Good News Everyone!

Jay and Kay Save the World has got into a film festival! And this is my first international one, in Hungary, at the Budapest Short Film Festival. Originally I was planning a quick trip to India this September, but that has now been superseded. And seeing that I have never visited Hungary in my life, I think now is as good a time as any to pop the cherry and head to this magnificent city to have fun, love The Paint and generally frolic around!

It has been one hell of a battle to get into the festivals this year, so I am ecstatic that we are premiering CWP in such a beautiful location. Budapest is truly one of the more magnificent parts of Europe and as I have never been to this part of the world before it give the traveler in me a great chance to explore a new part of the world...

BUSHO - from the 1st-5th September.

Media Files, bumpf and distribution

Sending copies of 'Jay and Kay Save the World' to film festivals is a long and bewildering process. You need to be focused on the task at hand (hell for someone like me who enjoys the thrill of procrastination) as well as military precision in order to fulfill the requirements for each festival. Some festivals are part of a central submission system, such as the UCAS system for Britain's universities. This can take a lot of the heartache out of applying to festivals. About half of all the film festivals I have applied to so far are a part of one of four such systems. The other half are still independent and require you to go direct through their own website in order to submit your film.

And there is a lot of 'bumpf' that you need with the film that you submit to the film festival. Many festivals just want the DVD screener and nothing else. They will get back to you when they have made their decision. Others want a whole array of materials. This is the much anticipated media pack. You see, making a film does not just stop with the editing of a film and subsequent burning onto CD. No way. You see, the 'indy' director has to be a person of many talents. As 'El Director' of CWP, I also act as distributor, possibly one of the most tedious tasks to fall onto a film maker and the one that will make you go bald faster than any other task on set (other than dealing with actors/actresses).

Firstly, you have to distribute the film itself. That means, getting a list of all those film festivals. Filling out forms (accurately without spelling errors – and if anyone has read this blog then u no how baad i am at dat), burning DVD's (PAL or NTSC, subtitled or not, and better get handy with your French) before heading off to the local post office to send your post. Of course, I know how bad postmen can be, so it is not just a case of licking a few stamps but actually registering the damn things (at least fiver a pop for international submissions). The guys at my three nearest post offices know who I am. Then there is the waiting. Oh, the dreaded wait...

'Bumpf', yes, let me get back to that. There is an assortment of 'media' files that many festivals may or may not want, but need to be prepared by the director of his/her film in case they are required. This is where many directors (including myself in the past) fall. After the marathon run of making a film, you are then expected to complete the triathalon of creating a media friendly side to the film and then distributing the damn thing. You can see why even small films have a huge number of people in their credits. They are the minions who take care of all the 'little things'.

So, what 'bumpf' do I have prepared for my official 'Media Pack'? At a glance, I have a director's bio, filmography, picture and statement (that's the ego bit), half a dozen film stills (at 300 d.p.i.), Posters and Press Packs (recently rewritten), Synopsies (long, short, loglines and everything else in text, word and acrobat formats), a dialogue list (note this is not the same as the script, and again need as txt, doc or pdf files), and teasers/trailers (formatted for both Quicktime and Media Player).

Don't forget, a website is always handy, and guess what. All the above is on that website too, able to be downloaded at a click of a button. Some festivals do not want the clutter of extra paper or a CD-ROM as part of their submission. They want all these files online where they can download at their leisure. These festivals are few and far between at the moment, but they will probably become a requirement in the future.

That's the 'official' bumpf'.

There is a whole lot of 'bumpf' that I do not include in my media CD-ROM, but still need to keep on hand. For instance, a cover for the DVD case, letterheads for any letters I may need to send, a CD cover (if I send the CD-ROM separately), a credit list (some festivals demand a separate list, despite the inclusion of a press pack), a synopsis for the feature film (you never know), lower resolution files of the film stills (to upload directly onto some festival websites) and ditto for the press pack/posters.

As you can imagine I have sent to a lot of festivals. The turn around time is kicking in next month. The proof is in the pudding as they say. Or in this case, the media files...

The Evolution of a Clip

Just a small talk through on how a clip becomes part of a short film. I wanted to share this little bit of film amking, as with this clip (along with a lot of others), what you film is not necessarily what ends up as the final version on the big screen. Unfortunately, due to 'youtube quality', the colour corrections do not come out too great in this one...



Or watch the vid by clicking this line!

Distribute Baby!

The final stage of film making, the distribution. After the months spent filming, preparing and editing the piece, finally, the film has to be screened.

For me, as a budget film maker with a couple of crazy characters at my disposal, that means film festivals...

There are a lot of festivals out there, but I have to gauge which ones would be the most suitable for my film in terms of it succeeding in being screened at the festival as well as its reception there. A difficult balancing act...

Crew Rehearsals

There is a method to my madness. Or so I like to keep convincing my cast and crew. Well, that is my rationale behind what I do for CWP.

One of those moments of madness came in the script I wrote. It called for an upside down Union Jack to be unfurled behind Jay during the short film Jay and Kay save the World.

Now, when I wrote this, I thought this would be a funny thing to put into the background. As the time came nearer for shooting, I actually spent minutes lying awake in bed trying to figure, firstly, how to procure a flag and secondly, how to actually get the thing to unfurl.

Well, thankfully I know someone who owns a few Union Jacks. But the second, well, that was a bit trickier.

Well, I managed to figure it out. And you can see the result here:



(By the by, I quite like the new ident at the end)

The Colours Continue

Well, the 'tripping' correction is now over', so I am off to the world of subtlety and the second colour correction, an enhancement rather than a straight change of the colours within the film.

The reason I went tripping on the first colour correction was to test out all the tools available. Now, on this more subtle one, I will use correction to enhance and add a richness to the colours within the picture. So there will be no artificial additions (if the hedge is brown and leafless with bark, then it stays that way) but improvements in the true colours themselves (red seems to do particularly well when 'spiced up').

I admit to being a super geek...