It’s great to know our short doc WAKE is still getting noticed.
I’ve just discovered that the 3-minute version, one of the winners in the Current TV Short Cuts Competition, was shortlisted in the Sundance London Short Film Competition.
The theme of the comp was The Time Is Now which seemed to fit rather well with Lis’ attitude to life.
Why miss out on the party?
You can see the film here with the rest of the shortlist. Well done to all the other filmmakers.
Very proud to announce that GOLD, a short directed by Steve Nex, that I worked on as 1st Assistant Director, has just won Best International Narrative at Kerry Film Festival.
Huge congratulations to Steve and everyone who worked so hard on it!
I’m rather excited that two of the feature film projects I’m working on as writer and director at the moment have been shortlisted for development schemes.
The Unquiet has been selected for the Triangle 2012 feature talent development scheme run by Northern Film and Media and Screen Yorkshire.
And The Truth was shortlisted in Euroscript’s Screen Writing Competition, and received a special commendation for originality.
Both are great opportunities to develop the projects and my work further.
It seems we’re on a bit of a winning streak!
The 3-minute cut of WAKE – our short doc about 87-year old Lis’ determination to live life to the full – is one of six winning films in the Current TV Current Short Cuts competition.
Lis - an incredible zest for life
Current Short Cuts says of WAKE, ”A wonderful interpretation of the brief, Lis stood out as the ultimate revolutionary as she squares up to death and blows smoke in his face – this film is as refreshing and life-affirming as its subject”
The six films will be part of the re-launch of Current TV’s documentary shorts strand.
Current (Sky 183 / Virgin 155) describes itself as “a channel about engaging free-thinkers; a platform for people who have something to say about the world rather than accepting the status quo.” Sounds good.
The 90-second cut of WAKE – our short doc about 87-year old Lis’ determination to live life to the full – won the main DepicT! Award at Encounters International Film Festival in Bristol at the weekend.
Lis - an inspiration with her incredible zest for life
The DepicT! competition challenges filmmakers from across the world, “Can you do it in 90-seconds?” And I guess our answer is, very proudly, “We can!”
WAKE was selected from over 500 entries from more than 30 countries, and from a final shortlist of 14.
The illustrious judging panel this year was Christine Bardsley, Head of Film for the British Council; David Sproxton, Co-founder and Executive Chairman of Aardman Animations; Gina Fucci, Managing Director of Films at 59; Nik Powell, film producer, Director of the National Film and Television School, and Deputy Chair of the BAFTA film committee; Patrick Collerton, Director, and Sarah Cooper, Screen International.
Sarah Cooper, Screen International writes “The film was the first documentary to win the £1500 worth DepicT! award, which is not surprising – it’s clearly no easy task to make a successful doc in a minute and a half. But that’s exactly what Fogg did – and if that’s what she can do in 90 seconds, we can’t wait to see what she can achieve in 90 minutes. ”
Turbulence, the feature I worked as 3rd AD on last summer, is finished!
The very low budget, Birmingham shot, film is ready for distribution after a huge amount of hard work by everyone involved. Keep an eye on Facebook and the website for what’s happening.
Here’s the trailer.
Oh, and I can confirm the naked tai chi, also dangerous stunts and a song about pink pubes.
It’s exciting to hear that Turbulence, a no-budget feature I did some 3rd AD work on last summer, has just received completion finance from Screen WM, and will hopefully be finished and out in the world later this summer.
The trailer has just gone up on the website and the Facebook page – what d’you reckon?
It brings it all flooding back and, though I can’t claim to have been there the day they shot the naked tai chi scenes (apparently so, although you’ll just have to see the film to be sure), I worked on quite a few bits that have made it to the trailer, which is rather cool!
It’s an ambitious project, with an incredibly dedicated crew and cast, and has been lots of fun to be part of so far. Sounds like there’ll be plenty more happening soon. Keep an eye on FB or the blog and I’ll let you know more as it happens.
The BBC has recently announced it will be cutting its online budget by 25%. And that’s a huge shame.
BBC Shropshire – our local bit of the BBC – has been very supportive of some of the projects we’ve worked on in the last few years, but as the “local sites will no longer publish non-news features content” it looks like those opportunities won’t be there in the future.
There’s quite a list of what’s going – including Blast and Video Nation.
I gained some of my first short film experience when a BBC Local TV producer entrusted us with a camera to shoot the series of short Shakespeare films that I pitched her. It was a brilliant opportunity and the five films we made were not only broadcast on Local TV but were also on the BBC Big Screen in Birmingham for a month.
More recently, our community doc project getting older… we’re all doing it – talking to people of all ages about their experiences – captured the imagination of BBC Shropshire, who spread the word about getting involved online and on the radio. As well as the 10-minute cut of the film that’s on the BBC website (the link above) they also ran a week-long series with audio excerpts from the full 20-minute doc on the radio.
So thank you for your help and support BBC Online and BBC Shropshire. I hope there will be other ways to support young and emerging filmmakers, and community film projects, in the longer term.