Where do you find the films that you pick up for distribution?
Festivals and markets such as Palm Springs, Aspen, Toronto Shortsfest, and Clermont-Ferrand. Referrals from other filmmakers. Over-the-transom blind submissions.
How do you go about selecting the films that you choose to distribute?
We look for films that we hope will be commercially viable, in all genres, for our worldwide clients. And they have to be legally cleared for commercial exhibition, as opposed to just festival play.
Do you specialise in certain genres of short?
We don’t, but the market does, hence we have to focus more on comedies and strong dramas.
Do you find certain types of film easier to distribute than others?
Of course, the genres of sci-fi, horror, action and celebrity fall under the broad categories of comedy and/or drama.
How long can you distribute a film for before it’s exhausted?
If the film stands up and is not dated then the shelf life can be ongoing for years and years.
What does a director or producer stand to gain from having their film picked up for distribution?
Hopefully, a distributor can take care of the selling of the film, which takes years and lots of time, leaving the director to go on with making more films.
Is it possible to make a financially viable short, where the director and producer not only cover the costs of making it but also make a profit?
It’s possible and does happen occasionally, but it’s a buyer’s market and they don’t pay well for short form content. There are at least 5,000+ new short films made every year.
Do you have any advice for filmmakers looking to get their film distributed?
Make it short (3-12 minutes) and make sure they have all clearances in writing so they can legally sell their film. Not very glamorous or sexy, but essential to getting a film sold.
31. THE DIRECTORS
INTERVIEW WITH AMANDA BOYLE (DIRECTOR)
Amanda Boyle wrote and directed Hotel Infinity. Now focusing on her directing career, she is also a highly sought after producer, due to her experience in developing and producing both short and feature-length films.
How did you get involved in short filmmaking?
Like many kids I was really into amateur dramatics – it started with acting and then progressed into directing. At university I did a lot of plays and after three years realised that what I really wanted to do was direct film. I can’t remember what prompted that revelation, possibly a month of acting with a glove puppet at the Edinburgh Fringe.
I started writing letters to film production companies to try to get a job and also began working on student short films. After several hundred letters, I eventually got a job at Working Title Films. I stayed with them for about three years and then spent a further four years developing a slate of projects with the producer Jon Finn, still under the umbrella of Working Title, for a small stable of directors that included Stephen Daldry.
How did your experience with film production transfer into directing a short?
I was lucky I met Jon Finn at Working Title because with him I worked in both production and development. I got a complete overview of the filmmaking process. He is a very creative producer so we were always talking about films as a whole – what we were trying to make and how we might achieve that. I also got to observe a variety of talented directors.
At the same time I was writing short films and doing evening/weekend courses. It wasn’t that my experience with film production transferred into directing a short… I always wanted to direct, I just had some weird notion that I had to understand every area of film before I could do so. In retrospect that was probably a delaying tactic as I was timid of starting.
What gave you the idea for Hotel Infinity?
A children’s book on infinity, which I found in the Science Museum bookshop.
How long did it take you to develop the script?
Something silly like a year. I was still using delaying tactics…
At what stage did you start working with producer Adrian Sturges?
Once I had a script I was happy with, I started to put together a crew. I spoke to various people about producing the film. Robin Gutch at FilmFour suggested Adrian. It was a relief to find him. I wouldn’t have been able to make the film without him. He is hard working and great fun.
What was the budget for the film and how did you go about raising the finances for it?
The budget was 60k – 50k of which Adrian raised from private financiers and 10k from the UK Film Council’s Completion Fund.
How long did you spend on pre-production for the film?
Ages – another year maybe? It took a while to raise the money.
How did you go about casting for the film? Did you use a casting agent?
Adrian introduced me to Tara Woodward and Tamara Gillon. They found me a dream cast.
How did you find your DP? What made you choose Hubert Taczanowski?
I met him on My Little Eye, which I had worked on at Working Title. He agreed to it when we were out filming in the freezing cold of Nova Scotia and I cruelly held him to his word. He has an amazing eye and is incredibly experienced; he has shot over 15 features. Working with him on this short was basically like going to film school. The way the film looks is very much down to him as well as Jacqueline Abrahams (the production designer), Mags Arnold (editor), Sam Perry (costume) and Ben Smith (CGI at The Mill).
Figure 59. Film still from Amanda Boyle’s Hotel Infinity.
Did you look into shooting the film on other formats? What made you choose 35mm?
I did think about Super 16mm but chose 35mm in the end because we got the budget. I also hoped it might entice Hubert.
How did you find your crew for the film?
Most of the crew were people I had met at Working Title or who Adrian had worked with before or who were highly recommended by friends.
How long did it take to shoot?
One day in Switzerland and three days in Bethnal Green.
Did you encounter any major problems on the shoot?
It snowed overnight in Switzerland – so all the places we had recced looked completely different. That turned out to be a happy accident as the fog and snow defined the look of the film. I now can’t imagine it not looking like that.
How did the experience of working on a short film differ to the feature films you have worked on?
I had always been passionate about the features I had worked on but it’s a different experience directing. It’s a terrific high.
Being your first experience of directing, how did you develop your approach to directing actors?
I wouldn’t say I had an approach. I winged it. The actors were very patient with me but it frustrated me as I felt I needed a technique and that I should have prepared better. That’s the area I have worked hardest on since to develop.
How did the fact that you were going to use digital visual effects in your post influence the way that you shot the film?
It didn’t really as most of those shots are separate from the action. We just had to shoot the corridor/dining room scenes in chunks and then they were stitched together digitally.
What kind of workflow did you follow for the post-production stages?
A wait-until-people-have-time kind of workflow. We relied on favours in post.
How long did the post-production take?
Mags Arnold cut the film over the Christmas holiday (we shot the film in September) and then we waited until The Mill had space to do the CGI. I think we finished the following March.
When you came to edit did you realise that there were other shots you would have liked to have got?
Absolutely. We had no coverage, we just didn’t have time. In many scenes we only had one way to cut the scene.
At what stage did you start working with the composer, christopher Benstead? How closely did you work with him on the score?
I worked with a music supe
rvisor, Gabriel Crouch, who had devised the music for a one-woman show I did at university and is now a classical musician. After much hunting, Gabriel found a Finnish folk tune, which seemed to capture the essence of the film and appears in its entirety at the end. He asked Chris Benstead, a specialist in composing music for contemporary dance, to weave that melody into a soundtrack. Chris created a totally unique score that completely enhanced the film.
What did you do with the film once it was completed? Did you have a strategy for distributing the film before you started making it?
Adrian introduced me to Dawn at Dazzle who has done a brilliant job at distributing the film.
What has come out of showing it at film festivals etc?
We have won a couple of awards and the film has been seen around the world from Russia to Utah to Abu Dhabi.
What did you learn from your experiences making Hotel Infinity? In retrospect, are there any things that you would have done differently?
Now I probably would have made it darker and funnier. I would have made the script less mysterious. The film was always a clear metaphor for me about grief and I think I was rather cautious of making that explicit.
What did you do after completing Hotel Infinity?
I gradually began to focus on directing. I am now prepping Imprint written by Kate Hardie, a 30-minute drama for Channel 4 under their Coming Up scheme; and developing a new short film based on the celebrated short story Pop Art by Joe Hill, as well as writing my first feature, Generation.
What advice do you have for filmmakers considering making a short?
Find a story you like, collect together a great team of people and make it!
What do you enjoy most about making short films?
I love the form of short films. You have so much freedom. They are a fantastic chance to experiment.
INTERVIEW WITH LAURENCE CORIAT (DIRECTOR)
Laurence Coriat is a renowned screenwriter who has written numerous feature films including Me Without You directed by Sandra Goldbacher and Wonderland directed by Michael Winterbottom. She has also written and directed several shorts, and her directorial debut, Being Bad.
Figure 60. Film still from Laurence Coriat’s Being Bad.
How did you get involved in short filmmaking?
I started off as a scriptwriter but was always deep down really interested in directing. Finally I built up enough confidence and decided to try it out to see if I liked it and if I was any good at it. Making a short film was the best way to find out.
How has your experience as a screenwriter for feature film influenced your approach to making shorts?
It’s made me feel more confident to break the rules and take risks. As a writer you know the material so well that it allows you to be more flexible to change things once you are actually making the film.
Where did the inspiration come from for Being Bad?
When I decided that writing scripts wasn’t enough for me, I thought I should either direct films or write a novel (because a novel is a finished product). So I started with the novel (it doesn’t cost any money) and I started writing the story of three teenage kids (two boys and a girl) who were orphans in an orphanage and how they formed a ‘ménage a trois’ and re-created the family which they never had. I enjoyed writing but directing was still niggling at me and so I decided to turn the ten first pages of the novel into the short that then became Being Bad.
How long did it take to develop the script?
It didn’t take any time at all. I had already written it as a piece of prose in a ‘poetic’ kind of way so I just kept the same tone for the script. I didn’t want to make a typical short film so I thought that should be reflected in the writing also.
How did you go about raising finance for it?
Since this wasn’t going to be a typical short film it was difficult for me to find a ‘classical’ producer. I tried but most people I know are involved in feature films and aren’t really interested in short films. I got a bit frustrated and didn’t really want to wait around too long to get the money through the normal channels and so in the end I decided to put up my own money and just go and do it off the cuff. Then I needed someone who spoke French and someone recommended Amy who had just come back from Japan. She was very enthusiastic and really up for it. She came in more like a line producer/production manager in the end. Then when the film was finished and got into Sundance I needed some money to make a 35mm print and I found more people who put money up for the blow up.
How did you go about casting for the film?
Most of the actual pre-production time was spent casting. We did both some ‘wild’ casting and also talked to a Marseille casting agent. So we found Malik in the street (he had no experience in film at all), and then the other boy and the girl were recommended to me by the casting director in Marseille. We filmed them together and the chemistry worked…
I got my cinematographer (Natasha Braier) and editor (Ida Bregninge) here in London out of the film school and we hit it off straightaway. We made the film with no lights and minimal crew and with barely any pre-production.
How did you come to choose Natasha Braier as a DOP?
Natasha was recommended to me through someone I was working with as a scriptwriter, who thought we would get on. I saw her reel and loved it and met her and we connected immediately. And when we made the film, it went beyond my expectations. I really felt it was a perfect collaboration. She has the kind of sensibility and eye that completely match with mine. And that’s very exciting.
Did you have a very distinct look in mind or did that evolve in the shoot?
Both. I had a lot of references which I discussed with Natasha (mostly Claire Denis’ Beau Travail) and the work of Chris Doyle. But then things totally evolved with the shoot. I learned that wide shots aren’t really great with DV and so you have to adapt. And I also love the way Natasha works with what she has got around her because that’s what I am like too. So not everything is planned but you see something that strikes you or a certain natural light and you just go for it. And sometimes that’s the best shot we got. The unplanned ones. But of course you have a strong frame of reference to start off with.
Did you look into shooting the film on other formats?
We shot the film on a Sony PD 150, so on DV format. Because the script read as such a ‘textured’ film it would have made sense to try and shoot on film but my aim was to go and shoot it quickly, and off the cuff, and DV lets you do that.
How did you find your crew for the film?
Recommendations. I had someone who was going to be my first AD in Marseille, who dropped me at the last minute as he got offered a feature film (paid). I must have been lucky that I just found people at the last minute from a list that was given to me of all the technicians in Marseille. Maybe it helped that it is a smaller place than London and also in France they have a different system which allows people to work on short films: they have to do so many hours and then the government pays for them, taking into account that they may not be working all the time. But it was a very tiny crew. And then once people are onboard they always know someone who knows someone. Natasha also had some connections of her own, which helped out at the last minute.
How long did it take to shoot?
We shot it over four or five days. But not full days. Maybe three full days and then some bits and pieces in the night. Because they were kids we didn’t really film late. And also according to the weather we moved scenes around.
Did you follow a storyboard closely or did you improvise?
No, no storyboard (I can’t draw!). I have a strong sense of what the feel of a scene needs to be but then from that point I feel completely open to let things develop. And I love accidents and the totally unexpected things that inevitably happen, so the process is both controlled and free at once.
As your first experience of directing actors, how did you develop your approach?
Because they are teenagers, even if they have a little
film or TV experience they are still fresh and it’s still possible to capture something pretty raw and ‘real’ from them. I think it’s a question of trust and building an atmosphere of trust so that they feel comfortable trying things out. But we also got a lot of ‘stolen moments’ when they were not aware they were being filmed. If you let the camera roll (which you can do in DV) they finally let go and do things that they may not do after saying ‘action’, which I try to avoid saying because I think it just freezes everyone.
Also in the way you cast, you get a certain quality in them that you know will show on screen so they don’t have to ‘act’ so much.
How long did the post-production take?
I can’t really remember but we probably edited for about two weeks all in all and then we did some online and grading (as little as we could as it’s so expensive!). For Being Bad there was no real sound dub till we made the 35mm print.
How creative was the editing process? Did you just cut it as you had planned or did the film take on a different shape in editing?
Well again it’s like for the filming, it’s both. The editing was very creative and kept at the core emotion and ideas of the original script but we moved things around. Ida is as much a collaborator as Natasha. I think the film is a result of our three-way team. That’s because our sensibilities match completely.
Short Films Page 23