Sunday, August 02, 2009

It's been a while


... but these things happen. There's not been a huge amount to report because the world of film distribution is the slowest moving world I have ever come across.

We have a few companies who have expressed an interest in releasing 1234. Some just want to do a theatrical, some just DVD and some want to do both. This is good, but it takes an age to get any answers out of them. I suppose they have to be careful as they can only afford to buy a few films a year so need to make sure they're happy with what they get, but it's still amazing that it can take weeks just to get the simplest of email replies. One foreign distributor, who actually requested a screener, still hadn't watched it six months later. I can't help feeling that the inevitable online releasing of films in the future will give distributors a much needed kick up the arse. If I can include money for promotion in my budget and then just release the film online I can get it out there right away. I've got a lot of respect for some distributors (and luckily that includes the ones interested in us), the ones who take real care with promotion and placement, but it does seem to be a business that's still operating as if it's 1960.

Hopefully we'll have something to report soon, if only because it would help stem all the 'when's your film coming out then?' emails we get. The fact we get loads from people we don't know only underlines what we've always known, that there's an audience for this film. There's a lot of people out there who love the world of indie music and would be interested in seeing it on film. Obviously I hope they like the film, but at the very least they're interested in it, more so I think than any distributors we've spoken to realise. And, as a distributor, what better way to be proved wrong than to find your film more successful than you thought.

In the meantime other things are being lined up. Carson Films ltd, the company Simon and I set up, are busy putting together our slate of projects. We've got 4 features and one documentary on our slate, the first of which, albion, all about a group of archaeologists running a summer camp to build an Iron Age roundhouse (hence the photo) is just being lined up to send in to the UKFC for development funding. I think it's going to be great (but then I would, wouldn't I), possibly the most dramatic thing we've ever done, but still funny and touching. I've been working on the story with Eithne Farry, who is the books ed at Marie Claire but is of course best known as the person who made all of Lyndsey's outfits in 1234. As soon as she's finished her new book she can start work on all Iron Age costumes that the archaeologists are going to wear.

And at the exact opposite end of the spectrum, we just shot a video for the new Tender Trap single, which I'll try and put up here soon (if I can remember how you do that). They had no money so we shot the whole thing on a still camera running at 3 shots a second, then blended all the shots together. It looks very odd, but in a good way I think. Total budget? One lunch for editor.