Universal Film

ISSUE 2 of 2012

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The only free film magazine in the world

orld

DAVID
CRONENBERG

WES
ANDERSON
KEN LOACH

FILM AND FESTIVAL NEWS AND REVIEWS FROM INDUSTRY PROFESSIONALS THE WORLD OVER

Issue 2 - 2012

About UFM
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Universal Film
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GENE GOODSELL
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Contents
FEATURE: Directors Interviews

3
5
7

Director Jacques Audiard

Interview with Jacques Audiard about his
new movie in the Cannes film festival
Director Alain Resnais

Alain Resnais discusses his new movie at

Cannes, You have seen nothing yet
Director Ken Loach

Interview with Ken Loach about his movie

Angels Share in competition at Cannes

Angels Share

P.7

Wes Anderson
11 Director
Talks about his new movie Moonrise Kingdom

in competetion at Cannes

27 Interview with David Cronenberg about his

Director David Cronenberg

movie at Cannes, Cosmopolis

FILM INDUSTRY & FESTIVALS

Gangs of Wasseypur
23 Gangs
of Wasseypur is the first commercial

Indian film to be screened at Directors Fortnight at the Cannes Film Festival 2012
Film Funding USA
18 Legal
issues surronding film funding (USA) by

Rust and Bone

P.3

international lawyer, Tifanie Jodeh

Delivering Festival Publicity

19 In-depth article from Gail Spencer on film

publicity for film festivals

Jaws is Back!
21 Steven
Speilbergs Jaws is back and playing

at Cannes Classics this year.

25 The UFFO Film Festival Organization

The Universal Film & Festival Organization
code of best business practices for festivals

effects of method acting

27 APsychological
close examination on the psychological ef-

fects of Method acting by Penny Noble

Cosmopolis

P.27

Madagascar 3

P.19

A Ph.D in Film Studies

31A look at some of the more dubious, quick (no

education) degrees available.
Chinawood, new state backed film fund

33 An interesting look at the new Chinese state

-backed film fund in Hollywood
New Movie on Robert F Kennedy
39 Interesting
new film on RFK which explores

the theories surrounding his assassination

Finding you story

61 Paula
Brancato is back writing about writing

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g g

about the elements of a great screenplay

Universal Film
Issue 2 - 2012

RUST AND BONE

A film by Jacques Audiard

It all begins in the North of France.

for it.

Ali suddenly finds himself with a five yearold child on his hands. Sam is his son, but
he hardly knows him. Homeless, penniless and
friendless, Ali takes refuge with his sister in Antibes. There things improve immediately. She
puts them up in her garage, she takes the child
under her wing and the weather is glorious.

Ali and Stephanie, our two characters, do not appear in the short stories, and Craig Davidsons
collection already seems to belong to the prehistory of the project, but the power and brutality of
the tale, our desire to use drama, indeed melodrama, to magnify their characters all have their
immediate source in those stories.

Ali first runs into Stephanie during a night club

brawl. He drives her home and leaves her his
phone number. He is poor, she is beautiful and
self-assured. Stephanie trains killer whales at
Marineland. When a performance ends in tragedy, a call in the night again brings them together.

From the very beginning of our work adapting it,

we were focused on a kind of cinematography
that, for want of a better word, we called expressionist. We wanted the power of stark, brutal and
contrasting images in order to further the melodrama: the aesthetics of the Great Depression, of
county-fair films whose bizarre visual work sublimates the dark reality of a world in which God
vomits the lukewarm. It is that kind of aesthetic
that constantly guided us as we worked on the
screenplay.

When Ali sees her next, his princess is confined

to a wheel chair: she has lost her legs and quite a
few illusions. He simply helps her, with no compassion or pity. And she comes alive again.
There is something gripping about Craig Davidsons short story collection Rust and Bone,
a depiction of a dodgy, modern world in which
individual lives and simple destinies are blown
out of all proportion by drama and accident. They
oer a vision of the United States as a rational
universe in which the physical needs to fight to
find its place and to escape what fate has in store

It sustains a love story that is the true hero of

the film. It shows the world though the eyes of a
confused child. It underscores the nobleness of
our characters in a world made violent by economic disaster. And it respects Ali and Stephanies stubborn attempts to escape their condition.

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Universal Film
Issue 2 - 2012

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Director: Jacques Audiard

Universal Film
Issue 2 of 2012

You aint seen

nothing yet!
A film by Alain Resnais
From beyond the grave,
celebrated playwright
Antoine dAnthac gathers together all his
friends who have appeared over the years
in his play Eurydice.
These actors watch a
recording of the work
performed by a young
acting company, La Compagnie de la Colombe.
Do love, life, death and
love after death still
have any place on a
theater stage? Its up to
them to decide. And the
surprises have only just
begun...

Interview with Alain Resnais

When did you decide to tackle an adapt tion of a Jean Anouilh
play?
When my producer, Jean-Louis Livi, and his associates Julie
Salvador and Christophe Jeauroy suggested I do a new film
with them after Wild Grass, we started looking for a play
that would very quickly result in a script for us. In my films, Im
constantly looking for a theater-style language and musical
dialog that invites the actors to get away from the realism of
everyday life and move closer to a more obeat performance.
I read or reread dierent playwrights before I settled on Jean
Anouilh. Since the end of the 1930s, Ive been involved with
the production of around 20 of his plays. When I came out of
a production of Eurydice at the Thtre de lAtelier 70 years
ago, I was so emotional that I cycled right around Paris, and
saw the play again the following week. As I had done with
Wild Grass, I asked my friend Laurent Herbiet to look at adapting two works as a director. After two or three days, Laurent
suggested combining Eurydice with Dear Antoine, one
of Anouilhs other plays that Id asked him to read. So for our
purposes, Eurydice became a play by the dramatist Antoine
dAnthac, an eternally dissatisfied man who lacks in self-confidence and feels unloved. Antoines actors and friends who
were in the very first performance of the play, or appeared in
it 10, 20 or 30 years later, then come together to watch some
recordings of a young theater company who are now rehearsing Eurydice, which they want to perform on stage. During
the screening, Antoines friends are so overwhelmed by their
memories of the play that they start performing it together,
despite no longer being the appropriate age for their various

roles. I still feel a very special emotion when I see

a scene being performed
by an actor who is taking
on one of their former
roles. The challenge of
the film was to sustain the
drama across the back and
forth between Antoines
friends and the actors in
the recording. And it also
seemed to me to be a way
to reinforce the emotion
when Orpheus and Eurydice are reunited, these
two mythological characters who have been immortalized by the power
of the popular imagination and subconscious.
You have cast many actors who have already performed in
your films, either recently or as far back as the 1960s, as well
as choosing four newcomers in the shape of Denis Podalyds,
Andrzej Seweryn, Hippolyte Girardot and Michel Robin.
As much as I dream about working again with many actors, I
also love working for the first time with others. I was fascinated
by Denis Podalyds phrasing in the films of Bruno Podalyds
and Arnaud Desplechin and by his chameleonlike approach
when he reads books on the radio. I loved Hippolyte Girardot
in Kings & Queen and A Christmas Tale by Desplechin and
in Lady Chatterly by Pascale Ferran. Andrzej Seweryn was
extraordinary as Molires Dom Juan and Id seen Michel Robin
on stage or in the wings I dont know how many times since
he started performing with Roger Planchon at the end of the
1950s. But I was also very happy to work again with the 11
others both those Ive recently collaborated with and those I
havent seen for a long time, but whose careers I have always
followed nonetheless.
Why did you ask Bruno Podalyds to direct the recording of the
Compagnie de la Colombe?
It was an experiment, a kind of game. If Id had to come up with
an approach to directing young people on the stage in 2012,
Id have felt like a cheat. It wouldnt have been sincere. It was
more stimulating to ask a co-director and friend who was more
in touch with that generation. The screenplay showed which
parts of Eurydice to shoot, but apart from that, I gave Bruno
no other directions. He had carte blanche for the casting, the
crew and the style. He asked me for advice but I insisted, No,

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Universal Film
Issue 2 of 2012

me having nothing to do with it is part of the film.

The more dierent it is to what Id have shot myself, the better it fits with the spirit of what we are
trying to do. And the gamble I had most fun with
was waiting until the editing before seeing how his
images and my own fit together.
After Private Fears in Public Places and Wild
Grass, this is your third collaboration with American composer Mark Snow. Before now, youve never worked so frequently with another musician.
I wanted the music to be like a kind of hypnosis to
which Antoines guests succumb as their memories
assail them. So Mark Snow was perfect for that. I
was struck by the demonic, gentle and helpless
theme hed written for Chris Carters Millennium
TV series (which has nothing to do with Stieg Larssons books) and that was what made me want
to work with him. He has this wonderful ability
to combine light with shade and the simple with
the enigmatic. I was delighted when he agreed to
come from Connecticut to see the film and talk
about what he was going to do. As with my two
previous films, I played music Id used before while
I shot certain scenes to help the actors and crew
establish the right mood. My editor Herv de Luze
and I also used some of Snows music over the provisional edit of the film to help us better find the
rhythm. When we showed You Aint Seen Nothing Yet to Snow, we left some of that music in it.
His reaction was to say, If I understand correctly,
I have to better myself now! And in my opinion,
thats exactly what he did.

Interview by Franois Thomas.

Universal Film
Issue 2 - 2012

Director
Ken Loach

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Universal Film
Issue 2 - 2012

THE ANGELS'

SHARE

Ken Loach talks about his new movie The Angels

Share in competition at the Cannes film festival

While on community service, Robbie meets Rhino,

Albert and Mo for whom, like him, work is little
more than a distant dream. Little did Robbie imagine that turning to drink might change their
lives - not cheap fortified wine, but the best malt
whiskies in the world. What will it be for Robbie?
More violence and vendettas or a new future with
Uisge Beatha, the Water of Life? Only the angels know...

Ken Loach Interview

Why this story?
Late last year, the number of unemployed
young people in Britain reached over a million
for the first time. We wanted to tell a story about
this generation of young people, a lot of whom face
an empty future. They can be pretty sure that they
wont get a job, a permanent job, a secure job. Just
what eect does that have on people and how do
they see themselves?
Youve made several films in Glasgow. Why did you
choose to set a film there again?
There are other cities like Liverpool and Newcastle
or Manchester, or probably parts of the Midlands,
where you could find the same stories, but Pauls
from the west coast so thats his idiom and thats
where he writes best. And Glasgows such a powerful location that it seemed the right place to set
it - powerful in the culture of people there, is the

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sense of humour, the attitudes that people have

to life, and the history thats produced there. Its a
very collective, not an individualist culture, and yet
people have as hard a time there as anywhere you
could imagine.
Why a comedy?
Well, just to be contradictory really. You always
want to take an unexpected path. Wed done a film
like Sweet Sixteen which was about lads, younger than these, but placed in an equally impossible
situation, and that did end in tragedy. But the same
characters will have incidents in their lives which
are sometimes comic, and other times not. So we
just thought we would pick one of the comic moments.
Is the process of making a comedy any dierent to
making a serious piece?
No, the process is the same really, and I suppose
the basic aesthetic is the same. Really, the comedy
is usually the interaction of people, and the cracks
they make, or the misunderstandings, or the time it
takes for something to sink in, its not slapstick. In
a way its a story with a few smiles in it rather than
a comedy from start to finish - it certainly isnt that,
because there are one or two quite dark moments
in it. So the process is the same: its about trying
to release, or to enable people to go through the
experiences, and if its funny as it unfolds, well its
funny. If its sharp or harsh then it should be that,
and if its unsympathetic then its got to be that. The
aim is just to have truthful interactions between
people, and set them in a realistic framework. Then,
if in real life they would make you smile, they make
you smile; if in real life theyd make you cry, they
make you cry, or make you angry or whatever.

en Loachs new movie The Angles Share

is a bittersweet comedy about a Glasgow
boy locked in a family feud who just wants
a way out. When Robbie sneaks into the
maternity hospital to visit his young girlfriend Leonie and hold his newborn son Luke for
the first time, he is overwhelmed. He swears that
Luke will not lead the same stricken life he has led.

Universal Film
Issue 2 of 2012

The Angles Share

Where did you start with The Angels
Share?
The biggest issue is always whats in the
script and who are the characters. Then its
casting. We were looking for quite a long
time and saw a lot of people for Robbie.
Its just a gradual process of elimination.
A lot of people are good but theyre not
good in exactly the way you want. The locations were just a question of spadework,
so we saw a lot of distilleries - which was
no hardship!
Describe Robbie.
Hes had a very harsh childhood, hes been
involved in violence, hes served quite a
long prison sentence in a young oenders
institution, and now hes really trying to
get his life on track. Hes bright and hes
thoughtful, and hes met this girl who he
is very fond of. Theyre having a child together. But from her parents point of view,
its a disastrous relationship because all
they see is a young thug and a young criminal, and the girls father knows that world
very well. He owns clubs, hes made a lot of
money, hes moved to a better suburb, but
he knows hes from the same mean streets
that Robbies from, so he knows that this
lad has practically no chance of making a
life for himself. Therefore, hes practically
no chance of making a life for his daughter
and their child either, so in the interests of
his daughter hes going to use the methods
of the street to keep them apart. You can
have some sympathy for him, not with his
tactics, but with the dilemma. If youve got
a daughter and shes up with somebody
whos probably involved in drugs, certainly
involved in violence, no job, no way out
- you know youd be worried. Robbies at
that point where hes just going to struggle

to be a father and to be a parent, to make

some kind of living to support his family,
which he sees no way of doing at the outset, and just sees no way out. Obviously
the academic process passed him by because he was just being a teenage criminal
from a world where that was the norm. So
how do you get out of it? He says
hes determined, but when thats your
world and thats your perspective, its very
dicult to get out.
How do you decide when to cast established performers like Roger Allam in a
role like Thaddeus?
It wasnt the fact that Roger was more
established, its just that I knew him and I
knew he has a way of appearing sometimes; a way of appearing where you know
hes up to something, but you dont know
quite what. We met quite a lot of people
as well, but nobody had that air that made
you think theres something suspicious going on here but Im not clever enough to
work out what it is. And with a sense of humour as well. Theres villainy, but its villainy that makes you smile, and he has that
absolutely, without having to articulate it.
What about the rest of the cast?
Theyre all fantastic. It was very good to
work with William (Ruane) again - its always good to have somebody in the cast
who you can rely on. You know that you
can often direct the others through that
one person. Id give William a note and
hes professional enough to be able to include that in what hes doing. I know thatll
draw a particular response from the others, without them being aware that theyre
being directed. Gary (Maitland), I dont
think hes been doing any acting for a little

while, but hes been in two of our films before, and hes just very, well, he makes us
smile. He has the air of living in a parallel
universe that operates with dierent laws
to the rest of us. But also he has a very benign, good-humoured presence, and when
disasters befall him you do feel for him as
well. Jasmin (Riggins) was a delight: nice
girl, very funny, but quite astringent and a
good sharp presence.
The part we looked a long time for was finding a girl who would be Robbies partner,
Leonie. We thought it would be the easiest
part, but actually it turned out almost to
be the hardest, because pitching the social
level was very important. Because her father has made money theyve moved out,
so shes not mixing with the same group
as Robbie and the others, and her fathers
tried to give her more of a middle class
background. But nevertheless shes close
enough to Robbies world to understand it.
Finding someone who would just seem to
fit was quite a challenge. There are dierent elements to balance: it cant be somebody posh, it cant be somebody too much
from the street, but it should be someone
that Robbie would feel was a real catch. We
looked for a long time and Siobhan (Reilly)
was someone we kept coming back to. She
was lovely really, a smashing girl.
I should also say something about Charlie
Maclean. Paul had written this character
Rory. and hed met Charlie as a whisky
expert. so obviously Charlie was in his
thoughts. He was going to be an advisor,
and Paul said to me, You ought to meet
him. Once wed met him obviously he
could just do it - it was inevitable that he
would be in the film really.

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Universal Film
Issue 2 of 2012

How does whisky work as a metaphor in

this film?
The moment you start talking about the
whisky as a metaphor Ill get into pretentious areas! I think weve got to let the
audience see that. The comparison is with
Kes. In that film the bird, obviously, is
the free spirit that the boy can never be,
but we never talked about the metaphor
at the time. The audience just has a sense
of it.
How was the shoot?
There was an initial hiccup: I fell over. So
there was a short delay. That was just an
irritation. Apart from that, the production
team is so astute that by and large they
troubleshoot the problems before we get
to them. They are like a fine orchestra,
with David Gilchrist, the first AD, leading
the violins. They would probably manage
without a conductor.
Is it more fun filming a comedy?
Its always just hard work really. You wake
up in the morning in a cold sweat thinking, Am I going to get through the day?
Are we going to get it done? so I just find
its too much pressure for it to be fun. I
mean there are funny things that happen
in the course of the day invariably but the
overriding impression in the morning is
just the work youve got to get through
and the slight air of panic that you arent
going to make it. Part of the work of di-

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recting is hiding your internal panic, because you cant let it communicate.
You still have that after so many films?
Every day, throughout the day, yes. Even
days that seem quite easy theres still a
sense of a mountain youve got to climb,
and it doesnt seem to get any easier.
Some things get easier in that you know
whatever short cuts there are to take, how
you can manage it, but thats cancelled by
just the physical eort of doing it. Youve
got to put energy into it; you can never be
on the back foot, because if you are, then
everybody knows that and the energy
levels sag. If the energy levels sag the
performances will - youve got to generate the adrenalin for them to fire o. You
cant have a totally placid set and expect
people to give strong performances. And
its not fair to leave it to the performers: you cant just sit back and look at a
monitor and say, Okay, o you go, do it.
Theyve got to have a sense of constructive pressure and constructive tension,
and a constructive energy between people, because then theyll spark o each
other. The directors got to generate that.
Its all about what is going to be in front
of the camera, whats in their eyes, what
goes between them. So youve got to pace
the little surges of energy and let there be
a down period when youre setting up or
moving or whatever, and then wind it up
again.
What do you hope the audience will take
from of this film?
I hope theyll enjoy meeting the folks in
it, particularly the young people who are
either referred to as petty criminals or
benefit claimants or whatever, and just
see that they are rounded, humorous,

proper, real people; and that for every

one of that million unemployed statistic,
there are a million kids who are facing a
fairly hopeless future - and heres four of
them. Arent they interesting to meet and
arent they complex and valuable, worth
something really? I hope theyll see that
as well as enjoying the tale.
How does The Angels Share sit among
your previous work about young people?
The kids in previous films have had projects, like these four have the project of
trying to raise money through their talent
for nosing whisky. The lad in Sweet Sixteen had to raise money for a caravan for
his mum. Billy Casper in Kes had to train
the bird. They all show that idea of people
who are generally disregarded having projects which they achieve or dont achieve,
and enthusiasms and commitment and a
talent which you dont know about. I suppose its the old image of flowers on the
bombsite: in the most unlikely surroundings extraordinary things will happen.
Young people are cast adrift into a world
that, by and large, has no time for them.
I wouldnt say theres nothing that a job
wouldnt solve, but a proper secure craft,
or skill, or job, would solve most of the
problems that these kids face, and that
most people face. Because we are defined
by our work, arent we? Whether youre a
craftsman in the building trade, a joiner, or
plasterer or whatever, thats your identity
and thats your sense of self. Well, now a
lot of people dont have that. They are just
what theyre told they are which is benefit claimants and constantly scrutinised
in case theyre cheating. What sense of
self-worth can you have in that situation?

10

If somebody acted a character like that

youd get all the outward appearances of
Charlie but it would be hard to have the
knowledge and the actual concern, or the
enjoyment of whisky that he obviously
has.

Universal Film
Issue 2 - 2012

Director
Wes Anderson

11

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Universal Film
Issue 2 - 2012

MOONRISE

KINGDOM
New movie in competition directed by Academy Awardnominated filmmaker Wes Anderson ...

Bruce Willis plays the local sheri, Captain Sharp.

Edward Norton is a Khaki Scout troop leader, Scout
Master Ward. Bill Murray and Frances McDormand
portray the young girls parents, Mr. and Mrs. Bishop. The cast also includes Tilda Swinton, Jason
Schwartzman, and Bob Balaban; and introduces
Jared Gilman and Kara Hayward as Sam and Suzy,
the boy and girl.
It could have been a risky proposition for a film director to cast in key roles two newcomers with little
or no experience. But, as Moonrise Kingdom producer Jeremy Dawson notes, Wes Anderson trusts
his instincts, so it came down to whom he felt he
could visualize in these two roles and, once again,
hes hit it out of the park in terms of the casting.
As a writer, a producer, and the director, Wes is involved in every element of the film, from clothing
design to casting, adds Dawson. All of it contributes to the world that he wants to create.
Andersons enthusiasm spreads to cast and artisans, many of whom will collaborate with him on
more than one project. As one such returnee, Dawson notes, He wants the movie to be an adventure
for all the people involved in making it, whether
its getting on a train in India or traveling on a boat
in the Mediterranean. Making this movie definitely
lived up to that tradition.
He is always trying to evolve as a director, trying
new things and learning from his experiences onprevious movies.

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Wes cares about the process, says set decorator

Kris Moran. But he also cares about everybody
around him, about the on-set environment; it brings
out the best in you. When youre making a movie,
thats a creative place you want to be in.
Even when calling for multiple takes to get a scene
exactly the way hes envisioned it, Anderson remains calm and wont press to make the day.
This would serve him particularly well on Moonrise
Kingdom since key members of the cast, and most
of the extras, were children. Wes deals with children so well in much the same way that Steven
Spielberg does. Hes encouraging to them, observes Balaban.
Anderson was able to relate to the youngsters in
part because his films combine a grown-up seriousness with pure make-believe; Moonrise Kingdom
directly accesses childrens worlds of secrets and
the convergence of magical moments one associates with youthful summers. Wes had this concept
for some time, reveals Coppola. He had the world
and the characters and this feeling, and we spent
some time together discussing it. We discovered a
banter, and a manner of inquiry, between the two
of us that seemed to gel and unlock all these ideas.
After we had engaged in that dialogue, the writing
process happened very quickly. Its always mysterious how that all happens.
My role in writing was to draw out some of the
ideas and to help define them. When you have a
sounding board, it helps unlock things. That was
sort of my main function; sounding board, shaper,
editor. Together, Anderson and Coppola created
a rich tapestry of colorful characters with overlapping connections that draw us into the realm of
the movies island community, New Penzance. The
community is a richly realized place populated by
rounded and complex denizens.

12

et on an island o the coast of New England

in the summer of 1965, Moonrise Kingdom
tells the story of two 12-year-olds who fall
in love, make a secret pact, and run away
together into the wilderness. As various
authorities try to hunt them down, a violent storm
is brewing o-shore and the peaceful island community is turned upside down in every which way.

Universal Film
Issue 2 - 2012

Accordingly, actors were captivated by

the story immediately. It takes you into
a completely new world from the first
page, says Tilda Swinton. A world that is
as beautifully designed and completely
conceived as this one is always going to
be a thrill in cinema.
Murray, who also appeared in The Darjeeling Limited, adds, Its a really fine
script. There is an electricity that moves
through it; Roman and Wes are really
wonderful together.
To film their movie about the discovery of
first love and an adventure for two children, the filmmakers honed in on Rhode
Island as an all- purpose location after
what Dawson refers to as Google-scouting.
It was an unusual scouting process,
adds production designer Adam Stockhausen. Everyone myself, Wes, Jeremy,
[co-producer] Molly Cooper was in New
York and researching islands.
Dawson elaborates, The story was written to take place on an island, and was
envisioned as a New England coastal island. But we looked all over the world
albeit often from our living rooms the
Eastern seaboard, the West Coast, even
the coast of Cornwall.
With a modest population and few automobiles allowed, New Penzance lends
itself to being a place that sparks the
childrens imaginations and senses of adventure.
Rhode Islands miles and miles of beautiful coastline and its contained geography sealed the deal, finalized through the
Rhode Island Film & TV Oce. The states
topography encompasses rolling fields
and craggy ravines, points of elevation,
forests and beaches, and rocky coves.
Among the states many shooting locations for Moonrise Kingdom were Narragansett Bay; the 1,800-acre Camp Yawgoog, lensed in just ahead of the summer
season; and the historic Trinity Church in
Newport, where George Washington was
a parishioner.
Particular care was taken by the cast and
crew when working at the latter location,
which was redressed twice as New Penzances church; initially, for the pageant
at which Suzy and Sam first meet one
year before the main events of the story
transpire, and then for the
climactic sequence of the movie which
brings their adventure full circle.
The filmmakers wanted the physical production to be focused, not bloated. Accordingly, there were no big trucks, and
no actor or filmmaker trailers. Actors
were encouraged to arrive camera-ready,

requiring them to don their costumes in

their hotel rooms before coming to set.
Prudence Island, in Narragansett Bay,
provided probably the most unique location for the production. Dawson comments, Theres no infrastructure there;
theres one tiny little store at which to
buy things. We had to get local environmental clearance to set foot on some of
the pebble beaches, and charter a ferry
boat to get crew members on-site. It pays
o on-screen; Prudence really does look
untouched.
With Rhode Islands geographical versatility and the units leanness, it wasnt
uncommon for the production to move
to and film at three or four dierent locations around the state on a given day
a park here, a beach there, a waterfall
down the road.
Anderson had prepared for this part of
the process as well, with an advance
shoot weeks prior to the commencement of principal photography; he recruited a skeleton crew and shot footage
much of it amidst natural foliage that
would be included in the finished film.
This minimal unit enjoyed a great amount
of freedom
Dawson remembers, We drove around
in a van and just went around the state
and shot, including with the child actors.
The cameras were light and small, so we
werent bogged down with heavy gear.
The technology and the creativity went
hand-in-hand.
The pre-shoot encompassed a lot of
unscripted stu, and improv,
explains Gilman. We spent a whole week
in the forest.
Once the main leg of the shoot got underway, there was a feeling that we were all
at camp, or maybe a well-run playground
with rules, says Balaban. All of this was
as hoped-for; Anderson wanted cast and
crew to have as communal an experience
as possible in filming the story.
Murray remembers, My first day at work
was on a camp set, and I realized that
they didnt have trailers and so forth. We
had tents, pup tents.
It was about 40 degrees outside and
raining, but once you get 51 people
crammed inside a tent, it gets plenty
warm. We were cozy after a while.
Another factor bringing cast and crew
closer together was the collective makebelieve eort; whether they were alive in
1965 or not, each member of the unit had
to work together to help the actors slip
into their characters and the world they
inhabit.
Dawson notes, This story is Wes take on
1965. From my perspective, his previous

movies always existed in a time that you

couldnt quite place, mixing past and present.
Wes has always storyboarded in preproduction; something that we had done
on Fantastic Mr. Fox, which we also applied here, was to edit the storyboards
together with voices and music, pre-testing some of the sequences.
Our starting point was visual research,
says costume designer Kasia
Walicka Maimone. That came primarily
from photography.
Art director Gerald Sullivan concurs, saying that the biggest thing for us in the
art department was researching the architecture of the time, and of the area;
meaning, both interiors and exteriors.
So, we looked at houses on islands, lighthouses, shingled houses all in constant
collaboration with Wes, who had collected reams of research photos for us
to make use of in our designs. So many
photos accrued that a private production
website had to be set up in order for departmental stas and crew members to
have access to them all.
Set decorator Kris Moran, who had first
worked alongside Anderson as on-set
prop on The Royal Tenenbaums, notes,
Wes cares about every detail so much.
We scoured antique shops and borrowed
things from crew members and people
we met. If Wes had been out walking and
seen something on someones porch that
he liked, we chased it down. When I was
dressing a set, it was often with something that wasnt necessarily iconic of
the time, but tertiary and interesting so
that it could get more at the characters
history.
This movie has a bit of a dierent aesthetic than Wes other movies; its a little
more rough around the edges, and a little
more lived- in.
Yet there often proved to be little in
the way of vintage props, set dressing,
or wardrobe that could be found on the
scale needed for the production.
One exception was the trailer home for
Captain Sharp, Bruce Willis character;
the desired 1952 Spartanette was found
through a dealer in Texas. But for Robert Yeomans camera to be able to move
around inside, Moran says, We actually
had to cut it apart and then rebuild it. The
interior was intact, but we reconfigured
it so there could be a 360-degree field
of vision inside. We then re-dressed it in
full.
Moran recalls her team looking for tents
needed to colonize the fictional Khaki
Scouts of North Americas Troop 55 at
their camp under the command of Scout
Master Ward, played by Edward Norton.

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Universal Film
Issue 2 - 2012

After they scoured the country to locate

a stash of old stock tents, they found that
even Army/Navy stores were coming up
short. Only a couple of vintage tents had
been found and these mostly werent
the right color or shape or size; Anderson had specified the Khaki Scouts tents
piping (bright yellow) and interior lining
(plaid, including a plaid wall for Wards
own tent).
As production designer, Stockhausen
would oversee the entire look of Moonrise
Kingdom and would have to coordinate
with every department. His research was
therefore multifaceted.
He comments, I researched everything
from general lifestyle to very specific objects. For example, I wondered, In what
exact year did switches develop on night
lights? so that we wouldnt make a mistake.

Rhode Islands existing pool of craftsmen

joined the group eort. Citing their contributions, Moran enthuses, A local artist,
James Langston, carved little raccoons on
the front of the canoes, and he also made
some totem poles for us. Chris Wiley made
corn finials [e.g., sculpted ornaments] for
Scout Master Wards tent. Another artist
made all the stick furniture inside that
tent all matching out of chicory, an entire
suite! We even had a chainsaw artist make
some of the totems on top of the signage
for the Khaki Scouts camp.
For the Bishop family home, the hope was
to find a house that could immediately
assume the role. The house chosen to
portray the Bishop home exterior was Conanicut Light, in Jamestown, RI a former
lighthouse. For the interior, four candidates had such strong qualities that the
production sought to re-create elements
of each. The decision was made to build
the house interiors on a soundstage in a
vacant retail space at a local strip mall in
Middletown, RI. On the soundstage, all
the best elements whether architecture or furnishings of the favored locations were re-created.

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We had a lot of Khaki Scouts in largescale scenes, says Walicka

Maimone. I think the final number of uniforms we created was 350.
She adds, The Scout uniforms and Suzys
outfit were my absolute favorites, but I
also particularly enjoyed doing the ones
for Scout Master Ward, Mr. Bishop, and Social Services.
In Moonrise Kingdom, the latter is neither
a department nor a group, but rather the
name of a character; Tilda Swinton was
cast as Social Services.
Real-life social services workers did not
wear uniforms, so Walicka Maimone
turned to the Salvation Army for inspiration as well as to women-in-service uniforms. She then accentuated shapes and
extended capes until she came up with the
final outfit one eagerly donned by Swinton, hat-wig and all.
Social Services uniform was the most
structured, the most physically tailored
piece we had, says Walicka Maimone.
Swinton elaborates, Social Services represents authority, force majeure; when
mayhem erupts, she is called in to impose
order. Social Services wears a blue-andwhite uniform, a pantsuit. Atop her head
is a Salvation Army ocer-style hat. Tied
around her neck is a red ribbon, in a bow.
There are several cinematic references,
and actresses and actors, which inspired
us; I loved playing that out with Wes.
In contrast, the costume for Frances McDormands character of Mrs. Bishop reflects an amalgamation of women artists,
painters, and writers from the 1960s. The

back story proered by Anderson was that,

though Mrs. Bishop is a lawyer, she grew
up in a house full of creative types and so
her costuming is infused with more colorful elements.
As Swinton notes wistfully, My mother
wore clothes like those that Fran wears. I
remember all these colors from my early
childhood in a very visceral way; the costumes are so accurate.
In this story, our community of adults
doesnt really know what theyre doing
and in the process find themselves to be
no less childlike, and no more grown-up,
than the two children. It was great fun, a
real joy, to be part of this movie. There is
such a playfulness in it because there is
absolute structure.
Bill Murray and Jason Schwartzman had
first starred for Anderson in his acclaimed
Rushmore back in 1998, and have since
reteamed with him multiple times apiece.
Dawson notes, Bill and Jason are always
great to have around. Bill keeps us all going; hes our pep captain.
Whether learning about typewriters or
ties, the two youngest newcomers realized
that their first moviemaking experience
was something special. Moonrise Kingdom is such a sweet story, says Hayward.
Its beautiful. I love everything about the
movie how the story is told, the relationship between the characters and I hope
audiences love everything about it too.
Gilman enthuses, Its got action. Its got
comedy. Its got drama. Its got romance. It
really packs a punch!

14

Stockhausens crew proved inventive and

resourceful, making camp signs out of
sticks and logs tied together. As with the
tents, the storys requisite canoes were
built to design specifics; many mornings
at the local Holiday Inn Express, crew
members would test out the newly built
and painted canoes in the hotel pool.
Since these were made out of plywood,
buoyancy was not always achieved; ultimately, for many of the scenes involving
canoeing, o-camera ballast of weighted
keels had to be rigged underneath, helping to maintain the actors immersion in
the moment rather than risk their immersion in the drink.

Universal Film
Issue 2 - 2012

Director
Leos Carax
15

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Universal Film
Issue 2- 2012

HOLY
MOTORS
In competition
Cannes 2012

SYNOPSIS
From dawn to after nightfall, a few hours in
the life of Monsieur Oscar, a shadowy character who journeys from one life to the next. He
is, in turn, captain of industry, assassin, beggar, monster, family man.
He seems to be playing roles, plunging headlong into each part, but where are the cameras?
Monsieur Oscar is alone, accompanied only
by Cline, the slender blonde woman behind
the wheel of the vast engine that transports
him in and around Paris.
Hes like a conscientious assassin moving
from hit to hit. In pursuit of the purely beautiful act, the mysterious driving force, the
women and ghosts of past lives.

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16

But where is his true home, his family, his

rest?

Universal Film

Issue 2 of 2012

17

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FUNDING

Universal Film
Issue 2 of 2012

by Tifanie Jodeh, Esq.

Legal Issues Surrounding Funding Via Private Equity (USA)

ailing down investors is just

the beginning of the story
and a very integral part of the
production process. You should be
aware of security laws that regulate
how investors make investments into a
project and how they hope for a large
return while understanding the risk of
loss.

Generally, producers are required to

register any offer or sale of securities
unless it is exempt (as discussed below). The registration process takes
time, and can be expensive. Instead,
producers sometimes operate on the
practical exemptions for acquiring investment.
The most common exemption for entertainment projects is found under
Rule 506. This is called the safe harbor
clause. Rule 506 ensures a production
company meet the requirements that
the investment request is a private offering.
Elements to Rule 506:
To qualify under Rule 506 it is important
to address the following items:
1. No General Solicitation and General
Advertising.

rities is sophisticated in investing. The

combined effect rule (which is interpreted by the Securities and Exchange
Commission) can sometimes conflict
with what you have witnessed in the
entertainment business.
2. Purchaser Limitation.
The sale of any security may be made
to an unlimited number of accredited
investors (meaning sophisticated, high
net worth investors who can meet certain requirements as set forth in the
SEC rules) and up to 35 unaccredited
investors. These unaccredited investors
(or their representatives) must have sufficient knowledge and experience in
financial and business matters to make
them capable of evaluating the merits
and risks of the prospective investment.

5. Form D Filing.
A Form D is required to be filed within
the first 15 days of the first allocation
of a security. Additionally, filings of
the form must be made in most states
where sales are made to residents of
that state.
Now that you understand the legal policies , following the rules is very important no matter the size of your project.
Be over-prepared and know how much
money you need, and have a detailed
budget. This will show investors you are
serious and professional. Make sure an
entertainment attorney is on your team
who can help you navigate the world of
entertainment investment.

3. Time Restriction/ Securities Restricted.

The securities may not be resold for a
certain time period and such re-sales
are governed by securities laws. Producers must try to assure that an investor is
purchasing the securities for investment
purposes and not simply to turn around
and re-sell them.
4. Information Disclosure.

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One of the main goals of securities laws

is to allow investors to make educated
and informed decisions based on accurate information provided by the
producer. If any unaccredited investors
are sold securities in an offering, then
specific information disclosure is required and must be provided, such as
in a private placement memorandum.
Conversely, if accredited investors are
making the investment then there are
no specific disclosure requirements
aside from disclosures required to avoid
the anti-fraud provisions of the securities laws. It is recommended that the
producer provided extensive disclosure
information to avoid the potential lawsuit of an unhappy investor.

Tifanie Jodeh is Partner at Entertainment Law Partners, dedicated to corporate, business and entertainment
affairs.
You may contact her at Tifanie@entlawpartners.com.

18

The Producer cannot engage in general advertising or general solicitation.

This means that offers and sales of securities cannot be made through traditional media advertising such as radio,
television and the Internet. Representatives of the production company must
have a substantive pre-existing relationship with the person or entity being
offered the securities. In other words,
a relationship between friends and/or
family. This pre-existing relationship is
one which is present before a producer
approaches a potential investor to invest. Even more, the producer must
establish that the relationship is substantive; one where the representatives
of the production company believe the
person or entity being offered the secu-

Universal Film
Issue 2 of 2012

MADAGASCAR
THE THIRD INSTALLMENT OF THE BILLION DOLLAR FRANCHISE..
n the third installment of the billiondollar Madagascar franchise, Alex
(Ben Stiller), Marty (Chris Rock), Gloria
(Jada Pinkett Smith) and Melman (David
Schwimmer) are determined to make
their way back to The Central Park Zoo
in New York City. Leaving Africa behind,
theyve taken a detour and surfaced,
quite literally, in Europe on a hunt for
the penguins and chimps who have managed to break the bank of a Monte Carlo
casino. Soon the animals are discovered
by dogged French animal control ocer
Capitaine Chantel DuBois (Frances McDormand) who does not appreciate zoo
animals running wild in her city and is
thrilled by the idea of hunting her first
lion! The Zoosters find the perfect cover
in a down-and out traveling circus where
they hatch a plan to reinvent the circus,
discover a few new talents and make
it home to New York alive. For the first
time in 3D, the Zoosters of Madagascar
are on the run, hiding out with the circus,

doing death defying tricks and making

new friends.
DreamWorks Animation SKG Presents
Madagascar 3: Europes Most Wanted,
a PDI/DreamWorks Production featuring
the voices of Ben Stiller, Chris Rock, David Schwimmer, Jada Pinkett Smith, Sacha Baron Cohen, Cedric The Entertainer,
Andy Richter, Frances McDormand, Jessica Chastain, Bryan Cranston and Martin
Short. The film is directed by Eric Darnell
and Tom McGrath, helmers of the franchises the first two installments, which
earned more than $1 billion at the boxoce, and are joined this go-round by
director Conrad Vernon
(Shrek 2, Monsters vs. Aliens). The
screenplay is written by Eric Darnell and
Noah Baumbach (Fantastic Mr. Fox,
Greenberg). It is produced by Mireille
Soria (Madagascar 2) and Mark Swift
(Madagascar 2). The music is by Hans
Zimmer. This film has been rated PG.

The global success of 2005s Madagascar and its lively 2008 sequel Madagascar: Escape 2 Africa, proved that
while the films were broad comedies
with plenty of action, they were, above
all, well-told stories with universal
themes that audiences related to. For the
filmmakers, it was never enough to just
go for the laughs.
As director/writer Tom McGrath says:
Having an emotional spine to a story
is really what carries you through
because if you just string a lot of jokes
together, there isnt much to cling to.
Director/writer Eric Darnell observes:
As an audience you want to be able to
connect with and empathize with the
characters wants and needs. To be able
to plumb those depths is critical.

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Universal Film
Issue 2 of 2012

R3
The filmmakers desire to take the characters to new places literally and figuratively continues in Madagascar 3.
Incorporating Ralph Waldo Emersons inspirational quote, Life is a journey, not
a destination as their maxim, the filmmakers chose to explore themes of what
it means to be home, have confidence
and find ones passions. As a result, Alex,
Marty, Melman and Gloria have found a
better sense of who they are, while grappling with the wilds of Madagascar and
Africa.

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20

As Darnell puts it, Thats what has been

the core desire of our guys from the beginning: To identify their place in the
world.And what a world its turning out
to be for them. Their journey took the
Zoosters from New York, to the eponymous island of Madagascar, then to the
wilds of Africa. In the latest installment,
the adventure unfolds all across Europe,
which naturally calls for a grander scale
visually and in the storytelling.

Universal Film
Issue 2 - 2012

Spielbergs JAWS to
play at Cannes Classics
he Festival de Cannes 2012
will be screening a number of
legendary titles in its annual
showcase of restored films:
Cannes Classics. The program includes
13 feature films, two shorts and four
documentaries from iconic filmmakers
such as Robert De Niro, Roman Polanski
and Steven Spielberg.
As part of an exciting line-up of restored prints, Universal Pictures will
be presenting a restored print of Steven Spielbergs Jaws.
Others include Once Upon a Time In
America, Jaws and The Ring. Martin Scorseses Film Foundation will be
presenting a restored version of Sergio
Leones Once Upon a Time in America. Jennifer Connelly, Arnon Milchan,
Robert De Niro, Elizabeth McGovern and the Leone family will attend
Cannes for the screening of the legendary title restored by the Cinematheque
of Bologna at the Immagine Ritrovata
Laboratory.
A rare appearance will also be made
by Roman Polanski to present his 1979
film Tess.

Director
Steven Spielberg
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Issue 2 - 2012

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22

Jaws is Back

Universal Film
Issue 2 - 2012

GANGS
OF
WASSEYPUR

Gangs of Wasseypur is the first commercial Indian film to be screened at Directors Fortnight at the Cannes Film Festival 2012

he Indian movie, Gangs Of Wasseypur, is set to make film history

as the first commercial Bollywood film to
be part of the 65th Cannes Film Festival
Directors fortnight segment.
Produced and presented by one of Indias leading integrated film companies,
Viacom 18 Motion Pictures, with the
young, cutting-edge film director Anurag
Kashyap at the helm, Gangs Of Wasseypur is a mainstream commercial Indian
film, which tells an epic tale, spanning 60
years of a feuding familys life set against
the backdrop of the rural coal communities in Dhanbad, Jharkhand, India.
Gangs of Wasseypur combines clever
filmmaking with a powerful, high-concept
and entertaining plot, with revenge at

its core. Accentuated by esteemed performances a talented and eclectic cast

compris of Hindi cinemas finest, Manoj
Bajpayee, Nawazuddin Siddiqui and Richa
Chadda, the film is cleverly told in two
separate films. Generating widespread
interest from critics and audiences alike,
Gangs Of Wasseypur breaks with Indian
cinema conventions in the same mould as
the Academy Award winning film Slumdog Millionaire, and other acclaimed
films such as Bandit Queen.

tional cinematic successes as Satya and

Water.

Anurag Kashyap is renowned for his work

in creating a niche in Indian cinemas
avant-garde space. He is also th mastermind behind Black Friday a controversial and award-winning film about the
1993 Mumbai bombings, and the awardwinning screenwriter of such interna-

Viacom 18 Motion Pictures presence at

the Cannes Film Festival 2012 will be a
holistic celebration of Indian cinemas
vast contribution to the world of entertainment.

Viacom 18 Motion Pictures and the Cannes

Film Festival will hold special media and
trade screenings of Gangs Of Wasseypur
on the 22nd of May 2012. Other highlights for the film during the festival week
will include cocktails hosted by Viacom18
Motion Pictures at the NFDC India Pavilion, and a debate forum on Bollywoods
changing place within Indian cinema.

23

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Universal Film

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24

Issue 2 - 2012

Universal Film
Issue 2 of 2012

UFFO

Universal
Film &
Festival
Organization

UFFO

HAS 130 FILM

FESTIVALS
MEMBERS

UFFO launches code of

Best Business Practices for film festivals to strong industry support..

Maureen OHara

Every once in a while

there is something that
stands out and compels
us to notice it; I think that
is what struck me most
about UFFO when it was
first brought to my attention. I am so tremendously
honoured and proud to be
the President of such an international organisation
that promotes ethics in an
industry I love so much.

ince UFFO launched

on the 1st July 2011
its code of best business practices has
been adopted by
over 130 international film
festivals and has gathered
strong support from organizations all over the world.
With stories being published
on almost a daily basis about
crooked film festivals, something had to be done to protect filmmakers from fraud
and to assure that honest festival organizers hard-earned
reputations were protected.
At this stage it was just an
ideal. Sometime later I attended an international Film
Festival in the UK. I discovered that the festival organizer and his partner,

Tyrone D Murphy is the founder

and CEO of UFFO, he was responsible for creating and implementing UFFOs code of Best Business
Practices that has been adopted
by over 130 international film festivals.
He is an award winning film
producer and director, a festival executive director and now
dedicates his time to benefit the
filmmaking and film festival communities through UFFO.
Tyrone Power JR, is the Chairman of the UFFO committee
USA. He is an acclaimed actor in
his own right and follows in the
footsteps of his famous father
Tyrone Power Senior.
The promotion of ethics and
standards is a noble and worthwhile goal in any walk of life. To be
able to help do so in an industry I
love and admire is truly a gift and
an honour. I am proud to be a part
of the UFFO organization which
fosters and promotes the dedicated, passionate work of filmmakers and film festivals around the
world. Tyrone Power.

a film director, had a film in

competition in their own festival. (Nothing illegal about
that; a number of festival organizers regularly promote
their own and even their
friends films.) The screening
programme was set up with
their own film taking prime
position in the lineup. In addition, the film was nominated in 7 of the 10 categories.
Although the film was slated
by many of the UKs critics it
managed to win an award in
every category. Almost 400
other filmmakers submitted
their films to this festival and
paid $50 for the privilege.
What was very apparent
was that there needed to be
something in place to stop
this from happening. There
was no code of practice or
best business practices anywhere in the world that was
fair to both filmmakers and
film festival organizers. We
wrote a very basic set of good
business practices and published it on social networking
sites LinkedIn and Facebook
to judge the reaction. The
response from both communities was phenomenal. We
were inundated with e-mail
from all corners of the globe,
telling us horror stories, and
why a code of best business
practices is needed.
The whole idea behind this
was to improve the relationship between industry professionals, and acknowledge
the importance of enhanced
cooperation between filmmakers and film festivals. It
led to a heated debate over
many months festival directors and filmmakers. Both
communities had very strong
opinions about what should
and should not be included.

On the one hand, the majority of festival directors run legitimate operations, provide
a great service and want to
play fair; on the other hand
the filmmaking community
had a gut full of the fraudulent activity that was taking
their hard-earned dollars. The
few bad apples in the barrel
were blighting the entire film
industry.
UFFOs code of Practices has
ten guiding principles. The
successful implementation of
this code was largely dependent on its acceptance by the
film festival and filmmaking
community as a whole. The
code is completely voluntary
and has helped define the
obligations and responsibilities towards the filmmaking
community
The code offers a pragmatic
approach to implementation
that is based on rational and
transparent working methods. It promotes good business practices and assists in
the development of relationships between film festival
organisers and the filmmaking community. The Universal Film and Festival Organization was later formed
to manage the database of
UFFO film festivals.
Membership to UFFO is completely free and is open to
all creative individuals, filmmakers and film festivals. It
is completely voluntary and
easy to implement, its also a
blueprint for filmmakers deciding which film festivals to
do business with.

25

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Please support UFFO

www.uo.org

Universal Film
Issue 2 of 2012

UFFOs Best Business

Practices for Film Festivals
No 1: Film festival organizers should operate a transparent selection process and publish details of the
selection process and the names of the jury/selection
committee (publication can be after a festival concludes)

REAL LIFE
STORIES OF
STRUGGLE
AND COURAGE
FROM
AROUND
THE WORLD

No 2: Film festival organizers should provide full contact details for the festivals oces including address
and telephone numbers and the names of the festival
directors and/or committee
No 3: A film festival should publish its legal status as
a company, charity or non-profit (this only applies to a
registered entity)
No 4: Film festival organizers should not share filmmakers financial data with any third parties
No 5: Film festivals should publish a year-by-year history of festival winners and ocially selected films
No 6: Film festival organizers, committee and/or jury
should not show or demonstrate any favouritism to any
film submitted to the festival, or attempt to influence
other members of the jury or selection committee
No 7: Film festivals should declare the number of films
sought and/or invited by the festival organizers to participate in the festival prior to and before the general
call for submissions is sent out
No 8: Film festivals should provide the names of the
selection committee and/or jury members who viewed
the screeners of films submitted to the festival (this
could be after the festival has concluded)
No 9: Film festival organizers should view at least 5
minutes of all submitted films
No 10: All Festival organizers should declare any conflict of interest that may arise from any film submitted
to or invited to participate in the festival

THIS IS OMAR, A TEENAGE

REFUGEE FROM SOMALIA.

A LIFE ON HOLD

IS A NEW FILM ABOUT

OMARS LIFE IN A REFUGEE
CAMP IN TUNISIA.
WATCH AT
AMNESTY.ORG/REFUGEES

CHILDREN OF
THE JAGUAR

AN INDIGENOUS COMMUNITY IN
THE AMAZON JUNGLE TAKE ON
THE COMBINED MIGHT OF THE
GOVERNMENT AND AN OIL
COMPANY IN ORDER TO SAVE
THEIR WAY OF LIFE AND THE
RAINFOREST THEY LIVE IN.

WATCH AT
BIT.LY/JAGUAR-TRAILER

www.ufmag.org

26

Find out more:

avproduction@amnesty.org

Universal Film
Issue 2 of 2012

COSMO

Interview with
Director
David Cronenberg
27

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Universal Film

OPoLIS

Issue 2 of 2012

David Cronenbergs new movie Cosmopolis

in competition at Cannes 2012

After the feats that are his Naked Lunch, inspired

by William S. Burroughs, and Crash, based on J.G.
Ballard, here is Cronenbergs vision of Don DeLillos novel, Cosmopolis its externalization in
some way. DeLillo said of this prophetic and hellish take on where the world is headed , DeLillo said
that he has concentrated on a literary sphere, all
the voices heralding the catastrophe that was to
come and is now upon us. Cronenberg echoes this
approach by creating a cinematic space that combines genres and literally bowls the audience over.
You come out groggy, unsure where you are. What
you can be sure of is that Cronenberg has always
been a visionary. Yes, the man has always had within him parasite murders that gradually transform
him into a mutant, irredeemably gnawing at society. Wall Streets golden boys are the latest result of
this mutation, and they will finish o the diseaseridden body of theCosmopoli. Franois Guerif,
Director of the Rivages Noir collection.

Interview with David Croneberg

Did you know Don DeLillos novel?
No, I hadnt read it. Paulo Branco and his son Juan
Paulo came to suggest that I adapt it for the screen,
Paulo told me: My son thinks you are the one who
should make the film. I knew other books by DeLillo, and I knew Paulo and the many great films he
has produced, so I thought: its worth taking a look.
This is quite unusual for me, since I generally prefer
to come out with my own projects. But because of
these two, I said okay and took the book. Two days

www.ufmag.org

later, I had read it and I called Paulo to say: All right,

Im i.
You wanted to write the screenplay yourself?
Definitely. And you know what? I did it in six days. Thats
unprecedented. In fact, I started typing down all the dialogues from the book on my computer, without changing or adding anything. It took me 3 days. When I was
done, I wondered: Is there enough material for a film? I
think so. I spent the next three days filling up the gaps
between dialogues and just like that, I had a script. I
sent it to Paulo, who first said: Youre rushing it. But in
the end he liked the script and o we went.
What convinced you that the novel could be turned into
a film, and that you wanted to direct it?
The amazing dialogues. DeLillo is famous for it, but
the dialogues in Cosmopolis are especially brilliant.
Some dialogues are said to be Pinteresque, a la Harold Pinter, but I think we should also talk about DeLillesque dialogues. Except Pinter is a playwright, his
virtuosity as a dialogist is more obvious, but as far as
novels are concerned, Dons work clearly shows exceptional expressive power.
What was your take on Don DeLillos world?
I had read several of his books, Libra, Underworld,
Running Dog. I really like his work, even if its allAmerican. I am not American, I am Canadian. It is really
dierent. Americans and Europeans think of Canadians
as better behaved and slightly more sophisticated versions of Americans, but it is far more complicated than
that. In Canada, we didnt have a revolution, slavery,
or a civil war, here only the police and the army carry
guns, we dont share such civilian armed violence at
all, and we have a deep sense of community, and of the
necessity to provide everyone with a minimum income.
Americans regard us as a socialist country! It is somewhat dierent with DeLillos books, because I can grasp
his vision of America, he makes it understandable and I
can relate to it.

28

What immediately strikes one when watching Cosmopolis is that David Cronenberg
has once again taken up the challenge of
making the film of the impossible-to-adapt
book, and in doing so, expands and enhances a unique body of work haunted by themes that
were considered obsessive or marginal when he
started out, but recount the world like no other
directors movies.

Universal Film
Issue 2 of 2012

Both
the
novel and the film
take place in New York, but
in slightly dierent ways. The book
gives meticulous geographical details,
while the film is more abstract.
In the novel, Eric Packers limousine
crosses Manhattan from East to West
along 47th Street. Many places described in the book dont exist any
more, this New York has become partly
imaginary. To me, even if the book is unquestionably set in New York, it is a very
subjective New York, we are actually in
Eric Packers mind. His version of the
city is mostly cut o from the realities of
the street, he doesnt really understand
the people
p p or the city
y itself. Therefore I
thought it was legitimate to settle for a
more abstract vision, even though it is
unfoldreally New York that you can see unfold
ing behind the cars windows.
A decade has passed between the writing of the novel and the making of the
film. Did you think of it as a problem?
I didnt, because the novel is surprisingly prophetic. And while we were making the film, things happened that were
described in the novel, Rupert Murdoch
received a pie in the face, and of course
there has been the Occupy Wall Street
movement, after we finished shooting. I
had to change very few things to make
the story contemporary, the only dierence is we used the Yuan instead of the
Yen. I dont know if DeLillo has stock accounts but he should; he has a remarkably perceptive vision of what is going
on and how
You read a book dierently when you
know that you might turn it into a film.
Yes, indeed. It had never happened to
me, I dont read books thinking: Could
this make a film? It is not what I usually
look for, I just read a lot because I enjoy
it. It would spoil the fun. But this time, I
found myself making two things at once,
reading both as the reader of
a good novel and as a director wondering if there is enough material for a film.
Of course, afterwards, once there is an
adaptation, you get a fusion between
the sensibility of two authors, in this
case DeLillo and myself. It was the same
thing with Ballard or Stephen King.
It is like making a child, you need two
people, and the film turns out looking a
little bit like both of its parents, or it is
like Marxist dialectics. Indeed, I couldnt
but think a little about Marx while making the film, if only because you can
hear the first sentence from the
spectre
Communist Manifesto in it, a spectr
re
is haunting the world

Only
n o w
its not Europe, its the
world youre talking about.
Sure. But here is an important topic, one that I had never really
tackled before: money. The power of
plan
money, the way it shapes the world.
for my
In order to deal with it, I didnt need
crew and the
to make thorough research into the
actors, and a producworld
ld off finance. IIts agents are everytion tool, too. You have to think of all
where to be seen. They are on televithat at once, what kind of information
sion, in documentaries, in the papers.
will the set designer, the prop designer
They do and say what DeLillo wrote,
or the costume designer need? What
their behavioural patterns are just like
are the financial consequences of such
Eric Packers. To me, the reference to
and such option? Etc.
Marx isnt trivial. In the Communist
Manifesto, Marx writes about modernAmong the changes you made, there
ism, about the time when capitalism
is that scene at the end of the book
will have reached such a degree
when Eric Packer finds himself on
of expansion that society will
a film set
go too fast for the people, and
Cannes
when the impermanent and
Yes, I soon as I read it, I thought:
official
the unpredictable will rule. In
its not really happening, it is
1848! And this is exactly what
selection only in Packers mind. I dont
you get to see in the film. I
believe it. And I couldnt see
2012
often wondered what Karl
myself filming dozens of naked
Marx would have thought about
bodies in a street of New York. I am
the film, because it shows a lot of
wary of films within films. It can be inthings he had foreseen.
teresting, but only when its called for. It
is one of the main cuts I made from the
What do you mean by filling up the
book, together with the bags lady, the
gaps between dialogues?
homeless woman they find in the car
when coming back from the rave party. I
After three days, my dialogues were
shot the scene, but afterwards I thought
in limbo, I had to figure out how to
the situation was unlikely, artificial, so I
make them happen in the limousine.
edited it out.
Therefore I had to describe the limo in
detail: Where does Eric sit? Where are
the others? What is happening
pp
g in the
streets? In what kind of setting does the
cream pie attack occur? And so on. It is
mostly practical stu, like choosing settings and props, but it does shape
the film. I have never written a
screenplay for another director, so when I write,
I always have the
directing in my
y
mind. To me,,
a script is
also a

29

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Universal
U
niversal Film
Issue 2 of 2012

with
Peter
Suschitzky,the
cinematographer I
have been working with
since 1987, we are always
trying out new things and trying
to surprise each other. Its more fun
that way.

It wouldnt have worked in the film. We

would have needed a voice-over or one
of these devices which often generate
poor results. I preferred to save it all for
the meeting between Packer and him,
the final sequence, which is very long:
20 minutes. 20 minutes of dialogues!
It is a choice, the kind of choices you
have to make to turn a novel into a film.
Then again, when a script is over, I still
dont know what kind of film I am going
to make. I am often asked if the outcome
is up to my expectations, but I have no
expectations to begin with. It would
be absurd to devise a kind of blueprint
or an ideal, and to try and match it as
closely as possible. Only the countless
steps in the making of a film can make
it what it is in the end. And its all for
the best. This is why I dont make storyboards: everybody just tries to recreate
what was drawn. That is not my idea of
cinema. I need to be surprised, by myself and by
y the others. Starting
g
with the actors, of
course. But
even

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How
H
was the
th casting
ti process??

Howard Shore was one of the first

persons I sent the script to. It had two
characteristics. First, it featured music,
like songs from Sufi rapper Brutha Fez,
or Erik Satie. Also, there was a huge
amount of dialogues, which is quite
challenging for the score, especially
when dialogues are subtle and you just
We
cannott putt trumpets
t
t all
ll over them.
th
W
needed a music that was discreet but
still capable of establishing certain
tones. Howard worked with Canadian
band Metric, singer Emily Haines uses
her voice like an instrument, in a subtle
way that perfectly met our needs.

Interestingly, as was already the case

for A Dangerous Method, the actors werent those I had in mind to begin with. Both times, it was part of the
permanent reinvention of the film. For
Cosmopolis, at first Colin Farrell was
to play the main part, and Marion CotilYou insisted that your actors should say
lard was to play Elise, Eric Packers wife.
their lines exactly as they were written
Then, Farrell had a conflicting schedule
and Marion Cotillard was pregnant.
Yes I did. You can make a film in a way
So I changed the script, adjusting
that allows the actors to improit to a younger actor, which is
vise, great directors have sucmore faithful to the book, and
Based on a cessfully done it, but I have a
of course his wife also had to
dierent perspective. I dont
novel
be younger. Its much better
think it is the actors job to
by Don
this way. The real problem is
write dialogues. Especially for
DeLillo
when you have made funding
this film, since the dialogues,
arrangement based on the name
by Don DeLillo himself, were
of an actor and he walks away its
the reason why I wanted to make
not an artistic problem, its a money
it in the first place. That being said,
problem. But this wasnt really an issue
the actors still had broad leeway, tone
for us.
and rhythm were entirely up to them. It
was particularly interesting for Robert
Did you think of Robert Pattinson right
Pattinson, on whose limo various charaway?
acters turn up, played by very dierent
actors. It brought him to act dierently
Yes. His work in Twilight is interestdepending on which actor was opposite
ing, although of course it falls within a
him.
particular framework. I also watched
Little Ashes and Remember Me and
Did you try to shoot the film chronologiI was convinced he could become Eric
cally?
Packer. It is a heavy part, he appears on
each and every shot, and I dont think I
As much as possible. It was the case for
have ever made a film on which the
almost all the scenes within the limo.
same actor literally never leaves
Paul Giamatti came at the end, and the
the frame. The choice of an
last scene we shot is the final scene in
actor is a matter of inthe film. Sometimes there were practituition, there are no
cal impediments, but for the most part,
rules or instrucI managed to respect chronology better
tions about
than on my previous films. Given that
it.
the story unfolds in a single day, but
following a complex evolution, it was
especially beneficial to work that way.

30

And
A
d
off
course you also
cut the chapters in which
Benno Levin intervenes within the story,
before the final meeting.

For this film,

youve teamed up again with
most of the people you usually work
with, like Peter Suschitzky, or composer
Howard Shore, who has written music
for all your films, starting with The
Brood thirty-three years ago.. years
ago. Did you have any special requirements for the music this time?

Universal Film
Issue 2 of 2012

GET A Ph.D
IN FILM STUDIES

WITH NO STUDYING?
A Ph.D degree in Film and Media Studies from McFord University

With the current economic

climate aecting employment
around the world, it is becoming
even tougher to nail down that job.
Some applicants attempt to even the
playing field and top up their resume
qualifications with a quickie degree.
While there are many Universities
out there oering such degrees for
a few hundred dollars, a note of caution; as the old saying goes, Buyer
Beware.
We looked around at some of the
Universities oering these types
of degrees and contacted two that
stood out from the rest: The McFord
University and Panworld University
organizations allegedly based in the
United States. Both oered me a PhD
in Film and Media Studies, where
there is no need to study, as the degrees are based on life experience,
and according to both Universities
their degrees are fully recognised by
the US State Department. What more
could you ask for? Who would want
to go to school when you can easily
buy an education or the appearance
of an education?
After some correspondence back and
forth I managed to speak to both Universities on the telephone and had
some interesting conversations in
broken English. Although the representative of McFord, a Pakistani gentlemen named Kevin, clearly lacked
a basic understanding of the English
language, he certainly made up for
it with his selling skills. For almost
a minute I forgot the amazing deal I
was being oered was a scam.

Both Universities stated that when I

paid the required amount, which is
$900 to McFord and $1,700 to Panworld, for a Ph.D degree in Film and
Media Studies, the degree would
then go through a three-step process.
First, the degree will be notarised
by the US Notary Department, then
it would be legally certified by US
Secretary of States oce, and then
it would be authenticated by US Department of State and duly stamped
by their oce.
After a series of follow up (hard
sell) telephone calls from them,
they gave me just 24 hours to make
my mind up or the Ph.D degree would
be allocated to someone else.
Both of these so-called Universities
are one and the same; the e-mail confirmation from both Universities are
almost identical, including the spelling errors. Both claim to be based
in the United States, both are oering degrees without any studying or
former qualifications. Both are stating that the Ph.D degrees in Film and
Media Studies are accredited by the
State Department and Hillary Clintons oce.
We wrote to Hillary Clintons oce at
the State Department but have yet to
receive a reply. However, according
to the State Departments website,
Consular ocials at any embassy
or consulate abroad can provide a
service similar to the functions of a
notary public in the United States. It
is also possible to have a document
notarized by a local foreign notary
and then have the document authen-

ticated by the appropriate foreign

authority in a country party to the
Hague Convention Abolishing the
Requirement for Legalization of Foreign Public Documents.
We also checked the list of accredited
universities held by US Department
of Education and neither Panworld
nor McFord Universities are listed.
Further investigations revealed that
Panworld University is part of an international group of more than 15
universities and over 30 websites.
As with all of the other universities
in this group, McFord and Panworld
oer life experience degrees with
absolutely no qualifications. It is believed the group is based in Pakistan
and the United Arab Emirates.
Although Panworld University has
only been around a few years, the
group itself has been around for approximately twelve years. There has
been a torrent of complaints from
people receiving degrees from these
universities under this group.
The Better Business Bureau has drafted a report on the groups original
University Belford University, that
details over 170 unresolved complaints.
Buyer Beware!

31

www.ufmag.org

Universal Film
Issue 2 of 2012

Congratulations tyrone!
We are pleased to announce that based on your
resume and your profile score calculated using
the CPAAS profile evaluation system, the evaluation committee at Panworld University has finally
approved you for PhD Degree. You are among the
5% of candidates who qualified under the CPAAS
profile evaluation system
We congratulate you on being approved as a Panworld University Graduate and wish you all the success in your future endeavors.
For any queries or concerns, please give us a call at
our Toll free number:1-877-265-9656 and speak to
our advissor
Regards,
Experience Evaluation Committee,
Panworld University
Toll free number: 1-877-265-9656

www.ufmag.org

McFord University ($900)

Congratulations Tyrone Murphy!
We are pleased to announce that based on your
resume and your profile score calculated using
the CPAAS profile evaluation system, the evaluation committee at McFord University has finally
approved you for PhD Degree. You are among the
5% of candidates who qualified under the CPAAS
profile evaluation system.
We congratulate you on being approved as a McFord
University Graduate and wish you all the success in
your future endeavors.
For any queries or concerns, please give us a call at
our Toll free number:1-877-265-9643 and speak to
our advissor
Regards,
Experience Evaluation Committee,
McFord University
Toll free number: 1-877-265-9643

32

PanWorld University ($1704.34)

Universal Film
Issue 2 of 2012

CHINAWOOD?

Will the new Chinese state-backed film fund influence Hollywood?

ollowing the news that a proposed $800 million Chinese
state-backed film investment fund is
being set up in Hollywood, we take
a closer look at how this fund conflicts with the Chinese states own
censorship policy, and whether the
film industry in Hollywood may be
influenced by the Chinese communist regime exercising control over
the fund.

The state-backed fund, The China

Mainstream Media National Film
Capital Hollywood Inc., will be led
by Buting Yang, a former chairman of
the state-run distributor, China Film
Group Corp. The fund will co-finance
and co-produce movies which have
larger box oce potential around
the world, with the expectation that
more films will reach the ever-growing Chinese market.
The fund will have oces in Beijing
and Beverly Hills, and has adopted
a Western movie-making approach
and management style, supported
by financing from the Chinese state.
It will be interesting to see what this
style of management this will turn
out to be.While no more than 20 foreign films can be distributed within
China each year, the censorship in
the Peoples Republic of China has

not waned in the slightest.

It is well known that China heavily
censors its own media, including television, print media, radio, film, theatre, text messaging, instant messaging, video games, literature and the
Internet.

agreement may benefit the big players,

such as Time Warner Inc., Walt Disney
Co. and Viacom Inc., as they will receive
a greater slice of ticket receipts.

Given that China has no motion picture rating system, film content must
be deemed suitable to be viewed
by all Chinese audiences. Will this
fund only support projects that will
be subjected to the same draconian
censorship laws that forbid wronged
spirits, violent ghosts, monsters, demons, and other inhuman portrayals
from appearing in audio-visual content in mainland China?
Prior to the announcement of the
Chinese state-backed fund, another
deal was signed by the Chinese Vice
President, Xi Jinping, during his recent US visit one that, allegedly,
will increase the number of American films shown in China. Access to
Chinas tightly controlled film market has long been a point of contention between the two countries, as
the Chinese government last year
failed to meet a WTO deadline to lift
restrictions on US movies. This new

Fund managers of the future?

33

www.ufmag.org

fil

Universal Film
Issue 2 of 2012

REAL LIFE
STORIES OF
STRUGGLE
AND COURAGE
FROM
AROUND
THE WORLD

Add your description right here

ADDITIONAL SPACE FOR YOUR DESCRIPTIONS HERE

lmmakers to make ChiThe US Vice President, Joe Biden,

announced that the agreement will
support thousands of American
jobs in and around the film industry. The agreement is applauded by
the MPAA, which says it will return
a much better share of the box oce
revenues to US studios.
All of the enthusiastic comments
and rapturous applauds from the

powers that be have encouraged us

to celebrate the announcement of
the communist film fund in our own
backyard.
But now that big money is involved,
the human rights abuses and atrocities happening in China today must
take a back seat if this new deal is
to be successful.

THIS IS OMAR, A TEENAGE

REFUGEE FROM SOMALIA.

A LIFE ON HOLD

IS A NEW FILM ABOUT

OMARS LIFE IN A REFUGEE
CAMP IN TUNISIA.
WATCH AT
AMNESTY.ORG/REFUGEES

CHILDREN OF
THE JAGUAR

AN INDIGENOUS COMMUNITY IN
THE AMAZON JUNGLE TAKE ON
THE COMBINED MIGHT OF THE
GOVERNMENT AND AN OIL
COMPANY IN ORDER TO SAVE
THEIR WAY OF LIFE AND THE
RAINFOREST THEY LIVE IN.

WATCH AT
BIT.LY/JAGUAR-TRAILER

Find out more:

avproduction@amnesty.org

www.ufmag.org

34

Chinese Fund complaints department?

Universal Film
Issue 2 of 2012

A BRIEF OVERVIEW OF FILM FINANCE

here is no standard way to finance
a film any deal can be made as
long as all parties are commercially satisfied and the deal isnt in breach of any
laws.

Im sure everyone is excited about the

prospect of reading this column! Although it may be dry, coming to grips
with the fundamentals of film finance
is essential for all filmmakers. Finance
agreements are crucial because they
start the production funding flowing so
that production of a movie can begin in
earnest.
The reason that film financing is so difficult (compared to securing capital in
other industries) is because there are so
many types of financier. There is rarely
just a single lender involved. Entertainment lenders each have a different kind
of interest in the film because they are
all putting their money in for different
reasons.
Some of the stakeholders involved in
the film financing process are:
Lending bank will be interested in
their fee and receiving interest (usually
as a first-ranking secured creditor);
Equity investor will want to be repaid
their investment in the film, as well as
their share in the profits of the film;
Rights-based financier this includes
distributors and broadcasters who will
contribute funds in order to keep any
money they make from distributing the
film in their own territory; and
Governments which give grants/rebates/tax incentives, will usually only
offer such incentives if a large proportion of the film is made within their jurisdiction. This is because of the positive
economic impact that this can have on
the local economy.
Entertainment bankers
Entertainment bankers are powerful
facilitators in the film business. Usually,
where a film project is financed with
presales, an entertainment lender is involved in some capacity. The lender will
have copies of all territory distribution
contracts, and a completion bond will
be obtained. The lender will use the dis-

tribution contracts as collateral.

Banks charge percentages and origination fees to set up loans and charge significant interest rates (often as a result of
the high risk that goes with lending to a
producer).
Production loans
In order to make a typical movie, a producer will need to budget for the following amounts:
1. The direct cost of making the movie;
2. A completion guarantee;
3. A contingency on the direct cost; and
4. Finance costs of the direct cost.
Financing costs include legal fees. It is
essential that good quality legal advice
be obtained in order to ensure that all
financing runs smoothly.
Producers should always avoid being
personally liable for a production loan.
As such, single purpose companies
(SPVs) or limited liability entities should
be a party to all finance agreements. All
loans should also be of a non-recourse
nature.

require that the producer and director

sign off on all material documents such
as the budget and production schedules.
Completion guarantor delivery requirements are very similar to those contained in the distribution agreement
with the domestic distributor.
Legislative requirements
In many countries around the world,
there are laws in place to protect investors. In Australia, legislation often
requires the use of a prospectus when
marketing a film. These documents are
required to disclose all relevant matters
to potential investors. As with most statutory provisions, there are exceptions to
the rule.
Given the high costs associated with
the preparation of a prospectus (including legal fees, public and trust company
management fees, printing costs, publicity expenses and brokerage fees), only
a small proportion of producers aim to
raise finance from the public by public
offer.
This article is for discussion purposes
only and must not be considered legal
advice.

Completion guarantees
A completion guarantee will be required
for nearly all films. The completion guarantor protects the financiers by ensuring that the picture will be completed
on time and that the investors and lenders will be repaid.
If a film runs over budget, the completion guarantor can:
1. Loan additional money to the producer to complete the film;
2. Take over the picture and complete it;
or
3. Stop production and repay the lenders and investors.
The initial job of a guarantor is to assess the project and decide whether the
film can be made within the stipulated
budget.
Once the guarantor determines that the
direct cost budget is sufficient, they will
require a 10% contingency fee of the direct cost budget. The guarantor will also

Gene Goodsell
Special Counsel
B Business (Accounting)
B Laws (Honours)
Post Grad DipLP FTIA
UFFO Committee Member

35

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Universal Film

www.ufmag.org

36

Issue 2 of 2012

Universal Film
Issue 2 - 2012

S
L
A
I
V
?
I
T hy

W
S
E ors

F i b ut

by Patrica J. Pawlak

Iam always looking for that little gem of a

film, the film to get behind, that film you
find yourself staying up all night calling
your buyers in Japan and Europe to let them know they
have to see it.

Recently, I thought I found one such gem and spent hours speaking with the filmmaker, who said the films rights were free and clear.
It turned out, however, they werent available, for he had signed some
innocuous, one page agreement with a small, local film festival to represent
the movie. In looking up the gentlemen who ran the film festival, I noticed they
had no history of distribution. All they wanted was (as they expressed) to sign up
the film in their little festival to get a piece of any action. I was nonplused. Why are
filmmakers who spend a year of their lives attracting investors, making a film, editing a film,
simply throwing their rights away?

r
M
t
I L Dis

As

During this same time I saw a new TV show in the US called Fashion Star in which a clothing designer
creates a fashion line to compete for bids by three top US clothing stores. The designers ultimate goal
is to have their creations seen and licensed (distributed) by a prestigious store. In comparison to cinema, it is
puzzling that so many filmmakers are jumping at the first offer made, especially when many distributors have
no marketplace experience. Success in this industry equals revenue, and the goal is to get the strongest distributor
who can promote your film in advantageous outlets and generate the best deals for your film

Most films do not get better with age, with new festivals and markets weekly supplying new premieres. All the creative energy
that is put into casting, locations, shooting, etc, should also be applied in choosing a distributor for that big reveal. No excuses.
Look at the amazing marketing campaigns that top studios put into promoting their films. Nothing is left to chance. I took my
niece to see a film six months ago and a trailer was playing then for another film now opening in two weeks. Thats six months
of saturating the family market with a trailer. A good distributor publicizes and makes you anticipate the film, creates the magic,
gets you to wait in line to be the first to see your film. Now, perhaps, you cant have a line around the block for your film but you
can, if you take the time, create buzz and spend time interviewing distributors who want your film and want to get behind it.
Just like you hire a grip, best boy and DP and interview for the best fit, why are filmmakers allowing film festival directors to
try and distribute their movie if they have no expertise in the area? From my research, its not so much film festivals, desire to
distribute, but again wanting that piece of the action (a quick percentage) because they screened your film and may get a call
from a distributor looking for you. Letting a film festival without solid experience represent your film makes no sense. I was told
by a producer that I could shop the film as long as the festival got their cut. Why? Charging for tickets for your film they screen
is their fee, their cut. Do you get a percentage of the box office?
Look at it this way, you dont want several people shopping your film--- it lowers the value of the film. I dont want to phone a
buyer to find out someone else has called asking for a lower guarantee. Different people, from distributors to festivals shopping your film, can give different value to the rights, which can turn on you. One person says they want $10,000 for VOD while
another says $5,000. A buyer might say, Ha, you want $25,000? I offered that other person shopping it $5,000. I had a buyer
come into my office and swear that he had just met the President of the company on the Croisette, who said he could have the
film for $30,000. I laughed and said, Good try, as the asking price was $300,000.
Lets look at some facts.
1. None of the major festivals insist on getting a piece of the action.
2. Yes, some festivals have different entities that are licensing films but they are licensing your film for a direct right and paying
you.
3. Film festivals generate revenues from your screenings. Thats their part in it. A film festival is a wonderful marriage for the
festival and film. Its an exhilarating collaboration. I had a successful film that screened at a festival twice in venue that at 1,500
a seat for $10.00 a seat. That is 3000 seats sold plus standing room so the festival made $30,000 off of that one movie.

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Universal Film
Issue 2 - 2012

sion for your film that will not only

recoup money but also earn on the investment. For example, say they are taking a film to Cannes.

So what do you do if a festival asks you

for an agreement? Simply put, interview
them like you would any cast or crew
member. Be smart, open and excited.
They should be equally keen and already
have ideas as to how to present your film.

If a company wants to put up a billboard

on the Croisette this is what happens.:
First, you have to have that one sheet
designed, and then you have to decide
on a space at a cost from $20,000 to
$150,000+. Then you have to pay to have
the one sheet made to fit the specs of the
billboard. Then you have to pay for that
billboard to be shipped to the festival ,
and perhaps even a customs fee.

What experience do they have?

What film markets have they attended?
What film markets do they have an office in? What companies have they done
deals with? What is their experience with
contracts? One little word o in a contract can cost you thousands of dollars.
Dont let them intimidate you. If it means
they wont show your film, you are probably better o without them
Term - If a festival or a distributor insists
that they want your rights for a year, run
for the hills as it means one thing. Simply, they plan to exploit your movie for
the fast buck and not put any eort into
promoting your film. They are not in it
for the long term and they do not care
about your film. They want to grab easy
deals and exploit your film to its own detriment. They want to open the bottle of
wine for the quick rush and leave it. A
real distributor who wants your film will
create a PR plan and have a long-term vi-

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Then you have to pay for a company to put

it up in that space. Once, I paid $40,000
for a space in Cannes for a films poster,r
it was a large space in the Carlton Hotel
and paid a company to put the billboard
up, only to see the poster dissolve in front
of my eyes. (Yes, crumble and sort of dissolve!) The company, who put up the billboard, put the very large poster design
on foam core once in Cannes and used
glue that disintegrated the foam. They
were very experienced but they hired
someone who didnt know what they
were doing. As we watched the large display poster go up with great anticipation
before the festival started we simultaneously watched it shrivel up into a somewhat expressionistic design. I told all my
buyers about it and I actually generated
more publicity this way. (Always be posi-

tive
and make every situation
work!) Remember, a good distributor
appreciates a good filmmaker and they
want to make sure they recoup for that
filmmaker and investor to maintain the
relationship and get their next project.
Lets just try it for a while means that
the distributor is putting no investment
in you or your film. Nowadays, most companies dont have that kind of money to
spend, but if a company doesnt want to
put some eort into your film and isnt in
it for the long term, do you really want
them representing you?
Sit down with whomever wants to distribute your film and see what their distribution plans are. There is also a disturbing trend where some film festival
submission sites have hidden language
that secures certain rights to your films
once you submit. Read everything and
dont be afraid to simply not use them.
Be smart; learn some facts about the
business end so that you can make better
decision for your film and your career.
www.filmfestivalbootcamp.com

38

Thats their piece of the action. Note:

Many top companies wont allow their
films to be screened in venues with a
large seating capacity.

Universal Film
Issue 2 of 2012

RFK moments before the shooting

New MOVIE ON RFK

ou all know the scene, its been
in the public domain for almost
44 years: My thanks to all of you,
now its on to Chicago, and lets win
there. A minute later, Senator Robert
F. Kennedy lay in a pool of his blood
on the floor of the Ambassador Hotels
kitchen pantry in Los Angeles, and
America completed the sea change that
began with his brothers assassination
four and a half years earlier.

You all know or you think you know

who killed him. Its in textbooks,
encyclopedias hell, its even on Wikipedia: Sirhan killed Bobby Kennedy.
The pantry was packed with witnesses
and witnesses cant all be wrong, can
they? What was lost in the white noise
of the aftermath of the killing were the

results of the autopsy. Dr. Thomas

Noguchi, the Chief Medical Examiner
for the County of Los Angeles released
his findings a scant six days after the
shooting.
He reported that all three bullets that
hit Kennedy had been fired from back
to front, right to left and low to high,
and at a distance of between one to
three inches! Huh? Sirhan never got
closer to Kennedy than six feet away,
and was always in front of him. The
Senator never turned his back on
Sirhan. Am I hearing this correctly? Did
Noguchi clear Sirhan of the murder less
than a week after the shooting and he
wasnt believed? In a film under development from Jongleur Music Pictures
by Gary Revel and screenwriter Frank

After the shooting with busboy Juan Rom

Burmaster, this is only the thin end of

the wedge that will be shoved under
the monolith of lies that has been fed
to the American people since that day
in 1968. The film will show how the Los
Angeles Police Department was active
and complicit in not only destroying
and avoiding evidence, but also in bullying witnesses.
It will also show how the killing of RFK
was linked to his brothers assassination as well as that of Dr. Martin Luther
King only two months earlier, and how,
in the JFK killing, the government agencies wanted the public to not believe
the eyewitnesses, and instead believe
the autopsy; but for RFK, they expected
the public to believe the eyewitnesses
and not the autopsy.
Initially, Revel investigated the King
killing, in association with the 1977-79
House Select Committee on Assassina

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Issue 2 of 2012

Leveson Inquiry
The view of UK journalists
Center for International Media Ethics: www.cimethics.org
The Leveson Inquiry is an extensive investigation into the regulation of
the UK press. It will examine the system that has allowed criminal activity such as phone hacking, invasive paparazzi, police bribery and the
cultural hunger for voyeurism to thrive in celebrity lives. These practices
have highlighted the need for a recommendation for improved press regulation. Though the form of this recommendation is yet to be decided,
possibilities include the imposition of fines upon oending members
of the press and the introduction of a compulsory government statute
through which to regulate press activity.
At CIME, we firmly believe that more discussion needs to take place
about how to balance professional ideals with the round-the-clock news
cycle. We also believe that UK journalists should be involved first-hand
in designing recommendations for the future of media regulation in their
country. The testimonies of journalists will be vital towards the restoration of the professions credibility.
Our survey aims to anonymously gather as many opinions as possible
regarding the ethics of the trade. If you are a journalist, especially in the
UK, we would appreciate it if you would take the survey.
Click here to take the survey
The Leveson Inquiry is currently preparing to begin the penultimate
module. In the last module, the recommendations for the future of press
regulation will be finalized. We would appreciate your replies as soon as
possible and ask that you pass on the survey to anyone it may concern.

mero

tions. During that time, he came to the

conclusion that none of RFKs three
alleged killers Lee Oswald, James
Earl Ray and Sirhan Sirhan was the
actual killer, and that all of the assassinations were linked.
Co-writer Burmaster has completed
28 screenplays, and will take the lead
in the research and writing for the RFK
project, with the working title The
Red Polka Dot Dress, referring to the
woman who was seen with Sirhan prior
to the arrival of RFK, and who was seen
whispering to Sirhan just before he
began to shoot.

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40

Working closely with Revel and Burmaster as Research Technical Consultant is Leutrell Osborne, a 26-year CIA
veteran and case ocer, who handled
as many as a dozen agents and operatives.
Jongleur Music Pictures

Universal Film
Issue 2 of 2012

DAVID VS GOLIATH

IN BROOKLYN
by Jared Feldschreiber
ur city grows so fast that there is some
danger of the events and incidents of
more than ten years gone being totally forgotten. So wrote Walt Whitman in
the early 1860s, describing the development of Brooklyn and the dangers of land
developers taking over. But could the poet
and long-time Brooklyn resident have
foreseen the battles waged between land
developers and neighborhood residents
nearly 150 years later?

Michael Galinskys film, Battle for Brooklyn, chronicles the arduous struggle of
one Brooklyn resident in his attempts, as
an organizer, to thwart a huge land development project in Brooklyn. Next year the
New Jersey Nets will become the Brooklyn
Nets. Anguish and mixed emotions still
persist on both sides of this struggle, highlighting the complex flavor of Brooklyns
sprawling and diverse neighborhoods.
Battle for Brooklyn takes a critical portrait of the proposed land-development
plans by Bruce Ratners Atlantic Yards Project. Real estate developer Ratner is the
current minority owner of the New Jersey
Nets, and Chairman and CEO of Forest City
Ratner Companies; he has been at the
forefront of this project since it was proposed in 2003. Atlantic Yards Project is a
commercial and residential development
project of sixteen high-rise buildings under construction in Propect Heights in
Brooklyn. The centerpiece is the Barclays
Center, which will serve as the new home
for the Nets, and will be a new hub for entertainment. Brooklyn Borough President,
Marty Markowitz, believes this projectis a
win-win for Brooklyn as it marks the

return of major league sports in Brooklyn since the Dodgers had Ebbetts Field.
Makowitz further states, The truth is, no
other single decision could have had as
significant an impact on economic development in this area. The Nets will be the
first professional sports team in Brooklyn
since our beloved Dodgers left in 1957.
The Barclays Center will be centralized
near Atlantic Avenues train station, which
is part of the proposed 4.9 billion dollar
sports arena. The residential towers will
provide badly needed aordable housing in downtown Brooklyn, Markowitz
said. There will be retail space and oce
buildings to help cement the areas status
as an economic engine for New York City.
Battle for Brooklyn depicts land-developers as sinister in nature, completely
indierent to the concerns of residents
living there. The film is about local Brooklyn resident and activist Daniel Goldstein
confronting the land-grab by developers, particularly Ratner, who he feels exploited this situation at the expense of
local residents. Goldstein becomes the
leader of Develop Dont Destroy Brooklyn in an eort, as he said, to advocate
for real alternatives to Atlantic Yards, and
to stop that project with implementing a
community-based plan over the rail yards
that did not overwhelm the communities
and the infrastructure, and did not ripo
taxpayers.
The organization also formed to stop the
projects abuse of eminent domain [forced
condemnation and seizure of property by
the state] and construction of an arena in
a highly inappropriate location.

Goldstein argues that the arena plan is

fundamentally flawed, believing the
tragedy is to drop an arena with roughly
two hundred thirty five events per year,
that attracts a transient population by its
very nature, into the middle of five of the
greatest residential neighborhoods in
the US. No doubt it would be tragic in the
midst of any residential neighborhoods,
he said.
In May 2010, the NBA approved the sale
of the Nets by Ratner to Russian oligarch
Mikhail Prokhorov. The Russian mogul
now controls a 45 percent interest in the
arena. In the film, Goldstein laments the
absurdity of allowing an outside influence, like a Russian oligarch controlling a
sports team without any real connection,
or concern to the community.
Filmmaker Michael Galinsky met with
Goldstein during the nascent days of his
activism against Atlantic Yards. We read
the story about the project in the New
York Times and thought it sound like a
press release, Galinsky recalled. A few
days later we saw a sign that said stop
the project. We called the number on
the flyer and connected with [Prospect
Heights Community Activist] Patti Hagan
who started to talk our ears o.
At some point she said to us that we
should meet Daniel because hes a fighter. She was right, and it turned out we
knew Daniel already. We havent been in
touch for few years, but we were friends.
As such, we already had a certain level of
trust that allowed us to get very involved
with his process, Galinsky described.

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Issue 2 of 2012

H
The Brooklyn Bridge

Battle for Brooklyn grabs the narrative back from the developer and away
from the media and tells the story
that neither the developer nor the media ever wanted to tell, Goldstein said.
This makes Battle for Brooklyn a very
dangerous film for the power elite who
run this city and so many others.
Not surprisingly, Brooklyn Borough President Markowitz has a dierent point of
view: The documentary is pure propaganda and produced by filmmakers who
have an agenda and are obviously opposed to the project, he said.
Goldstein, who now lives a few blocks
away from his former residence in Brooklyn, has not given up on his cause. If
Battle for Brooklyn can be likened to a
biblical morality tale, you might say its a
case of David versus Goliath even if, in
this case, Goliath has won.

www.ufmag.org

42

Photo: Tracy Collins

Universal Film
Issue 2 of 2012

Film Festival Boot Camp 2

by Patricia J. Pawla

Your Campaign. Your Plan.

ast month we talked about getting
into a festival, with a few pointers
to keep in mind once you get in. To
reiterate: Make friends with everyone
that you speak to at the festival during
this process. Get them some small gift
for when you meet them. Send the requested PR materials for your film to the
festival ASAP you want to make their
life as easy as possible. Remember, any
materials that they request are for the
promotion of your film. You want to get
that press kit in order. Make sure all cast
and crew names are spelled correctly,
as the press will refer to it when they
screen your film. Add anything intriguing that may pull in a journalist who
picks up your press kit. Reviews are excellent make sure to include a photo
in case you get reviewed. An EPK (electronic press kit) is terrific if you have one.
Now, you have asked yourself those
important questions: Why am I attending? Whats my goal for attending? With
those answers you can start to prepare
your PR campaign. These questions
are important now that you have realized there are a hundred other films in
the festival, and you need to stand out.
Your approach may be different if you
are seeking distribution, looking for an
agent or looking for funding your next
film. How do you get your film noticed
if you cant hire a PR expert? All you
have to do is work, be creative and work
some more.

your own press releases about

your film to newspapers and websites.
Youll want to create several press releases. Send one out immediately about
your film being accepted, and then create press releases to give out during the
festival. Did your lead actress just land a
significant part? Think about how much
press the dog got in The Artist. Find an
angle to push, or brand your film somehow. Once you have that, your plan will
start to fall into place. Have your local
paper do a story about your getting into
the festival. Maybe you can get onto a
radio station and talk about the festival;
give away some tickets or t-shirts via the
station if the festival is coming up soon.
Be innovative and have fun.

Create that plan

Has the festival invited any cast members aside from the director? Get as
many people as you can to that festival.
Pull them into the mix; have a creative
brainstorming meeting to start conceiving your plan and then be ready for anything sort of like practicing for a sport
so youll be ready for the big game. Make
a list of ways you can promote your film
to fill those seats in at your screening.

Inviting distributors
If you are looking for a distributor, get a
list from the IFTA (Independent Film and
Television Alliance) and make phone
calls; ask for the head of sales, who may
refer you to the acquisition department
(if there is one for a smaller company).
Be gracious to whomever you speak and
ask for their help. When I first came to
town, I worked for the impressive agent,
Swifty Lazar. His literary clients then included Frank Sinatra, Richard Nixon and
Henry Kissinger. I learned many things
from him. One thing I learned that made
an impression that has stayed with me
throughout my career, is that he was
always very gracious on the phone, especially to whoever answered a call. In
other words, dont call up a distributor
and demand that you want to talk to
the President. The person answering the
phone could be the Presidents daughter interning. These folks may be the
ones who can get your film screened.

Press office
Most film festivals have a press office
or a list of press, TV and radio outlets. It
may be too soon, but contact the press
office and see if you can get a list of outlets to any press, TV and radio stations.
They may have press coming in from
the entire world that you can start inviting to your screenings. Find out when
the festival plans on releasing their lineup to the press. After that point, capitalize on the festivals releases, and send

Invitations
Youll want to design an invitation to
your films screening. If your budget is
small, postcard-sized invites for mailing
are great, with the one sheet on one side
and screening times on the other. If you
can afford something bigger and more
inventive, go for it. Mail out invites, fax
invites, email invites, and use those social networking sites. I like hard copy invites for a couple of reasons: It can sit on
the executives desk as a reminder, and
they can bring it with them. In addition,
you might want something more dramatic to hand out for the actual festival,
something more eye catching. More like
a giveaway ... that follows.

If there is just an answering machine,

leave a message and follow up with an
email. The bigger companies may have
their acquisitions/sales staff at the festival. If not, they will ask for a screener.
Besides emails and phone calls, send an
invite to the acquisitions/sales staff (and
to the person that you spoke to) including a press kit, so that a hard copy invite
is sitting on their desk. Let your imagination run with it. Use the same plan to
invite agents and financing individuals.
Maybe they wont attend, but you have
created awareness about your film, and
that its good enough to get into a festival. Let them know with a personal note
why you are contacting them.
Giveaways, Swag, Tchotchke
What can you give out at your festival to get your film noticed? What is
the regional climate at the festival? (I
wouldnt necessarily give out umbrellas in Palm Springs, but they may be
great in Seattle.) Is there some offbeat
article of clothing that you can afford to
hand out? You may want the item to be
something relevant to your film, or perhaps not relevant at all thats where
the creative team thinking can come
in. T-shirts are not bad; people love tshirts, but you may have to go well beyond those to get noticed. If you have
a team, you might think of something
they all can wear to stand out (and give
out). Make it so that everyone wants to
get in on it, and start wearing the same
thing. Embrace the festival atmosphere.
Make it work for you. This is not a time to
be glib or terribly sophisticated. If Jerry
Seinfeld can walk around Cannes in a
bee suit, you can come up with something to wear thats evocative of your
film. I had a 3D childrens film about
magic at a festival and I found these
magic wands like sparklers that glowed
in the dark fun to give out. We put
together 1000 of them for the festival,
with batteries, and with screening times
printed on the handles. When I arrived
at the airport, the airline made me take
out the batteries from all 1000 wands,
even though they were already packed.
I still remember there were four batteries in each wand. When I got to the festival, I put the batteries back in myself
so be prepared for anything. The adults,
as well as the kids, loved them at the
screening. Remember: Think out of the
box and dont be shy. More next month.

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Issue 2 of 2012

Universal Film
Issue 2 of 2012

Delivering Festival Publicity

by Gail Spencer

his article is the back end of a twopart series designed for both festival owners and filmmakers to maximise
their publicity at festivals on a minimum
budget. This is in addition to the professional PR which may or may not be used,
and is offered as guidance for all those
involved.

As mentioned in the first article, the controversy relating to the application of

submission fees toward the publicity of
major releases is a bone of contention
amongst filmmakers. Although this online publication cannot stop this from
happening, the contents of articles like
this one will help both filmmaker and
festival owner feel more empowered.
The Festival Owner and Film Submissions
The festival owner now receives hundreds, and in some cases, thousands
of films to screen within a limited time
span. As soon as one festival closes, film
submissions for the next year start landing. The numbers are mind boggling, but
say your film is chosen out of the pile,
whats next?
Some of the more established indie
fests give their chosen films more than
one screening (in some instances more
than three), depending upon the screening space allocated. Other festivals are
sprawling in scope, and screen their
films across a range of venues, sometimes consuming all of the exhibition
space a town has to offer. It is more than
likely the individual filmmaker will have
no choice as to where his or her film will
be screened or where it is placed in the
screening time-table. If the venue is part
of a national chain of exhibition houses ,
the festival will take place alongside the
screenings of the major releases of the
day and have to share both seat space
and advertising visibility. Most festival
owners will produce flyers or brochures
itemising all of their festival films, providing adequate descriptions of each films
shown. If the film is a short there will be
a short description; if a feature, a paragraph.
A filmmaker will not know what pre-festival furore has been created or the extent to which their film has found its way
into the press of the host city or town.
Teaser reviews for festivals are rare unless the festival itself is established or has

managed to garner a good relationship

with the mainstream press over a period
of time. The input and machinations of a
professional PR body will undoubtedly
help, as they will have built up a steady
stream of connections to use. This is,
however outside of the control of most
filmmakers gambit of expertise. Therefore, this article will look into what there
is at a filmmakers disposal to put them in
the driving seat when it comes to highlighting the presence of their film.
The Creation Stage
It used to be the case that filmmakers
could write and direct films on any subject matter they found the most interesting, garner a reputation, and then find
fame through years of steady output and
hard work. The landscape has changed,
with festivals now being the main media platform for filmmakers to showcase
their work, so it matters enormously how
much attention their output receives.
Think about this at your films creation
stage, no matter how absurd and abnormal it seems, and develop a sense of
commercial awareness. This is especially
true if you are making a genre film, for
these are the best to market. Look at
Box Office Mojo for the cinema receipts
of similar films, or at the review sections
of IMDb or Amazon to see how well received they were by the public or press.
Fill your filmmaker arsenal with what the
men in suits take for granted.
The SWOT analysis
In business, SWOT stands for Strengths,
Weaknesses, Opportunities, and Threats.
Take a sheet of A4 paper ( 8.5 x 11 for
you across the pond), and with a pen,
divide it into four parts, then label them:
Strengths should include what the film
has going for it; the plot, narrative, acting, dialogue, location and most importantly, fresh, original insight and story.
Weaknesses are what could and should
have been better about the film. These
will be picked up on by the bloggers,
make no bones about it. The bloggers
are filmmakers in the making and are
harsh critics, some with talent themselves (some with none whatsoever),
and will leap all over the film if it does
not fulfil some, if not all, of their required
aesthetic and narrative criteria. Try to
sort these out before going on the festival circuit. Do some editing and post

production work to fine tune what you

think is wrong with it.
Opportunities and Threats are areas for
your competition to expose or highlight. Filmmakers mostly are not aware
that there is competition, but this is a
fallacy. Your competition is every other
bright young filmmaker with talent that
will have taken a similar idea and done
more with it than you have. In fact, his
or her film could have already landed on
the desk or doorstep of a festival owner
and been chosen before yours. In addition, other opportunities and threats will
criticise and hurt your rep.
Never take for granted that all of this
does not exist, and never be so much in
love with either yourself or your product
to think all this does not matter. In the
modern world it is imperative for you
to think about them. Enjoy doing what
you do and bring to the world what it
is you have to say. Achieve this balance
and you are well on your way to having
a product that is sellable as well as a festival favourite.
Your Own Marketing
You are a business person, behave like
one. Even before your film is completed
have your all business cards, letterheads
and flyers ready for the inevitable networking with delegates. Put flyers together just for the film to show what it is
with the screening times and contact on
it plus a web address for the film if you
have one.
Put together a Public Relations Plan
which will track the marketing visibility from creation and pre-production to
festival release, exhibition release and
distribution deal. This should follow a
time line and have a list of certain actions taking place at a certain time, with
hopefully the right results. Your PR Plan
should have the title of the film at the
top of a document that you produce to
keep track of what actions you do and
when. Include in it all actions from Twittering whilst working, to the production
of associated marketing, to the actions
leading up to the film festivals themselves (taking for granted that there will
be more than one).

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Issue 2 of 2012

Learning & Making the Marketing

It is now imperative for a filmmaker to
have all the attendant skills of marketing and public relations at their disposal.
While most practical filmmaking courses
now offer Project Management as part
of their professional gambit, some festivals also provide a number of resources
to the delegate in terms of maximising
areas such as social media and networking. Whilst learning the skills of being a
practical filmmaker, try to also harness
needed skills in practical marketing and
networking. Whilst making your film use
Facebook or Twitter to spread the word
in a day-to-day gossipy sense as to what
is going on during the process. Build a
meaningful follow list and include your
blog, profile and web address in your
tweets..
For advice look no further than LinkedIn.
Unlike Facebook or Twitter, LinkedIn is a
more serious resume-based means of
social networking with people posting
and answering serious industry-related
questions. There are over 3,400 filmbased LinkedIn groups, some especially
for filmmakers. Group members vary
and may belong to other industry areas
such as finance, marketing, public relations and writing. Join more than one, it
will serve you in good stead.
These you can reach by posting to the
discussion groups what it is that you
are promoting. There is a lot of blatant
smoke-filled self-promotion on this tool
but a lot of it does bear fruit. This writer
loves LinkedIn and has gained a great
deal from it, including the means of connecting with the author of this magazine. As a B2B tool it cannot be beaten.
Here you will find plenty of marketing
folk that work in the industry all over
the world, some for major studios, some
as freelancers, some for boutique companies. The more you connect with, the

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more email addresses you will have at

your disposal when it comes to your festival screenings, e-marketing campaign.
Make them all aware as much as you can,
when, how and why. By the same token,
learn to be discerning in what you respond to or get involved in. Instinctively
you will learn over time what is and isnt
a waste of your while.
Choosing the Right Festival
There are now thousands of film festivals around the world and your decision
of which one to choose to showcase
your film should factor in the following:
1) Is it a genre film? (Sci-Fi, Horror, Action, Family, Adventure, Western, etc.)
2) Is it geographically biased towards a
specific area?
3) Is it a documentary?
4) Is it specifically aimed at an underground audience?
5) Is it an experimental film?
6) Is it aimed at a Gay, Lesbian, Transgender or Bisexual audience?
7) Is it low or no budget?
8) Does it have a green or eco emphasis?
9) Is it specifically aimed at a particular
technical market? (Digital, Super 8, Animation)
There are festivals that specialise in all of
the above categories as a single entity,
and there are those that cover all of the
above in a wider general sense. It is up
to you to choose, or you could aim for
an even mix. Just remember, the bigger
the rep of the fest, the bigger the chance
of rejection.
What your film is will largely determine
this choice for you, especially if the film
is unusual or different. Harmony Korines
2009 film Trash Humpers was one of the
more unusual festival outings of recent
years, and was festival favourite in a
number of countries.
If you have a strong genre outing, such
as a Sci-Fi, try opting for festivals where
it wont get lost in with the others. From
a reviewing point of view it is hard work
to watch back-to-back films of the same
genre and go to your desk with the job of
distinguishing them. By the same token,
by submitting to a genre fest, you have

more of a guarantee that you will reach

your natural audience. It is worth noting
that although Science Fiction and Horror fans are the most loyal in the world,
they tend to be the poorest. Some festivals like Shreikfest (US) and Terracotta
(UK) are run with their volunteers and
talent interacting like family. Others like
Comic Con and Haunt Con (both US ) act
as festival industry trade shows. And still
others like Sheffield Docfest (UK) have a
ton of events such as talks and lecture
attached.
Note: You do not have to attend every
festival that you submit your film to; you
can join a touring fest, which is another
option. There are more choices than ever
for the filmmaker now, and this does not
appear to be abating. Use this kaleidoscopic landscape to your advantage.
Whichever festival you choose, strike up
a relationship with the festival owner as
soon as he or she agrees to show your
film.
You and the Festival Owner
In most festivals you will not have much
time to ask questions about publicity and PR with the festival owner. The
staff also will have, in general, a limited
budget and scope when it comes to this.
There is very little chance that organisers, interns or volunteers will be able to
focus any attention on any particular
film outside of the literature and an announcement of your screening at the
fest itself.
They will all be too busy looking after
the running of the show, the talent getting there and being adequately taken
care of, and dealing with the press. Take
for granted that there will be limited extraneous work done outside of what is
listed here to help push your film along.
In order to reap maximum results, there
is a fair amount you can do yourself. Look
to the previous article written for the festival owner as regards local and territorial publicity. There is no harm in asking
the festival owner how much they have
done already. Chances are that there will
be a skewed face in response to a lot of
questions (see previous article), as PR is
not only the remit of most festival owners but also PR companies, are expensive and budgets are tight.
To recap, look at the all ways and means
of capturing the local territory from your
own singular perspective within the
confines of the festival. This should all
be done before you go.

46

Set up accounts with Twitter and

LinkedIn. Converse with others in the
industry and make as many connections
as is possible. This was done with the
Paranormal Activity films to a successful effect, by making a marketing campaign out of social networking before
the release of a film. One of the more
important changes in recent years in the
film industry is the relationship between
filmmaker and viewer or fan. This used
to be non-existent but not anymore. The
commercially aware director knows exactly who his or her fan base, is but all
too often lacks the skills or wherewithal
to know how to reach them.

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Delivering Festival Publicity Continued ...

Before You Go
It is unlikely that you will showcase your
film in only one festival or that you will
necessarily choose the home town you
live in as where to release it to the world.
Expect to do some digging remotely as
to what is available on someone elses
doorstep. Years ago this would not have
been possible. Now, because of the Internet, all things global are local. Before
attempting this alone, do what the festival owner has done and get a team
together. This can be friends, relatives,
lovers, anyone who would like to help.
If you have your own production company, advertise locally for interns, or
as with the advice given to the festival
owners, cream what is out there at local
universities or colleges teaching PR and
Marketing. International Marketing is a
growing field but with few graduates.
Multi-national corporations can apply
their own brand applications locally via
a network of offices and staff displaced
around the world.
Media campaigns for major releases will
have budgets for each country. Behave
like them-in mindset at least, and allocate some money and effort in advertising your film in the host city or town.
Talk to the festival owner about how he
or she feels about having some input
into the marketing of your film at the
festival itself. Some films allocate permanent space for their associated merchandising on a table at the fest and can
and should behave as though the film
has had a release, even if it has not. In
most instances, distribution deals are inspired by a confidence in the film that is
whooped up at festival level. These are
all tactics that should go into your PR
plan. Read all of this and make sure that
you draw one up, complete with the actions, details and time frames.
First, garner your resources and build
your team. Put ads out on Mandy, Indeed, Rapido, Craigs List and Gumtree,
as well as the media recruitment-based
web portals in the host city or nation.
You need bodies, both where you live
and in the host city. There are plenty of
arenas for ready-made volunteerism. All
students, whether they are film students
or not, love being near talent.
Organise some days to fact finding
about the press in the host city. See if
they (the press) would be willing to do
an interview with the director or screenwriter about the film. Every locality in
the world has free newspapers, find
them and see if this can be arranged.

This kind of film news is heaven-sent to

a local who is used to boring cat-up-atree stories, and you have a volunteer
from the host locality to help-all the better.
Go onto the local websites for the host
city and make sure your film is in the dailies and not lost in the weeklies, which
is how festivals are usually advertised.
Film listings run on a day-by-day basis in
the weekly listings. This is putting your
film outside of the context of the festival
literature. Get a volunteer to make sure
that yours is in there, paying close attention to lead time. Keep a journal and put
it all in short blasts on Twitter.
You do not need the biggest and best
budget in the world to maximise your
visibility. One director in Britain hired
his entire cast and crew via Facebook for
his film, his USP being nearly all derived
from found-art and free help. Another,
Mark Price, reputedly spent just over
40.00 to make his 2008 zombie feature
Colin by deploying all his clever time
and energy into social marketing, not
money.
There has been a democratisation of critiquing of late, with a big influential shift
of who can make or break a film from
the individual critics to the general public and bloggers. While this has meant a
decline in both quality and standard of
grammar, the result is that many and
not a few make the difference. Be pro
active, write your own teaser reviews
and look for websites that are eager to
show them. This isnt easy but a keen researcher on your team will be able to do
this. The results will mean that you have
an arsenal of publicity at hand. Look at
the posters of the major releases in a
modern advertising context; there iare
likely to be at least eight different comments and star ratings scattered about
the pictures centre, from mainstream to
obscure journal. This has come from PR
companies gathering a sense of awareness of the importance of as many opinions as possible being put into the reviews bucket. How time consuming and
potentially awful this is for the reviewer
is not your concern.
Start working on a list of fringe exhibitors and micro cinema owners in major
cities. This is useful to get under your
belt at this stage, as it will come in handy
later after festival release and pre-distribution. Have one of your volunteers do
this and keep abreast of any changes
when it comes to who is buying what

and where in exhibition land.

Look at the different ways films are being screened. An extremely enterprising
group of architects in London converted
disused petrol stations into film venues
and their tickets sold overnight. Look at
the bright young things screening in art
houses, lecture theatres, and film group
gatherings. All of this is going on right
under your nose, so find it and be part
of it. Make sure that the groups and folks
who need to know about you do so. Be
as aware of fringe literature in your own
town and in the host cities where you
are screening, and send them regular
updates as to your activity. Over time,
all of the above tactics will increase your
status and visibility to no end. The acquisition of this knowledge is of vital importance to the filmmaker at the beginning
of his or her career.
At the Festival
You have arrived, hopefully complete
with your own diplomatic bag of tricks
to win and woo at the festival or festivals
of choice. You will no doubt have either
just yourself or a skeleton crew. You have
had the choice either to arrive the day
or so before your screening or to take in
the rest of the festival to get a good idea
of what is going down across the board.
It is better if you opt to arrive early. You
will get to know the volunteers, and
mix with the other talent and compare
notes. Go for a walk, look around and
take it in. Have a good look at where you
are and where you can stand with your
team, and do the run-up-to-the-screening flyer distribution. This you should
organise with the festival owner; he or
she may even have some spare bodies
to help you with this.
Firstly, though, make sure you have
enough time to rest. There may be a
little jet lag lingering around and it will
be important for you to have your equilibrium for your screenings. Be opportunistic and leave flyers in your hotel.
Be ruthless in your approach to your
target market. Ask some of the volunteers where best to leave some of your
own literature in terms of bars, cafes and
bookshops in the vicinity. See if you can
highjack a body for the day. How much
you are allowed to get away with will
depend entirely on whether you are a
festival favourite.
Festival owners have a lot of savvy when
it comes to what they place and where
in their screening agenda. Usually the
feature that is the best at packing

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Universal Film
Issue 2 of 2012

Morning and afternoon screenings are

a bit more problematic. This writer once
saw a very worthy prison-chick flick back
in 2008 with only myself as the audience. Lucky for the director, his output
fell within the specialism of the writer
watching, it has lived long in the memory and the one audience member was
the right person to have in there.
Combat against this freak occurrence
as much as you can by making sure you
get enough flyers to students and film
club owners or organisers; these are the
groups you want to attend your festival
screening if its in an awkward time slot.
You will find these by Googling some
well-chosen search terms. Then with the
green light from the festival owner, do
some rampant emailing.
This is all in the run up, though. The
morning of your screening, get to the
venue early and leave as much marketing material as the space will allow. If
you can, check with the venue manager
as to what you can leave where without
disrupting their marketing collateral.
Ask the festival owner if you can put
flyers advertising your film inside the
brochures that will be put about by the
festival volunteers during the day of the
screenings.
Before and after the screening there
will be press there. Collect their business cards and give yours away to all
you come across. Do this especially with
the writers that are unable to see your
film. Festival reviewers are extremely
busy, often watching four or five feature-length films a day, and then going
home to write them up. More often than
not it will serve you better if you have a
supply of screeners you can hand out to
reviewers so they can watch your film in
the relaxed confines of the post-festival
aftermath and give it some singular attention. With this in mind, dont be disappointed if the reps from the best web-

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sites in the world are there and can not

make it to your screening. Make friends
with them. This happened with this writer and the director concerned is now a
firm friend three years later.
This leads up to the next point, which is
about the nature and value of proper,
purposeful networking. Media shindigs
can often be tiresomely vacuous, with a
lot of air kissing, flesh pressing and BS.
We all know this and consider it part of
the world in which we live. However, the
BS factor can be kept to a minimum by
being ruthless in your contact-making
prowess and delivery.
If you can, get a press list from the festival owner, their PR Company or one of
the interns or volunteers, and try to find
out where they (the press) are staying.
Dont stalk them! Just let them know
who you are and what your film is. It
may very well be that the festival owner
has already organised the interviewing
of talent by the major press and blogs.
If you are not approached by the web
or magazine periodical of your choice,
ask. It could be that you have been overlooked by accident.
Look to the pitfalls of festival appearances. There are a lot of lonely creeps
and freaks that hang out at film festivals the world over. Diminish the loser
quotient by being ruthless in deciding
who you want to talk to. Ask the festival owner who the lunatics are so as to
avoid them, unfortunately, they exist in
droves and given half a chance will latch
onto some talent and ask question after
question, visibly draining their victim.
This writer has seen a fair amount of losers hold the attention of a well-meaning
festival owner or talent for as long as 20
minutes. If you want to remain intact for
the duration of the marketing, steer well
clear. A fair amount of them smell like a
warning proposition.
Blog the festival press: Festival Focus,
World of Festivals, Fest21, Films and Festivals, Filmmaker Magazine, and leave
them with some information as to what
you are up to. They need news items
for their email alerts, so give it to them.
And do this especially if your have had
an award allocated to your film. Before
this, though, will be the Q&A.
The Q&A is often frighteningly short,
giving time for only a fistful of freeform
questions from your audience. These
are not organised press conferences
with questions vetted. Do not spend

any time on stupid questions that come

from a self-indulgent source. What happens all the time is that only a smattering of hands rise up after the panel has
settled down, or the chair has added to
the commentary. After the second or
third question has been asked, questions will increase as the audience becomes more confident to ask. How well
and smoothly this goes depends on the
expertise and care of the chair. Some
are great at weeding and time-keeping,
some are not. Some of these affairs go
disastrously, regardless of effort, especially if there are foreign language problems to overcome. This writer has never
yet seen a successful interpretation job
in five years of film reviewing. Be ruthless, regardless of what cards you are
dealt during this time. If some of the audience ask dumb questions, say so and
move on quickly. If there are some gems
of insight, try to find out who they are
and where they come from. In a lot of
cases there will be as much expertise in
the audience as there is in the panel and
chair combined.
There are a lot of think tanks that operate within the confines of the intellectual life of London that have a list of
attendees. Film festivals should really
start adopting these tactics for the films
that matter. As it is, there is always the
prospect of a bit of post-screening social
flirtation where you can find those individuals who seemed to understand your
work the best. Find out who and why if
you can. This has happened to this writer after political debates; the speaker
has wanted to know who I was and from
whence I came. It is very flattering and
helps strike a rapport with people who
are like minded and are likely to do
you some good. A keen festival owner
will put such folk together. If he or she
doesnt, work it.
After the Partys over
During the post festival furore, you are
likely to get a lot of unsolicited attention
from bodies claiming to have a doorway into the best distribution deals and
publicity. Do not be tempted to listen,
regardless of how much you want to believe it.
This is but one of the problems of coming back to earth. One of the major
drags to endure is emotional; it all feels
so flat, at least until the next batch of
madness. Keep a press book of what has
been the response to the film. Google it,
see which film reviewers were there, and
have a look at what was said and by

48

them in will be the festival opener. The

same will be true of the films closing
the proceedings, as there will inevitably be a party afterwards, possibly even
an awards ceremony. There may be a
chance that your movie has been chosen for one of the awards, in which case
there will be a bit more push behind
your baby than for the also-rans. It will
be wise to make your actions in tune
with the movie screening time. If it is the
case that you are lucky enough to have a
prime evening slot, chances are you will
have a full house, or damn near it.

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Issue 2 of 2012

Delivering Festival Publicity Continued ...

whom. If the writer has given your film a
thumbs down but they seem like an illversed lunatic, ignore it. If you can track
down a favourable reviewer, see if they
have anything else to say. Quotations
from this writer have ended up on the
back of DVDs, nice work for both parties.
If you can garner some great, prolific
bloggers that like your work you can call
it an achievement.
Distribution
Distribution companies invariably find
you if they are interested, or dont need
much work to be convinced if the response to the film has been favourable
or controversial. Choosing the right label is not difficult. The same psychological processes are afoot in choosing the
festival. Once you have this bagged, go
through the same processes in putting
the screeners about as you did during
the festival. There are behavioural differences in releasing in different countries;
it is best to cut an international distribution deal if at all possible, and work hard
at creating special features for the DVD
between theatrical and DVD release.
Some distribution deals will be stringent against further theatrical release
and VOD, some not. Do your homework
before committing to a contract. Distribution release publicity is just the same
as theatrical release publicity. Try to get
a feature in one of the periodicals that
featured your film or the festival during
the fest itself.
There may well be a PR company deployed by the label, in which case you
can count yourself lucky. They will do a
lot of the work getting it out to the right
people, but dont take this for granted.
Priority is given to the titles which will
get the best ROI (return on investment).
We are neatly back at square one, the
controversy which is besetting the major
festivals with filmmaker chagrin: major
releases taking the brunt of submission
fees for their publicity. This is inescapable; however, once your film is a consumable, chances are that without the
major publicity behind it there should
be some price stabilisation-which is not
the case with major features no matter
how well received they are. Even wellloved classics follow the inevitable decline in market value with time and shelf
life. Be grateful that yours wont.
Local/National/International Marketing Methodology
In terms of deploying social media, the
above three are interlinked. Some of this
territory will be covered in another arti-

cle aimed at the filmmaker and focusing

on the developing of his or her brand
image.
One of the most important mantras to
remember is to live and think locally,
but displace globally. Clever, iconoclastic filmmakers transfer their well-loved
territory into their output (Woody Allen, Manhattan; Martin Scorsese, Brooklyn; Robert Redford, Utah; Spike Lee,
Alabama and Brooklyn; Clint Eastwood,
California; Guy Ritchie, London; Shane
Meadows, Ken Loach, and Mike Leigh,
Urban Working Class Britain). This comes
from years of living in and loving their
neighbourhood and social observation.
Turn yourself into a local hero with the
schools and colleges you went to-it will
be great for both you and your alma mater. Whenever you make a film and it is
released, post it on your old universitys
website. Inform the local press from
whence you came as well as where you
currently reside. Spread the love and
make them proud. It will work for you
on many levels. It will also give you a
grounded sense of perspective, a place
from which to derive inspiration and
comfort.
Someone having consistent links with
their old stomping ground, who is coincidently a creative, is something the
public at large identifies with anywhere
in the world. This is marketing of the quiet incremental kind, the sort that needs
no force but a series and sequence of
actions that are driven by love. It also
serves to counteract the adage that
filmmakers are at heart pretentious and
lofty.
Every nation has directors who are identified with a particular kind of output,
unless you are Michael Winterbottom,
the most eclectic and gloriously unpredictable director around. Put yourself
under the nose of your nations leading
academics; they are always interested in
the up-and-coming generation of filmmakers - just dont hound them. They
are not publicists and cannot do anything for your career. What they will do
is make note of you for future reference.
It is worth finding out who is specialising in what, and if any of your films confirms or refutes what is baking their particular biscuit. Tell them about your films
without being overbearing or pushy.
Academics tend to be sought out by distribution labels to contribute to special
features, and like it or not, a relationship
will happen organically if there is com-

mon territory.
Try to get your release featured in the
film press of your nation. Look at www.
moviemags.com to see which is functioning with the highest turnover and
distribution. Look at media directories
as well as guidance for the titles. It may
well be that they have a feature planned
with your film as a possible favourable
contribution. You could get a close
friend or loved one to act as publicist for
you and do the ringing round.
Do not expect your IMDb profile to do
that much for you. One of the worst aspects of this particular tool is the universal notion of success once you are on it.
The fact is that there are now so many
submissions on IMDb that you can be
just a drop in the ocean. Sure enough
it is used by talent spotters and scouts
looking for their casting solutions, but
it is not a brand image maker. You get
a Wiki reference for the film if you are
lucky, and if the movie has some portent
and contributes something to a given
genre or recognisable trend.
You could approach the publishing
houses of the movie encyclopaedias
(Leonard Maltins, Halliwells, Time Out,
etc.) and keep pestering them for an
inclusion. If yours is a genre-based film,
look at the books out there that cover
genre based listings, and see if you can
be included in the next edition. Last but
not least, check in with the movie blogs
that cover either indie or genre-based
material where your film will feel welcome. There are consistent listings of
movie blogs on LAMB (Large Association of Movie Blogs at http://www.largeassmovieblogs.com/), the social media analytics so many blog owners live
by. Dont treat it as gospel, but use it to
your advantage.
That is about it. Most of all, develop a
thick skin and a steady working methodology. Try not to let the constant
frustrations interfere with your karma,
and keep a sense of perspective. It takes
many years of effort and time to make
a career, in any career. Filmmaking is
no different. One film is just one part of
your gambit of many, and each experience will teach you a lot. Keep focused
and keep at it.
Gail Spencer
Gail is a professional writer and has been
writing film reviews for over five years ,
and specialises in cult and horror film
publicity.

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Issue 2 of 2012

Universal Film
Issue 2 of 2012

The Artist leads

Viewster launch
of paid movie rental
iewster has announced Oscar winning French movie The Artist
amongst the titles to spearhead the launch of its paid-for rental
model into countries in which it has already built up a large userbase
of viewers for its free movies. The VoD movie service now generates
more than 60 million video views a month.
The Artist will form the centrepiece of the launch of Viewsters paid-for oer
into Scandinavia, with high-profile titles such as Midnight In Paris and The
Iron Lady also featuring strongly in the choice of movies available for rental
by Viewster users in other key countries.
This is a hugely exciting step for Viewster, said CEO Kai Henniges. We are
excited about now being able to oer higher profile films as rentals. Watch
this space! There is more to come.
Paid-for movies launch as Viewsters rollout continues.
Viewster is now available across platforms and devices in 120 countries
around the world. In 12 key markets, Viewster has had advertising partnerships in place for some time enabling it to oer users a choice of several
hundred free movies. These are now complimented by high profile titles being made available for rental. The company expects to double the number
of countries in which it can make a large selection of free movies available
in the coming months, with further expansion into CEE and South East Asia.
Enhanced choice for Viewster users in key countries.
By May, Viewster users in more than 20 countries will have the choice between high profile movies to rent, and a significant number of excellent free
movies. Having established a committed following of free movie users in
these key countries, it was always our aim to increase choice by oering paidfor movies without ads, said Henniges. We will build on the high-profile
launch provided by The Artist, The Iron Lady and Midnight In Paris with many
more exciting paid-for titles, giving users in all our key territories the opportunity to enjoy great entertainment on demand..
About Viewster
Viewster AG is a privately held company based in Zurich, Switzerland, with offices in San Jose, Berlin, Timisoara and London. Viewster was founded in 2007
and operates a leading Video on Demand service pre-installed by all leading
CE device manufacturers globally. Viewster is available on connected TV sets,
Blu-ray players, tablet computers and smartphones. Viewsters media assets
include Hollywood and local movies. Viewster is available on 100m devices
and reaches 7m monthly users in over 100 countries.

khenniges@viewster.com

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Issue 2 of 2012

Universal Film
Issue 2 of 2012

Scenes of The
Method-ological
Nature
by Penny Noble

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Issue 2 of 2012

ACT ONE...

Somewhat later in my life I trained as a counsellor

with my core model being Carl Rogers personcentred counselling. It suits me as a person and
therapist. I work in helping others to fully express
themselves and realise their full potential in life
and vocation.
A chance joke from an actor relating to not being
able to use the Method for a role raised my curiosity as to what the Method might be and so
started my explorations into the world of Method
Acting. I am no expert on this topic from the point
of view of training, but rather a passionate observer,
and have learnt a great deal from the experience of
helping others in their development and progression in life and work by means of processes similar
to the Method, including Character-Centred Counselling, which I originated and developed as a specific therapy for actors.
There have been a multitude of influences on my
thoughts on this subject. For reasons of confidentiality and to protect identities, in many cases I have
not named names. Some material is based on real
work with clients.
I have discovered that even many actors do not
seem sure of what Method acting actually is. Id like
to share with you what I have found out, and this
mainly from a psychological perspective.

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The Method
Theatre director and actor, Constantin Stanislavski
(1863 1938), revolutionised the world of actors
on stage when he created a new system for them
now best known as the Method in which they
were encouraged to work from their experience
and inner selves, and to find their characters by
living the lives of those characters. Prior to Stanislavskis work, acting had been quite stylised, with
feelings over expressed artificially. Dancer Isadora
Duncan (1877 1927) was, around the same time,
also transforming the world of dance by breaking
boundaries and dancing from her soul. And Carl
Rogers (1902 87) changed the world of psychotherapy with his realisation that people heal best
and realise their full potential in a safe environment
created by a good relationship with a therapist who
is a compassionate witness to their journey, and
who, with empathy, congruence and acceptance,
enables them in understanding who and how they
are, and in accessing and expressing their emotions.
These three seminal figures Rogers, Stanislavski
and Duncan were all part of the humanist movement, pushing forward human values and concerns
as key issues in life; the search for truth and quest
to realise full potential; exposing humanity in all its
glory; sharing and connecting with each other.
An actors work be it on stage, screen or radio is
very much about that connecting and communication.
In a similar spirit, from Aristotle we get the concept
of theatre drama enabling the audience to have a
catharsis. Dennis Potter once said that television
represents the nation talking to itself. Watching a
play on stage, hearing it on the radio or seeing it on
a screen large or small, we, the audience, need to
feel with the action. Actors enable us to do that by
making us believe in what they are doing and how
they are feeling, by convincing us we are a part of
the reality of the play.

54

write this as someone passionate about the

work of actors, and as a writer, who loves to
create stories for them to play. I am also a
psychotherapist, working with clients from
all walks of life and, in addition, specialising in work with actors and other performers. As a
child, I felt that actors were like my friends on television and in films. Later I would also experience
similar stage friends. I felt that they were educating me about what it is to be a human being, even
if they were doing so from the perspective of being
an alien in Doctor Who, or a fictional human from
a costume drama.

Universal Film
Issue 2 of 2012

I will explore what Stanislavski originally

meant by the Method and how that approach has developed into what it is today. There are still some actors who work
precisely from Stanislavskis Method, but
there are also those who work from what
could arguably be called a New Method.
In essence, nowadays, each actor will
probably learn a range of techniques
and methods, and come up with his or
her own individual Method. The acting
process can be highly personal and indescribable. However, I will attempt to give
some ideas as to what this process may
involve.
Creating a Character according to Stanislavskis Method
The Method was pioneered by Constantin
Stanislavski and advocated by American
actor, director and acting teacher, Lee
Strasberg (1901 82), who became the
father of Method acting in the United
States and thus inspired many American
actors to that approach.
Stanislavski observed his actors in
training to be at their most convincing
when they were making use of emotions borrowed from something they
had personally experienced. However,
he also noticed that in doing this, there
was a possibility of self-traumatising
and draining their energy, which meant
that giving of themselves in that way to
their performances became unhealthy
and unsustainable. This was part of the
rationale behind his use of if What
if I were in my characters shoes in this
situation? What would I do/feel? Encouraged by this, an actor will literally
step into the world of the character in
order to play them. For me, this creates
two main strands of the Method. Strand
1: An actor works from his or her own experiences and feelings. Strand 2: An actor
finds the experiences and feelings of a
character by living as closely as possible
to how the character lives/lived or would
live. The most famous of our modern day
pure Method actors, Daniel Day-Lewis, is
known for doing the latter for me, he
also produces phenomenal results.
In his book An Actor Prepares, Stanislavski said, In our art you must live the
part every moment that you are playing
it, and every time. He was asking his actors to be, and so to act with sincerity,
truth and directness. He taught that All
action in the theatre must have an inner justification, be logical, coherent and
real. To enable this, he developed the
concepts of objectives and actions. An
objective is something which the character wishes to achieve. An action is how
they achieve the objective. He taught that
the script could be broken up into units
(sometimes called beats), and each unit
would have an objective for the character
in question. Each character also has a su-

per-objective, which represents the life

goal of that character in the play. All of
these things must ring true for the actor
concerned. Everything must be real in
the imaginary life of the actor, and they
need to have faith in what they are doing
on the stage (or screen). Actions need to
be natural, intuitive and complete. Stanislavski wanted his actors to put soul
into their roles, and was very keen on
actors reaching the level of the subconscious to produce their best work.
In relation to the use of an actors own life
experiences and feelings, Stanislavski
created techniques to stimulate emotion
memory or aective memory, as it is
sometimes termed. As Paul Elsam states,
Stanislavski developed these when he
had a crisis of confidence, and felt that
the way forward was to feel real emotion
at all times. Emotions are anchored in our
subconscious, and we need a conscious
means to reach that subconscious.
Stanislavskis point was to focus on the
past experiences, the conditions which
stimulated the feelings or emotions to
grow, and from there those same emotions will come naturally. We have little
control over how we feel. Actors were not
to act a feeling specifically; that would
create something wooden and unreal.
From a psychotherapeutic point of view,
this concept of emotion memory reflects
someones emotions being triggered by
a past trauma or indeed a past, pleasurable experience. And those feelings can
be triggered by a number of sensations
not just a thought memory, but sound,
taste, touch or a kinaesthetic experience.
Stanislavskis actors need to be in communion with each other in a kind of
spiritual intercourse. Today we might
describe this as empathy, a kind of
transpersonal connection. Actors who
give of themselves in this way are praised
for being generous by their fellow actors.
So, as Stanislavski tells us, an actor
turns to his spiritual and physical creative instrument. His mind, will and feelings combine to mobilize all of his inner
elements. They draw life from the fiction, which is the play, and make it seem
more real, its objectives better founded.
All this helps him to feel the role, its innate truthfulness, to believe in the actual
possibility of what is happening on the
stage. At this point the actor is working
from the region of the subconscious,
the work flows naturally and they are living the role.
In Creating A Role, Stanislavski went on
to lay out the stages in the process:
1.
Study of the script,
2.
Research into the world of the
play and the character,
3.
Actors self-analysis, emotion

memory and recall, personal life experience,

4.
Preparation of actors soul for
conception of creative emotions both
conscious and especially unconscious
feelings.
5.
Search for creative stimuli that
will provide ever new impulses of excitement, ever new bits of live material for
the spirit of a role in the places that did
not immediately come to life in first acquaintance with the play. Facts must stir
feelings for that actor!
The actor must be at the centre of the situation to create what Stanislavski termed
the given circumstances environmental and situational circumstances which
stimulate the character into action. Being
at this centre is similar to the empathy
that Carl Rogers described a therapist
must feel towards their client: stepping
into another persons shoes and living in
them. This empathy needs to be felt for
his or her own character, and for other
characters in the play also. A knowledge
of psychology is a great help: The better the actor knows the psychology of
the human soul and nature the more he
studies them in his free time the deeper
he will be able to penetrate the spiritual
essence of human passion and therefore
the more detailed, complex, and varied
will be the scene of any part he plays.
Also, Anything which an actor takes
from his own life experience, the thing
to which he responds inwardly, can never
be alien to him.
Anti-Method
The demands of this Method acting are
therefore high in relation to an actors
use of personal experiences and psychology. No wonder many have and still do
avoid it; wearing symbolic masks, making themselves very dierent to their
real selves in their roles, using arguably
artificial techniques to create the feelings or results, and working by studying
and copying the behaviours of others to
excellent eect in many cases, one being
that of Laurence Olivier, an outstanding
actor who won many awards.
Olivier was well known for being contemptuous of those who used Method
acting. It is rumoured that on the set of
Marathon Man he once said to Dustin
Homan, Try acting, dear boy, its much
easier. This, after Homan had stayed up
for three nights to mimic the experiences
of the character he was playing. It is better known that Olivier and Method actress Marilyn Monroe had huge creative
dierences on the set of The Prince and
The Showgirl a story beautifully explored recently in the film My Week with
Marilyn. Arguably, they ended up bringing out the best in each other for each of
their next projects: Monroe in Some Like
It Hot; Olivier as Archie Rice in John

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Universal Film
Issue 2 of 2012

As Ned Mandarino notes, the requirements of the Method have led to some
acting teachers becoming psychologists without a license. Elsam warns, In
workshops those untrained to work with
traumatised people are allowed to tear
the actors innermost traumas from their
scarred unconscious and do so in public.
Other potential problems identified with
the Method are that it encourages an actor to be disconnected from others, to be
self-absorbed and so immersed in the
world of the character that fellow actors
or the audience cannot join them in that
space. For me, this does go against the
whole idea of the best acting being about
true connection: empathy with others,
actors acting and reacting o of each
other and sharing with the audience.
Mike Alfreds warned that many American Method actors made the character
fit themselves, and ignored any character requirements that conflicted with the
needs of the actor. They were unable to
portray characters out of their experience. They had no means of going beyond their comfort zones. Alfreds advises
actors to find [the character] in yourself
rather than impose yourself on them.
Own Truth
My personal belief is that all of us are
best when we come from ourselves,
and that life experience is the greatest
teacher of all. I believe this to be true of
all artists, be they actors, singers, writers, painters or dancers. Isadora Duncan
started a great movement of freedom
and emotional release in her dance work;
from her we have learned how important
movement can be in the search for truth
and feeling in an authentic way from the
body. Duncan had no respect for boundaries. She created something extraordinary, but the process-exploring work
of today be it in a rehearsal room or a
therapy room does need some boundaries to help develop trust, and so create
a safe space for full expression from the
actor/performer or client.
I write best from myself. My writing flows
with ease when I am making use of my
own experiences, or writing about something that resonates within me. I am also
best as a psychotherapist when I work
from myself rather than trying to copy
the ways of being of others. In the same
way as a client can sense when their therapist isnt being authentic and genuine,
so an audience can do so with an actor
who is not conveying something truthful.

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It becomes false, boring and we lose trust

so we lose belief, and the power of the
work dies.
A New Method
So, what is involved in an actors method of today? Naturalness is still the key.
As early as the 1920s, actress Louise
Brooks commented, Styles change but
the truth does not. I get the strong impression that all of our most believable
actors really are using themselves, their
own instrument of stored feelings and
experiences even if they are in denial
of that and so would fall into a Stanislavski Strand 1 too much technique
neglects the emotional and spiritual. As
Peter Barkworth expresses it, At all cost,
a thing must live: better a live sparrow
than a stued eagle; and as Sir John
Gielgud, winner of Oscar, Emmy, Grammy
and Tony awards said, Ninety percent of
you is there anyway.
When asked by Matthew Stadlen in Five
Minutes With Christopher Eccleston,
Is there any of Christopher Eccleston
left in you, or are you totally inhabiting the part you are playing? Eccleston
replied, I think there is a lot of Christopher Eccleston still in there, because
your raw material as an actor is yourself
and your own experiences and your own
feelings about things. Whats interesting about them is they get refracted and
filtered through your imaginary creation
of this character, so I would say hes still
around. (http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/
entertainment-arts-17487480)
Method actors of the Stanislavski Strand
2 camp are fewer but certainly still exist. In addition to Daniel Day-Lewis, examples include Heath Ledger and Mickey
Rourke.
Many contemporary acting texts still retain core elements of the Method while
also extending those ideas. Actors still
look at actioning the text, finding the
objectives of their characters, and hoping that from these two techniques, their
emotions will be spontaneously aroused
by the play and any obstacles that get in
the way.
As Alfreds beautifully and simply puts it:
I want (objective) leads to I do (action) leads to I feel = Life! Actors have
the secure boundary of what (actions),
which helps them feel the freedom of the
how (emotional expression).
Breathing and Relaxation
The psychology is explored even further
in contemporary Method acting. So is
movement harking back to the work of
Isadora Duncan and breath work, and
how those can stimulate the release of
stored emotions. Taking time with the

text and breathing allows a flow of emotion. As Tyne Daly says, We cant inspire
anyone unless we breathe ourselves. We
possess a holistic connection between
our physical and emotional lives. Our
repressed feelings may be stored in our
bodies; exercising the relevant muscles
that recreate a certain physical action can
unlock those feelings. Relaxation techniques are also very important, as a tense
actor is highly restricted.
Inside-Out or Outside-In
Generally actors talk about being in one
of two camps: inside-out very Method
in which the inner life informs the outer behaviour; and outside-in, where body
work can be involved. An actor adopts the
state of body of the person they are characterising in order to access the feelings.
As Alfreds describes, dierent people
have dierent ways of expressing the
same emotion, and that can show in the
way someone holds their body. Holding
the body in that way can create expression of the feeling. For Tara Fitzgerald
(http://www.donmarwarehouse.com) an
outside-in actor can embody a character
by wearing that characters pair of shoes,
reflecting the empathy of walking in anothers shoes. As for Olivier, the modern
day actors work still needs to involve
observation of real people, who may be
far from the actors own self in their way
of expressing themselves. According to
Alfreds, Actors should be ruthless scavengers of other peoples behaviour.
Feelings and Expressiveness
Many of us have lost the connection between our feelings and the expression of
them; our current way of life has encouraged a kind of shut-down and hiding. The
actor of today has to work against that
and be truthfully expressive.
Self-Knowledge
In finding a character, it is also important
for an actor to either know themselves
already, or to do some soul searching
around who and how they are. Character
lists are created from the script to discover facts about the character, what they
say about themselves and others, what
others say about them, etc. Beyond that
there are two more personal lists which
Alfreds suggests should be exclusive and
personal to the actor, but could of course
be shared if they wish. The first involves
those aspects shared with the character
and those in the character that are alien
to the actor. Alfreds goes on to explain,
The better you know yourself, the more
honest you will be and the less painful.
The more objective you can be about your
own psychology, habits and appearance,
the more youre able to admit to dicult
areas in your own character, the easier
it will be to transform yourself. As long

56

Osbournes The Entertainer but sadly,

not for their earlier film together. Monroe
used her personality and sensitivities in
her work to powerful eect. That said, it
is now known Marilyn required therapy,
and even then, as we sadly know, she was
on a path towards self-destruction.

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Universal Film
Issue 2 of 2012

This involves distilling yourself according to the needs of the role, and letting go of protective devices that youve
become used to using in your acting to
feel safe. Being truthful on stage is an
act of daring. An actor can identify with
the what of a characters experience, but
needs to create the how the expression of that from the way the character
would behave. It is all still about using
themselves, though; playing a psychopath would involve an actor exploring
his or her own psychopathic tendencies,
and what gets in the way of their actually
acting on those urges in real life. Then,
Stanislavskis if can be applied to enable actioning. As Alfreds points out, we
have a universal humanity; all contain
within us something of each other. An
actor needs to be able to be empathic to
a high level, and develop their empathic
imagination to put themselves instinctively into a dierent person in a dierent situation. As Elsam notes, Such madness needs practise.
A Higher Consciousness
I have mentioned some links between
Stanislavskis and Rogers work; Manderino, in Transpersonal Actor, writes about
the work of psychiatrist Carl Jung and
the lessons from his personality types,
which actors can use to inform their
characterisations. He states, Carl Jung
defined transpersonal as a process by
which one attains a higher level of consciousness. Actors need to stretch themselves beyond the limits of convention,
and allow themselves to be in touch with
mysterious forces in the creative space.
The actor of today is advised to work on
their own inner and outer values as well
as those of the characters they play. Any
emotions they are blocking will restrict
them in their creative use of self. An actor needs to work on his or her powerful
acting instrument to realise the skill and
creativity to achieve high states of emotion through behaviour, capturing images
and feelings that burn into the memory
of an audience.
Self-Development
So, to produce his or her best, an actor needs self-awareness and an honesty about who and how they are, and
this may well require self-development
work. They work with invention from
their heads, and imagination from their
guts/hearts. The best results come from
a combination of high IQ and EQ (emotional intelligence), though it is the process of getting there which is important,
not the result itself. They need good instinct, from natural talent and perception

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combined with experience and analysis

subjective and objective in balance.
Alfreds advises against emotion memory
work in specific scenes, but also says it is
good for actors to stretch their emotional
muscles and have access to as wide a
range of feelings as possible. Actors often talk about making choices in their
work. As Harold Guskin expresses, No
specific choice is more important than
the true presence of the actor on stage
at that moment alive on stage with his
humanity his feelings, thoughts, imagination intact, is the greatest gift he can
give the audience. Acting is an invitation
to learn about yourself, a way of having
fun to have therapy. Laura Dern: As an
actor, I think Ive been lucky that I feel so
much, she says. I mean, acting in general is therapy in some form. So its great
to be part of movies that focus on the
problem, rather than the escape. Because
every time I do something that I feel is
gonna move other people, inevitably it
moves me and teaches me new things.
(http://barksmatt.tripod.com/AmericanFilm.html)
In their own words
We human beings are fascinated by ourselves, our responses and feelings we
love to tell each other stories. The most
convincing method actors work with immediacy and complete honesty, deliberately making themselves vulnerable and
open, creating a mutual awareness with
the audience, so they can respond dierently on stage every night. Tyne Daly, on
connection: To act is to take out filters
and let people in.
Harrison Ford: I am a private person in
my private life. In my working life I expect to grant my audience complete and
total access, everyones got a backstage
pass, you know. You have to be willing to
live in front of people; let them see the
good, the bad, the ugly, the weak, the
strong, the conflicted, the terrible. One
of the things about acting that gives me
the greatest satisfaction is the opportunity for that emotional exercise, that investment to the point where it produces
true emotion. Its not about you again, its
about the continuity between you and the
rest of your race, its about being human
and its about sharing that humanity, and
knowing that humanity. Its among one of
the most important moments of my life,
being able to do that. And the question
about willingness to do that its the
true ambition is to give yourself to that
moment and its not in conflict with my
privacy, at least I dont feel it that way.
(Harrison Ford, Inside The Actors Studio)

vulnerable place to be, and some adults

struggle to find it. It takes a lot to be real;
in our real lives, most of us are not. Its
highly exposing. Yet as Alfreds says; If
theatre is not vulnerable then it is not
human. I think all creative people are
sensitive and at their best when at their
most sensitive and personal. Acting is
emotional. A good actor is constantly vulnerable. An audience responds to actors
revealing themselves, not hiding. This exposure takes enormous courage and can
lead to exceptional performances. The
rewards in terms of feeling fulfilled are
great, but for many the personal cost may
be too high.
In the sequel to this article (ACT TWO),
I will explore the psychological issues
from which Method Actors, and indeed
other actors and performers, may be affected.
Penny Nobles website and email:
http://www.pennynoblepsychotherapy.
com/
pennynobletherapy@gmail.com
Books;
Dierent Every Night: Freeing the Actor Alfreds, M. (2010)
About Acting - Barkworth, P. (2001)
Acting Characters - Elsam, P. (2006)
How to Stop Acting - Guskin, H. (2004)
Drama as Therapy: Theatre as Living Jones, P. (1999)
Isadora: A Sensational Life - Kurth, P.
(2003)
Transpersonal Actor: Reinterpreting Stanislavski - Manderino, N. (1989)
On Becoming a Person - Rogers, C. (2004)
An Actor Prepares - Stanislavski, C. (1980)
Creating a Role - Stanislavski, C. (1968)

Psychological Issues
In a way, an actor needs to be his or her
own inner child to best access their play
and imagination; that space is a very

58

as you labour under self-delusions and

remain in denial about certain personal
traits or qualities, youll only confuse and
distort your work on a role.

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Issue 2 of 2012

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CICAE

Universal Film
Issue 2 of 2012

The CICAE is the first international association dedicated to quality cinema. It was
founded in 1955 and represents 3,000 screens in 31 countries in Europe, Latin America and Africa. Its mission is to promote quality motion pictures and to defend the
right for cultural diversity.
The CICAE was founded in 1955 by the national arthouse cinema associations of Germany, France, the Netherlands and Switzerland.
The collective and concerted action of these pioneers led to the emergence in each country of a real market for quality films, as well as
national schemes aimed at supporting theatres that took a stand in favour of this high-risk cinematographic art form.
The CICAE is recognized by the Council of Europe, sits on the Bureau of the International Council for Cinema, Television and Audiovisual
communication (IFTC Unesco), and of Media Salles, and has been a member of the Coalition for Cultural Diversity since its inception in
2003. It collaborates with Europa Cinemas, receives support from the European Unions programmes : MEDIA and Euromed Audiovisual
II, the CNC (France), the FFA (Germany), the DGC (Italy), to name but a few.
Mission : to be a network of networks and a bridge between festivals and theatres
Today, the CICAE brings together 3,000 screens via 7 national structures (France, Italy , Germany, Switzerland, Hungary, Belgium, Venezuela), independent cinemas in 22 other countries, festivals, as well as arthouse film distributors.
Institutional objectives
- To encourage arthouse cinemas to come together under a common umbrella at the national and international levels.
- To obtain support for arthouse cinema from government and supranational bodies.
- To foster the distribution of high quality films from all countries, in all countries.
- Through targeted cultural initiatives, to promote the screening of art films in order to increase audiences and foster production.
Field actions
- Training of future managers / programmers of art cinema theatres, in Europe and elsewhere (2004 2010 : over 450 professionals
trained)
- Promotion of artfilms from festivals to art cinemas : each year the CICAE awards Art Cinema Cicae Cinediversity Prizes in a dozen
festivals.
The arthouse cinema sector is a 100-million-strong audience in Europe
In countries where the art cinema sector is well developed, arthouse films account for 10 to 25 percent of all tickets sold. Art cinema
upholds quality cinema without borders, although, de facto, the bulk is made up of European productions and co-productions. Statistics show that in several countries arthouse cinemas draw up to 80 percent of audiences for quality European films; they are also
the most appropriate setting where moviegoers can discover African, Asian, Latin American and independent films from the USA.
Thus arthouse cinema sector is well and truly (also) a market, which provides quality filmmaking with its main outlets in the largest
markets.
ART CINEMA = ACTION + MANAGEMENT 2012
9th Edition of the International Training for Cinema Exhibition Professionals :
- Why a training for arthouse exhibitors?

For a better understanding of the key facts of this profession

For benefiting from know-how from top-rank European cinema professionals

For networking with 100 cinema professionals

For producing pragmatic tools and projects useful to the whole profession

For expanding your career horizons

- A training adapted to candidates profiles and experiences
Juniors, with at least one year of working experience in a cinema. Or other professionals (festivals, distribution, institutional workers)
willing to better understand the independent cinema sector in Europe or with the project of opening a art cinema theatre.
Executives with many year of working experience in an art cinema as programmers or managers
- Content
The 2 sessions are held in 4 languages: French, English, German, and Italian.
Juniors session (35 participants) 27 August - 2 September 2012
Through lectures, case studies, practical activities and group-work the course covers 12 exhibitions issues : economics, law, policies,
technology, network, programming, audience development, fund raising, project management, communication, marketing and management
Executives session (20 participants) 27- 31 August 2012
Executives share with Juniors the training day dedicated to economics, law and the
The second day is a workshops on how to strengthen arthouse film exhibition in Europe

60

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- Find out more

www.cicae.org
mail:cicae@art-et-essai.org
phone:66 + 33 1 56 33 13 29

Universal Film
Issue 2 of 2012

FINDING
YOUR
STORY

by Paula Brancato

A great screenplay begins with a great story. Unfortunately, not all stories deserve to be told. Youve heard it a hundred times: We want a premise thats
unique, high concept, Something new that knocks our socks o , A tale with
remarkable insight, never told before. One of our greatest poets was asked
why he turned out only 6 new poems a year. He said, Because I only have remarkable insights 6 times a year. So, how do you get a remarkable insight that
generates an unusual premise that creates a winning story?
Truth is, the average professional writer will run through hundreds of story
ideas dead cat meets maker and finds out hes a dog, London schoolteacher
launches science fair undoing MI5, a cyber-house turns on its inhabitants to
get ten that deserve to be put on paper or even discussed in short treatment
form. Of the ten stories deemed suitable for a short treatment, the pro will find
maybe just three have the meat necessary to become a screenplay. That is after
he/she has already written fifty or so pages.
So how do you pick a winner? Sheer unadulterated work, plus paying attention
to what stays in ones head and what doesnt. This is the realm of the poet; the
observer who lets many good and bad ideas pass, until something sticks thats
both compelling and has a perfect story structure.
Pros are ruthless about casting aside less promising story ideas because each
rejected idea brings the writer closer to that remarkable concept. The cat as
dog theme may be appealing, but not something this particular writer can
write well. The London schoolteacher idea might run out of twists and turns
and become a really sappy romance. And how many interesting ways can a cyber-house kill people, after all, if that is all its meant to do? Cyber House may
make a fine Twilight Zone episode, but it takes more to make a strong feature
film. The pro has to relentlessly whittle away and funnel down.
Of the 3 three stories that do survive, the professional further knows that only
one is likely to have that remarkable insight that will not let go of the writer
thats one in a hundred. This is the story that must be told.
So, if your screenplays arent tearing up the world, consider your premise before you start. Is this something you know about, or can learn about, and write?
Is it fun? Does it turn you on, excite you down to your very bones? Is there
enough meat to warrant two hours of an audiences attention, or have you
fallen in love with a one-note Johnny? Are you certain you have no particular
ax to grind screenplays arent lessons, they are insights; things you didnt
even know yourself! Lastly, do you just keep finding this darned story knocking
around in your head, no matter how hard you try to get rid of it?
Then write it, by all means.

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Universal Film
Issue 2 - 2012

Paula Brancato
Full-time Lecturer,
University of Southern California
Mobile: 310-429-5181
Oce: 212-249-0255
http://www.thewritersplace.org/script_consultation.shtml

www.ufmag.org

62

TWPBrancato@aol.com

Universal Film
Issue 2 of 2012

In Devlopment
THE INSTITUTION

ower Bridge Films Ltd is devloping a new independent featurelength motion picture entitled The Institution for world-wide theatrical release. The Films optimum budget is US $7,000,000

This is a captivating and intriguing story, set at a time in history when humanity
belonged to the chosen few, and madness was the order of the day. For the first
time, the true story of medical genocide that disposed of an innocent generation is brought to the screen.
The story is inspired by true events and tells the story of a young girl ,Elsa, who
is suering from post traumatic stress disorder. Elsa is forcibly parted from her
father during the war, taken to safety and placed as a Nanny to a Medical Superintendents three children. The superintendant runs an institution for medical
research, which reveals the depths of mans inhumanity and the gross disposal
of a lost generation.
In a desperate attempt to get back to her father she forges a relationship with
the Superintendent only to find herself fighting, not only for her own life, but
for those of her charges, as she herself becomes institutionalised. Along with
five fellow inmates, Elsas thoughts turn to escape, which is spurred along by a
series of flashbacks and reoccurring nightmares of her father.
What she doesnt know is that the nightmare has only just begun and as the
final flashback occurs, reality stares her in the face in the form of the man who
shot her father - A German SS ocer.
The reality is that the institution is in actual fact Dachau, the Nazi concentration camp. Elsa never was a nanny and everyone whom she encountered were
all prisoners including the children.
Will Elsa survive Hitlers final solution and will she succeed in her fight for freedom? Only two things stand in her way, the might of the German army, and
THE INSTITUTION

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Universal Film

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64

Issue 2 of 2012

Universal Film
Issue 2 of 2012

FAIR USE
DIGITAL MEDIA

by Tifanie Jodeh

When is it OK to use Copyrighted materials

without obtaining permission
Copyright is protective of works such
as photographs, music compositions,
films, sculptures, news articles and
paintings. These forms of creative,
expressive media are protected as
any original work of authorship
fixed in any tangible medium of expression. (Under the Copyright Act)
Many content creators are confused
about the fair use doctrine and
whether they need permission to
borrow from owners of copyrighted
works. Fair use allows for conditions under which content creators
can use material that is copyrighted
by someone else without paying royalties or needing to obtain a license.
It gives the public a limited right to
draw upon copyrighted works to
produce separate works of authorship. Such examples include news,
fair comment and criticism, parody,
reporting, teaching, scholarship and
research. Filmmakers, artists and
writers benefit from the fact that the
copyright law does not exactly specify how to apply fair use. Creative
needs are considered and whether
the use is fair according to a rule
of reason.

Courts employ a four part test (set

out in the Copyright Act) and ask two
key questions:
1.
Did the unlicensed use
transform the material taken from
the copyrighted work by using it for
a dierent purpose than the original,
or did it just repeat the work for the
same intent and value as the original?
2.
Was the amount and nature
of material taken appropriate in light
of the nature of the copyrighted work
and of the use?
If the answer to both questions is in
the armative, a court is likely to
find a fair use.
For example, if a reporter quotes a
paragraph from an article you wrote
online and that reporter compares
your opinion with that of other commentators, this is likely permitted
by the fair use doctrine without the
need to obtain your permission.

is a very fact-sensitive defense to

a copyright claim. It is sometimes
dicult for producers, writers and
content creators to determine beforehand whether a particular use is
in fact a fair use. For this reason, it is
a good idea to seek out a license before engaging in a use that might be
a maybe fair use.
COPYRIGHT & DISCLAIMER
Tifanie Jodeh is Partner at Entertainment Law Partners dedicated to
corporate, business and entertainment aairs. You may contact her at
Tifanie@entlawpartners.com.
Tifanie Jodeh grants column recipients permission to copy and distribute this column and distribute it free
of charge, provided that copies are
distributed for educational and nonprofit use, no changes or revisions
are made, all copies clearly attribute
the article to its author and include
its copyright notice.
DISCLAIMER: Readers should consult
with a lawyer before solely relying
on any information contained herein.

Be sure to keep in mind that fair use

65

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Universal Film
Issue 2 - 2012

Film Festivals can stimulate

foreign location shoots
by Scott Rosenberg

According to Grunwell, Ha, and Martin

(2008), festivals could bring a whole new
group of filmmakers to a destination, as the
Festival VIPs return home and (hopefully)
talk positively about their experience. When
visitors have a positive experience in the host
community, they will return to that destination in the future (Woosnam, McElroy, & Winkle, 2009).
Recently the Thailand Film Office has identified film festivals as a marketing arm for promoting and shooting future films, TV commercials and dramas in Thailand reaching

www.ufmag.org

out to international filmmakers who attend

various film festivals in Thailand in support
of their films. With minimal funding support
allocated through an arm of the National
Film and Video Committee, film festivals are
encouraged to incorporate familiarization
tours of localities and networking functions
with indigenous private-sector, productionservice personnel.
The 2007 Phuket Film Festival was the first (in
Thailand) to have as a main objective familiarization activities featuring popular local locations used in previous film shoots.
Twelve filmmakers representing their films
were escorted to various filming locations on
the island and participated in seminars and
networking activities.
The recent Hua Hin Film Festival, also in
Thailand (January 2012), saw few stars,
however those who were in attendance and
introduced to the local Hua Hin destinations
talked favorably of them. Attending were
French director Luc Besson and Michelle
Yeoh (The Lady, 2011) both having filmed
in Thailand before and Ryan Gosling (Only
God Forgives, 2012) his first time shooting
in Thailand. Ryan especially grew quite fond

of the local crew and said he would return

to Thailand again in the future (whether on
vacation or to shoot another movie was unclear).
But the Thailand Film Office gained more
than just word-of-mouth advertising for the
advantages of shooting on location in Thailand. No official study was done in Thailand,
but based on a study of press coverage from
the 2006 Bahamas International Film Festival
(BIFF) conducted by US based Weber Shandwick and Roger & Cowan PR companies, BIFF
2006 received $550,000 worth of public relations exposure for that year alone. In 2007,
the estimate was up to $1 million.
Its crucial, however, that film commissions
carefully scrutinize goals, objectives and
proposed activities of festivals applying for
funding. Too many times, what appears on
paper applications does not materialize in
real life.
Film commissions should take a look at supporting all film festivals in their best locales.
Film festivals can truly be an effective marketing tool for attracting international filmmakers to utilize local production service
companies and shooting locations.

66

Many studies have shown that

festivals play a significant role
for communities by attracting tourists, creating positive
economic impact, creating opportunities for
community involvement and togetherness,
and enhancing the image of the destination.
Festivals and special events have grown in all
destinations and are the fastest growing segment of the tourism field (Park, Reisinger &
Kang, 2008) especially film festivals which
bring to locales movie makers, film talent
and other industry stakeholders. Festivals
provide these special VIP guests recognition
of the destination.

Universal Film
Issue 2 - 2012

ZOE MOON ASTROLOGY MAY MONTHLY FORECAST 2012

ARIES

TARUS

GEMINI

May rocks some powerful turnarounds

with women, love or income for you. This
can mean news coming in that shifts
things for you or there could be writing
opportunities, agreements, sales, meetings, talks, short trips, vehicles, siblings,
neighbors, or local activities you get involved in that bring the shift with love, money
or women. Your financial interests with
loans, investments, insurance, taxes, inheritance, alimony, child support, commissions, royalties, bankruptcy, or a partners
money peak by the 5th as you achieve
your goal or wrap things up. A sexual
attraction or issue, reproductive matter or
divorce may also crest this first week. New
offers, agreements, decisions, writing
opportunities, sales, moves, sibling or
neighbor interests, vehicles, short trips,
local activities, or ideas kick in from the
2oth onward, you are golden if you can let
go and start fresh.

It is straight up time for you to go back to

that past income opportunity or issue and
tackle it this month. You can change directions in what you are doing to make your
living if you want or find a way to make
your money work for you so that you are
experiencing love in a different way, its a
great motivator! Your best income producing prospects will be with past clients or
situations from the 15th onward. A high
point comes with a romantic or business
partner, agent, attorney, specialist, advocate, or opponent by the 5th. This will be
a powerful time of achievement or endings
as you wrap things up. Fresh starts on the
income front begin on the 2oth giving you
a two week opportunity to launch new
earning ideas, increase current income or
make a big purchase but you must be
willing to eclipse something out to make
great headway.

Venus Retrogrades in your sign this month

babe, so you may feel like reimaging yourself or revisiting past looks, photos, identities, physical interests, or reworking your
brand or body. You may return to a past
love or income opportunity or slow things
down now. Its really a time for you to look
at how you are loving yourself and do
something about it by reworking things,
especially from the 15th forward. A major
work or health matter peaks by the 5th as
you achieve your goals or something ends
and you wrap things up. Animal interests
and issues may also culminate now. Your
new look, image, identity, or physical/
personal beginning starts on the 20th as
you put yourself out there in new ways. Be
willing to eclipse out something about
who you have been or how you have been
treating your body so that you get the best
new beginning possible.

LIBRA
A turnaround with a legal, ceremonial,
travel, media, publishing, marketing, or
educational matter comes this month and
will likely kick in the strongest from the
15th onward. Its time to revisit money
making opportunities from the past through these avenues or you may be
reconnecting with a past love interest or
issue, or an important matter with a
woman through these trips, legal channels,
media, ceremonies, or educational interests. Ask yourself if you want to rework
things here, revise them, reconnect, or
release them once and for all. Are you
feeling the love? Are you valued and
making money? Your income peaks in a
major way on the 5th as you achieve your
goal, get the raise, check in the mail, or see
some source of earning end. This may be
a high point with possessions, acquisitions, building, or spending as well. New
Moon beginnings give you great cosmic
support behind new ventures in media,
travel, marketing, education, publishing,
import/export, ceremonies, and legal
matters from the 20th onward but you
must be willing to eclipse something out
to move ahead

SCORPIO
You will be revisiting or revising this month
based on past financial matters, divorce
issues or sexual attractions or issues. Your
need to be loved and make money is very
strongly tied to this reworking of your
loans, debt, inheritance, bankruptcy, alimony, child support, settlement, insurance
needs, taxes, commissions, royalties, mortgage, partners money, divorce, and your
sexual activity. The past is up front and
center, strongest from the 15th onward so
what can you do to tweak things,
reconnect or release in these areas so you
feel the love or make the money? You
reach a major personal high point by the
5th and its all about you, your brand,
image, identity, body, or some personal
goal being reached, celebrated or wrapping up and ending. New beginnings with
the loans, inheritance, investments, settlements, alimony, child support, insurance,
taxes, commissions, bankruptcy, a
partners money, or with divorce, reproduction, or sexual attractions open up
from the 20th onward. Its important to
note that something must be eclipsed out
here for your fresh start to take off.

SAGITTARIUS
Yowza Sage, Venus Retrogrades midmonth through your partners, agents,
attorneys, specialists, advocates, competitors, and opponents. This means you will
be heading back into past territory over
love or money with them and you will
want to revisit past situations, reconnect
to see if there is merit in moving ahead in
the future, (can that past agent help you
earn or that past partner bring you love or
release you to love), or release the issues
that are in some way blocking future
growth in love or income. You may see
this person deal with a reversal in love or
money and need to be there for them as
well. You could also see a past significant
other return or a current one exit during
this phase. A film or other artistic project/
interest, spiritual, magical or psychic pursuit, hospital or addictive matter, clandestine affair or developmental effort
reaches a major peak by the 5th. You will
be at a time of achievements, celebrations
or endings with these themes. New
beginnings with partners, representatives
and competitors kick off from the 20th
onward but you must be willing to eclipse
something out to have your fresh start

67

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Universal Film
Issue 2 - 2012

CANCER

LEO

VIRGO

It is SO time to revisit what you love and

any income potential in film, music, art,
spiritual interests, through clandestine
behind the scenes means or Karmic relationships, hospitals, retreats, prisons,
dealing with addictions, or research
matters. You may have a return from the
past or an exit from current situations here
from the 15th forward. Love looks private
or secret, income somehow flowing from
artistry or intuitive Fated channels. A creative project hits a major peak on the 5th
in celebration or endings. You may also
be noting a very big moment in love or
with children at this time. New opportunities in film, music, art, psychic or spiritual
interests, hospitals or other institutions,
dealing with addictions, clandestine affairs, research projects, or investigations
begin on the 20th forward but you must
be willing to eclipse something Karmic out
of your life to move ahead here now.

Oh babe, its time for you to go back into

the past with friends, groups, the internet,
astrology, charities, or aspirations and
revisit any potential love interests or issues
or look for income opportunities here.
This kicks in strongly from the 15th forward
but you will feel it all month. Is there
something you can rework? Social
network it big time. Major high points are
reached at home, with a move, real estate
deal, roommate, family member, or with
property by the 5th. You will be celebrating achievements or marking endings
here. Fresh starts and new opportunities
with friends, groups, astrology, the internet, and charities then open up from the
20th onward. However, you will need to
be willing to eclipse something out to start
fresh and this will have a powerful affect
on the months ahead, its all in how you
think about it or communicate it!

Virgo, a woman from your past is back,

front and center, or a current one exits and
its all about how she fits into your career
or embodies a major goal. This is a month
to revisit what needs doing with her or
revisit past career matters, big ambitions,
goals, ties to fame, issues around reputation, bosses, authority figures, or dad. You
will be looking at how love is affected or
how income can be generated here. Its
time to rework, reconnect or release in
these arenas and this kicks in strongest
from the 15th forward. A big decision,
agreement, writing project, talk, or meeting reaches its zenith by the 5th. You may
see something involving a brother, sister,
neighbor, vehicle, or electronic peak now
as well. This is a time of celebrating achievements here or marking endings. Your
new beginnings open up with career,
ambitions, goals, boss, authority figures,
dad, fame, and reputation from the 20th
onward but are based on your ability to
eclipse something out from the past so
that you can move ahead

CAPRICORN

AQUARIUS

PISCES

Holy batcave, its time to backtrack or

revisit past work projects or interests, coworkers or employees, services, health
issues, or pet matters this month. This will
be where income opportunities lurk and
love awaits. A woman may help you here
as well. Is there something you can rework
or do you need to release something in
these situations or with these people? This
really kicks into gear on the 15th onward
but you will be working with it from the
get-go. A female colleague or health worker may return or a current one may exit,
and you may need to make money doing
something you did before. A friendship,
group affiliation or activity, internet project, astrological or charitable interest, or
aspiration peaks by the 5th in major celebrations, achievements or endings. Fresh
starts and new opportunities arrive from
the 20th onward in your work projects,
interviews, auditions, with co-workers,
employees, services you provide, organizational efforts, skill set, health, and with
animals but its important to note that
something must be eclipsed out to get this
fresh start underway

A past lover returns, current love interests

slow down or exit, or you revisit past love
issues this month so that you can move
ahead in July on solid ground. Past creative projects or childrens issues may also
return and in all of this you need to focus
on what is happening for you as far as
feeling the love or how it is affecting your
income or spending. This is a cosmic doover and you want to rework things,
reconnect or release so that you can move
on. Its really going to be strongest from
the 15th onward. A career matter, major
goal, ambition, moment in the spotlight,
achievement, or something involving an
authority figure, boss or dad peaks powerfully by the 5th. You will be celebrating
achievements or seeing endings and
wrapping things up in these areas. New
starts with love, lovers, love interests, children, speculative ventures, recreational
outlets, and creative projects open up
from the 20th onward but something will
have to be eclipsed out so that this new
beginning can take off.

You will be retracing steps at home, regarding moves, real estate deals or interests,
roommates, renovations, or family this
month. Its all about the love you feel here
or the income and possessions in the mix.
Things will either slow down in these areas
for a bit or you will need to rework, revisit,
reconnect, or release in these areas, especially from the 15th onward. A woman
may play a significant role in this. Can you
earn from home, revisit real estate, look at
family dynamics and spending or earning,
patch up love issues here, or make a
change that allows love or money to flow
in a healthier and more supportive way?
A major high point is reached in a trip, with
someone at a distance, an import/export
deal, with a foreign interest or person, a
legal matter, educational interest, media,
publishing, or marketing matter, or ceremony by the 5th. This is a time of celebrating achievements or marking endings.
New beginnings come at home, with
moves, renovations, real estate, family,
roommates, and security needs from the
20th onward but something will have to
be eclipsed out to make your fresh start

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68

ZOEMOONASTROLOGY@GMAIL.COM OR CALL 818-613-6067

Universal Film
Issue 2 of 2012

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Universal Film
Issue 2 of 2012

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DarkRune - a new power is emerging on the Rock Horizon! Heri Joensen

of the Faroese Folk Metal band TR
and Konrad Hollenstein, the creator
of the DREATH Movie Trilogy founded DarkRune - Accoustic Dark Metal...
songs of Night and Darkness played
with not only accoustic instruments.
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