FILM LONDON - BEST OF BOROUGH 2010 COMPETITION (BOBS) LAUNCHES

It's that time of year again, the BoBs are back...! Film London have launched this year's Best of Borough's competition.

This is the chance to see what London's new film talent can do on a low budget. 16 films have been selected from the various Borough Film Funds which exist across London. At a prestigious awards ceremony held at BAFTA on Monday 12 July, two winners will be announced - the winner of the Jury Prize and the winner of the Audience Prize, which also comes with a £2000 cash prize!

The audience prize is decided by you... that is everyone who visits the Film London site and registers a vote.

As Executive Producer on three of the selected films, I can only encourage you to choose the film you like the best and vote for it! But please start by watching the three Eastern Edge Films, and consider voting for one of them:

Article #38 - directed by Kuvera and Nelson Sivalingam

Barking & Dagenham
Running Time: 5' 29"
His daughter taken by an anonymous woman from his violent past. The ransom - the childhood that was stolen from her. Time is running out.


The Holiday - directed by Ida Akesson

Waltham Forest
Running Time: 10' 49"

Banter around the Burger Van is always animated - especially with Ken griping to his mates about his nagging wife and kids. But Ken's home isn't your typical family abode...


Disgraced - directed by Shanna Preston

Redbridge
Running Time: 8' 57"
When a young muslim girl's borrowed mobile rings in front of her dad, it triggers a tragic chain of events.

View the films and vote here:
http://filmlondon.org.uk/best_of_boroughs/

Winning the BoBs for any of these filmmakers who are starting out in their careers will help build their reputation, and hopefully encourage other funders to see their talents. This could be the catalyst that helps move their film careers to the next vital step!! Don't waste any time, Go vote now!

What's Your Story

WHAT'S YOUR STORY - SIXTY PEOPLE | SIXTEEN FILMS | REAL STORIES

I have just recently completed some grading and online editing work on a series of really interesting short films which were made as part of a training and production scheme working with community groups. The films were produced by DFG, the Documentary Filmmakers Group, working across several London boroughs Redbridge, Hackney, Southall and Paddington.

What's fun about these short films is that you can see stories about real people's lives presented in a way that is accessible and engaging.

Visit the "What's Your Story" website, click here

Here are some of my favourites:

My Soldier Son


Singing On The Treetops


When Reggae Came to Dalston


Qamar

AVATAR - 3D

I saw Avatar in 3D night before last at the IMAX in London. I'm probably one of the last people to see it, but there you go. It was worth it though. I'm not generally over-excited by visual effects. And films where people often rave about the visual effects don't often impress me. I had seen the trailer to Avatar and wasn't that amazed seeing it on TV. But since friends recommended it, and since seeing a 3D demo of a Belly Dancing tutorial in 3D(!) at a Soho Post Production company recently and being curiously surprised by how amazing 3D could be, I decided to book a seat at a late night screening of Avatar at the UK largest's screen.

It's the first film I have been actually excited about seeing in 3D. 20 years ago when I first watched 3D films it was just a bit of a gimmick. Not having watched Avatar in 3D, I really felt like I was watching a film for the first time. I always remember reading about the Lumiere Brothers film Arrival of a train (1896), which simply shows a train arriving at a station, and how some of the audience members had jumped out of the way as the train approached. They hadn't yet become accustomed to watching a film and how the illusion of the perspective can trick you into thinking something 2D is 3D.
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Avatar for me is 21st century equivalent of Arrival of a Train except it is arrival of a train assaulting your senses about every 15 seconds for over 2 hours. And despite the absolutely mind-blowing effects throughout the film, the thing that was most significant for me was the fact that the 3D made me feel like there was a stronger intimacy between me and the world of the characters. It wasn't that I was suddenly amazed by seeing objects protruding from the screen, or flies buzzing around in my face but that I really felt like I was in the same room as where the action was taking place. At the beginning of the film, I almost felt embarrassed, like I was prying on these people's lives and at any moment any of them could turn round to me and say ask me what I was doing there! The only way I can describe it is as being like a looking into a mirror - where you know you are looking at a two-dimensional surface, but you also know that what you are looking at is not a picture, but real and all around you, and you see yourself as part of it.

The creatures in this film are stunning, and the landscape that they inhibit all make for a film where you actually feel like you have visited a whole new world.

OK - you can question the storyline and the depth of the characters, and whether the film has anything meaningful to say. But for me, the magical world the film creates and the fact that the nature in it is so overwhelmingly confusing and wildly hostile makes for a significant message in itself.

Vote now! Dorset Cereals competition - MORNING TREAT

Our 3 year-old daughter has surprised us again and made her own video without even bothering to wake us up!


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For more info visit: www.dorsetcereals.co.uk/simple-pleasures-film-festival/gallery/1/entry/136

THANKS!!

Reed competition

Since this year seems to be the year of competitions (there just seems to be more and more film competitions springing up all over the place), I saw this Reed employment agency competition as another chance to have some fun, trying out some ideas, and see what's possible with a one-person crew, on a zero budget with just a handheld camera and a handful of actors on a sunny day in London. This film was shot and edited in less than 24 hours. The theme that Reed have given is "My workplace is wonderful and I want to share it". My friend Mulla is one of the people I know who has real job-satisfaction, and so I decided to explore this in a humorous way in this short film about his job as a language teacher in London....

Watch my entry here:



Visit the Reed site here and watch all the entries:
http://www.youtube.com/reedfilm#p/f/5/xUTdEiV-fAg

SHOOTING A KIWI | Your Big Break

SHOOTING A KIWI | Your Big Break

Peter Jackson's YOUR BIG BREAK

Just entered YOUR BIG BREAK, the competition organised by Peter Jackson and Barrie Osborne - 100% New Zealand.

Have a look at my entry and vote if you like it:
SHOOTING A KIWI

VOTING ENDS 15th JAN.

The Passenger

I watched Anonioni's film "The Passenger" again last night. It's probably the tenth time I have seen it and I still see it like a new film every time. This film poetically and cerebrally reinforces the idea that you can't change who you are in life. Not that your destiny is fixed, but that your 'identity' is. That there is no escaping who you are. It makes a powerful statement about this idea through Jack Nicholson's portrayal of a journalist who has become trapped in his own identity unable to really say anything meaningful anymore, even though he has a privileged career and a strong reputation. Even though he knows the truth about the war he is reporting on in Congo, he is unable to report it how it really is. By chance he is offered a way out, when a man dies in an adjacent hotel room. He fakes his own death and takes on the identity of the man who has died. What follows is his inability to escape his own identity, as well as his now assumed identity which slowly also becomes a burden from which he also needs to escape....

OXO FACTOR result

Just a quick note to say a BIG THANKS to everyone who voted for us in the OXO FACTOR competition. Unfortunately, we didn't win despite votes coming from wide and far - so well done to the 'Dawsons' who claimed the £10,000 prize. They certainly had an impressive amount of views on Youtube compared to everyone else.

Thanks again for voting for the "Califano Hursts". I'd like to believe that we were at least 2nd! We were in terms of the number of Youtube votes anyway. And it was pretty amazing that the ad had a viewing of over 15 million when it was on ITV1 during the X-FACTOR! It was certainly fun to do - and it's something to show the kids in several year's time when they have all forgotten about it!!!

THANKS AGAIN!!!

Arab Shorts

Graham Jeffery sent me this link about Arab Shorts


Just found my friend Mahdi's film on it - check it out:

Arafat and I by Mahdi Fleifel