Creative Futures - Day 3

Film! Film! and more FILM!

Day three, and I'm already feeling a little snowed under with information. I do feel that Creative Futures week is useful in putting us in touch with the 'real world' and industry professionals, as well as ex Glyndwr students who are doing well for themselves (which is really inspiring). Of course given that I'm a mature student I'm in the 'minority' and a lot of the lectures are aimed at the students who are yet to enter the big wide world looking for a job. It also feels like there are a lot of conflicting opinions about getting into your chosen industry, some seem to think it near impossible and others not so much, obviously it's important to be realistic, but it's not ideal to make us think that we don't really stand a chance, anyway, I digress.

First up for day three was Berwyn Rowlands who works for a company called The Festivals Company, which is a small company specialising in moving image, consultancy and events (festivals), they have done work for the Welsh curry house of the year competition, Dwr Cymru (Welsh Water), the centenary of the national library in Wales, and the Welsh assembly commission.

Berwyn came to talk to us about Ffresh, which is a moving images festival, based in Wales and primarily for students. It has been run since 2002, and next year the festival is coming to Glyndwr, which means there will be plenty of opportunities to get involved, not just submitting work (which I fully intend on doing).

Ffresh has two main objectives, the first being a link between industry and students and the second is peer to peer, which gives us a chance to see what other students, locally, nationally and globally have been doing. Even if your film is short-listed, but doesn't go on to win, employers see this as a positive. It shows you value your work and the opinions of others to critique it properly. It made me think about my work, after I finished it, I would blog about it, and perhaps upload it to YouTube, with little response. I'm very proud of some of the work I've completed, solely and as a group, it would be nice if more people could see it, which is another bonus of submitting it to Ffresh.

It wasn't a very long talk, and although it wasn't rammed with information like some of the lectures this week, there was a lot of information that I considered important, as well as spurring me to find out about possibly getting work experience with the festival company.

Next up was Adam Partridge, who's talk entitled 'film, funding and Wales' was possibly one of the most information packed talks we had all week. He works for The Film Agency for Wales which is an agency that works to develop the film industry in Wales. The film agency also offers a number of schemes to help you develop and fund your film ideas. So how does someone get funding? Well Adam explained that it's all about what you have done and how you present yourself, which seems to be part of the emphasis for this week. Present yourself professionally, and people will treat you so. When approaching the film agency for funding, they will expect to see what you have done, scripts, showreels etc.

Adam explained that there were several avenues just within Wales if getting into the film industry was where we wanted to go. The BBC make a lot of TV in Cardiff, there are a lot of post production houses, and animation companies like Dinamo and Calon. There are also a number of schemes and festivals for professional and aspiring film-makers. Here is a brief list as there were many.

• The Light House offers lots of workshops, opportunities and funding for aspiring film-makers and those with a track record of submitting to festivals.
• It's My Shout produce up to 30 short films every year, for the BBC, the UK films council and the Arts council of Wales.
  
• Cannes film festival, probably the most well known of all film festivals. However, we were told that they people you'd want to speak to wouldn't be there, or would be too busy, and it seems to be information overload.
• Rotterdam film festival offers Rotterdam lab, which is for producers and Cinemart, which introduces film-makers to people in the industry who can help them get their film produced.
• The Berlin film festival is a two day event designed to try and raise finance for films, with a talent campus, talks, screenings and creatives from lots of different fields.
• Toronto film festival offers funding and critique to people who've already achieved in the field of film making.
• The Ontario Media Development Corporation offers financing options to budding film makers, across several fields including interactive digital media, film, TV and music.
• The London Film Festival is a little closer to home, it offers education as well as news of other film festivals in and around London. They also offer a new scheme called Think - Shoot - Distribute which is for experienced film-makers looking to
• Media Desk offers training opportunities and a list of all training sessions, and courses across Europe.
• Skillset is a company run for those in the creative industries, it offers funding for training, a list of apprentiships and internships.
• EAVE, the European Audiovisual Entrepreneurs works with audiovisual producers, to further their knowledge and offer support and financial options.
• Binger offers labs and training for writers, directors and producers with in-depth coaching.

So as you can see there are many avenues, it's a little overwhelming really. Still I do appreciate all of the links and ways I can step forward from here, if only I had a clue what I wanted to do! Adam went on to give us a guide to being successful.

1. Audience research - think about who your audience is when you're filming and editing.

2. Select your project for the right reasons - make it because you want to, not for the money.

3. Remember that screenplay is the most important element.

4. Build up relationships with sales agents, bankers and lawyers amongst other people - it seems like networking is vital.

5. Cornerstone strategy - lock in the financial sources.

6. Develop fully - don't run before you can walk. Good core skills are vital.

7. Know the value of your project in the market place.

8. Make it for less than its value.

9. Know when to give up.

10. Remember the last 10.

We went on to speak about some people who've made films with small budgets. Films like Monsters, Katalin Varga, Bronson, We need to talk about Kevin, Free Runner, and Slumdog Millionaire. Adam finished with some suggested reading, The International Filmbusiness by Angus Finney and The Filmbusiness Handbook - Mike Downey.

It really felt like a long talk at the time, but sitting down and re-reading my notes, it's clear just how much information was packed into an hour.

The last speaker for Wednesday was Dan Fox, another ex Glyndwr student who graduated in 1999. I thought this lecture was a little disheartening, but truthful. Dan explained that all the technology that's currently available to students is making them lazy. When he attended Glyndwr the film course was done with 35mm film and on the verge of moving to VHS tape. Dan explained that everything was much harder when using analogue equipment, especially greenscreen.

I was sad to learn that producers have the power now to completely change the feel and mood of a film, and they are pushing for more and more visual effect with every film that comes out. Technology also means that there's no need for thousands of extras anymore, if you want an army scene you can easily duplicate people, and stagger their movements so the don't all look the same. It's also easy to chance the feel and mood of a film by changing the colour and tone, and again, unlike in the past, it's much easier to do.

Matte painting is another technique that has developed dramatically in recent years. To begin with cameras would have to be static as the background would be painted by hand on sheets of glass, and the skill was highly sought after. Now it is all don

e on computers and is simple to train in the basics.

So the advice was to always be taking photographs or making films, and not to be lead by the technology. Watch lots of films and compare them, the brain can be tricked to believe visual effects are real as we tend to watch a film with an open mind for them, but look out and see if you can see where they're being used. In one of our earliest lectures on this course, I remember Stewart telling us that our brains fill in the gaps when watching films, I always interpreted that as also meaning that sometimes, less is more. Sometimes it's what the eyes don't see that can be the most scariest, tense of disturbing part of a film. Even so, Dan explained that if we concentrate while watching a film, you will be able to pick our what are visual effects and what aren't, and that with the current technology, there is no

reason things should look fake, even with a tight budget.

The above picture is from the 2009 film 'Mega Shark vs Giant Octopus'. This is a good example of cgi gone mental. Although I've never sat through an entire film like this (and there are lots, Mega Shark vs Crocosaurus, Megapiranha, Mega Python vs Gatoroid and 2 Headed Shark Attack to name but a few) however, I've caught snippets as they get repeated on the free movie channels on TV. The huge creatures in the films are shown to crush cars, chew bridges like gum and eat people like chips, which is unrealistic. But when you really watch the films, you can see that the things these mutants interact with don't react the way they should. I.E. cars do not buckle, and the people who get tossed and eaten, don't display the physical behaviours humans would in that situation.

So is it a case of going back to the basics? I think it is important to appreciate where film and photography have come from, what may seem to be the archaic days of 35mm film are actually days where you had to rely on your knowledge of lighting to be able to take a well-lit shot. Sadly today, if you make a mistake you can easily edit it in post. Although I worked with a giant film camera in my first job, I haven't had the chance to really get to grips with working with film until I started at Glyndwr and bought my Zeiss film camera. It really makes me work hard at getting the settings correct before pressing the shutter, not being able to see the photos as soon as you've taken them the anticipation while you're waiting for them to be developed almost unbearable but very exciting.

As Dan mentioned in his talk, it's a case of balancing between using visual 'tricks' and not. With a good core knowledge of how important good lighting and sound is, along with working knowledge of editing software and visual effects software seems to be the only way to ensure what you create isn't over the top. Plus, like a lot of the other speakers we've had this week, will only add to your employability.

Lastly, day four.