Yesterday I ran the final part of the Gone Fishing Masterclass at Ealing Studios. The first seminar we ran, at BAFTA last year, was all about how we made the film. This second was about how we exploited the film. The first seminar is online now, and this second one will be edited and uploaded as a bonus to the first seminar over the coming weeks.

The seminar ran most of Sunday and was extremely well received, and covered festivals and sales for Gone Fishing.  To really give the group the ‘festival’ experience, we also screened five other short films that represented the ‘best of the best’ from the festivals I had been too. Perhaps more than anything, watching these films illustrated the bizarre nature of film festivals, and the ridiculous idea of choosing one film as being ‘better’ than another. Each of these films were excellent in some ways.

The choice of the day to host this master class was also symbolic, as the Oscars are also taking place tonight, and I fly out to LA tomorrow to begin what I hope will be a new chapter in may film career. I will be back in 7 weeks, and will continue the blog in those weeks. When I am back though, that will be the time when I make the choice to either move there or stay here in the UK.

I think for everyone present, we could feel the Gone Fishing chapter closing. Of course we will still take the film to festivals; we will still support it and also use it as a ‘calling card’… But it’s time to really get my teeth into the next movie.

I can’t wait!

If you want to see either of these masterclasses online, go to www.guerillamasterclass.com and sign up. Right now there is just the first eight hour masterclass, but you will get this second masterclass for free when we have it edited and online.

Onwards and upwards!

Chris Jones, Film Maker and Author

www.livingspirit.com
mail@livingspirit.com