A Seachange in Storytelling
Posted at 9:46am on 25th July, 2011
The digital revolution is changing the world – and changing the way we tell each other stories.
The unexplored frontiers of this revolution are a siren call to the experimental instinct of storytellers, the communications instinct of activists and community builders, and the “gold rush” instinct of business people wanting to find the Next Big Thing.
Right now, the revolution is in storytelling. Read this example from Wired before you read further.
You might not realise it, but you’ve already experienced stories told this way. It’s been argued that George Lucas was the first storyteller of this kind, with Star Wars merchandising stretching the films and characters far beyond their original narrative. For a modern update, fans around the world are now waiting for JK Rowling’s immersive website Pottermore.
Some reasons why you should take note of this new movement:
- Last year, visionary director Guillermo Del Toro and his creative partners formed Mirada, a production studio that handles everything from concept to post production and calls itself “a storytelling engine in the form of a company – an imaginarium, where we are free to explore”.
- The Passion of Christ, by the National Theatre Wales and starring Michael Sheen, caused a stir in April. The immersive approach mobilised the community of Port Talbot into participating the story in a way that is very rarely seen, whilst the project got a lot of column inches in the national press.
- Earlier this year, legendary plastic couple “Barbie and Ken” began to play out their love story on the social media stage. Barbie left Ken for a surfer seven years ago, and after a long and involved love story that played out over media from Twitter to Billboards, fans voted to reunite the plastic people on Valentines day this year.
- As far back as 2009, Hollywood trade mag Variety identified transmedia storytelling as the “future of the biz”.
- In April 2010 the Producer’s Guild of America (PGA) recognised the credit of “Transmedia Producer”.
- Tim Kring, creator of hit television show Heroes, developed Conspiracy for Good in collaboration with Nokia. This was a game that took place across the internet and mobile over four weeks, culminating in a live action event in London and raising money for charity in the real world.
- London-based company Mind Candy ran a puzzle based game called Perplex City, which offered cash prizes to the people who could locate a precious artifact from a fictional city which had apparently been hidden somewhere on earth. The game also involved playing cards which were sold to players, an example of a viable revenue model for this form of storytelling.
- In 2007, renowned industrial rock band Nine Inch Nails sent out a series of interlinked clues which fans followed to reveal supplementary words and images linked to the band’s album and tour.
You’ll notice in these examples that large scale immersive games can take on the quality of stories, whilst straight narratives begin to use game mechanics to keep their audience participative and engaged.
But this is only the start…
If you are a writer, Portal Entertainment is hosting an Immersive Writing Lab in August with a £6k development fund for the writers of tomorrow. The festival aims to help writers explore new forms of storytelling and you can find out more here. Tickets to the Immersive Writing Lab cost a tiny £20 if you book early!
What’s Next For Stellar Network
Posted at 1:00pm on 21st July, 2011
You may have noticed changes at Stellar Network in the last year. For a while we’ve been thinking about what it means to be a freelance creative in a digital world, and through 2010 our events championed entrepreneurial thinking and the bringing together of people from across sectors.
We have always encouraged people to work together across theatre, film and television, so immersive storytelling seemed like the natural next step after our years of advocating that people transcend their sectors and take advantage of new digital tools.
So as part of the Stellar community, you won’t be surprised to hear that we’re very excited about the new wave of immersive stories- people coming together from traditional creative industries to work on stories that happens across different platforms, be they film, live performance, webseries, radio … and so on.
In future, collaboration and connection will be a huge part of the way we create and consume cultural content. Immersive, interactive storytelling is a genre that’s exploding across the industries, and we’re putting our stake in the ground – we think it will shape the future for all of us.
To see why, look out for our Friday blog post which summarises some of the most exciting developments so far.
But what does this mean for the Stellar community? Well, this is an open playing field. The leaders of tomorrow are yet to be decided. Broadcasters, brands and production companies are desperately looking for ways to consistently access quality talent and content that works across multiple platforms.
We think that talent is already here – in our Stellar Network community.
So we’re now here to help you, the talented Actors, Writers, Directors and Producers from more traditional media, and get you connected with opportunities, training and conversations about the future of storytelling.
Ultimately, this is about you telling your story and getting it seen on as many platforms as possible, and Stellar Network is here to help you do that.
Featured Member – David Varela
Posted at 7:05pm on 26th January, 2011
This month we speak with David Varela, a Writer/Producer at nDreams – a company that makes unusual games. David works on large cross-media projects that combine all sorts of online and live media to tell stories and entertain. They usually have some form of interactive element.
What are your influences?
Because I work in so many different media, I draw influences from all over the place. Charlie Kaufman, Powell & Pressburger, 42 Entertainment (and all who sailed in her), Artichoke, Naomi Alderman, Six to Start, Graham Greene, Philip Pullman, Joss Whedon, Raymond Chandler, Pixar, Simon Stevens, Lee Hall, 1980’s text adventures, Punchdrunk and Kneehigh Theatre, Martin Elricsson…. If any of these names are unfamiliar, look them up. They’re all great.
What was your journey to working cross-media?
I studied English at university, made shorts and wrote poetry. Then I came to London and wrote light entertainment (anything from magic shows to musicals) for a holiday entertainment company. I worked as a copywriter, writing in many different voices for many different companies. I wrote plays. I wrote screenplays. I wrote radio plays.
And then I saw an ad in the Guardian written entirely in code. Unscrambled, it was an open call to writers, designers and creative types to work on an international murder mystery treasure hunt. It was called Perplex City. I started as an in-house writer and took on more and more production duties. For nearly two years, I worked on this huge cross-media game creating a fictional world using audio drama and live events, fictional websites, videos, puzzles, songs, maps, text messages, board games, and just about every medium you can think of. My diverse career finally came together. It felt like I’d unwittingly trained myself for this new, peculiar job.
What’s great about diversifying as much as you have?
I’m never going to get bored. Technology is creating new media to tell stories with, but more importantly, there are very few conventions in cross-media storytelling yet – there’s no formula to follow, no reason to do the same thing twice. And though my time is mostly taken up with these cross-media projects, I get to indulge in ‘single-media’ projects too. I’m working on a play for Radio 4 right now.
What’s not great about it?
Cross-media stories have a fairly limited audience at the moment. The technology is still a barrier to a lot of people, so those who play along are mainly the most tech-savvy. As a result, I don’t think the audience is large enough or diverse enough to accommodate a wide range of genres – yet. As the audience grows and matures, we’ll have the chance to tell a bigger range of stories.
Other things that aren’t great: explaining to my mother what I do for a living; struggling to find time to write and not just organize; and dealing with lawyers.
What are your directions for the future; where are you going next?
I’m producing another global game to be launched next year. I think it could get noticed by a more mainstream audience and help make cross-media entertainment truly popular. That’s the aim, anyway. I want everyone to join in.
Romeo and Juliet courting via Twitter? Shakespeare would have something to blog about that…
Posted at 10:27am on 21st April, 2010
Cross Media projects and the growth of digital technology within theatre is sparking strong debate across rehearsal rooms and blog posts alike.
Theatre purists want to remain steadfast to the traditional roots of theatre, shunning digital intrusion in favour of the honest actor/audience interaction that gives theatre its unique presence. Others such as Forkbeard Fantasy, Coney and Unlimited are embracing the seemingly limitless possibilities afforded by digital media.
Increasingly theatres (whether through actual desire or financial requirement) are devising new ways of attracting a more modern, tech savvy audience. Most now use social media for marketing, with blogs on Twitter, groups on Facebook or film style trailers on You Tube. Some such as the National Theatre or Royal Opera House are turning to screening live performances to outside audiences who are perhaps fearful of the risks live theatre involves and more comfortable with this slightly more removed filmic format (its easier to walk out if you don’t like it!).
And a growing few are taking to exploring how technology can enhance the theatrical experience, often communicating with us through digital mediums, interactive websites where we meet the characters and world they inhabit before even reaching the theatre. And sometimes, we don’t even reach a theatre…well not the type with a stage and proscenium arch many traditionalists would think of.
This week, with the help of the inspired creatives at Idea Generation, the Royal Shakespeare Company launched their own modern retelling of Romeo and Juliet on Twitter, with each character relating their part of the story over five weeks. Along the way, they’re posting soundbites and videos on YouTube, bringing Shakespeare’s teen romance to twenty-first century teenagers without asking them to set foot in an auditorium.
On April 26th, Stellar Network is hosting a panel event at The Young Vic Theatre to debate these and other pressing issues surrounding digital media in both theatre and film. Among the six-strong panel is David Varela, a writer/producer who has worked across all four media of theatre, TV, film and online storytelling. His talents and experience are vast, acting as apprentice to Richard Attenborough while still at university, winning numerous awards for his short films and screenplays, writing for both radio and television (including a great many projects for the BBC and Channel 4), The Hampstead Theatre, ICA and The Royal Court, producing a global adventure for Sony on the PlayStation 3, and now leading a team at nDreams in developing and running an Alternate Reality Game starring Lewis Hamilton.
David works on large cross-media projects that combine all manner of online and live media to tell stories and entertain and usually have some form of interactive element. He draws influence from many sources, ranging from Charlie Kaufman to 42 Entertainment, Philip Pullman, Raymond Chandler, Kneehigh Theatre and 1980’s text adventures. But his interest in working cross-media in fact started out as a result of reading the Guardian.
“I studied English at university, made shorts and wrote poetry. Then I came to London and wrote light entertainment (anything from magic shows to musicals) for a holiday entertainment company. I worked as a copywriter, writing in many different voices for many different companies. I wrote plays. I wrote screenplays. I wrote radio plays.
Then I saw an ad in the Guardian written entirely in code. Unscrambled, it was an open call to writers, designers and creative types to work on an international murder mystery treasure hunt. It was called Perplex City. I started as an in-house writer and took on more and more production duties. For nearly two years, I worked on this huge cross-media game creating a fictional world using audio drama and live events, fictional websites, videos, puzzles, songs, maps, text messages, board games, and just about every medium you can think of. My diverse career finally came together. It felt like I’d unwittingly trained myself for this new, peculiar job.”
As a writer/producer, David clearly loves his work and is evidently doing well. Pointing out that he does not have to work across different media for every project (he recently wrote a ‘conventional’ play for Radio 4) his ability to work amongst many media is clearly keeping him in continuous paid work, a situation few writers can lay claim to.
Unquestionably there are some very exciting ventures and possibilities to be explored here and rewards to be reaped. Our imaginations can be stretched in ways that a bare stage or basic set can only at times achieve. Artists can communicate with us in many more unique ways and a new audience can be reached who may never have embraced traditional theatre. But as these barriers are worn down and audiences old and new begin to embrace this shift in culture, questions and concerns about what this means for the future of theatre grow. Will audiences no longer have to suspend their disbelief? Will actors feel more like they’re on a film set than a stage? Will conventional plays lose out to those that are more de rigueur? Will theatre companies who cannot afford these new technologies fall behind those with big budgets and friends in the right (cyber) places?
Whatever the answer, one thing is for sure; as stealthily as it did within our homes and workplace, technology and digital media is becoming an increasingly important part of theatre and its future. We have little choice but to embrace it. But in the same way technophobes and traditionalists must open themselves up to these new possibilities, so too must the digital theatre entrepreneurs be mindful of the conventions and devices which make theatre the great unique art form it is. And for those who fall somewhere in the middle, approach it all with caution…. sometimes computer says no….
Leanne Davis, Actress & Stellar Network PR & Marketing Manager
………………………………….
Stellar Network will be holding our Future Proof event at The Young Vic this Monday 26th April.
This blog post covers the kind of topics we imagine the theatre professionals at this event will be talking about. There will also be very informed discussion on digital influence in the film industry: content and distribution, from 3D to digital workflows to new business models.
For more information about the panel, the format of the evening and to book tickets visit www.stellarnetwork.com/events
How do you put on a show about love at “London’s home of fearless new writing” ?
Posted at 6:17pm on 12th February, 2010
A Valentine’s special from new Stellar member Tom Powis
Think politics, disorder, issues with a capital I. In fact, capitalize the whole bloody word. 503 seems synonymous with topical debate, 2009’s This Much Is True, for example. But can the fearless 503 show its lighter side?
Their new show Peter & Vandy, on which I have just been appointed Assistant Producer, certainly leans to the happier side of the human condition. About as close as 503 will ever come to RomCom, Jay DiPietro’s play is receiving its British premiere after huge success in New York.
It might seem like a safe bet, nice and comfortable and easy. But it goes against that age old axiom (which I may have just made up) that topical issues sell. This certainly seems to work best at 503 and with social/political/cultural “problems” come a whole host of potential marketing strategies. But how do you market a play where two people fall in love, then fall out of love and back in love and then back out of love, etc? This isn’t a deadly shooting on the underground or the conflicts in a gritty south London prison. This is worse. In Britain, Love and Happiness doesn’t sell.
But it’s my job to make it sell. This is going to be tough. I’ll hopefully be back with positive progress soon. Check it out at www.theatre503.com. Maybe I’ll just ask the writer to have a little rewrite. Perhaps Vandy is driven to psychosis after discovering Peter, now a premiership footballer, has been cheating and her brand new Toyota has been recalled?
Back of the net.
Pathe pass away – End of an era?
Posted at 11:27am on 12th March, 2009
The shock news today that Pathe will be closing their UK distribution and instead distributing through Warner Brothers, is, well, a bit bloody startling. Sorry, Stellar firmly hope the next blog from film and tv won’t involve redundancies….
Read the full story below
PATHE UK AND WARNER BROS. ENTERTAINMENT UK ANNOUNCE NEW STRATEGIC ALLIANCE IN THE UK
12th March, 2009, London – Pathé and Warner Bros. Entertainment UK (WBEUK) today announced a new strategic alliance in the UK, effective as of 13th April, that will see WBEUK distribute Pathé’s films in the UK and Ireland and the two companies will work together to identify co-production opportunities.
The announcement of this new alliance was made by Francois Ivernel, Executive Vice President of Pathé, and Cameron McCracken, Managing Director of Pathé UK, and Josh Berger, President and Managing Director, WBEUK.
As part of its natural evolution, Pathé UK will focus increasingly on the development and production of its own titles rather than the acquisition of third party films. The intention is to produce a slate of four to five English language films a year, to be supplemented by productions from Pathé France.
Moving forward, all of Pathé’s films will be distributed in the UK and Ireland by WBEUK, commencing in May with the release of Stephen Frears’ CHERI, starring Michelle Pfeiffer, Rupert Friend and Kathy Bates.
Pathé UK will continue to devise the marketing campaigns for the films, with WBEUK taking on the exploitation of the titles across all media outlets and platforms with the exception of the video rights, which will continue to be handled for Pathé by Twentieth Century Fox.
With respect to the increase in Pathé UK’s production activity, Pathé and WBEUK will work together to identify co-production opportunities. The two companies have already been working together for several months on THE JUNGLE BOOKS – a big budget live action version of the classic Kipling novel, the test shoot for which is currently in post-production.
Pathé recently dominated the Oscars® and BAFTA Awards this year with Danny Boyle’s multiple Oscar® winning SLUMDOG MILLIONAIRE, which has grossed over $243 million worldwide to date, and picked up eight Oscars® including best picture and best director, and seven BAFTA awards. The company’s recent releases also include the BAFTA winning THE DUCHESS, the period drama starring Kiera Knightly, which won an Oscar® for Best Costume, and Steve McQueen’s critically acclaimed BAFTA winning directorial debut HUNGER about Irish republican hunger striker Bobby Sands. Upcoming releases include Stephen Frears’ CHERI starring Michelle Pfeiffer and Rupert Friend; Pedro Almodovar’s BROKEN EMBRACES starring Penélope Cruz and Jane Campion’s BRIGHT STAR starring Ben Whishaw and Abbie Cornish.
Warner Bros. is currently enjoying success with THE CURIOUS CASE OF BENJAMIN BUTTON and the Clint Eastwood movie GRAN TORINO. GRAN TORINO has grossed over $177 million worldwide to date and expected to be the highest grossing film of Eastwood’s extraordinary career.
The studio’s phenomenal hit THE DARK KNIGHT, starring Christian Bale and Heath Ledger, has grossed over $1 billion worldwide to date, making it the top superhero/comic book movie of all time and 2008’s highest grossing film worldwide. It also earned Ledger a posthumous Best Supporting Actor Oscar®.
For Pathé, Francois Ivernel, Executive Vice President, and Cameron McCracken, Managing Director Pathé UK, said: “To address the challenges of a rapidly evolving digital world, we felt the most rational response was to develop an alliance with a US Studio. Our relationship with Fox in terms of video distribution has always worked extremely well, so a broader alliance with a US Studio feels entirely natural – we have been approached many times over the years to create such an alliance, but none has offered such a perfect fit as Warner Bros., with its integrated approach across all distribution windows and media platforms. By our continuing management of the whole filmmaking process from development, through production to the marketing of our films, we will continue to provide a bespoke service to our filmmakers whilst also allowing them to benefit from Studio backing.”
Josh Berger, President and Managing Director of Warner Bros Entertainment UK, said “We are delighted to be entering into this strategic partnership with Pathé, one of Europe’s pre-eminent producers of quality, critically acclaimed feature films and a company we have long admired. This exciting alliance will help us both to increase our investment in the production and acquisition of films in the UK and Ireland and to use our relationships and expertise across traditional and new media channels to bring Pathe’s great films to ever more film fans.”
This strategic alliance relates to distribution in the UK and Ireland only, and does not extend to the activities of Pathé France, nor does it affect Pathé UK’s continued role as a leading international sales agents for both Pathé’s own productions and third party titles.
What is going on in (I)TV-Land?
Posted at 10:31am on 5th March, 2009
Head-line catching “ITV sack 600″ but what’s really going on?
Well to start with there’s a lot of speculation still, particularly in regards to the likes of the South Bank Show, which Stellar has heard will be fine. But from digesting as much of the news as we possible can, it seems most of the hard hits have come to the Yorkshire, Leeds, studio where a fair bit of drama is shot. It also seems likely that the Cory-nobs Manchester studio will close and production will move to the new Media City in Salford Quays – but that doesn’t open until 2011 so we shall see. The best coverage can be found on the Guardian, which also has some comment from ITV employees.
Please do let us know if you have more information you can share with fellow members. And perhaps now is a good time to get your application in to Stellar’s Pitch event
BAFTAs, Oscar’s and Box Office – Oh My!
Posted at 7:59am on 24th February, 2009
You would have to have had your head in a paper bag under the sea not to have heard that the Brits have swept the board at the Oscars with Slumdog, Kate Winslet, and little old Man on Wire bringing home the gold. But what do those little statuettes do for the film? Stellar have roamed the t’internet to bring you the top Awards commentary….
The Winners! Over at Screen International
Kaleem Aftab of the Independent, scathing look at the BAFTAs
Peter Bradshaw of the Guardian on why Slumdog deserves an Oscar
And interestingly on why Slumdog will be one of those over rated awards films in years to come.
The LA Times on the notion of “Oscar Bounce” for those into their Box Office analysis
And for your dose of UK Box Office expertise check out Charles Gant at the Observer
And finally – the best of British claim their prizes:
Tassos Stevens’ review of Scratch Interact: the first scratch night for interactive theatre
Posted at 6:23am on 11th February, 2009
please see allplayall.blogspot.com for Tassos’ fab blog, and the originator of this review. Its a gateway into a lot of the more interesting stuff going on in theatre at the moment.
Scratch Interact is the latest venture by our very own Stellarite Sam Howey Nunn
Last week I went to Scratch Interact, a night of treats curated very properly by the lovely Glue Theatre in the in-between spaces of Southwark Playhouse.
Glue’s opener delivered a box that wriggled out a man who then – having failed beautifully to gather attention from the pre-show crowd – managed to get presents and sweets from many.
Deborah Pearson’s Break Up With Me invited you into a toilet cubicle with her to do just that, however you chose, delicately responsive to its own conceptual knots, beautifully poised.
‘The Minuting Hill Carnival’, a minute version of Notting Hill’s, refereed by a representative of the Honourable Society of Faster Craftswomen, who before she sold me a nugget of jerk chicken on a cocktail stick, made a joyful band of us playing tiny instruments. Gorgeous how just as much glee came from playing it tiny, it was the play that counted. Lovely and messy.
Emer O’Connor then delivered a piece of storytelling, at first staged and delivered to the back walls. Perfectly good performance but not at all responsive to us or the space, and her volume inevitably causing alarm to the theatre staff worried about the ‘main show’. As soon as we moved in closer so she was actually performing to us in the space with her, it suddenly came alive. Which raises very interesting points for me about liveness and scalability.
Emily Smallwood took a pair of us into the disabled toilet. One was sat down on a white towel and asked to listen through headphones to a recording of a story. The lights were then turned off. The other then shared an embrace with her in the corner. Then the lights back on, one was asked to record a story while the other listened, very close. This piece worried me and it’s still with me. I loved her assurance in the disjuncture of these elements, the light and darkness, the very living intimacy of the exchanges and near brutality in heightened awareness of the other people in the room. Fantastic sensibility.
Sam and Chris from Glue then led a lively round-table discussion for the good number of us present. But there should be more of us. This night is quarterly and make sure you make (something for) the next one.
To put yourself on the mailing list for Scratch Interact visit http://www.gluehq.co.uk
Very Golden Globes
Posted at 6:31am on 12th January, 2009
Well the British independents certainly came and went at last night Golden Globes, with various awards going to our countrymen. For a full list of winners see: Hollywood Foreign Press Association website
But BIG, MASSIVE congrats go to dear friends of Stellar – Gareth Wiley (Vicky Cristina Barcelona – Producer) and Ivana Mackinnon and Gaia Elkington of Celador (Slumdog Millionaire – Production Company) for their stunning wins!
Privatisation of the Scottish Arts Council?
Posted at 3:45pm on 7th December, 2008
A mail out hit my inbox today about Creative Scotland:
a proposed merger of the public bodies, the Scottish Arts Council, Scottish Screen, and Scottish Cultural Enterprise, into a private company
(Variant Magazine, 26 November 2008)
I’ve done a bit of research, and it all does look quite worrying: here’s the PDF of email correspondence and much else relating to the setting up of the Cultural Commission (the interim agency which would then, if I have this right, segue into Creative Scotland): http://www.scotland.gov.uk/About/FOI/19260/CCPDF2
But, the core concern seems to be here, in a page I’ve pulled verbatim from the above PDF (See last bullet point in particular):
CULTURAL COMMISSION:
STEPS TO SETTING UP A COMPANY LIMITED BY GUARANTEE
Key steps to establishing the Cultural Commission as a Company Limited by Guarantee:
• Executive general practice in these cases is to appoint an external firm of solicitors to set
up the company and make the necessary changes to the Company Memorandum and
Articles of Association. (OSSE can only act for Scottish Ministers. Also it makes sense
to have a single firm in there at the outset to get it set up and running).
• The Solicitors firm comes from the Executive’s call-off contract list (maintained by
OSSE, not Procurement).
• The Solicitors arrange to buy an “off-the-shelf-company” (usually from Oswalds) that approximates to what we require (Scottish Screen, the National Gaelic Resource Centre, and Bord na Gaidhlig (Alba) were all bought off the shelf as educational charities).
• The off-the-shelf company will come with a Company Memorandum and Articles of Association which will need modified to suit the Cultural Commission.
• We need a working idea of what the Company Memorandum and Articles of Association should say about the purposes and management of the company. Everything the Commission will be required to do must legally be provided for in these documents. It’s important to get these right from the outset, so it will be worth getting the thoughts on how the company will operate clear at the start.
• Actually getting the company up and running doesn’t take too long.
• The Solicitors find individuals to act as Promoters, Subscribers, Directors, Company
Secretary, and Shareholders in order to get things in place. Sometimes civil servants are appointed as Directors initially.
• We need to find people to own the shares and thus the company. This could be the Scottish Ministers, though that might not give the impression of independence and
impartiality
This all seems to be a worrying departure from the ‘arms-length’ principle of the UK’s Arts Councils. Privatisation of any public sector is a scary trend, and this is even more so; how can a private company effectively regulate, support and fund the arts in Scotland? Not to mention a private company with Scottish ministers on its Board and staffed by consultants and agency workers (as the PDF seems to say this is where staffing will be sourced from)?
And what if this could happen in England? It couldn’t, surely?
It probably doesn’t help that I’m reading Naomi Klein’s ‘Shock Doctrine’ at the moment which is a terrifying summary of how privatisation and free markets line the pockets of certain individuals (the usual suspects) at the expense of society in general.
I would welcome comments and more information if anyone has a better analysis of what’s going on here as this is a very initial response to what is news to me….
Skillset Business Skills Seminars
Posted at 11:53am on 6th December, 2008
Today marked the final installment of our Business Skills Seminars for Film Professionals, delivered with the kind and invaluable support of Skillset, and in association with the Film Business Academy at Cass Business School.
A huge thank you to Skillset, and all our speakers and attendees both.
And in case you couldn’t make it, all the presentations delivered, which looked at Legal, Financial, Marketing and Strategy Issues respectively are now available for Stellar members to view in the Community portion of the site, under Discussions, then Resources.
After the Accident – a Save the Human Finalist
Posted at 11:52am on 2nd December, 2008
Our friend’s at Iceandfire have been running the Amnesty Save the Human playwright competition, and now, the finalists’ are having their plays read at the Soho Theatre. Go along and support them!
The house was where they – Petra, Jimmy and Charley – were going to be happy, then Leon broke through the security gates taking their happiness with him. Four years later they have the chance to meet face to face, confronting what’s been hidden for so long behind locked doors.
‘After the Accident’ by Julian Armitstead receives its only London reading at Soho Theatre tonight as one of the finalists of the Protect the Human playwriting competition 2008. The play will be followed by a post show discussion:
‘Humanising human rights: how do you show both sides of the story?’ with the playwright, restorative justice practitioner Steven Hewson and academic Marian Liebmann.
Directed by Tessa Walker
Cast: Amanda Drew, Nicolas Tennant, Toby Wharton
Tickets: £5/£3
Start time: 7pm
To book call 0207 478 0100 or go to www.sohotheatre.com
Soho Theatre
21 Dean Street, London W1D 3NE
1 – 3 December 2008
Tickets £5/£3
3 for 2 offer: Book for all 3 readings and get the 3rd one free. To book call the box office on 0207 478 0100 and quote ‘3 for 2′ or go to www.sohotheatre.com
“Compelling theatre making real and relevant the impact of human rights issues on our everyday lives.”
The plays:
1 December at 7pm
There’s Loads of Them in Burnley, Thais
by Anna Clarkson
Directed by Charlotte Gwinner
Mae has never eaten a ready meal, been to TK Maxx or tasted mushy peas and Graham Fairclough has only got six weeks to teach her. But with ex-wife and landlady of The Clog and Rocket, Marie, offering up some home truths he might not even have that long.
“Why the ‘ell else ‘as she come to Burnley? It’s not for t’weather is it? And it’s certainly not for ‘im, ‘e’s no oil paintin’ is ‘e?”
2 December at 7pm
After the Accident
by Julian Armitstead
Directed by Tessa Walker
The house was where they – Petra, Jimmy and Charley – were going to be happy, then Leon broke through the security gates taking their happiness with him. Four years later they have the chance to meet face to face, confronting what’s been hidden for so long behind locked doors.
“It’s not all on your side. I’m saying, you’re not the only ones to have suffered for this. You’re not the only ones.”
3 December at 7pm
Lullaby
by Dominic Leggett
Directed by Ken Christiansen
Beth’s got the house ready for Ray’s return from war. But his arrival brings more than just dirty washing and there are some stains that no amount of scrubbing can remove.
“They keep their cool and look you straight in the eye, then you spot there’s a foot tapping, or a twitch at the side of the mouth – The body betrays them every time.”
Over 125 plays were submitted to the competition which provides a high quality platform for dynamic and imaginative plays that communicate human rights stories of import to us all.
Judged by Chiwetel Ejiofor, Dan Jones (Amnesty), Sonja Linden & Sara Masters (iceandfire) and Esther Richardson (Soho Theatre).
www.iceandfire.co.uk | www.amnesty.org.uk
iceandfire is a company limited by guarantee, registered in England no.4648400, registered charity 1118200
Stellar Skillset Strategy Seminar
Posted at 11:07am on 2nd December, 2008
Alliteration much!
Our final seminar, delivered with the support of Skillset and in associationwith the Film Business Academy, is taking place this Saturday December 6th at BFI Southbank in the Delegate’s Centre.
Topics addressed will include
• Understanding the film competitive environment and your own unique resources
• Information and tips on business planning
There will also be opportunities to steer the conversation towards attendees’ unique areas of interest.
Speakers are:
Natasha Munshi – Assistant Director, Institute for Business Integrity, Wright State University
Emily Corcoran – Consultant, Film and Digital Media Exchange
The fee per seminar is £10.00 for members of Stellar Network and £60.00 for non-members. The fee includes lunch, refreshments and a pack of supplementary materials including speaker presentations, exercises and recommended resources.
How to sell your spec script to Hollywood
Posted at 10:26am on 2nd December, 2008
Afternoon. I’m Alexandra Denye, Stellar’s Administrative Director and I’m also a writer – screenplays, theatre plays, radio plays, short films you name it, I write it.
I recently went to the Screenwriting Expo in LA (Nov 12-16th) which was all I’d hope it would be. I learnt a huge amount about the craft and business of screenwriting. I attended over 20 classes ranging from subtext to a managing a million dollar screenwriting career. I networked like crazy and met lots of other writers and many professionals.
There was a star studded line up of seminars, interviews and panels including William Goldman (Butch Cassidy), Aaron Sorkin (West Wing), Nancy Meyers (Private Benjamin), Richard Price (Color of Money), Bill Marsilii (Deja Vu), Josh Olson (History of Violence), Jason Reitman (Dir. Juno), Melissa Rosenberg (Head writer on Dexter), Michael Hauge, Linda Cowgill, John Truby, Blake Snyder, William Martell and Syd Field.
I’m going to be posting ‘Top Tips’ from some of the seminars I attended and here’s the first from a seminar entitled ‘How to sell your spec script’.
It was given by Victoria Wisdom, who was an agent at Becsey Wisdom Kalajian for 14 years representing the writer/directors of Oscar winning films like The Usual Suspects and The Red Violin. Victoria also sold the hit CBS drama series Criminal Minds and repped the Oscar winners Ernest Thompson and Christopher McQuarrie as well as director Bryan Singer. Victoria recently became a manager/producer setting up the Hilary Swank starrer Labyrinths.
So she knows her stuff.
Top Tips
If you think like a professional and sound like one, you’ll be treated like one. You need to give the impression you are immersed in the industry (even if you’re not living in LA)
- Studios are looking for Action, Comedy, Thriller and Drama scripts – in that order. Drama accounts for only 7% of the market. 50% of people who see movies are under 25
- Trends – there are perceptible shifts in the market and tracking the market/box office figures on Mondays is essential (you can sign up for industry info at variety.com for free)
- Learn the lingo – know what ‘the drop’ and ‘is it holding?’ mean (the drop is the box office percentage drop on a movie’s second week-end box office, ‘holding’ means the drop isn’t that high. The Hulk had a 2nd week 48% drop – not good, Pirates of the Caribbean had a 23% drop – this was considered okay because it’s a modest drop.
- Take what’s been done before and adapt it ‘just like but different’ – 50 First Dates is an example of the rom-com genre between re-invented
- Have a great title – like The Wedding Crashers, Gladiator
- Simple powerful ideas sell themselves
- When pitching, reference 3 movies similar to yours and why they should buy it
- Get yourself noticed by winning an award – e.g. Samuel Goldywn Award (UCLA competition), Nicholls Fellowship
- Do not send letters! Email instead. Be very brief – a one sentence pitch and ask if they want to read the script
- Know who your movie stars are, the up and coming ones
- No Iraq movies!
- Always make the date yesterday on your script – execs want to feel its fresh
I was awarded a Skillset bursary of just under £800 towards the cost of the trip – this was invaluable especially as the exchange rate tanked just before I arrived in LA.
If you’d like a copy of the full notes please email me at alexandra@stellarnetwork.com.
I’ll be posting more Top Tips in the next few days.
All the best
Alexandra
www.skillset.org
www.screenwritingexpo.com
Improbable’s Devoted and Disgruntled at Shunt
Posted at 5:56pm on 29th October, 2008
5th November 2008, 7.30p.m. (full details below)
Hosted by Stella Duffy
Devoted and Disgruntled is an opportunity to meet up with artists, arts professionals, and audiences. The next three D&Ds will have a different theme and guest host. November’s D&D will be hosted by Stella Duffy, an Associate Artist of Improbable. As always the response to this theme, and the conversations we have, will be decided by you at the start of the evening.
Do gender and sexuality still matter – and if they do, what do we do with them?
Dear All
I am a woman. I am gay/queer/lesbian – and far happier with any of those terms as adjectives, than as necessarily-limiting nouns. I write, perform, direct, make theatre and other work. None of those things solely define me, nor would I want them to, yet as artists, what we do comes from ourselves, our own lives, those we meet, and the worlds – real and imagined – we inhabit. We make work by and of ourselves. How important then, are gender and sexuality to what we do?
In twenty-five years making work I have seen our women’s and gay/queer theatre companies virtually disappear. This doesn’t matter if all the issues we once thought so vital have been taken up by newer artists less concerned with drawing lines and/or with speaking from and for the ghetto. It doesn’t matter if the issues of gender and sexuality – so prevalent, for example, in the classics – are investigated in current work. Nor does it matter if we now truly do have a level playing field from which to make our work.
And yet … I still hear more women than men decrying childcare provision in our work/places. We still have many more men directors than women, and a glance at any listings magazine will show men writers in (at best) a 2:1 ratio to women. Gay men may be in the public eye in unprecedented numbers, but where is the work by young women about their sexuality? Why is it now deemed empowering for women to get their kit off in the rise of modern burlesque – and if those women are still subject to the male gaze, whose empowerment is it anyway? (And are there any straight men empowering themselves by getting naked too?)
Maybe it is all sorted. Maybe there are no women thinking there’s still a glass ceiling, no queer people believing they rarely see themselves represented on our stages, no heterosexual men hemmed in by a society forcing them into a patriarchy they would rather reject, no straight people pushed into playing boy/girl games they hoped stopped in the 1950’s …
Or maybe we can have an Open Space about it, ask if we have arrived at a stage where gender and sexuality are truly fluid, or truly irrelevant – or both. And anyway, as was mooted at the very first D&D, didn’t we all come into theatre in the first place because we thought it was sexy, because we were seventeen-year-olds hoping to get laid? (While we changed the world, obviously.)
Stella Duffy, October 2008
DETAILS:
The evening runs using Open Space technology which gives anyone the chance to propose a starting point for discussion, then take part in one of these conversations, flit between them all, or head to the bar.
To get into Shunt for free, let them know on the door that you’re there for D&D. No need to book, just turn up on the night.
Shunt is on Joiner Street, a little alley inside London Bridge tube station. Find a map at:http://www.shunt.co.uk/map.php
For further information or to discuss access requirements get in touch with Lucy at lucy@improbable.co.uk or at the office on 0207 240 4556.
Hope to see you there.
www.improbable.co.uk
Pinewood
Posted at 1:10pm on 29th October, 2008
It’s 8 AM, and I’m on a train to… Uxbridge? Oh. Somewhere in Buckinghamshire. I’m going to Pinewood Studios. How exciting! This is a reasonably late start for production, I know, but I’m still a bit bleary.
I’m working as a production runner on the third series of The IT Crowd. Having never been to Pinewood before it’s become something of a myth in my brain, populated with celebrities suckling on peeled grapes in their house-sized trailers while the teamsters smoke cigarettes outside enormous corrugated soundstage doors and buggies maniacally zoom directors from office to set.
I’m not far off.
Well. I am. But it’s a nebulous sprawl of a place, that’s a fact, and everyone still seems to be buzzing from having the latest 007 production in residence. Currently the big man on campus is Prince Of Persia and a lot of the supporting artists I talk to have worked on that as well.
I get through to lunch, and realize I’m having a blast. Pinewood is FUN, I think to myself, grinning like a lunatic as I sprint across a car-park trying not to slosh any of the six coffees I’m juggling over my skinny wrists. Then I stop grinning, because I look like a lunatic. But still. I don’t know if I really expected to have fun!
Because:
a) The last time I was on a multi-camera TV set was as an actor, and the runners never really looked like they were enjoying themselves too much, all frazzled eyes as they frantically checked their pockets for the last receipt they might have forgotten to get and furiously scribbled down dinner orders.
b) Most of us have been there, and while obviously as much an integral part of the structure as any other on-set job, I think it’s fair to say that being a runner is, well, a bit mindless.
Sometimes mindless is nice, and thankfully one is manic enough not to worry about it, or even to concoct this blog, which is scribbled on the long train back from Uxbridge after an even longer day (14 hours? I think?). Hence the scatter-brain. Here’s to sleep, and here’s to next time.
Alex
Greg Allen’s 25 Rules for Creating Good Theater
Posted at 5:08pm on 23rd October, 2008
Rule #1: Don’t create good theater. You must intend to create GREAT theater. We don’t need any more perfectly good productions of perfectly good scripts. You are setting out to do something great or it’s not worth doing.
Rule #2: Set that thought aside. Don’t worry about the end product or whether anyone says how great or horrible your show is. Create the show you believe in. Become consumed with process, not product.
Rule #3: Create your own show. Whether you are writing, directing, and performing a wholly original piece, or working with an extant script, make it your own. Don’t bother with trying to hold true to an author’s intentions – you’ll never know them anyway. Make the show true to yourself and what you have to say now.
Rule #4: Know why you are creating this show. The piece you create must be the expression of something about which you feel very deeply. Setting out to make “good theater” is not enough. Take a strong stand – personal, political, social, artistic, – and challenge yourself to express it. Include your performers in this aim.
Rule #5: Make form fit function. Once you have identified why you are creating this show, find the perfect theatrical form to express your beliefs. Whether it be a puppet show, a dance piece, an environmental installation, street theater, sequential art, a guided tour, audience interactive, non-verbal, bare stage, site specific, proscenium, etc., don’t be restricted in your form. Mix and match for specific moments throughout the show.
Rule #6: Know your performance space and use it. Whether you are performing in a five hundred seat proscenium, a black box, a barn, or an alley, make the show intrinsically linked to the space in which it will be performed. All theater should acknowledge, utilize, and endow the space where it is performed.
Rule #7: Know your audience. Have some idea who you are creating the show for. Firstly it should be for yourself. But secondly it should have some target for who will be in the audience – children, teenagers, punks, the rich, the old, Liberals, grad students, women, gays, a specific ethnicity, etc.. Theater “for everyone” is bland theater.
Rule #8: Contradict those assumptions of the audience. Don’t cater to your audience and what you think they would like to see. Draw them to the theater with something that will attract them, but then, once they are in their seats, challenge them and make them think and feel. Never back-pat or condescend to your audience.
Rule #9: Cast good people above good actors. Someone you can work with will always be more effective than the greatest actor in the world who happens to be a prima donna asshole. Work with people you know and respect as people.
Rule #10: Use the performers for who they are. Let the performers express themselves and their lives and experiences in the show. Include them in the creation process. Give them the chance to speak from their heart.
Rule #11: Create true theater. A show should never fail to answer the question “Why is this theater?” Theater is live performers in front of a live audience. Never forget this. If your show can be put on television or turned into a movie without losing something, you have failed.
Rule #12: Do not suspend your audience’s disbelief. Involve the audience. Make sure you remind them that they are watching live theater. Q: Why do people go to the theater? A: To have a visceral connection with live performers. Take that ball and run with it. If you want to suspend the audience’s disbelief, make a movie. Movies accomplish this much more successfully.
Rule #13: Make sure no two performances are the same. Always include a section of the script where the performers respond to the immediate truth of the moment. Encourage them to keep this perspective throughout the show and accept that whatever happens, happens. Make sure the show is a live, unreproducable event – this is what people have come to see and what makes an evening in the theater life-changing.
Rule #14: Insure tonal variety. Never create a show that can easily be categorized. A piece that is primarily comedy should have deadly serious moments, and a tragedy should have elements of high comedy. And the audience should not be unified in this response. Collide the personal with the abstract, the intellectual with the philistine, the hysterical with the gut-wrenching. Keep the audience off balance and contradict their expectations.
Rule #523: Include a surprise. No one should be able to know what’s coming next, including the performers. Surprise keeps theater a live event. Multiple surprises make great theater.
Rule #16: Create a gift for the audience. The show should include a personal gift for each member of the audience – either material, emotional, or experiential. Make sure everyone in the audience has an individual experience of the show to take out of the theater and share and discuss afterwards.
Rule #17: Change the material world. A small part of the world should be somehow altered by each performance. Something should be destroyed, consumed, built, adorned, or the space itself should be newly endowed by the end of each night of the show. Leave the stage a mess.
Rule #18: Use the elements on stage. Every production should include the four natural elements, especially fire and water. There’s nothing cooler and more immediate than throwing water around or watching something burn on stage. It immediately invokes theater’s ritual origins. If the powers that be don’t let you do this, do it anyway.
Rule #19: Put the backstage on stage. Don’t hide the mechanics of the theater. Let the audience share in the actors’ challenge. For instance, always include a Hikinuki – an on-stage costume change – for at least one of the performers. It’s always great to share a transformation with the audience.
Rule #20: Play with size. It’s always great to incorporate a shift in audience perception of the world of the stage. Incorporate miniatures or enlargements of established stage reality. Nothing says great theater like the entrance of a fifty foot Hitler or a three inch doppelganger of the protagonist.
Rule #21: Include music. There’s nothing better for introducing new music to people than having it accompany stage action. Take the opportunity to re-contextualize known music through performance.
Rule #22: Get non-verbal. Words can be a crutch. Always include a non-verbal segment of the production. Conceive of it as a dance.
Rule #23: Establish ritual through repetition. Give the audience a ritual or repetitive pattern with which to identify. Create a shared history for the audience. Once a ritual is established, you can speak volumes through tiny variations on a theme. The art is in the details. There’s nothing better than feeling part of an inside joke.
Rule #24: Make theater economically affordable to all. There should be no financial limitations on who can be in the audience. People should be able to see your production for the cost of a movie and popcorn. Cheap theater with a diverse audience is much better than expensive theater for a narrow swath of the elite.
Rule #25: Unify the audience. Give the audience shared experiences which create faith and trust in each other. Create an event that brings disparate people to identify with each other through their mutual, but individual, experience of the show.
Rule #26: Break the rules. Don’t do what anybody tells you. Make your own theater. Find your own way. Create your own art.
Greg Allen
September, 2005
www. neofuturists.org
Lone Sharks and Satellites # 1
Posted at 3:59am on 29th September, 2008
Last month Stellar Network created a brand new way of networking, meeting people and generally getting things done in the theatre world.
It’s called “Lone Sharks and Satellites” and the first event was held at Exmouth Market’s trendy Wilmington Arms.
Want to see why the event was so great? Check out this video.
Podcast now available: “How To Make The Most From your Brilliant TV Idea”
Posted at 8:12am on 24th September, 2008
Back in May we ran a great TV event designed to help you protect your TV ideas.
It was held at 01 Zero-one in conjunction with Own-It and the speakers were Robert Lands, Head of IP Media, Finers Stephens Innocent LLP and Sarah Edwards, Head of Entertainment Development, Talkback Thames. The compere was yours truly.
It was a fantastic event, full of lively discussion and debate! The podcast is now available in two parts – here and here.
Please take a listen and let me know your thoughts, opinions, etc. We’d love to do similar events in the future but we need YOUR feedback
Cheers
Tom S
Stellar Network at Power to the Pixel
Posted at 7:21pm on 18th September, 2008
As you’ll all know, Power to the Pixel is an exciting two day forum which forms a part of the Times BFI London Film Festival, and which aims to explore how emerging and established digital technologies are transforming our industry. At this year’s event Stellar Network, in conjunction with the Film and Digital Media Exchange (FDMX), is involved in Need to Know, a think tank/round table discussion on October 23rd, during which we will aim to explore the evolving value chain through discussion and debate. The information will then be channelled into a comprehensive report on the needs of the digital creative industry with well informed suggestions to target and tackle the issues raised.
We have a number of free places for Stellar members to attend this exciting event – and are keen to enlist experienced professionals with strong opinions, such as yourselves. All attendees will also be able to benefit from the first full day of PTTP on October 22nd, and will be able to attend a number of invaluable seminars and events – see here for the full line up http://powertothepixel.com/category/london-forum-2008
Please take a look at this document and let Claire Geddie know at claire AT stellarnetwork.com if you’d like to take advantage of this fantastic opportunity to be part of the industry’s evolution.
I’m considering getting business cards made that say “will do anything for money.”
Posted at 2:21pm on 7th September, 2008
This morning I woke up. Late. I had a cup of coffee. Late. I bought the paper. Late. Then I proceeded, with a minimum of effort, to do the largest part of nothing. I’m not lazy. Or retired. Having just wrapped up something of a whirlwind experience in my burgeoning film career (read, fulltime for the BRITDOC Film Festival – anyone who has worked for a festival will know exactly what I mean), I just now find myself in the precious position of being, well, to be blunt: unemployed.
Though, am I? It’s under the guise of holiday, but I wonder if I’ve just been tunnel-festival-vision for so long that perhaps I’ve forgotten what it’s like to live the regular creative dream, hopping from job to job, occasionally surviving on cardboard and mixed nuts, occasionally spending an entire week eating at Cha Cha Moon. This conflict led to a discussion with a friend (a burgeoning and successful filmmaker) in which she cried, “I prefer to call it FREELANCE.”
It’s not about the money. Nobody’s here for it (are they?), and I’m no stranger to the intermittent pay-check. I did the working actor thing, and I definitely will again. What fascinates me more is the euphemistic approach people take. There’s something so bleak surrounding the word ‘unemployed’, it’s a word that implies waiting – and if there’s any no-no in this industry it’s waiting – for the next thing to turn up in your lap. Being ‘freelance’ is just a way of owning your shit.
I just got back from chilling my kicks up in Edinburgh on a writing assignment for the international festival, and I think I might conduct an experiment on behalf of all those sprawled on the living room floor surrounded by the Positions Vacant sections and staving off their Hollyoaks cravings by gorging on Hula Hoops. For half of the next week, whenever anyone asks what I do my answer will be “Oh, me? I’m unemployed.” For the following half the answer will be: “I’m a freelance filmmaker/writer/actor/whichever other profession takes my fancy.” On the seventh day, results will be compiled, relayed, and dissected. Late in the day. Over a cup of coffee. And the paper. Stay tuned.
Losing Touch With Reality
Posted at 9:00am on 19th July, 2008
A casual Monday or so back I was happily fulfilling that nauseating north-west
And then little grey cogs started clunking. Clunk-clunk. 6 million people care! Clunk-clunk. But… why? Clunk-clunk. Surely this is just another enterprise (pun not really intended) in sensationalizing a part of the average person’s life so as to garner audience share from those not yet gormlessly addicted to the reality-TV tidal wave? Just another idiotic and desperate squeeze of a mouldy and almost dry kitchen sponge? Clunk-clunk.
What really renders me incredulous and speechless about this fusty fad is that it is, quite blatantly and flagrantly, a fallacy. It simply isn’t reality. As a couple of CEO’s attested, The Apprentice couldn’t possibly be further away from an entrepreneurial business model. We’ve managed to do something quite bizarrely post-modern, and entirely flip the coin. Our “reality-TV” is less real than most of the drama that comes out of HBO or BBC. My televisual viewing cache is currently filled with brilliant series like The Wire and Six Feet Under (on DVD of course… take THAT, ads), and, despite not being an expert on Baltimore crime or running a funeral home, I have a strong feeling both represent reality far more accurately and intelligently than Master Chef, Beauty and the Geek, or Holly & Fearne Go Dating.
It was inevitable, wasn’t it? We love ourselves. We love screens. We love to see ourselves on screen. We love to love ourselves. I just can’t help but feel it’s reached a point of immaturity. It isn’t us up there. It isn’t you. It’s some fame-hungry shill as desperate for a national embarrassment as I am tempted just to sweep the whole mess under the telly cabinet, and just pretend it never, ever happened at all.
Documentarians Unite!
Posted at 8:57am on 19th July, 2008
There’s something mysterious about the word documentary. Often, when people hear it, a little lever is pulled in their brain – the big red one that goes from “on” to “off”. Even an ostensible film fanatic will often start to droop his eyelids at the mention of Errol Morris or Nick Broomfield. The only one to elicit any response is Michael Moore but the man is so hugely divisive that one can’t help but have an opinion, though, hey, at least he re-popularised the form.
This, I have decided, with a Charlie-Brooker-esque gruffness, is an outrage. From whence did this stereotype emerge? Who, what or when is responsible for defaming this intricate, subtle, and varied art? Perhaps it’s television’s fault. We so associate documentary as a televisual form (read: the news) that perhaps it’s no surprise the mode in which we consume television is the same position assumed when people begin discussing documentary: neck loose, torso slouched, seas of flab rolling over a taut belt, legs thrust out at curious angles and a hand creeping subliminally towards the no-no bits.
Viewing someone in this position can only induce upon the observer a kind of vague disgust, and rightly so. By and large we like see fiction as an escape, somewhere we can go and be transported far from the benign movements of our little lives. And yet, how often do people trundle out the mouldy adage: Truth is stranger than fiction! My day-to-day existence has nothing to do with the monogamy of penguins in the Antarctic, or people hurling themselves off the
To be honest, I have just been working on a documentary, so perhaps I feel a little biased. Say the word documentary to a cinema and, mostly, they react like you just libeled their mothers in The Evening Standard. And punters, well, we’ve covered them. It’s time for a change. Groups like the Channel Four British Documentary Foundation (BritDoc) have already begun the revolution. I suppose I could start by making a documentary about it, couldn’t I?
To Download or Not To Download
Posted at 2:52pm on 2nd June, 2008
Nevermind the question – here’s the answer.
There is something of which we are all technologically guilty. It’s not porn. Well, it might be, depending on your proclivities and your honesty. No, it’s more admissible than that.
Allow me to set a scene. A few people huddle around a laptop as the white light blears up into their pale faces. They are virtually unblinking as the FOX Searchlight logo rolls into the title sequence of Juno. Fine? Well. Juno was only released a day ago at the cinema.
Yet! Despite the persistent rise of cleverly evolving download platforms, still the bigwigs have crawled out and magnanimously announced 2007 as a year of the highest recorded box-office figures.
In my experience there are three clear “download” camps. There are those that sit around proclaiming hawkishly about the quantity and quality of cinema on their computer, sniggering loudly at those who fork out over £10 to go and see There Will Be Blood. There are those who think BitTorrent is a volatile weather pattern. And then there are those who are probably just as smug as the first: the cinephile. This camp is possibly the worst, because as much as they’ll lean around espousing the virtues of the cinematic experience (”you can’t beat the SOUND, you know, and it just reminds me of when I was an innocent kid…”) they’re just as likely to form a percentage of that pale-faced troupe crowding around a 14-inch Mac screen, thereby corroding any ideological superiority they may have otherwise assumed.
Though, perhaps they have a point. David Lynch recently ranted about the “tragedy” of watching “a film on your f*****g telephone.” And IMAX convinced me that cinema might have finally evolved away from the nickelodeon experience it once was and become a truly bodily experience.
There’s nothing new to the epic film, and it’s no news that technological progression has left legislation in the dust and studios gulping for air. Now though, it seems the studios are blearily discovering bigger really is the answer. And, observing the wake of 2007’s cinema that led to such monumental takings: Spiderman 3, Harry Potter and The Order Of The Phoenix, Pirates Of The Carribean: At World’s End, Transformers… it would appear that maybe, just maybe, they could be right.
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