you can actually drive thousands of people to VoD platforms in the first week [the film] goes live. Then you get helped by the algorithms on those sites, which pushes it to the top. Once it’s towards the top of the list, it becomes a selffulfilling prophecy.

A lot of filmmakers don’t want to do this, of course. Because they

think of themselves as artists, and not business people. And the only advice I can give [those filmmakers] is that you have to partner with a producer who is primarily a business person.

With all this work that has to go into making VoD a success, and with an industry that is constantly changing, do you think VoD is a financially sustainable way for the industry to evolve?

That’s a really good question. In my opinion, VoD is, in the short term, not going to pick up the slack that has been lost on the DVD sales side. The margins on DVDs were huge, and we’re not seeing that with VoD. Of course, people are less inclined to spend the premium money on downloading a film for unlimited viewing, because it’s not resulting in a tangible product on a shelf in your living room.

Independent films like Being

Sold (above) and studio movies like Bachelorette (below) can benefit from VoD distribution

The question that gets asked all the time is, is Video on Demand going to provide a viable income stream for filmmakers, so they can actually make a living out of making movies? The answer is yes, for some, but no for most. We are living in a world of an overabundance of supply, so it’s very difficult to hit the home run… but not impossible.

So, even though VoD is being heralded as the future of the industry, in reality the business side of filmmaking is the same as it’s ever been?

Exactly. This is so easy to say and not easy to do, but if you’re

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Feature VoD making a narrative feature then it still has to have strong talent and strong marketing and a strong hook to be successful on VoD. Documentaries are seeing a massive renaissance on VoD. There has always been an audience for documentaries, it’s just that that audience is very scattered; VoD allows you to find that audience. I’m not suggesting that everybody should be making documentaries only but, at the risk of killing the creative spirit, I do think that it’s really important to test your product, your audience, before you make a film. Filmmakers should write 10 pages of script and shoot that, and put it out there in multiple different ways and test it. And be prepared that if the audience says, ‘I really liked what happened on page three and that was the only thing I liked’, then maybe that’s the way to go.

I’m not trying to suggest a world where people are marketresearch-driven when they are making art. That would be miserable. But I think too many filmmakers charge into making the film they want to make, without at least thinking it through backwards. ‘How are we going to make money out of this film, so we can generate enough revenue and enough reputation to raise money for our next film.’ www.kinonation.com

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Yan Vizinberg

Co-Founder & CEO, Cinecliq

How have you seen changing audience habits driving VoD? As a company that powers VoD platforms for content owners around the world, we have witnessed a proliferation of niche channels or platforms organised around a theme, a subject matter or some cultural phenomenon. Horror fans, poetry enthusiasts, French-speaking people living in South America and ancient history lovers are all seeking VoD venues with a deep and meaningful selection of films on the topics they are interested in. Most platforms, while having a very broad selection of titles, do not offer these viewers

enough specialised content and careful curation.

You are the only on-demand brand integrated into Facebook. How do you think social media is redefining the way audiences discover and watch films?

The industry is at a point where everyone understands the importance of social media and its unique role in helping viewers discover content. There aren’t too many people, however, who have a deep understanding of how to harness the power of Facebook, Twitter and other social media tools. As with any other campaign, a social media campaign requires careful planning and artful implementation; then it can yield results and provide a very high ROI. Do you see VoD as being part of an overall strategy which still includes theatrical, or is the theatrical model becoming increasingly outdated?

Theatrical is not going away, but in a way it is becoming a niche as well; a niche for films that appeal to large groups of people. These films, whether good or bad, will continue to enjoy expensive marketing campaigns that will certainly aid their VoD releases. For thousands of other titles that are of interest to narrower niches, there’s simply no counter space in theatres.

Cinemas are not going away, but VoD in all its different shapes and sizes—pay-perview, subscription, electronic sell-through, even theatricalon-demand—is definitely the way people will be consuming most content in the future. Currently we see more VoD consumption in the US, the UK and some countries of Western Europe, but VoD is spreading quickly across Eastern Europe, Russia and South-East Asia.

Do audiences consume VoD releases in the same way as theatrical? Is there as much emphasis on watching things immediately, for example?

In many ways VoD film consumption mimics theatrical.

Most people are seeking newer titles that are being advertised and promoted. But many library

films that were dormant for decades will find a new life on VoD. Quality films, similar to classic books, will always be popular as new generations grow up and discover them.

We see more success with niche films as their audiences are easy to identify, easy to market to and are willing to spread the word about the films within their interest group.

More generic titles compete with Hollywood, but lack the necessary marketing support that the studios can provide.

How do you think filmmakers can benefit from having their film released via VoD? For some filmmakers VoD is the only way their films will be seen. This doesn’t mean these are bad films, there are just not enough slots in the movie theatres. For films with a limited theatrical release, day-anddate VoD release is a great way to reach remote audiences who discovered the film via the theatrical campaign but do not live near a cinema that screens the film.

VoD puts the movie within two clicks of a potential viewer.

Like any purchase online, buying or renting a movie can be an impulsive decision. Any campaign for a VoD release should take this into account, as well as many other factors, such as days of the week, time zones, etc.

VoD is still evolving, and there is not a great deal of information available about the business side of it. Is it a sustainable model for the future of cinema?

VoD is still a very young industry.

Most players are just finding their way and discovering opportunities. It’s an expanding industry that is spreading across the world, inventing new models of content consumption, and converting millions of people into VoD consumers. Companies who think strategically and those who are ready for the long haul will eventually reap the rewards. www.cinecliq.com.

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27/09/2013 14:00:36

Peter Gerard CEO, Distrify

How have you seen changing audience habits driving VoD? People want to be able to watch what they want, whenever they want, wherever they want.

We founded Distrify due to the realisation that impulse purchases for films had previously been impossible. Our philosophy is that whenever someone sees a movie trailer for the first time, they should be able to pay to see the film. In the last two years, we’ve seen the demand for impulse purchases grow, particularly as more people shift from DVDs to Internet-based streaming.

How is social media redefining the way audiences find films?

‘Social media’ is an interesting phrase, since all media and communication between people is effectively social. Technology has made it easier for people to stay connected with wider networks of friends, and we’ve seen a trend of discovery culture. People like

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to be among the first to discover a new film and there is a sense of pride in posting something to Facebook that other people like or share onwards.

At the same time there are a lot of people using these technologies ineffectively, in a way that can be described as ‘shouty’. It’s important to remember that people are having online conversations with others in their community, and to ‘use’ social media as a tool can often be disrespectful of the fact that there is a conversation going on. People who want to grow their audiences need to participate in these conversations, rather than try to butt in.

Do you see VoD as being part of an overall strategy which still includes theatrical, or is the theatrical model becoming increasingly outdated?

Most research indicates that theatrical ticket sales will continue to grow over the next few years. We designed our tools to embrace a multi-platform release, and love to see people organising screenings or buying cinema tickets through our players. We see a growing interest in day-and-date releases and in films coming to theatres after an online release. At the end of the day, every release depends on the individual film, and its audience and the strategy needs to be defined on a case-by-case basis.

It’s clear from our experience and from publicly available research that there is a growing demand for VoD across the globe. We still sell DVDs and other merchandise, but instant streaming makes up the majority of our sales.

Do audiences consume VoD releases in the same way as theatrical? Is there as much

emphasis on watching things immediately, for example?

People’s attention spans are pretty short these days, and the noise of social media, email spam and online advertising can be very distracting. A film can blow up and then disappear again very quickly.

Still, there is potential for a film to be rediscovered and effectively have many ‘premieres’, as different blogs or websites promote a film at different times and introduce it to new groups of people.

Fundamentally, if you don’t have a studio-level advertising budget, waiting a few weeks to a few months from theatrical release to home entertainment is generally not going to work. With smaller budgets you can usually only afford one big push, and you want all possibilities for purchase to be available immediately, since you probably cannot afford to remarket to people.

How can filmmakers benefit from having their film released via VoD? Filmmakers selling via VoD will earn additional revenue on top of their other distribution outlets, and they can also reach wider geographic regions. Online releases have the potential to reach niche audiences that may be spread out around the world but have a tightly knit online community. Many people talk about the massive exposure available online, and this is possible, but takes a lot of work.

For a small budget campaign you can do a lot with community building across geographic borders that is much harder for theatrical releases. To make a theatrical release successful you need reasonably large groups of fans concentrated in many different

Opposite: Documentary Hawking was released on VoD just a week after it made its UK theatrical debut

places, but online the geographic distances are less important. If you have a great film, and you know who your audience is and how to reach them, and if you can energise some of your fans into ambassadors, you can easily attract an audience for a VoD release.

VoD is still evolving, and there is not a great deal of information available about the business side of it. Is it a sustainable model for the future of cinema?

VoD is a growing and sustainable part of the business. For ultralow-budget films, you can earn your money back and go into profit online. For most films, VoD fits into a wider strategy of distribution that includes all the traditional outlets online and offline. Planning a windowing strategy that maximises revenue is still key; e.g. moving from transactional to subscription and eventually advertising over the course of a year or two.

We are pleased to have worked with several low-budget filmmakers who are using the revenue earned with us to produce their next films, and we anticipate more and more filmmakers earning their living from VoD in the years to come. It’s not going to happen overnight, but if filmmakers keep their expectations measured and their strategies holistic, they can achieve great things with VoD as a key part of their overall release plan. www.distrify.com l

27/09/2013 14:00:37

02

Insider's Point of View J.C. Chandor: Writer/Director

New Horizons Oscar-nominated writer/director J. C. Chandor reveals why he’s chosen to follow up his debut Margin Call with All Is Lost, a onecharacter drama with very little dialogue… Interview: James Mottram For J. C. Chandor, following his 2011 directorial debut Margin Call was never going to be easy.

After all, this wordy ensemble, set on the eve of the 2008 financial meltdown, saw him Oscarnominated for Best Original Screenplay. So, what does he do?

He brings us All Is Lost: a onecharacter, one-location drama, virtually free of dialogue, starring Robert Redford as a resourceful sailor battling against the elements. A technical triumph— not least the editing, from Pete Beaudreau—it also showcases a remarkable performance from its veteran star. Never mind Life of Pi or Cast Away; this is as radical a survival story as you will see.

were all writing offers. Then people saw the film and then I started getting directing offers. And to a person who has waited 15 years to have these opportunities it was pretty exciting.

You weren’t tempted by anything?

No—it was mainly to repeat myself; make a $25m Margin Call

but set in a law firm or in the government. Then as we started to run the numbers for All Is Lost, we were like, we can make this movie. We can all be paid a decent salary. We can shoot it safely. And make it an adventure movie. I realised the most important thing is to not

lose everybody their money and to make a good little movie. And if you do that, presumably they’ll keep inviting you back. So this film felt like a departure but it also felt like a really smart move.

Is it easier to write a script without dialogue, and what was the process?

It’s always difficult to shoot a second movie. Did you deliberately choose something opposite to Margin Call?

Thematically, they’re very similar.

But execution-wise, yes, they’re entirely different. Certainly, ego; part of me was like, let me show them! But also, I have a young family to support. I started getting offers. Before Margin Call, they

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Writer/director J.C. Chandor found it easy to convince Robert Redford (below) to take the solitary role of a sailor in trouble in All is Lost, the filmmakers's follow-up to Margin Call (opposite)

No! Dialogue… it’s what I have the most fun writing. It comes to me quickly. But story and structure and making sure it all makes sense is a very long, gruelling process for me. So this film, for me…

I don’t think I’d ever do anything quite like it again. Hopefully, it feels like one tight experience.

I sat down and actually got it on paper five days before Sundance, when Margin Call was premiering. I’m very superstitious and I didn’t want to go there without another script and project done, so I forced myself to finish this 32-page treatment.

And if you go back and read that 32 pages, it’s almost identical to what you saw. It’s shot-for-shot the movie I wanted to make. For better or worse!

Did you offer the role to Redford during Sundance?

No, I wasn’t thinking about it at the time. It was just exciting to be in Sundance, and I had other things on my mind! But about three weeks later, I offered him the role. Five days after that, he said, “Come and meet me.” And five minutes into the meeting he stood up and said, “You’re not crazy. And that’s why I wanted to meet you because this is the craziest fucking script I’ve ever read in my life! Let’s do this!” He was the easiest actor I’ve ever talked into a role in my entire life.

Do you think this is Oscar potential for Redford?

For Redford… yes. He’s only been nominated for an acting Oscar once [for The Sting] in his entire career, which is absurd. His wife came up to me, and said, “He’s never quite been able to go and drop all vanity and just be

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Below: Chandor says that Redford ‘became the character. He just shut himself down’

there in front of you in a very intense way.” So for someone at 76-years-old to still care about proving themselves—not to any of us, but to himself—was amazing.

How do you think he coped with the physical demands of the film?

He became that person. He came to Mexico. His wife visited a couple of times, but he was totally alone… he just shut himself down. Emotionally and physically, we went through the process and beat him up, basically. And in a weird way beat up the crew.

Shooting on the water is just brutally slow. It’s not that much fun. So by the third month we were there, he was the character.

He was exhausted.

You shot in Rosarito, at the giant water tank, where James Cameron filmed Titanic. How was that?

James Cameron built me the greatest facility to ever shoot this movie on the planet Earth, right down to the dressing rooms.

They’re the best dressing rooms I’ll ever have! So the majority of the movie with Redford’s performance was shot in a big, controlled, crazy water environment, but it was not the ocean—we brought him out [on that] for just a couple of days, because it’s insanely dangerous.

Besides all that water, what was most challenging about the project?

The editing! I hope my editor [Pete Beaudreau] gets the recognition he deserves. Basic editing theory, essentially what all editing is based on, is cutting from one thing to another. And when you only have one actor

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and basically one location, you can’t keep cutting to a horizon!

So the editing we and he were able to pull off… there are probably a hundred jump cuts in the movie and I think only three or four of them stuck out to me in any kind of annoying way.

What are you planning next?

I’m trying to make a studio movie similar to the ones Mr. Redford got to make in the ’70s and ’80s, when the studios were backing projects that didn’t always just do exactly the same thing. It’s still a work in progress, so it’s not

something I want to talk in depth about. But everything that I’ve learned in these last two films, I’m going to try and bring together.

All Is Lost plays at the London Film Festival on October 12, 13 and 14, and is released in UK cinemas on December 27 l

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27/09/2013 15:58:09

Feature Inside Llewyn Davis

The films of the Coen Brothers have always had an intimate relationship with music and their latest, Inside Llewyn Davis, is no exception. Here, the film’s star Oscar Isaac and the Coens’ longstanding music producer T-Bone Burnett explain how, in the right hands, movie music can become a character in its own right.

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Music As Character It’s 1961, just months before Bob Dylan would revolutionise the American folk music scene. At the dimly-lit Gaslight Cafe in New York City’s Greenwich Village, a young man plays the traditional blues song, ‘Hang Me, Oh Hang Me’.

With a guitar in his hand and a cigarette clasped to his lips, this is the dishevelled, eponymous hero of the Coen Brothers’ new film, Inside Llewyn Davis, an affectionate story—and winner of this year’s Grand Jury Prize in Cannes—about an aspiring folk musician more acquainted with failure than success.

Remarkably, Llewyn’s rendition of this dark little ditty—once sung

by Brooklyn musician Dave Van

Ronk, whose memoir The Mayor of MacDougal Street served as inspiration for the film—is played out in full. This, as the film’s music producer T-Bone Burnett notes, is almost unheard of in film. “If you took this script to any studio and said ‘OK, we’re going to start this movie with a threeminute song about getting hung and it’ll be super-downbeat’, they’d have said, ‘You can have 30 seconds.'” And that’s if they didn’t shut the door in your face.

Over the years, the St. Louisborn Burnett has become as integral to the Coen Brothers’ family as cinematographer Roger Deakins or costume designer Mary Zophres. He first

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worked with them on the 1998 cult comedy The Big Lebowski, assembling a soundtrack— including Dylan’s ‘The Man in Me’—to complement the character of Jeff Bridges’ stoner/bowler The Dude. Burnett even went so far as to “put a playlist together” for the protagonist, imagining what his record collection might be.

Then came O Brother, Where Art Thou?, the Coens’ 1930s odyssey set in Depression-era Mississippi, which shimmered to the sound of bluegrass music, gospel and country. Burnett produced the soundtrack, a huge hit that won multiple Grammys, including Album of the Year, beating out both Dylan’s 'Love and Theft' and U2’s 'All That You Can’t Leave Behind'.

Arriving in the wake of 9/11, Burnett believed it touched a nerve. “The country was in a state of national trauma and there was this relief, this beautiful music.”

After also collaborating on the Coens’ 2004 Ealing Studios remake The Ladykillers, his recruitment for Inside Llewyn Davis was almost a given. “I have been in a constant research mode for 30 years!” he laughs, and no wonder. In the midseventies, he toured with Dylan on the Rolling Thunder Revue.

The connections go even deeper for the Coens who, like Dylan, hail from Minnesota and, as Burnett puts it, “were [all] children of Jewish immigrants”.

The difficulty, however, was finding an actor to play the title role. “It is an incredible part and extraordinarily demanding,” says Burnett. “It required that somebody learn to play and sing a 30-minute repertoire of music.” With the Coens wanting to film the songs live, as Burnett notes, “We just went out on a tightrope…without a rope! But as the universe treats the Coen Brothers, the person showed up who could do it.”

That person was Oscar Isaac, the rising star who played Carey Mulligan’s husband in Drive and Prince John in Ridley Scott’s Robin Hood. Having strummed guitar since he was 12, he was also reared on the music his

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father listened to whilst growing up in Florida; Dylan, Cat Stevens and so on. “I feel like I’ve been preparing for 33 years for this role,” says Isaac. “I mean that. In retrospect, I can say everything I’ve done has prepared me for doing this role.”

Perhaps this is why Isaac felt almost destined for the part.

Even before he knew about the film, he was in Pittsburgh filming Won’t Back Down and, during his downtime, took his guitar to some open mic nights, as if he sensed somehow that his musical skills would need some sharpening. When the prospect of working with the Coens came up, he sent in an audition tape, performing ‘Hang Me, Oh Hang Me’, and was invited to come and meet the brothers.

“Usually when you audition, you let it go,” he says. “When it’s

done, I throw away the script and if it happens, it happens. But this time I was like I’m going to assume I got this until someone tells me otherwise! I decided, I will keep working on it, as time is limited anyway, and I’ll be devastated one way or the other, so I might as well keep going. So

Below: John Goodman takes on the role of the shadowy Roland Turner

Bottom: Oscar Isaac as the titular Llewyn Davis

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Feature Inside Llewyn Davis I kept learning the music, I kept working on it, and then I got the call a month later from Joel.”

In the interim, the Coens had sent Burnett the tape of Isaac’s audition. “It wasn’t that he was perfect,” Burnett notes. “He just did that song and he told the truth.” In fact, in the script, Llewyn was “a heavier, schlubier, more grizzled” type than the 33-yearold actor. But Isaac was able to

make the songs feel real. “And then he played the scene, and he understood the scene. It was just obvious. It was clear he was the guy to do it.”

Isaac can still remember when he first met Burnett. “I flew out to LA, and T-Bone comes to pick me up in his car, and he’s in his suit, and he looks like a character that was written.” Immediately, the pair went to Norman’s Rare Guitars,

in Tarzana in the San Fernando Valley, to find Llewyn’s guitar.

There Isaac picked up a 1921 Gibson L1, “basically what Robert Johnson played at the crossroads when he sold his soul to the Devil; what rock ’n’ roll was invented on.”

It’s certainly a choice that would appeal to the Coens—in O Brother, Where Art Thou?, Chris Thomas King plays Tommy Johnson, seemingly inspired by his real-life

“This music is already the mainstream now in the States. It’s always been reinvented” T-Bone Burnett

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namesake. When Isaac picked up the guitar, he immediately felt in tune with it. “It’s hard to play, it sounds weird and it’s a small guitar, but I said, ‘I think I like this’… and that became the guitar that you see, Llewyn’s guitar, which never leaves his side.”

Once they began collaborating, Isaac was expecting the same rigorous treatment that Joaquin Phoenix got from Burnett on Walk the Line, drilling him to sound like Johnny Cash. But his experience was different. “He’s like a music Mr. Miyagi,” laughs Isaac, referring to the wise old tutor in The Karate Kid. “He would do little things. Like ‘Just sing it like you’re singing to yourself.’ Almost off the cuff. And that became the key to Llewyn.

He’s not extravert, he’s not trying to perform. This guy is inward.”

Burnett admits it was a pleasure to watch Isaac grow in confidence as he became Llewyn Davis, learning a series of old songs that Burnett arranged and adapted (including an unreleased Dylan track, ‘Farwell’). “With each one, he would get it and he would internalise it and the song would grow into this beautiful performance,” says Burnett.

So what was the secret? “Love, patience, encouragement, support… it’s just all done with that. I think the Coens were very much the same way. It’s not like we were trying to mastermind things.”

He was not alone, however.

Helping Burnett out on the soundtrack was Marcus Mumford, of Mumford and Sons, one of the modern-day bands that— along with The Lumineers and The Alabama Shakes—have engineered a folk-rock revival over the past few years. Also on board was Mumford’s reallife wife, Carey Mulligan, who plays Jean, the snippy singer Llewyn cosies up to, and Justin Timberlake, who plays Llewyn’s friend, and Jean’s husband, Jim. Indeed, on the song ‘The Auld Triangle’, that’s Timberlake— famous for his falsetto voice— singing the bass part. “He’s an incredible musician,” says Isaac, of the former ’N Sync star. “His

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range is astonishing. He’s got perfect pitch as well.” Then there’s ‘Fare Thee Well (Dink’s Song)’, arranged by Mumford, Isaac and Burnett. While that traditional tune has been recorded by scores of people, rarely has it sounded so fresh; ‘as if Dave Van Ronk and Jeff Buckley had done a duet in the afterlife’, as one critic put it.

In a curious way, Burnett, Mumford and co. are doing exactly what Llewyn and his real-life peers were doing back in the day.

“Back then a folk artist was also a curator,” says Isaac. “He would come up with all these old songs that no one had ever heard and play them for people. And that was the way you could hear them.”

Of course, Llewyn is struggling to get heard at a crucial moment in the evolution of folk music, when “Dylan comes along and he synthesises what the Beat poets were doing and uses this folk structure of music.”

Burnett doesn’t expect the same sudden re-ignition of

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interest in folk that bluegrass got after O Brother, Where Art Thou?, for one simple reason. “This music is already the mainstream now in the States,” he says. “It’s always been re-invented. I expect it will continue to be re-invented and shuffled into the deck, like everything else going on now.

People excavate these treasures and re-invent them, and then it’ll mean something brand new.”

For the moment, it’s simply part of one of the soundtracks, and films, of the year.

Inside Llewyn Davis is showing at the London Film Festival, on October 15, 17 and 19. It opens in UK cinemas on January 24 l Right: Llewyn (Isaac) doing what he does best

Opposite, top: Llewyn makes music with Jim (Justin Timberlake) and Al (Adam Driver)

Opposite, bottom: Embarking on a journey with Ulysses the cat

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03

Insider's Point of View Liz Garbus: Documentarian

A Legend Revealed

Documentarian Liz Garbus explains how she discovered the deeply personal side of cinema’s greatest icon while making her new film, Love, Marilyn. Text: Limara Salt The legend of Marilyn Monroe is one that refuses to wane. Over half a century after her mysterious death at the age of 36, there are still endless books, magazine articles and films on the icon. With all that in mind, one could wonder what convinced Liz Garbus, the award-winning documentary filmmaker of Bobby Fischer Against the World, to tackle a subject already over-saturated with conspiracy theories.

But Love, Marilyn is different; based on the 2010 non-fiction book Fragments: Poems, Intimate Notes, Letters, it uses Monroe’s own doodlings to show another side to the star, a side that intrigued Garbus enough to make the film.

“I never really thought much about Marilyn; I knew her as

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a two-dimensional image of photography but not as a human being and I didn’t think I was particularly interested,” Garbus explains. “But by looking at the documents I was surprised when I found the flesh of a human being I could relate to and it wasn’t a voice I had

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Director Liz Garbus (opposite page) enlisted the help of modern day actresses, including Elizabeth Banks (below) to breathe life into the legend of Marilyn Monroe (bottom and opposite)

heard or seen in the troves of films about Marilyn.”

As if using Monroe’s own, unedited words didn’t make the project tantalising enough, Garbus enlisted actors to read those words along with footage and images of the actress during the time she is describing.

Elizabeth Banks, Lindsay Lohan, Glenn Close, Viola Davis, Ben Foster and Zoe Saldana are just a few of the actors used to bring Marilyn’s experiences to life in an original way.

“Traditionally the approach has been to intercut images with a voiceover and that’s a wonderful technique,” Garbus says, “but I thought actresses working today would be able to relate to her words the same way I did, or even more intimately because they are on that same journey as she was being an actress. There was something in their energies and the expression of that material that would be interesting to watch and would teach us something or make us feel something that maybe you wouldn’t if you just heard their voice.”

While the film draws a correlation between Marilyn and actresses working today, being a female documentary filmmaker with plenty of support from her peers is something Garbus appreciates. “There are a lot of women directors in documentary film and I feel we are quite supported by our institutions.

In narrative filmmaking it’s still very much the minority and there’s really a cult around the male director in independent and Hollywood filmmaking; more

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funding is needed to correct that and we need to change the culture of the director being a male role.”

Love, Marilyn does what most would deem impossible: it reveals something about one of Hollywood’s most enduring icons—and that’s something even Garbus wasn’t expecting. “I think that when people see the film they’ll see this flesh of a person they weren’t acquainted with, whose thoughts and reactions are what a modern woman would relate to more than you would’ve thought. There’s something more relatable and direct that you can pull from her that’s interesting and valuable.”

Love, Marilyn opens in UK cinemas on October 18 l

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Feature The Small Screen

The Appeal of the

n e e r c S l l a m S With an increasing number of big-screen talent migrating to television projects, some of film’s A-list—including Ron Howard, Jane Campion and Cillian Murphy—tell us just why the small screen is proving so intoxicating… Text: James Mottram 44

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Peter Mullan is recalling a recent trip to Los Angeles. The actor/ director arrived in the heart of Hollywood to pitch his latest idea: a film about Hurricane Katrina.

As he surveyed the scene on Sunset Boulevard, he was struck by the sight of the massive billboards that dwarf the skyline.

“Everywhere I looked, it was all HBO, big TV shows, new shows I’d never heard of,” he says. “I asked a mate of mine who lived in LA, and she said, ‘Yeah, it’s all we ever see—TV posters.’ And this is Hollywood, the heart of the socalled Mecca of film.”

In some respects, this shouldn’t be a surprise. The past decade has seen cable television outfits like HBO and AMC deliver some era-defining shows; The Sopranos, The Wire, Game of Thrones, Mad Men, Breaking Bad—dramas that have sold worldwide and re-defined the way we think about television narrative. “I’m watching TV again,” admits director Ron Howard, whose career has spanned both mediums. “I had more or less stopped watching television for about 20 years.”

If the 1970s were regarded as a golden age for Hollywood— when the likes of Martin Scorsese and Francis Ford Coppola were in their pomp— television has now reached a new pinnacle. “More and more, television is very, very provocative and risky. People are letting their imaginations run wild on TV,” says Holly Hunter, the Oscarwinner who switched to the small screen to produce and star in crime show Saving Grace. “On cable, there’s very little restriction.

People can really express themselves. It’s a big, big shift.”

With Hollywood studios becoming increasingly riskaverse as they push all their chips onto blockbuster franchises designed to appeal to the widest demographic possible, Hunter has seen what she calls a “lessening of great feature films” produced in the US system. Much of this is down to budgets—which are either less than $5m or over $100m. “Everything in-between

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is kinda gone,” she observes.

“They’re not making movies for $30m, unless Tom Cruise or Scarlett Johansson stars. It’s a shrunken market, financially.”

Hunter is not the only one predicting this implosion. Earlier this year, at an event held to mark the opening of the USC School of Cinematic Arts, Steven Spielberg and George Lucas were all doom and gloom.

Referring to Spielberg’s Lincoln and the movie he produced, Red Tails, Lucas noted: “We barely got them into theatres. You’re talking about Steven Spielberg and George Lucas can’t get their movie into a theatre.” Predictions from the pair included ‘event’ movies in the future following the Broadway / West End model— staying in theatres for a year and costing upwards of $25 a ticket.

As a result, with cinema in such a state of creative flux, directors and stars have flocked to the small screen. Think of Michael Mann, who executiveproduced horse-racing drama Luck, starring Dustin Hoffman; Martin Scorsese, who similarly oversaw the 1920s mob story Boardwalk Empire, as well as directing the first episode; David Fincher turned to videoon-demand site Netflix for his remake of political show House of Cards, featuring Kevin Spacey; and Todd Haynes went to HBO to direct his Golden Globe and Emmywinning Mildred Pierce, starring Guy Pearce and Kate Winslet.

In truth, these veteran directors have not left cinema, but rather detoured into television. Scorsese and Mann are putting the finishing touches

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TV shows like Game of Thrones,

Boardwalk Empire, Mad Men (all opposite), The Wire (left) and Top of the Lake (below) have captured audience imagination

to The Wolf of Wall Street and Cyber respectively, while Fincher is in pre-production on Gone Girl and Haynes is cranking up his next movie, Carol. Yet lesserknown filmmakers are now making their living crafting episodic television. Look at Season 2 of Showtime’s ultra-popular terrorist drama Homeland, which featured episodes directed by such indie stalwarts as Lodge Kerrigan (Keane), John Dahl (The Last Seduction) and Jeremy Podeswa (The Five Senses).

It’s not just in the US, either.

This year, The Piano’s Jane Campion has seen her Twin Peaks like mystery-drama Top of the Lake—an Australia-UK co-production, starring both Peter Mullan and Holly Hunter—win critical acclaim. “It’s quite obvious that cinema is limping along,” says Campion, who initially decided to veer towards television because she was sick of all the publicity that goes with promoting a film. “I thought with TV they’d just put it on, and that would be that! And you do have to sell it less. That was a big reason.”

Personal reasons aside, Campion realised that the best way

to access her audience was via television. “I don’t think my audience goes to the movies any more. They don’t like the big movies—maybe they’ll go and see Skyfall or The Bourne Identity but they’re looking for more interesting material and they’re starting to see it on TV or they get the DVDs and watch it at home. And they’ve got kids and it’s hard to for them to get out.”

Indeed, the consumption of modern-day entertainment has

“On cable, there’s very little restriction.

People can really express themselves.

It’s a big shift.”

Holly Hunter

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Feature The Small Screen dramatically swung in favour of television. The idea of spending a weekend on the sofa bingeviewing a DVD box-set is a relatively new one, as is working your way through a series that your digital video recorder has dutifully recorded for you, but in a society that demands instant access, these methods—along with streaming sites like Netflix— provide the perfect viewing platforms. All of a sudden, taking a trip to your local fleapit seems like a very outdated concept.

Howard estimates 24—which Imagine Entertainment, the company he and Brian Grazer formed in 1986, was behind—was one of the first shows to exploit this, with its serialised ‘hourly’ episodes. “We got lucky. That experiment had been tried a couple of times before but people were reluctant to engage because if they dropped an episode it would be frustrating. Well, DVDs came along and that was even before downloading and DVRs. It enabled people to binge-view 24, and it built a fan base and a following that was cool and allowed the storytellers to delve into the characters more.”

Aside from the obvious financial advantages that being tied to a recurring series can bring, this is exactly why television is appealing for any actor. “To try and explore a character over six hours is not something I’d ever had the opportunity do before,” says Irish star Cillian Murphy, who can currently be seen in the Steven Knight-created BBC series Peaky Blinders, a 1920s gangster drama that looks to do

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for Birmingham what Boardwalk Empire did for Atlantic City.

Murphy, best known for his work in films like 28 Days Later and Batman Begins, hadn’t worked in television for a dozen years, since 2001’s mini-series The Way We Live Now. But, he says, it wasn’t for any reasons of snobbery. “I didn’t get sent the scripts [for] any television. So I went off and made films and did theatre. In those 12 years, the amount of writers and directors who are migrating to telly has increased hugely and I think the quality has increased hugely.”

You only have to look at The Wire to see the sort of writers recruited; esteemed crime novelists like Richard Price, George Pelecanos and Dennis Lehane all took on scripting duties. Game of Thrones was co-created by David Benioff, who previously scripted Spike Lee’s 25th Hour, Troy and X-Men Origins: Wolverine. Meanwhile, AMC has just announced that for the forthcoming final season of Mad Men, Chinatown’s Oscar-winning scribe Robert Towne will be coming on board.

Then there’s the channels themselves. “What’s interesting is that it’s no longer HBO as the prestige channel on cable,” says Haynes. He points out that AMC used to be a movie channel with commercials, then it produced Mad Men. “It’s become a competitor to HBO… it’s just created a more competitive playing field, and that usually produces diversity, because there are more people trying to get their foot in. Now, anybody

could become the next AMC with a hit show that is unique.”

With increased budgets, firstrate crews and bigger scope, the lines have blurred like never before. It’s why various television shows are now being screened at film festivals. Mildred Pierce took its bow at Venice; Top of the Lake went from Sundance to Berlin; and Peaky Blinders saw its first two episodes play out at the Edinburgh International Film Festival.

Indeed, ironically, a big-screen cinema is almost the perfect place to watch a show that’s as cinematic as Peaky Blinders.

Yet with modern audiences watching product on phones, tablets and laptops as well as televisions, those barriers between mediums have now come crashing down. What does seem clear is that just as actors are craving the chance to delve further into characters, so audiences want narratives more complex than a two-hour film can deliver. “A lot of people talk about The Wire being like a televisual novel, and I can understand that,” says Murphy.

“Once you start, you go into such detail, and you keep wanting to get to the next chapter.”

Quite whether ‘cinema is dead’, to quote director Peter Greenaway, is another matter.

Having previously fought off the arrival of television, it’s proved its durability over the decades. And after all, nobody is saying that film is longer a valid medium, just

Film stars like Cillian Murphy (above, in Peaky Blinders), Kate Winslet and Guy Pearce (below

left, in Mildred Pierce) have been attracted to the small screen

“To explore a character over six hours is not something I'd had the opportunity to do before.”

Cillian Murphy

that it is an alternative source of storytelling in a world that’s increasingly diverse. “It’s a whole other thing,” says Hunter. “It’s the difference between reading a great short story by Raymond Carver and reading Moby Dick.

Carver is no less of an artist than Herman Melville.”

Peaky Blinders is released on DVD and Blu-ray on October 21; all other TV shows mentioned in this feature are also available on these formats l

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Insider's Point of View Alex Gansa: Showrunner/Exec Producer

Home Fires Burning With TV dramas enjoying an unprecedented popularity, Homeland, which stars Claire Danes as a CIA agent struggling to maintain national security, is leading the pack. As Season Two comes to DVD and Blu-ray, and with Season Three currently showing in the UK and US, the show’s creator and executive producer Alex Gansa takes us behind the scenes of this award-winning drama. Interview: Nikki Baughan Homeland is an adaptation of Gideon Raff’s Israeli series Prisoners of War. How did you first come across it, and how did you make it relevant to the American experience?

I first heard about Prisoners of War from Howard Gordon, my friend and writing partner. Rick Rosen, our agent, initially approached Howard about adapting the story for American audiences, and Howard felt like it would be a great project for us to do together.

We thought the Israeli source material had great potential, but

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we realised early in the process that some elements of the story would not register in the same way with American audiences. In Israel, the tragic saga of a POW’s family is familiar and accessible, but there are no clear analogues in the American experience. Once we started thinking about [terror suspect] Brody (Damian Lewis) as a Manchurian Candidate type character, we saw the opportunity to create a psychological thriller.

Through Carrie and Brody we found a way to explore the complexity of America 10 years after 9/11.

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Creator and executive producer Alex Gansa says the success of Homeland is down to the ‘intense ambiguity at the heart of Carrie (Clare Danes, opposite) and Brody’s (Damian

Lewis, below) relationship’

One of the show’s most intriguing characteristics is ambiguity; Brody’s true intentions, Carrie’s sanity being painted in shades of grey.

Is this reflective of feeling a decade after 9/11?

Absolutely. Many of us look back on some of the decisions the US made after 9/11 and wonder if we’ve gone too far. That’s exactly the dilemma that Saul and Carrie face on a daily basis: a perpetual sense of doubt that the decisions we make might subvert our intentions. While the CIA had virtual carte blanche after 9/11, actions of intelligence professionals are now under heavy scrutiny. In many ways, cynicism has diluted our sense of fear.

And how does this compare with 24, which was perhaps a more immediate response to those events?

In the immediate aftermath of 9/11, the moral lines felt clear, and national-security concerns dominated our view of civil liberties. We craved heroes like Jack Bauer, who could strike back at the enemy. Carrie and Saul live in Jack’s wake; 10plus years after 9/11, we are examining the price America has paid for pursuing security.

Homeland has an almost unmatched intensity; how much of a challenge is it to sustain this across a season?

I’m fortunate to work with a team of incredibly intelligent, patient writers who have the energy and commitment that it takes to get the story right. Because our season only has 12 episodes, we have time to improve and

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refine the story before production begins. But while we have that luxury, the actors on set do not. They deal with a gruelling schedule, and their commitment to delivering taut, emotional performances day in and day out is nothing short of heroic.

Can you describe the show’s writing process? Is the whole season written before shooting, or do you stay flexible?

We start breaking story months before production starts, and generally have the first four or five scripts written before shooting begins. We make some adjustments as we go along but, for the most part, our seasonlong story arcs are locked in before we start shooting.

Unlike many similar shows, you revealed Brody’s true colours midway through Season One. Was that always your intention, and has his complex relationship with Carrie played out in the way you intended?

There are certain tropes an audience expects in a thriller; the fun is to deliver them when people least expect it. Hoarding story never works because the audience gets ahead of you.

But we also discovered there’s a difference—and a real tension— between Brody’s intention to carry out an attack and actually going through with it. What is the psychological line you have to cross to flip the switch on a suicide vest?

As for Carrie and Brody, it was only when Claire and Damian got in a room together that we saw how complicated this relationship might get. These characters are two damaged souls who

find a powerful connection with each other. That intimacy is both satisfying and highly unstable. It ends up pushing them into increasingly dangerous territory, both emotionally and operationally. That’s the DNA of the relationship.

Claire Danes and Damian Lewis are exceptional in their roles; how involved were you in the casting of the show? And will we see any new faces in the new season?

Howard and I had Claire in mind as we started writing the script; we had just seen her performance in Temple Grandin and were completely blown away.

We even named the character Claire in the first draft of the script. Damian was on our radar from Band of Brothers, but we

knew he was our Brody when we saw his performance in the independent film Keane, directed

by Lodge Kerrigan. Of course, we had no idea how incredible their chemistry would be until they got in a room together. When we saw that, we knew we’d struck gold.

[In Season Three], we see Peter Quinn (Rupert Friend) and Dar Adal (F. Murray Abraham), from Season Two, working closely with Saul to figure out who ordered the attack on Langley.

The newest member of the team is Fara Sherazi (Nazanin Boniadi), a recently recruited financial expert brought in to follow the money that funded the bombing. Tony winner Tracy Letts joins our cast as Senator Andrew Lockhart, Chairman of the Senate Select Committee of Intelligence.

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Below: Season Three of Homeland will see FBI agents Saul Berenson (Mandy Patinkin), Carrie Mathison (Clare Danes) and Peter Quinn (Rupert Friend) facing new threats to security

And Shaun Toub plays Majid Javadi, a member of the Iranian intelligence service who Saul knew many years ago in Iran.

Homeland deals with very deep themes like international politics and religion. How do you ensure a wide audience is never alienated, and do you have official advisors assisting with plot details?

At its heart, Homeland is a psychological thriller. So while our characters encounter complex, morally challenging questions, they don’t have the luxury of dwelling in the moment. I think that cat-andmouse game is what keeps the audience engaged. We care about getting the details right, and do a significant amount of research in the writers’ office. In fact, we like to joke that we’ve Googled so many sensitive topics that we’ve probably been flagged for some kind of terrorist watch list. Fortunately when we get stuck, we have a

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number of advisors at the CIA and FBI, mental health professionals, and representatives from Muslims on Screen and Television.

What can we expect from Season Three, now that

Brody is on the run after the devastating attack on the CIA? You can expect the same intensity, but the focus will be different.

Brody has disappeared into Carrie’s underground network, and he won’t make an appearance in the first couple of episodes.

When we see him, he’ll be in a state that our viewers should find interesting. Saul is the acting director of the CIA but, after the attack on Langley, the Agency’s very existence is threatened. Carrie will be back in the thick of things, but this season her relationship with Saul will be strained to the breaking point.

Homeland is a very American show, but has found great success overseas. Why do you think it has universal appeal?

It’s difficult to say exactly what makes any show successful, but in our case I’d say it comes down to the intense ambiguity at the heart of Carrie and

Brody’s relationship. Spy stories are about trust, on a personal and global scale. Security is something we all want, but finding it—and sustaining it— seems pretty near impossible.

You have been involved with many award-winning TV shows; what, in your opinion, are the ingredients of unmissable TV? And have evolving audience viewing habits changed anything?

Binge-viewing, onlinestreaming, etc., have made it easier for audiences to access their favourite shows, but the fundamentals of great TV remain the same: great performances; strong writing; and a clear point of view.

Homeland Season Two is out now on Blu-ray and DVD from Twentieth Century Fox Home Entertainment.

Homeland Season Three is now showing on C4 in the UK and Showtime in the USA l

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Insider's Point of View Amit Gupta: Independent Filmmaker

The Road to Distribution

Independent filmmaker Amit Gupta writes about the challenges of securing theatrical distribution for his second feature Jadoo, and why it’s so important to stay focused in the face of adversity.

I wrote the screenplay for my second film, Jadoo, around three years ago, and it was green-lit a few months after I completed my first feature, Resistance. As we were independently financed, we were in the position of not having to secure a sales agent or distributor. This wasn’t something that worried me as one of my producers, Richard Holmes, has a strong track record, and had already put a very clear distribution strategy in place well before pre-production.

The first step was to take a promo of the film to Cannes, which went down very well. It meant that when we set up screenings for distributors later in the year, most, if not all, attended. Out of these screenings came some offers,

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Independent filmmaker Amit Gupta (opposite and below, on the

set of Jadoo) found the road to distribution a challenging one

all different in terms of the way companies saw the film. The one we accepted was from the newly set up Intandem Films, headed up by Robert Mitchell, formerly of Buena Vista. Robert saw the film as we did: an indie with genuine ‘crossover’ potential. This was absolutely key in us wanting to work with the Intandem team.

At the point at which we started to get the distribution ball rolling, two things happened very quickly. Firstly we got an official invitation from the Berlin Film Festival; this now meant we were a ‘festival’ movie, something I personally wasn’t expecting. (To date, the film has played at over 20 festivals, which just goes to show how difficult it is to make predictions!) Then in January 2013, Intandem underwent some significant—and widely reported— financial restructuring, which meant a question mark over the proposed Jadoo theatrical release.

I’d be lying if I said I wasn’t worried at this point. I knew we were playing in Berlin, but also knew that this situation, which had nothing to do with us, could still reflect badly on the film. I’ve seen many movies that have played at top festivals fail to secure a theatrical release; most of us know that Slumdog Millionaire was a whisker away from going straight to DVD. I was worried that it was about to happen to Jadoo, as movies without big stars are almost always deemed a risk to distributors. In the end, after a slightly tense period, everything worked itself out.

Jeff Berg’s newly formed US agency, Resolution, and The

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Works International took over sales duties, with Intandem still distributing the film in the UK. I was really pleased about this, as I’d built up relationships with the team at Intandem and they were always very open to my input.

Jadoo was released on September 6, 2013, on 38 screens across the UK. Despite limited advertising spend, in the first week of release the film made the UK box office top 20, and was in the top five in terms of screen average. That is a huge achievement, but there’s no denying that, for British independent filmmakers, the road to distribution is an extremely challenging one to negotiate. It is

also one that is evolving almost on a daily basis; the next time I make a film, I know the goalposts will have moved once again.

While filmmakers are reliant on distributors to find an audience, there is another significant factor that impacts on the success of a film in the UK: to have a major theatrical impact, you need a significant P&A spend. If you release as a small indie you can be successful on that scale, but to go bigger you need to buy the necessary advertising space. To some extent, it’s a self-fulfilling prophecy; the public will see the film in the way it’s portrayed. The system is different in France, where advertising for all films is

capped, so the playing field is levelled. I feel that British indies would have a better chance of succeeding on a bigger scale if they were in the same boat as the big studio movies, whose P&A spend is twice the entire budget of films like Jadoo.

Although I don’t see the system in the UK changing any time soon, what excites me is the alternative release strategies for films like A Field in England.

Seeing a theatrical release coexist harmoniously with a DVD and VoD release gives me renewed hope that British indie filmmakers can find their audience, wherever they might be. www.jadoomovie.com l

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Feature Israeli Cinema

Israel’s Genre Revolution With Rabies (2010) and now Big Bad Wolves, former film lecturer/ critic Aharon Keshales and his student Navot Papushado are Israel’s first and foremost genre filmmakers. Here, they discuss the state of both the industry and the nation, and how they are helping to kick-start a revolution in Israeli film. Text: Anton Bitel

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“You have nothing to worry about, OK,” says Navot Papushado, with a not-entirely-reassuring laugh, after Aharon Keshales, his co-director and co-writer on Big Bad Wolves, informs me that they have both been trained to murder.

“Everybody in Israel who went into the army knows how to kill a guy,” Keshales says. “And we wanted to do a movie that portrays this kind of reality, that when something bad happens, all your basic instincts, all the things you learn in the army, kick in. Then you get this outrageous comedy of a gang of males who knows what to do. It’s really scary stuff, because if you weren’t in the army, you don’t know about taking a blowtorch to a guy or taking a saw to someone’s neck, but if you went to the army, it’s like a national hobby.”

It is in part because real terror has been so tied into the fabric of Israel’s short history, and in part because of a conservative industry, that genre has taken so long to emerge in the national cinema. “For years we were hearing the same things, that we had enough slaughter on our hands and terror in the streets not to have to see more on the screen,” Keshales explains. “But I think that’s more to do with the industry. Everybody who goes to Tel Aviv University, where I taught,

is on a mission to become the next Spielberg, Cronenberg, Carpenter, you name it. They go out of school, and next thing you know their minds have been abducted and they want to be the next guy who makes the ‘good’ art-house [film] to go into Cannes. It’s the chicken and the egg, you know; the world expects Israel to make serious films about the conflict or war, and we make the films we think the world expects us to do. I think everything started to change when the world saw Rabies.”

A sinuous satire which starts as a night-time slasher before becoming a day-lit Coensstyle ensemble clusterfuck, and binding crafty thrills and black comedy to sly national allegory, Rabies (Kalevet) was Israel’s first genre title. It also won a lot of well-deserved love internationally, leading to a sudden interest in genre from the domestic industry and a bigger budget for Keshales and Papushado’s next project, Big Bad Wolves. Now a box-office hit in Israel, it enjoyed its UK premiere at Film4 FrightFest along with fellow countryman Eitan Gafney’s lo-fi zombie flick, Cannon Fodder.

“People are more eager and more excited to do genre films nowadays,” comments Papushado.

“It’s still very early to say there’s a big movement towards that, but people feel freer to explore.” “Statesupported funds have to approve your scripts,” adds Keshales. “In Rabies we didn’t even send [the government] the script because we knew they’d be shocked! So we decided to do the film without funds, but when we had a rough cut we knew we’d need their help in order to finish post-production.

Luckily they loved the movie and helped us finish it. With Big Bad Wolves it was a lot easier. After the success of Rabies, especially internationally, we decided to give them the script and see where it got us. Their reaction was superb, and they gave a green light right on the spot. After watching the Big Bad Wolves rough cut they were walking on clouds!

“It’s becoming easier to get a genre script into consideration.

The older guys are making heist

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films, and Ari Folman is doing The Congress in English in Hollywood, so Israel’s starting to dip into other genres, and respectable film directors are trying something new. On the phone yesterday, one of Israel’s most established directors [Reshef Levi] was telling me, ‘You just gave me an inspiration to make the dream project of my life. I’m going to do my sci-fi picture at last.’”

Though a masterful mash-up of abduction, torture and revenge tropes familiar from recent Korean cinema, the genre games of Big Bad Wolves are certainly not devoid of national character. “The biggest influence from Korean films was the way they blended the genres with their own mentality,” suggests Papushado. “I think Israel is a very bipolar country.

We have to laugh and be sad, sometimes at the same times. It’s like a genre-blender society. I’m not sure if it’s a big effort on our side to think like that.”

Of course, the horrors on screen in Big Bad Wolves reflect very real Israeli anxieties.

“During our teenage years in Israel, we had buses exploding left and right in Tel Aviv,” recalls Papushado. “You grow into this very edgy, anxious environment.

You sometimes have to justify your survival by doing some very big stuff, and that’s a question we wanted to ask: how far would

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you go to justify your rights, to do things the way you see fit.”

Expanding on their role as national allegorists, Keshales adds: “It’s always there. The forest in Rabies is a laboratory for putting Israelis in a tough situation and letting all their instincts out to play.

Big Bad Wolves is a film about three ex-military guys torturing a guy in a basement surrounded

by Arab villages. You can’t escape the microcosmos of Israel. We write things for the Israeli audience; we don’t want to educate anyone, we don’t want to say we think

that or that or that about our country, but we do want people to have a sense of what it’s like to be an Israeli.”

Keshales and Papushado are already lining up their next project (after The ABCs of Death 2, for which they are directing a segment), and will it again tell a very Israeli story through the frame of genre? “We’re going to do a spaghetti western, taking place during the ‘40s when the British ruled Palestine,” reveals Papushado. “It’s going to be called Once Upon a Time in Palestine. It’s

Above: Directors Aharon Keshales and Navot Papushado with star Lior Ashkenazi

Below: Stars Ashkenazi, Rotem Keinan, Doval’e Glickman and Tzahi Grad

a crazy period of time; the Jewish guys were the terrorists trying to get the British out of Israel, and most of the Israeli terrorists became prime ministers later on.”

Big Bad Wolves is out in UK cinemas in December 2013 l

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06

Insider's Point of View Slawomir Idziak: Cinematographer

Master of His Craft

As he prepares to receive the Lifetime Achievement award at the 2013 Plus Camerimage festival, cinematographer Slawomir Idziak explains why he’s determined to pass on the craft of lensing to a new generation. Interview: Chris Patmore

Slawomir Idziak is one of a number of world-leading cinematographers who emerged from the Polish Film School, along with internationally renowned directors such as Kieslowski, Polanski, Wajda and Zanussi. As well as lensing for his contemporary compatriots,

Idziak has also shot Hollywood hits such as Black Hawk Down, Gattaca and Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix. His most important work, however, is possibly Film Spring Open (www.filmspringopen.eu), an Internet platform designed to connect filmmakers from around the world.

Why has Poland produced more internationally-renowned cinematographers than most other European countries?

It’s due to seclusion. Our country, under Communism, was separated from the West for many years. After the Second World War, the system of filmmaking developed completely differently to the studio system in other countries. In Poland, the

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factory of would-be filmmakers was the film school in Łódz, which had only two departments: camera department and directors’ department. Due to such seclusion, and the fact that both departments were educated at the same time, made it different to other countries.

It was the norm to invite the DoP to be the first collaborator, not just for shooting, but to collaborate on the script. We were co-authors of the so-called shooting scripts; not so much storyboards but descriptions of the shots we were going to take. Usually, during work on these shooting scripts, the ideas were often accepted by the directors.

Somehow, Polish cinematographers got a direct influence on the quality of the movies.

Also, we didn’t produce the movies for a public audience; that wasn’t important. No one expected us to make successful movies. It was our ambition to produce movies that were critically successful and for festivals. We didn’t have the barriers that existed in the studio system, where they don’t let you experiment too much. In our case, we could experiment as much as we wished. This system developed a different definition of cinematographers, and different responsibilities. As a matter of fact, Kieslowski was the first one who realised this and added the names of the cinematographers to the screenwriters, because he realised our roles were different to cinematographers elsewhere.

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Slawomir Idziak (below and

opposite with Mike Figgis) has lensed a variety of projects, including recent German drama

Measuring the World (bottom left)

During my time, from the 1960s to the 1980s, cinematographers were always number two.

Do you still prefer to work on these small movies, or big studio films?

At the moment, I prefer to teach more. Personally, I prefer to make the small movies. It’s a completely different relationship between all the crew members, much more than this industrial way of making movies. In terms of artistic freedom and responsibility, if you are doing a big studio movie, the burden of the millions of dollars invested gets put back on your head. In the studio system, you have a group authorship, it’s not individual.

It’s no longer just somebody responsible for the visual part of the movie. What we are doing on location as DoPs for these types of movies is only half the product; the other half is being transformed in post-production.

Would you say that many of the new, so-called cinematographers today are not much more than glorified camera operators, because they don’t have the creative control over the shoot?

In general terms, yes. This profession is devalued, and the way it was understood years ago is disappearing. This is

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explained in my essay, “Visual Identity: The Idziak Look”. At the moment, we should find a new way of filmmaking—the visual part of it. Now is not the time for the cosmetic changes, but we need a revolution. In the future we need to change the name from ‘director of photography’ to ‘visual director’: someone who is responsible for everything from pre-visualisation to shooting to post-production.

Is there too much emphasis on the technology of cinematography and not enough on the craft?

There is the question of film education. I’m a visiting professor at many European film schools, and what I am seeing is the whole accent goes on technique and the would-be DoPs are not getting enough information on the visual dramaturgy, which is something that is extremely important.

The schools are built on an ego system. When I go to film schools and I’m sitting in the canteen, I can easily pick which new students want to be directors and which ones want to be DoPs. Even though the director students haven’t made anything yet, they are already showing a leader’s ego and showing off. Ego is the first condition of our success in the business, but it’s also our enemy.

These young people simply forget about the rules of craftsmanship in terms of the art, with the art having a life of its own. You’re helping to make it happen, but you are not the owner of it; but many film schools put an accent on the authorship with one person, which I believe is a stupidity.

You’re being given the Lifetime Achievement Award

at this year’s Camerimage Film Festival. How important is a festival like Camerimage for cinematographers?

I love this festival. It’s such an unusual festival in the landscape of the European festivals in that it’s putting enormous accent on the young generation, inviting students from so many international film schools. We are in the midst of an avalanche of changes as cinematographers. We are continuously getting new tools, and there’s no place where we can make private tests of these tools.

Camerimage is such a place. It’s a place where, in one week, you can check and discuss something new that is being produced by the industry. It’s a place where we have

a necessary extra education. It’s not enough to get a typical academic education. As soon as you finish film school nowadays you already need to learn something new.

There are no film schools in the world that are rich enough to keep investing in new equipment. Also, the really good professionals have no time to teach because they are really busy, and the schools can’t afford to pay them. From this point of view, Camerimage is an extremely important place. This wrap around the festival is actually more important than the festival itself, to connect with others and exchange ideas-not just to watch films.

The 2013 Plus Camerimage festival runs from November 16–23. www.camerimage.pl l

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Theatrical

Kill Your Darlings: In Conversation

Director John Krokidas Screenplay John Krokidas & Austin Bunn Stars Daniel Radcliffe, Jack Huston, Ben Foster, Dan DeHaan, Michael C Hall DoP Reed Morano Editor Brian A Kates Locations New York City, USA Opens December 6

movieScope editor Nikki Baughan and critic James Mottram discuss Kill Your Darlings, which sees a 1944 murder bring together students Allen Ginsberg (Daniel Radcliffe), Jack Kerouac (Jack Huston) and William Burroughs (Ben Foster) JAMES MOTTRAM It didn’t grab me emotionally, but all the performances were really good. The one person who really astounded me was Ben Foster. I seem to say this whenever I can, to anyone who will listen, but I genuinely think Foster is one of the best American actors at the moment. He completely disappears into the role of Burroughs.

NIKKI BAUGHAN I thought that was the same for all of them. It was such a performance-led piece, and they were all completely absorbing.

Daniel Radcliffe was incredible. He could have chosen this project deliberately, knowing the subject matter and the scenes he would

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have to do, as a vehicle to get him away from Potter, and it might have backfired. But it did not. His American accent was flawless, and he obviously did his research.

JAMES It’s taken 10 years to bring the film to the screen, but it doesn’t show any wear and tear because of that. It’s very confident.

The narrative strand with Ginsberg's family worked very well, and the use of the murder gives it a certain narrative drive which some of these other Beat movies just haven’t had.

NIKKI It’s essentially an origin story of the Beats. Rather than looking at them in their prime, like most filmmakers, Krokidas has focused on the beginning of the movement.

He really captured the essence of what I always imagined these authors, these great thinkers, to be.

JAMES That’s what’s interesting about it, in that you do see them unformed, but with certain characteristics that you would

recognise. I did think, however, that some of the structuring was a bit to-and-fro and I wasn’t sure if that worked entirely.

NIKKI I liked the pacing. They are really just boys at the beginning of the film, particularly Lucien Carr (DeHaan); he seems confident but really he’s struggling to find himself. They all are. I liked that the pacing of the film kept up with their energy, that duality. I also liked that it got under the skin of the politics that the Beats were reacting too; the culture in which you could get off a murder trial by saying that the victim was homosexual…

JAMES That comes through well, and so does the fact that some of them have come back from war, or that others are overseas fighting for freedom while they are having a hedonistic time in New York. That was an interesting contrast. l l l l l Nikki Baughan l l l l l James Mottram

www.moviescopemag.com

30/09/2013 09:27:11

Don Jon

We Are What We Are Gone With the Wind

Joseph Gordon-Levitt’s directorial debut about a lothario and porn addict learning to love is a triumph. Not only does he crack open a debate about the unrealistic expectations placed on both men and women when it comes to the opposite sex, he threads in a warming love story too.

After too many one night stands Jon (Gordon-Levitt) decides it’s time he started a meaningful relationship. When he meets Barbara (Johansson, as a straight talking Jersey girl) he embarks on a plan to woo her; once the chase comes to an end, however, a depressing reality sets in, with the two at odds due to their distorted perceptions of how a couple should look and act.

Gordon-Levitt not only makes his point through this mismatched couple, he injects lots of humour with references to the formulaic romantic comedy, the highly sexualised advertisements which objectify women and the machismo attitude instilled in some men from a very early age. He is also very careful not to make his story too one-sided, with both sexes equally suffering and being manipulative.

At times his characters become thinly veiled symbols for his agenda but there’s so much heart at the core of the story it barely matters.

A refreshing and smart alternative to the usual Hollywood romantic comedy which boasts some superb performances from a choice cast. l l l l l Kat McLaughlin

A remake in the loosest of terms, this version honours Jorge Michel Grau’s excellent original yet is a wholly different film, a very intelligent screenplay adding some extra elements to round out proceedings and create an impressive story of its own.

Shot against a backdrop of constant rain, the film is very much a slow-burn, its nuances creating a growing unease and carefully concealing the cannibalism at its heart in favour of the examination of familial roles, rites of passage and ritualism.

The violence, when it eventually comes, doesn’t jar; the grisliness another layer to the story as opposed to a shock tactic.

Strong performances all round—Julia Garner as the youngest daughter, reluctantly learning her new duties following the death of her mother, is particularly good—bring a believability to this most unusual of families; the macabre given a necessary air of normalcy, which emphasises the story as everyday life for the Parkers.

The result is a rich, moving experience that is difficult to fault—although the inclusion of a solitary jump-scare with intrusive sound does not suit the pace nor the subtleties that are so carefully written.

This is, however, a minor quibble; We Are What We Are is surely one of the best horror films of 2013. l l l l l Naila Scargill

Director & Screenplay Joseph GordonLevitt Stars Joseph Gordon-Levitt, Scarlett Johansson Opens November 15

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Director Jim Mickle Screenplay Jim Mickle & Nick Damici Stars Bill Sage, Ambyr Childers, Julia Garner Opens October 25

Director Victor Fleming Screenplay Sidney Howard, from the novel by Margaret Mitchell Stars Vivienne Leigh, Clark Gable, Leslie Howard Opens November 22

Re-released in full 4K glory to celebrate the centenary of the birth of star Vivienne Leigh, the most successful film of all time remains a masterpiece almost 75 years after its debut.

Leigh is sublime as Scarlett O’Hara, a spoilt Southern belle forced to fight for survival after the South is plunged into Civil War, as well as navigate a rocky love affair with the enigmatic Rhett Butler (Gable).

The film has sparked endless debate about its sentimental portrayal of race relations; indeed, here the conflict is not so much a fight to end slavery but a vehicle to bring Scarlett her independence. It’s important to remember, however, that when the film was made segregation was still a way of life; Scarlett is not so much a cypher for 1880s politics but a poster child for 1930s sexual liberation. While she may simper coquettishly in the presence of Rhett—and with Gable’s dashing performance, who wouldn’t?—she is a headstrong and fiercely resilient heroine.

And what a backdrop Scarlett is given to make her transformation from girl to woman.

Even when compared with today’s VFX driven spectacles, this is filmmaking on an epic scale. From the thousands of extras to the masterful set-pieces, Gone With the Wind has a scope that reflects both its sweeping themes of reformation and Scarlett’s epic personal journey. Unmissable. l l l l l Nikki Baughan

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Theatrical

The Nun

Director Guillaume Nicloux Screenplay Guillaume Nicloux & Jermome Beaujour, from the novel by Denis Diderot Stars Pauline Etienne, Isabelle Huppert Opens November 1 Director Guillaume Nicloux is a devotee of Denis Diderot’s novel La Religieuse (The Nun), post-humously published in 1796, yet this visually impressive adaptation is far from faithful to the original text.

Suzanne (Etienne), a young girl born into a French, bourgeois family in the mid1700s, is sent to a convent by her parents.

Initially Suzanne refuses to take her vows, but when she learns she is an illegitimate child she agrees to return to the convent.

Regrettably, some of Suzanne’s superiors are of a sadistic disposition, ultimately prompting her to rebel once again.

The atmosphere is perhaps the film’s most striking feature; pallid hues, clinical textures and sharp echoes reverberating on unforgiving surfaces contribute to a general undertone of alienation and emptiness.

Moreover, the camera constantly pores over every inch of Etienne; she is not given one moment of privacy, urging empathy with her many humiliations.

Despite The Nun’s distinctive mood, it ultimately fails to say anything meaningful about the abuse of power in religious institutions; not even the sensitive performances can counterbalance this flaw.

The director’s amendments, not only to the protagonist but also to the conclusion and message of the novel, have little rationale. l l l l l Helen Cox

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How to Survive a Plague

Director David France Writers David France, Todd Woody Richman & Tyler H Walk Features David Barr, Peter Staley Opens November 8 Though zombie plagues have been infecting screens both big and small this year, David France’s documentary is about an altogether more sinister and upsetting epidemic—the outbreak of AIDS in the 1980s, and the wave of homophobia, judgement and denial that quickly followed. Focusing solely on the frontline in America, France unearths a staggering amount of archival footage to take us inside the meeting rooms of Act Up, the gay activist group that took on drug companies, the church and George Bush himself in an attempt to change perspectives and save lives.

With its grainy footage, How to Survive a Plague is as rough and ready as Act Up’s origins, but utterly bewitching. The facts alone horrify. In 1987, 50,000 people had died from AIDS worldwide. By 1989, AIDS was the leading cause of death in men under the age of 44 in cities like New York, and in 1995 alone, eight million people worldwide were dying from the disease.

“It’s like living in a war,” says activist Peter Staley, whose rational voice rings over the din of political naysayers. “All around me friends are dropping dead.” It’s hard to recall such a time, but Plague effectively captures that period of horror, confusion and outrage, while offering a hopeful coda that can’t help but move. This is shocking, essential viewing. l l l l l Josh Winning

Cutie and the Boxer

Director Zachary Heinzerling Features Ushio Shinohara, Noriko Shinohara Opens November 1 Director Zachary Heinzerling spent five years observing married couple Ushio and Noriko Shinohara, piecing together the life they have carved out with one another in New York. The outcome is a deeply profound and exquisitely crafted documentary that examines the big picture when it comes to relationships and artistic ambition.

Ushio Shinohara made a name for himself in the 1960s with his action paintings and oversized sculptures made from materials found on the streets. Noriko has only recently found fame with her comic style paintings, which depict her move from Japan to New York, her early relationship with her alcoholic husband and the sacrifices she has had to make in order to support Ushio’s artistic career.

Noriko’s paintings are brought to life with animation, providing an imaginative insight into her mind. Heinzerling captures the couple’s banter, but illuminates the sadness behind it with some personal archive footage, illustrating Ushio’s artistic anguish. Though distressing to watch, the reasons Ushio feels compelled to continue as he does become clear.

Noriko doesn’t like those ‘Hollywood-style endings’ and Heinzerling certainly takes this on board. In showing life after the first kiss, he has produced an insightful, inspiring and perfectly balanced love story, which encourages its audiences to fall for both subjects despite first impressions. l l l l l Katherine McLaughlin

www.moviescopemag.com

30/09/2013 09:27:15

Nosferatu

Inside Llewyn Davis

A creature of the shadows, and most iconically portrayed as an angular shadow ascending to the luminous woman asleep upstairs, Count Orlok/Nosferatu (Schreck) incarnates all manner of then-contemporary German anxieties. For this plague-bringing destroyer of domestic and national integrity nightmarishly embodies the recent, all-tooreal effects of the Great War and pandemic influenza, while his representation as a grotesque, rat-like Other, oozing with foreign menace and corruption, darkly foreshadows the anti-Semitic caricatures that would dominate Nazi propaganda films in the following decades.

He is both an object and a figure of fear, undeniably dangerous, even deadly, but also easily dispelled—not with religion or science, as in Bram Stoker’s novel Dracula, but simply with light. In other words, cinema’s first vampire captures German history in negative, while also coming with the suggestion that in history, as in film, neither the light nor the dark makes sense without the contrast of the other.

The nine minutes when Orlok actually appears on screen are certainly the most exciting and memorable parts of Nosferatu, underscoring Murnau’s idea that while we may all need to wake up to the sunlight, there are also pleasures to be had in exploring the shadows. l l l l l Anton Bitel

In shadowy close-up, alone on a smoky club stage in 1960s New York City, the titular Mr Davis (Oscar Isaac) sings a plaintive version of Dave Van Ronk’s ‘Hang Me, Oh Hang Me’.

Accompanied by his guitar, his voice soars over the melancholy lyrics, emotion etched into his face. It’s an intimate and powerful an introduction, and effortlessly sets the scene for this remarkable film that is both amusing character study and profound treatise about unrealised ambition, the cruel nature of fate and the omnipresent possibility of failure.

With Llewyn’s astonishing talent established with such immediacy, the film pulls back to reveal the artist as man.

And so we learn that, while he may have the voice of an angel, Llewyn is rather less pure of character. Something of a drinker and a womaniser, his recent dalliance with Jean (an excellent Carey Mulligan)—the wife of his close friend Jim (a surprising Justin Timberlake)—has resulted in an unplanned situation which requires immediate cash. Guitar forever in tow, Llewyn prowls Greenwich Village and beyond for gigs, crashing on various couches and courting the scorn of his more conventional sister Joy (Jeanine Serralles). Even as the odds stack higher against him, Llewyn is determined to follow his dream; a determination which proves both increasingly admirable and increasingly foolhardy.

Director F.W. Murnau Screenplay Henrik Galeen Stars Max Schreck, Gustav von Wangenheim, Greta Schroeder, Alexander Granach Opens October 25

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Directors & Screenplay Joel Coen & Ethan Coen Stars Oscar Isaac, Carey Mulligan, Justin Timberlake, Jeanine Serralles DoP Bruno Delbonnel Editor Roderick Jaynes Locations Minnesota & New York City, USA Opens January 24, 2014 In the title role, Isaac is outstanding. He gives Llewyn the duality that’s intrinsic to this story; he has a talent that’s easy to root for and a questionable personality that keeps things interesting. He also demonstrates a natural aptitude for comedy, and there are plenty of light touches. Most of these laugh-out loud moments come courtesy of a scene-stealing cat which accompanies Llewyn on much of his journey. It’s only late in the film that we discover the cat’s name is Ulysses; a nod to Homer’s Odyssey, with which the film shares themes of journey, homecoming and loss.

This neat touch is just one of many brilliant moments in the Coen’s perfectly-crafted narrative which, like the lyrics of the folk songs it celebrates, runs deep. The writing is snappy and the dialogue sharp, particularly between Llewyn and an increasingly aggravated Jean. Cinematographer Bruno Delbonnel’s understated camera captures the melancholy, unforgiving city landscape, and music producer T-Bone Burnett serves up an evocative soundtrack that becomes a character in its own right. By the time the film reaches its climax, which effectively highlights that Llewyn is stuck in a rut of his own making, it has well and truly cast its spell.

Inside Llewyn Davis is not only one of the highlights of the year, it’s one of the Coens' best; accolades don’t come much higher than that. l l l l l Nikki Baughan

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30/09/2013 09:27:17

Theatrical

The Railway Man

Director Jonathan Teplitzky Screenplay Frank Cottrell Boyce & Andy Paterson, from the autobiography by Eric Lomax Stars Colin Firth, Nicole Kidman, Jeremy Irvine, Stellan Skarsgard DoP Garry Phillips Locations England, Scotland & Australia Opens January 3, 2014 Though it name-checks Brief Encounter and involves more than a few stiff upperlips, The Railway Man is anything but a swoonsome railroad romance. If the dry-as-old-toast title wasn’t hint enough at this film’s more solemn leanings, we’re quickly given a bracing wake-up call in the film’s opening moments, where we meet Eric Lomax (Firth) stretched out on his back, muttering a poem in a way that isn’t altogether comforting. Suffice to say, Eric’s not in a happy place.

Eric rather fortuitously meets Patricia (a never-more-prim Kidman) on a train; fortuitously, because Eric’s life has always revolved around trains. After the most hilariously depressing British courtship you’ve ever seen (walks along rain-lashed beaches, etc), the pair are married, but Patricia quickly realises that Eric is far from a contented man. He’s haunted by his WWII past and, in a series of flashbacks, we meet Eric as a young man (now played by Irvine). Captured as a prisoner of war, he’s forced into manual labour to help build the Thai/Burma bridge.

These flashback scenes are some of Railway Man’s most horribly compelling.

Director Jonathan Teplitzky effectively captures both the camaraderie between the British soldiers and the horror of their treatment at the hands of the Japanese.

The film is based on the real Eric Lomax’s

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memoirs, and The Railway Man is most affecting as a portrayal of one man’s firsthand experiences of war. The scenes of torture are especially difficult to stomach— not because they’re particularly graphic, but because Teplitzky shows us the devastating consequence of such brutality.

Less successful are the 'present day' scenes (actually the 1980s). Though Firth is fantastic (styled, bizarrely, a lot like his character in A Single Man), Kidman's Kidman’s character is a disappointing cypher. There’s no attempt to give Patricia even a hint of a backstory, and she functions as a mere conduit for the flashbacks as she attempts to understand her husband. It’s a wonder Kidman ever took the role, given how thankless it is, but she works magic with material that’s not so much written as briefly sketched.

Things pick up when present-day Eric tracks down the man who tortured him as a soldier. It’s a plot twist that would be difficult to believe if this wasn’t based on Lomax’s own story, but one that nonetheless injects the story with some much-needed emotional wallop. By the time the credits roll, we’ve been on something of a harrowing journey, but Teplitzky struggles to nail the human emotion at the centre of it all. What we’re left with is a collection of outstanding performances searching for a purpose. l l l l l Josh Winning

Big Bad Wolves

Director & Screenplay Aharon Keshales & Navot Papushado Stars Tzahi Grad, Rotem Keinan, Lior Ashkenazi Opens December 2013 In Israel, a series of child killings pulls together three different men; Gidi (Grad), the vengeful father of the latest victim, renegade police detective Miki (Ashkenazi) and Dror (Keinan), a mild-mannered religious studies teacher who is the main suspect in the case. Holed up in the basement of a remote cabin, the men engage in a life-or-death battle of wills.

Aharon Keshales and Navot Papushado’s follow-up to their thrilling debut Rabies draws heavily on recognisable Korean cinematic tropes of torture and revenge, but successfully translates them into the Israeli experience. The film says much about life in the country with its tense themes of paranoia, violence and vigilante justice.

Surprisingly, there is comedy amidst the darkness; the arrival of Gidi’s father interrupting his torturous plans, the bumbling efforts of the police force, etc., are all played for laughs. While this may make for uncomfortable viewing—it's hard to reconcile this light-hearted tone with the cruelty unfolding on screen—it effectively speaks to the duality of everyday Israeli life; that need to keep smiling even when faced with the most brutal of circumstances.

With Big Bad Wolves, Keshales and Papushado have made the film they want to; not the film that they were perhaps expected.

And the result is a beautifully crafted, morally ambiguous fairy tale for the modern age, from two refreshing new voices in Israeli cinema. l l l l l Nikki Baughan

www.moviescopemag.com

30/09/2013 11:10:34

In Fear

Gloria

Day of the Fowers

Wasting no time in creating a tension that remains taut throughout, this is an effective psychological thriller with a smart screenplay that keeps us guessing as to who—or what— the threat is. But In Fear is also about style, meted out with careful direction.

Classic close-ups create the impression that Tom (De Caestecker), the male half of the couple at the centre of the story, means harm for Lucy (Englert), while the abrupt change from static camera to hand-held, for a fight after the eventual arrival of the antagonist, again raises that question; the two men involved indistinguishable. The cinematography is also good; as panic grows, even the grass appears menacing, the light glistening to make the blades appear like needles. Thoughtful sound design complements the growing pressure, the rain on the windscreen emphasising that they are at the mercy of their surroundings, trapped in the confines of a car that is increasingly claustrophobic.

This multi-faceted approach to a lowconcept story is what truly elevates In Fear, but the performances must also be praised; working without a script, Englert and De Caestecker turn in a believable trepidation, while as Max, their tormentor, Leech is unsettling. Certainly there are flaws, and the climax does approach clichéd territory, but this is a promising debut. l l l l l Naila Scargill

This nuanced, light-hearted drama from Chilean director Sebastián Lelio follows Gloria, a spirited, 50-something divorcée determined not to let life pass her by. Unencumbered by her loving but slightly distant family, she seeks excitement in the middle-aged singles bars of Santiago, and when she meets the older but nevertheless passionate Rodolfo (Hernández), a one-night stand turns into something more serious. Soon his complicated family life casts a shadow over their relationship, however, and Gloria finds she must face the choices of a life of diminishing options.

Gloria is a charming−if slow-moving− piece, and its appeal hangs heavily around a wonderful performance of Paulina García in the title role. By turns dreamy, sassy and melancholic, she has the ability to lift a scene with a facial expression or simple gesture. As Rodolfo, Hernández also turns in a stellar performance−the scene in which he is subjected to a rowdy interrogation by Gloria’s family is painfully enjoyable.

The narrative functions via the gentle layering of detail upon detail, rather than explosive exposition, and is none the worse off for it; although there are moments of high drama and hilarity dotted along the sedate storyline. In the end, you can’t help but root for Gloria, and the film’s gently uplifting conclusion signs off the story with a warmhearted flourish. l l l l l Hugo Wilkinson

Rosa (Birthistle), an earthy political activist, and her vacuous, materialistic sister Ailie (Wakefield), are reunited at their father’s wake, where Rosa learns that their stepmother plans to turn their former political activist father’s ashes into a golfing trophy.

Shocked, Rosa steals the ashes with the intention of taking them to Trinidad de Cuba, where she will place them with their beloved mother on ‘The Day of the Flowers’, a local holiday. Things become more complicated when her sister and their friend Conway (Dick) tag along, and their journey through Cuba, as they attempt to make it to their father's final resting place, is met with comedy, drama and romance.

The Cuban setting is certainly vibrant, but could also be seen as ‘stunt casting’ as the story could easily have been transposed to almost any other country in the world for this fish-out-of-water scenario. In the context of the film, however, it does work well.

While Day of the Flowers is entertaining enough, it is easy to get infuriated by how clueless the supposedly smart Rosa seems to be, while her apparently ditzy sister turns out to be far more pragmatic; especially in the final denouement. l l l l l Chris Patmore

Director Jeremy Lovering Screenplay Jeremy Lovering Stars Alice Englert, Iain De Caestecker, Allen Leech Opens November 15

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Director Sebastián Lelio Screenplay Sebastián Lelio & Gonzalo Maza Stars Paulina García, Sergio Hernández Opens November 1

Director John Roberts Screenplay Eirene Houston Stars Eva Birthistle, Charity Wakefield, Carlos Acosta, Bryan Dick, Christopher Simpson Opens November 29

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