Film Forum West Midlands

DATE: 25^TH January 2010. 09:30-16:00

LOCATION: The Electric Cinema, 47 Station Street, Birmingham, B5 4DY

Increasingly independent filmmakers are finding the best way to get their film made is under microbudget principles. The more entrepreneurial a producer can be in financing their film, the more likely it is they will get it made.

Numerous microbudget feature initiatives have been established during the last five years such as Microwave, Warp X, Slingshot Studios, Digital Departures and IFeatures. There are also many producers making microbudget films outside of these schemes. But what are the challenges? How do you make your film safely, legally and with high enough production values to ensure the films are successfully distributed?

Join us for a day all about microbudget filmmaking and find out some of the top tips from filmmakers who have been there and done it!

The day’s schedule is as follows:

Schedule:

09:30 – 10:00          Registration

10:00 – 11:30          Screening of Ruby Blue

11:30 – 11:45          Coffee break

11:45 – 13:15          Q&A with Elaine Wickham, Producer and Jan Dunn, Director. Chaired by Deborah Aston

13:15 – 14:00          Lunch (provided for people on all day course)

14:00 – 16:00          Microbudget Panel with Anita Lewton, Lincia Daniel & Simon Wood. Chaired by Natasha Carlish

Prices and payment:

Full member: both sessions £0
Associate member: morning session only £0
Associate member: both sessions £25+VAT
Non-member: morning session only £50+VAT
Non-member: afternoon session only £50+VAT
Non-member: both sessions £80+VAT

Payment to be made before admission is permitted.

You can’t afford to miss this day! We look forward to seeing you there.

To register or for more information please contact Rebecca: info@producersforum.org.uk or visit our website

Sheffield Doc/Fest, in partnership with Wide Eye Pictures, Screen WM and The Flatpack Festival, invites you to THE ENGINE ROOM PITCH

Tuesday 23^rd and Wednesday 24^th March 2010
The Bond, Birmingham

THE ENGINE ROOM PITCH is an intensive 2 day proposal development and pitching workshop to help you prepare your factual project for UK and international funding.

The workshop is a high-level project development opportunity and includes an introduction to MeetMarket and all Marketplace activities at Doc/Fest and to wider opportunities in international documentary funding and markets. Delivered by international marketplace specialist Christina Burnett, of Wide Eye Pictures, this is also a unique chance to pitch your project and get feedback from two UK commissioners as well as Charlie Philips, Doc/Fest Marketplace Producer. Commissioners from BBC, Channel 4, Britdoc and CBA-DFID Broadcast Media Scheme have taken part in previous workshops.

THE ENGINE ROOM PITCH is suitable for all levels of experience, from senior producers and directors to new entrants.  You can attend either as a pitcher with project, or as an observer.

Applicants must be West Midlands-based filmmakers. The cost of the workshop is £30 for all attendees.

To express interest, email Doc/Fest Marketplace Producer Charlie Phillips via charlie@sidf.co.uk with a one-page proposal for a factual/documentary project (single, series or cross-platform doc) and brief information about yourself.  Projects can be at any stage of development, for any platform, as long as it is a factual project.

See http://sheffdocfest.com/view/pitchworkshops for full information.

Saturday 7^th November 2009 (10am-5pm)

Birmingham Repertory Theatre, Centenary Suite

£50 (£40 concessions)

From the traditionally structured TV and film stories that attempt to appeal to wide audiences (which ITV controller Peter Fincham termed ‘3G’ – three generations watching together), to the 3D structures of games and online drama, this day-long course looks at new opportunities offered to writers by the rise of digital technologies.  Suitable for writers, film-makers and drama practitioners interested in looking at new ways of telling stories across screens of all sizes. Participants:

Graham Joyce is the author of fourteen novels and has won numerous awards for his writing, including five British Fantasy Awards and the 2003 World Fantasy Award. He has also written screenplays of his novels and has recently been hired by the creators of Doom 4 to help develop the storyline potential of the computer game.

Neil Mossey worked solely in television and radio before writing on Season 2 of the daily interactive web drama KateModern (storylining over 26 weeks, and scripting 74 webisodes). The series ended in July 2008 clocking up 66 million video views, the largest UK online production to date. As a comedy producer at the BBC he was responsible for developing new formats and drama in the Comedy Entertainment department with writers and performers. His freelance writer, script editor, and producer credits include My Parents Are Aliens (ITV1), Freefonix (BBC One), Blackout (Channel 4), SuperNormal (ITV1), The Worst Witch (ITV1), Hedz (BBC One), and The Morning After Show (Channel 4).

Claire Ingham is a producer and film and television script developer. She works on projects at all stages of development – currently ranging from the adaptation treatment of Eoin Colfer’s bestselling novel The Wishlist to the final draft of Helen Cross’ original feature Stratford Road. Claire has previously worked for a number of film and television companies in development roles. She was Head of Drama Development at Impossible Pictures for four years where she headed a small team, commissioning and developing a range of TV and film projects for all the major broadcasters, including Jed Mercurio’s contemporary retelling of Frankenstein and Michael Chaplin’s family film Pickles.

For booking and further information, please visit www.scriptonline.net/screen.html

Or email catherine.edwards@scriptonline.net

The event is presented by Script, the regional development agency for dramatic writers in the West Midlands, offering advice, training and mentoring via industry-led partnerships.

Casting call from Matt and Vince of Rapid Pics:

Short spoof of those glamorous, stylised perfume adverts, filming on Monday 23rd November in Stoneleigh, near Coventry (West Midlands).

We require a MALE and FEMALE, both very attractive, to play opposite each other. No dialogue.

This will be a professional piece, and will make an excellent addition to your showreel. We will pay £50, plus travel.

We will be holding auditions for short-listed talent. Models with a base in the West Midlands are preferable.

To find out more, please go to: http://www.facebook.com/l/501fa;www.mattandvince.com

If you think you may be suitable, please contact matt@rapidpics.com

Hello there,

Film Forum’s next meet up will be on Tuesday 13th October at the Victoria Pub on John Bright Street in Birmingham from 6pm.

For those that haven’t been to a meet up yet, here’s what happens! We meet up each month to get people from all aspects of filmmaking in the Midlands together to chat and start building networks of friends and contacts.

It’s very informal and is really up to you if you approach it as a casual drink or an opportunity to make new contacts and get projects off the ground. Contacts made through the social evenings have helped film projects to flourish and the variety of creative types attending has been very encouraging.

So, come on down, say hello, tell us what you are up to and hopefully we’ll all benefit from some interaction.

Here’s the address: The Victoria Pub, 48 John Bright St, Birmingham, B1 1BN

Here’s the Facebook event: http://www.facebook.com/event.php?eid=142120700881&index=1

I hope to see you there.

Birmingham’s Flatpack Festival is set to arrive once again this coming March from the 23rd – 28th, this time seeking a helping hand behind the scenes!

The festival organisers are looking to appoint somebody in the role of ‘Festival Coordinator’, if you are thinking about applying be quick though as the deadline is 28th Sept 2009. Further information about how to apply on their blog.

Submissions Wanted! Flatpack Festival are also calling for short film submissions, so if you’re a filmmaker and you would like to send in a short film, simply fill out the form which is available here.

FFWM member Gillian Stapleton has come forward to ask for help in the form of an Accountability Mentor for a script she is working on.

The genre is period drama/romance. The story is called The Singers and is set mainly in 1960. It is about a jazz singer and an aristocrat and their romantic involvement with each other.

The script has gone through 3 drafts and has two metors, John Humphreys and Adam Hamdy. It made the Screen WM script grant short list twice before this draft but I plan to do the scriptment and the synopsis in my own time without any funding.

When complete, I also plan to get some kind of production team together.

If you feel you can help Gillian, get in touch with her at gillianstapleton@hotmail.com

Dominic Took of Dead Time Productions is filming a feature in November and is looking for a sound engineer and a make up artist. Here’s the rest in Dominic’s words:

We’re looking for a sound engineer to work a sixteen day shoot. The engineer must have some portfolio work to show and have experience.

We’re also looking for a makeup artist with skills in special FX, blood guts and gore. The more portfolio work or reel cuts you can show us of this sort of work, the more likely we are to take you on.

Same terms of contract apply to both jobs. The work is unpaid, on a low budget film. However contracts will specify a percentage of profits to be given when distribution is acquired for the title.

Person/s must be able to get to the West Midlands, Wolverhampton area. Lifts available.

Email: dtook@transientinnovations.co.uk with name and contact details + experience.

If you want to see more about us, go to Spooked Films Limited. Dead Time productions is an arm of Spooked Films Limited.

Local filmmaker, Olly Jones of Better Feeling Films is looking for an actress in her early to late 20s for 5-6 days during August for their feature, Lost in the Headlights. Expenses and food will be provided. The film centers on a rock band who have to deal with the tragic loss of one of there members.

They are also looking for extras for gig/pub and party scenes, as well as still being in need for a DoP.

Contact Oliver Jones for more details at: betterfeelingfilms@gmail.com

You can find more details about Lost in the Headlights here:

http://www.facebook.com/group.php?gid=86061531543

http://viewaskew.com/theboard/viewtopic.php?t=68419

Tony Wilkes is on the look out for an animator to work on some limited animation for 2  one minute scenes. As the budget is self funded the rate is £75/min of footage.

Here’s Tony’s explaination of the scenes:

• A spaceship in space – there’s some narration about emotions, and different parts of the ship light up accordingly; and there is a face in the middle of it that reacts to the different emotions. The spaceship would look something like the ELO album cover, if you know the one I’m talking about, and the camera would move around it. Originally thought this would be 3D modelled, but I’m sure it would look just as good in Flash.

• A Doom-type scene, first person perspective – a guy walks around in the dark with a big gun, until he bumps into other people (traffic warden, Big Issue seller, little girl with a balloon), screams and runs away firing wildly. Some designing of characters, but as they are sprites they only need a few frames of animation each.

In terms of quality, it’s simple and effective rather than detailed and involved – I wouldn’t want people working away for weeks. If it’s recognisable and it moves, it’s fine. Both scenes are approximately sixty seconds long. I could pay you £75 each scene. Not a lot I know, but I’m trying my best.

The scenes don’t really work as standalone pieces as the animation tends to support the narration in the film. I can send through the pages if you’re interested.

So if you are interested contact Tony Wilkes at: tonywilkes@hotmail.com