In 2009 I was doing the festival circuit with my short film Gone Fishing. When touring festivals you start to see the same films and filmmakers pop up around you. And this film, ‘Next Floor’ by Denis Villeneuve, was one film I saw repeatedly. Sometimes Gone Fishing beat it, other times it didn’t. It’s an […]
GREAT NEWS! We have a North American Premiere for 50 Kisses at the prestigious Rhode Island Film Festival! Site HERE Dates: August 5th to 10th 2014 This is a GREAT festival, I went about five years ago (video blog here) – the venue and audiences are outstanding and I am really amped that we have […]
Guest post by Tom Worth Pic by Colin Tonks Last year I got involved with putting on the first ever Herne Hill Free Film Festival. It’s a local volunteer-run festival putting on free screenings in community venues including 4 big outdoor events. It’s part of a wider movement of free film festivals spreading across South […]
When you present your film to an audience at a film festival, something magical can happen… and that magical thing can feed the soul of a tired and weary filmmaker. There are lot’s of pros and cons when it comes to festivals. Many are really good events, run by passionate people, where some are just […]
I love film festivals. It’s like going home, a place where the lunatics run the asylum, where it’s OK to talk movies for days and days without anyone thinking you are a nutbar! And so I thought I would share a classic video blog from my Gone Fishing days, filmed and edited entirely during my […]
Over the years I have probably attended around 100 film festivals with the films that I have made – and the shortlist below represents the festivals I would recommend 100%. The list is based solely on my experience and of course, other filmmakers might have had other experiences. My personal metrics for quality are things […]
Not all festivals are the same. I have been to around 100 now in my years as a filmmaker and have experienced the Good, The Bad and the Truly Dreadful. The video above is from the Swansea Bay Film festival, and while my experiences have never been quite that bad, if it had happened to […]
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I just got speaking to my friend Simon Cox whose IndieGoGo campaign for his film is still running – and we started talking about how he has been using video blogging as a way of sharing his journey – it reminded me of an epic video blog I made while on the Gone Fishing journey, […]
The irony that the shiny new arts centre in Tilburg was situated next door to the job centre seemed lost on the group of indie filmmakers I trained yesterday. That’s perhaps because it seems the Incubate festival (here in the Netherlands) is the most extraordinary, eclectic celebration of art, music, film and pretty much any […]
Danny Stack just contaced me with some good news, so I asked him to blog about it… Over to Danny! Origin http://www.originshortfilm.co.uk/, my supernatural short film, has just won Best Horror Short at this year’s London Independent Film Festival. It’s hugely satisfying to get this kind of recognition on a project that I have slaved […]
So now the dust is settling on the Comedy Writers Festival, I thought I would share some photos (above) and some feedback from our delegates. ‘I had a blast at the London Comedy Writer’s Festival. Brilliantly run. Great events. It’s the best one I’ve been to’ Robert Popper – ‘Peep Show’, ‘The IT Crowd’, ‘South […]
I have just returned home, exhausted from that marathon that was the London Comedy Writers Festival 2011. Was it a hit? You bet! What did we all learn? Heaps! And it kicked off with a MAJOR bang with our keynote speech with Griff Rhys Jones (above). Right now though, I am SO tired, I don’t […]
At the London Screenwriters Festival we film most of the sessions so that delegates can watch those events after the festival closes. This seminar is about making ‘web comedy and web films’ and features Chris Hayward and Nat Saunders who created the internet phenomena, ‘Misery Bear’. You can see from their films, they are super clever […]
At the London Comedy Writers Festival, we are asking our delegates to tell us, in advance, which sessions they want to attend so that we can make sure the most popular sessions are in the biggest rooms. And the results have been fascinating. Aside from the Keynote opening session with comedy legend Griff Rhys Jones […]
Welcome to American Independents Day in London, April 10th (at Regents College, Regents Park). PLEASE FORWARD THIS EMAIL / LINK TO EVERY FILM MAKER YOU KNOW… A one day workshop with two of the biggest names in US Indie Film, Ted Hope and Christine Vachon. OK yes, we know, it’s SHORT notice. And yes it’s […]
What can you expect from the Guerilla Film Makers Masterclass? Inspire, Educate and Connect… This video blog was shot at the Heart Of Gold Film Festival when I was running the class in Australia and it will give you a feel for the ‘vibe’ of the experience. Of course you can’t get any sense of […]
The London Comedy Writers Festival has officially started, with the first of our THREE Tuesday night sessions, ‘Making Misery Bear’ and a Guide To Social Media’. Here’s what the delegates who attended last night said… ‘Really good session last night and set the tone for the comedy Festival going forward….As a writer who spends far […]
I just discovered that there is a brand spanking new Misery Bear webisode, starring KATE MOSS (!) released today for Comic Relief. You can watch above. Any film maker will immediately see the references to other movies, but for me, the uber-low tech way the Misery Bear films are made is what makes them so […]
Last year I helped out in the making of a short film called Chasing Cotards. I add my help was minimal! Ed and Sam who made the film have kept in touch as they entered into the festival experience. And what they told me was heart breaking, submission after submission followed by rejection after rejection. […]
I just got word that EXAM (on which I was an Assoc Producer) won the Bronze Hitchcock award at the Dinard Film Festival – the Bronze Hitchcock is a special award chosen by French exhibitors and it gives us a theatrical run on 40 screens across Brittany and Normandy – great news for us […]
This weekend I am on the Isle Of Man as part of their festival, which kicked off last night with an evening about short film making, indigenous film making and the sustainable future of creative film makers in the region. It was a terrific evening that was run by Dave Armstrong and his vivacious and […]
As part of the ongoing push to get ‘Gone Fishing’ out there, Shorts International have listed it as film of the week on their website. Here’s how Elly (pictured here)at Shorts Int. let me know… 'I just wanted to drop you a line to say that we're doing an iTunes pick of the week plug […]
Those of you who followed my Gone Fishing journey will know that last year I went to about 30 festivals around the world, and documented the whole process on the blog. I also created a spreadsheet and some very interesting data analysis (you can download the spreadsheet here and use it for your festival campaign). […]
We love the Nickel Film Festival. Why? Not only is it a great festival at the far eastern tip of Canada, but they also send you money. Well they sent me money anyhow. Twice! Gone Fishing played there last year and as part of the way Canadians do things (they go out of their way […]
