Festival update
Beatrice Ní Bhroin, London
Tuesday 6th July saw the first of the volunteer meetings where the main agenda was to relay the pricing and programme plans to members to ensure we’re on track for an attractive festival. New expertise joining the team in the final months means there is a continued vibrancy in our ideas and we hope to neglect nothing in our planning.
Businesses local to ‘The Lost Theatre’ are being informed of the coming festival as we hope to encourage their participation, whether as a recommended place to eat between sessions or to mingle post films while residents from the area will also be offered a discount.
With the core of the films having passed through my hands at some point I am confident in the quality of content we’ll be able to share over the four days of the festival. Categorising sessions is next step and with the help of our viewing panellists I have been working with extensive feedback.
Next week’s meetings are dedicated to the festival’s marketing before the launch of tickets and events. It’s important for us to propagate the ethos of FD4W so that workshops and networking during the festival are productive. Celebrating women’s talent for story telling is only the first step as we aspire to establish a space to cultivate female talent in film beyond what little we’ve claimed thus far!
So what comes next?
In early June I did the excellent and intense weekend directing course with Ruth Torjussen which was held in Cardiff. The question always arises then- how do you build on this kind of experience while it is fresh in your mind? Well, I had already signed up for a Mini Masterpieces summer program at Bristol University, not quite knowing what to expect. In short order I pitched a film, got it accepted and found myself directing this new short only a few streets away from where we had enjoyed the directing course just two weeks earlier !
Within a week we had shot, edited and done the post production necessary on Infill, Noggin, Wattle & Daub, a little fiction (barely) piece about an old courtyard on the brink of being re-developed…for something. But what? My film explored the visions of three pairs of interested parties and it premiered to an Open Day audience at the university just a few days after we shot it.
When gathering the crew, I was able to secure one of my fellow FD4W alumna, Anne-Marie Margerison as Director of Photography. We had a chance to work with a professional sound man, producer and editor on this project and found the my FD4W course had prepared me better for this than I could have anticipated too.
The directing course was just so valuable in giving me a bit of experience and confidence about what to watch out for and how to keep things moving on set. Well, so much more too really. Three days can certainly make a difference! It was a real pleasure to put the skills we had been taught to use so quickly.
Now it is less than a month since I took the course and aside from enjoying the final edit Lynnwen Brown did on the little piece we all shared direction on that weekend, I have a new film done and dusted and entered for two festivals ( Encounters in Bristol and Exposures in Manchester). I plan to help others met through the course on a couple of their projects in the near future and am in planning for a more ambitious project of my own to start later this summer!
-Teri Brewer
archaeoikon@me.com
Cardiff
Infill, Noggin, Wattle & Daub and more will be up on my website soon.
http://www.archaeoikon.com/
Cannes Petition
Many thanks to all those that signed the petition. (currently over 900)It was great to see so many names from around the world. The petition is now with the organisers of the festival. Let’s hope we don’t have to go through this all over again next year…
Here are a few of my favourite comments:
“Women are… Read More
Cannes discussion/petition update
The petition passes the 500 mark and keeps on rising…
http://www.petitiononline.com/Cannes10/petition.html
Yesterday on BBC World Service radio – I’m on at 29. 3o mins in.
http://www.bbc.co.uk/iplayer/episode/p007g9z3/Newshour_11_05_2010/
In the Times on Monday…
http://entertainment.timesonline.co.uk/tol/arts_and_entertainment/film/cannes/article7121359.ece
You Cannes Not Be Serious!
Sign the petition now!!
http://www.petitiononline.com/Cannes10/petition.html
There will also be some form of protest at Cannes but more about this nearer the time. Please pass this message on to your friends. Join the facebook site at www.facebook/youcannesnotbeserious/
Follow my tweets and retweet.
Words from Angeles
As you know just recently we’ve been celebrating the first short film completed by a student who had never directed before the Intro course.
Spanish actress Angeles completed the 6 week course in October and hasn’t wasted any time in writing, directing and producing ‘Call Centre’ so I asked her to write something… Read More
The Female Lens
The Female Lens is back on 29th March at 7pm with a wonderful new venue – Jetlag at 125 Cleveland Street, London W1T 6QB. Lets fill the place up and have a great night of networking and watching short films directed by women.
There is something very special about watching several films in a row all… Read More
Sally Potter's words of encouragement
In December one of our students Manjit approached Sally Potter on our behalf and got this wonderful reply. Its been hidden under ‘Research Articles’ for the last week but it really needs to be seen by everyone. I will come back to the last paragraph re women and self-esteem/confidence, later on in the week. Big… Read More
I am not a lobster!!
Since KB’s win I have been struck by the many expressions of sheer joy from my friends, colleagues, students and the many women I am in contact with by email. Its great to see such an outpouring of sister support!
This is totally where we’re coming from at fd4w. I try and ram it home in… Read More
Can she do it? Yes she can!!
About flippin’ time!! After 82 years of ignoring womens films – yes only three nominations in 82 years pretty much means ignoring – Kathryn Bigelow wins the Best Director Oscar for The Hurt Locker, a low budget, brilliantly executed Iraq war movie. The fact that she is also trounces her ex James Cameron and the… Read More
