Tag Archives: Director

Cap Gun Collective director Tom Haines hops a train with the Civil Wars

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the civil wars bandWe have some behind-the-scenes from Award-winning commercial production company Cap Gun Collective with details from director Tom Haines newest project: the music video for the Civil Wars’ “The One That Got Away.” This cinematic video debuted on YouTube on August 7, featuring the debut single from the Grammy-winning group’s brand new, self-titled Sensibility Recordings/Columbia Records album, which came out on August 2 and is available from iTunes.

As widely reported in international news media, the new album has earned high praise from Adele on Twitter: “Please go and get the new Civil Wars album,” she Tweeted on Aug. 7. “They’re my absolute favourite and the new record is beautiful!”

Shot in the Ozark Mountains along the Arkansas and Missouri Railroad, a 150-mile route connecting Fort Smith, Arkansas, with Monett, Missouri, the story follows a young itinerant woman who travels freight trains across the heartland looking for work, and experiencing life on the outer edge of civilization. Filled with scenes shot in the wreckage of May’s devastating E-F5 tornado, the video stars LA-based actress Claudia Davila along with dozens of local actors and residents cast during three days of location filming by Haines, director of photography Lol Crawley, Cap Gun executive producer Jason Botkin and their crew.

“I’ve always wanted to shoot a film based around train hopping,” began Haines, who was nominated for the UKMVA’s Best New Director Award in 2007. “We tested the idea with the label, Joy and John Paul, and everyone felt like it could work, as it somehow reflected the ideas of loss, regret and transience which echo in the song. When they understood it would be panoramic in scope, full of faces and landscapes that reflect the tones in the music without being too prescriptive, John Paul and Joy were really into it.”

Sharing many insights into the challenges of shooting in some of the area’s hardest hit locations, and onboard the A&M railways, Haines described the process as being difficult, but also, incredibly rewarding. For example, during the scene where a house is torn down, Haines had an emotional conversation with the home’s owner. By the director’s account, the production was aided immensely by A&M’s main gaffers (“Larry and Brenda”), who were instrumental in designing the right type of train, scouting locations and even bringing the production team to a square dance to find cast.

“People love to talk in that part of the world, they have great stories and yarns; I felt like I was in a Cormac McCarthy novel,” Haines continued. “The chap who dies in the film is an old Rodeo clown called Norman. He’s got throat cancer and is not long for this world, but his eyes lit up when he saw an opportunity to be in this video.”

With these and other encumbrances of the “tricky” production, according to Haines, the plot naturally evolved into something more narrative and linear. “I wanted to create the idea of a character who was living on the edge of society, but that gave her strength,” he added. “She is vulnerable but adaptable, and sadly, seismic natural disasters seem to be increasingly something we may have to live with, so adaptability is crucial to survival.”

For principal photography, the team used the ARRI Alexa Digital Camera System with anamorphic lenses. As one tribute to the project’s powerful, cinematic storytelling, it has now been chosen as an official Vimeo Staff Pick.

KOBO and Curtis Brown Announce Scholarship

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KOBO AND CURTIS BROWN CREATIVE INTRODUCE. KOBO WRITING LIFE 2013 SCHOLARSHIP

 

Any readers of Frost magazine who are interested in a writing career may be interested in this new scholarship from Kobo and Curtis Brown. Companies make tuition at London’s premier writing school accessible for three up-and-coming authors

 

Kobo, a global leader in eReading, and Curtis Brown, one of the UK’s premier literary and talent agencies, have announced that together the companies are introducing the Kobo Writing Life™ Scholarship to advance opportunities for three aspiring writers this year. The Kobo Writing Life Scholarship provides tuition fees for a writer in each of the following course: the three-month novel writing course, three-month writing-for-children course, and six-month novel-writing course. Each course is offered by Curtis Brown Creative and held at their London location.

 

“Kobo Writing Life is dedicated to supporting authors and is committed to allowing them barrier-free access to readers anywhere in the world,” said Mark Lefebvre, Kobo’s Director of Self-Publishing and Author Relations. “Excellence in writing is critical and at the heart of an author’s success and we are thrilled to be able to work with Curtis Brown Creative to help writers hone their craft.”

 

“We are very excited to be partnering with Kobo on this initiative to open up our courses to writers who would not otherwise be able to study with us,” said Anna Davis, Director, Curtis Brown Creative.  “Kobo is an energetic supporter of new writing and a generous sponsor of this program.”

 

Applications are now being accepted for the three-month Writing for Children course held April-July. Applicants must complete the online application form and provide the first 3,000 words of their novel in addition to a synopsis. Details of the scholarship for the three-month writing-for-children course starting in September and the six-month novel writing course starting in February will be made available at www.curtisbrowncreative.co.uk.

 

Curtis Brown launched its creative writing school in May 2011 as a way to reach new writers and foster their development as authors. In-depth courses are taught by industry experts including bestselling authors, agents and editors from Curtis Brown.  Kobo, through its self-publishing platform Kobo Writing Life, and Curtis Brown Creative are dedicated to the pursuit of excellence in writing and have partnered to develop strategic initiatives that foster the development of authors around the world.

 

This is the second project Kobo and Curtis Brown Creative have developed together. The companies also created the Jeffrey Archer Short Story Contest which resulted in a thousand, 100-word submissions to be judged by the author. The finalists will be announced on April 15 at London Book Fair.

LANA DEL REY RELEASES MUSIC VIDEO FOR NEW TRACK ‘BURNING DESIRE’

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SONG ALSO SET TO APPEAR AS SOUNDTRACK FOR NEW SHORT FILM BY JAGUAR AND RIDLEY SCOTT ASSOCIATES

Frost Magazine favourite, Lana Del Rey is back with a new song. Known for her brilliant music videos, this one does not disappoint.

Brit and Ivor Novello award winner Lana Del Rey today released the video for ‘Burning Desire’. It was written and composed by the singer songwriter and will feature as the title track to a special film called ‘Desire’ starring Golden Globe winner Damian Lewis, which has been created by Jaguar and the award winning producers Ridley Scott Associates.

The ‘Burning Desire’ music video was filmed on location in South East London at the infamous Rivoli Ballroom, a Grade II listed former cinema that was transformed in the 1950’s and is the only remaining intact ballroom from its period in London.

The distinctive venue’s eclectic mix of neo-classical, deco style perfectly complements Lana’s original style. In the video she is seen wearing a vintage Ghost floor length silk dress as she performs the track.

Lana Del Rey said:

“Film has always been so precious to me and I’m so proud to be a part of what Jaguar have envisioned for their new car with Damian Lewis. Making art means making tough decisions. I do believe you create your own life path and that you will be rewarded for following your passions – and sticking to it. It’s just good to know now, with people like Jaguar and working with them, that I’m not the only one out there with such strident, creative beliefs.”

Lana Del Rey’s collaboration with the luxury car brand was first announced last September, with the singer performing the song for the first and only time to an exclusive and intimate audience at Paris’s Musee Rodin at the global reveal of the F-TYPE. The F-TYPE is the first two-seater sports car from Jaguar since the iconic E-type was launched 50 years ago.

The film that features the track tells the story of Clark (Damian Lewis), who delivers cars for a living, running into trouble after a chance encounter with a mysterious, young woman (Shannyn Sossamon) in the middle of a lawless desert. Directed by Adam Smith, this is a story of betrayal, retribution, passion and greed. The film will be released in Spring 2013.

To view exclusive content from the Desire film set, be sure to visit http://F-TYPE.com.

Vanessa Bailey & Richard Perryman on Three Days Film | Film interview

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When I interviewed Vanessa Bailey and Richard Perryman about their new film, Three Days, we had so much fun and laughed so hard. Vanessa has co-written and is starring in the age gap romance alongside Richard who is fresh out of drama school. Vanessa is beautiful and talented but doesn’t seem to know it, as is Richard. They are both also wonderful company and building quite a following for their film which will start shooting early next year. To find out more, read on….

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Tell us about your character.

Richard Perryman: ‘I am playing James, a recent graduate, a young guy who does odd jobs. He is flyering for a jazz club and has a care-free lifestyle. He is not really looking for love but just by chance it happens. We were talking about this earlier. It just happens and he is not looking for a long term thing. It just happens to him and he can’t really get away. [laughter]

Vanessa Bailey: [laughing] He can’t really get away! These two characters are not the two people you would expect to see in a relationship. Not just with the age gap, which does sometimes happen, but also with their personalities. She is no a cougar, she is not predatory. She hasn’t been walking around looking for impressionable young leafleters to drag back to her hotel room. He’s not a lad.

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Richard: It’s not a trophy for him.

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Vanessa: It is just a sexual connection between them.

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Richard: Well, not the main one.

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Vanessa: [laughing] No, not the main one. It is about two real people. It is about finding what that connection would be and how it would work out in real life. They are not caricatures. It is not about romantic cliches. If two people really did connect, how would that work. Can it work?

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Richard: Can that relationship last or is it just a fling?

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Vanessa: And we don’t know the answer yet.

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Richard: I think they are probably both going into it thinking it is just a fling. And not expecting to find that they actually fall in love.

Age gap relationships are popular in film at the moment. Why do you think they are popular and what is your favourite?

Vanessa: I really liked the ITV one, Leaving, although I kinda thought they had stolen our thunder because we had written the script before it came out. What appealed to me about that one, and about Three Days, is most of the other films, the age gape in The Graduate isn’t that big. There is only six-years between them because they are playing up and down. So what I really liked about the ITV one was that they had Helen McCrory who is really gorgeous. They were able to make the audience believe. It was a slightly different story and it was about self-improvement. That one would be my favourite because it was anchored in real life. You can recognise it in real life. Whereas with the other ones, they are lovely stories, but they are not real.

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Richard: I have only seen The Graduate. I think with that one he has that relationship thrust upon him. It is much darker. She is more of a cougar and she reels him in. This is more of a chance. It is a more filmic story.

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Vanessa: It is more of a romance. It is not dark in any way. Which is more challenging. There is no gender game. It is more, ‘why has this happened and what should we do with it?’.

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Why do you think there is still a stigma attached to the older women/younger man thing?

Richard: There has been a rise in those type of films. I think there is a stigma attached but it is becoming less and less. There is still that taboo and it is still fine with older men and younger women.

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Vanessa: Again, we were talking about that earlier. I think with the older man and younger women, largely they are a physical manifestation of his success and being sexually attractive to women. It is more of a trophy thing. It is interesting because, as you said, the storyline is really popular. We have 1,300 people following us on Twitter. We have no media, no trailer, nothing really about the film, but I think the story has lots of appeal. We have a lot of different people following us. Younger girls, 17 or 18 years old and older men.

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We had a guy who said when I was in my 20s I had a relationship with a women who was 20 years older than me because it is common. See I am 43.

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Richard: And I am 22.

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Vanessa: Oh my god it has gotten bigger! What is that gap?

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Richard: 21 years.

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Vanessa: Yes, 21 years. That is quite a big gap.

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Richard: It’s not that big.

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Vanessa: Oh, bless you. We can make it work. But I think people are really fascinated by that. I am not going to name names but I had a lot of people say I had this relationship with this women who was 20 years older than me. It is really interesting. It does actually happen but I don’t think film shows that as much as the older guy.

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Another issue with younger men with older women is the fertility issue….

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Vanessa: Yes, I think that is true. It doesn’t work quite as well from a family point of view, biologically the other way around. Maybe some women are at the point when they don’t want to have kids.

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Richard: I think going into that relationship they won’t really think about it and then when they did the pressure would start adding on to it. Like, ‘what do we do?’

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Vanessa: I was talking to some friends about it and they were like, ‘lucky you’ and then I was thinking, no, because in reality when you are an older women it is hard. You have insecurities.

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Richard: Yeah, you were saying to me that when we go out people will be like, ‘Your son is waiting for you’ or ‘Is that your mum?’ or something. Which would be really tough.

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Vanessa: [laughing] There is always a 21-year-old girl around the corner and you are getting older, and you look older, and the point of this, of Three Days, is also when older women are portrayed in films they don’t look their age. They have had all of that plastic surgery and they don’t look their age. I do look my age [she doesn’t] so it is not like, yeah, she is a hot 43 but she looks 33. She is just 43. So there is that whole physical insecurity.

There is also this myth that is spread that men get better looking as they get older but women don’t. It places a lot of pressure on women and it also happens a lot in film. Then when you do get a part it is not a really good part. In this film it is a women in a really good role, which could actually have a lot of significance.

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Vanessa: And that is the great thing about indie film. You have raised a great point actually and that is the good thing about Three Days. There are not the parts out there that actresses my age necessarily want to play. You get typecast in commercials and then you have to wait until you are 75 to play a dowager in Downton Abbey. There is a massive gap in-between. You are just wandering around wondering what you are going to do. A few of us do have a natural look so you are not going to get the barmaid parts or the cougar parts. So I kind of wanted to come up with a part that a lot of women my age would want to play because it is interesting and it is fun. There is a massive gap for older actresses.

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How did you come on-board

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Richard: I didn’t really do anything.

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Vanessa: That is the joy of Twitter. I am going to write a book. Instead of the Joy of Sex I am going to write The Joy of Twitter, and [to Richard] you are probably too young to even know the book. It was out in the 1970s. [to me] You know the book? [Yes, I know the book] See, women know the book.

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So, Twitter, we were looking for someone. I was looking at showreels because I love watching showreels. I saw Richard’s headshot and someone tweeted a link to a short film he was in called Emmeline, which was gorgeous. So I stalked him. I asked him to be in a film with me.

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Richard: I got an email asking me if I wanted to be in the film. We met up for a coffee. Then I wanted to do it. She reeled me in. We were both on the same page in terms of character and what we wanted for the film.

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Vanessa: What clinched it was that halfway through we were talking about the dialogue and how we wanted it to be really natural, and be very real and he said it should be like ‘Before Sunrise’, which is my favourite film. At that point I was really hoping he wanted to be in the film.

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So it was the power of Twitter and short film. And the mocha that I bought him that I then drank.

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Richard: Yeah, I had a latte and she had my mocha.

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Vanessa: Start as you mean to go on.

Tell us about the process of the film so far.

Vanessa: It has been a long time actually, nearly a year. I wrote it. I wrote a really bad script originally. I sent if to Jon Rennie, our director, and basically what he did was he rewrote it from a cinematic point of view. Jon said he liked the story but this is how he thought the physical journey of the film would go. We have beautiful locations we are filming in. Then he gave it back to me to fill in the dialogue. We knew we had Huw onboard who is just phenomenally good.

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The film is quite like Notting Hill on acid. Huw Walters (Cinematographer) and Jon and myself all worked on Bubbles [an excellent short film. See it] Our composer had seen Bubbles and asked us if we had a composer. Then I looked at his credits and I was like, wow. He has worked with the BBC, with Tom Jones, with loads of people.

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Our hair designer, Jason Hall, also asked to come onboard and he had done London Fashion Week. He was also from twitter. He contacted us and asked us if we needed a hair stylist.

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The producer, Sam Smith-Higgins, was following the film since it started on Facebook and she said she would really like to collaborate and asked if we had a producer. She has an entire production company that she is bringing with her. The Executive Producer, Suzie Boudier, has been a constant source of inspiration.

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The great thing about this film is that everyone has come on-board because they really want to make this film rather than just a film. It has been a really long process. I am really excited.

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How did you approach funding.

Vanessa: We will be crowd funding in February. Consolidating everything in March and then we are shooting in April. We are looking at different crowd funding options at the moment.

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Tell us about you.

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Richard: I just graduated from E15 from a contemporary theatre course. I set up my own theatre company with a couple of friends called Antler. We took two shows up to Edinburgh.

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Vanessa: Who have got some amazing reviews. Should I quote some of them? Richard excels in dry humour. That is what it said.

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Richard: We got some lovely reviews. Since then I have done a short film with the same company. I was lucky to be a part of that. And from that I got this. Which is great and exciting.

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Vanessa: I am completely different. No training. I am a teacher. A music specialist whatever that means. I came out of it after I had my children and decided I wanted to be an actress. So I did a lot of background work just to get into the scene and I was lucky to break that rule that you never become an actor after being an extra. I managed to get there. I have managed to blag my way to some good jobs so far.

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You are so self deprecating

Vanessa: Yes I am. But I have no reason to be here. Once I got Spotlight and a DVD I sent it out and Sam [Samantha from Simon & How, out mutual agent] was the first person to give me an audition. I absolutely love it.

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Do you think the age of the actor is dead and you have to be an actorpreneur and do your own projects.

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Richard: I have only ever done my own projects. So I think, yes, you can’t really trust anyone else to do anything for you. You have to do it yourself. If you are lucky enough you will be handed lots of jobs. It is the luck of the draw. If not you have to go out and do it yourself. [to Vanessa] Like you are doing.

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Vanessa: All actors know that it is a really small pool that people fish from. Especially in television. It is hard and it is not going to talent unfortunately. You see people who work regularly who are not good and lots of people who are very talented who don’t get any work. So, yes, I do think you have to be an actorpreneur.

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Richard: I am very bad at selling myself because I am not on Twitter.

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I often lose roles to people who are more famous or someone’s girlfriend.

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Vanessa: Yes, that is frustrating. I can see the other side of that. We all work with people we know because it is better the devil you know.

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Richard: Then that creates those little cliques who work with the same people and you can’t break into it.

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That is why I left Scotland. I had to commute from Glasgow to London because there was the group of Scottish actors who always got work and I could not break into the industry.

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Vanessa: There are a couple of casting directors who fight it. A casting director said to me that he was sick of seeing the same faces in television over and over again.

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And you do. You see the same faces over and over again. We need pioneers who are bringing new faces in and trying to get people seen.

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Richard: But we are a little family. [We all have the same agent. Samantha at Simon & How]

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That’s right.

So is the process to make a short and then a feature film.

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Vanessa: I would love to. I would love to make a feature. Are you playing footsie with me Richard?

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Richard: Yes, I am getting into character.

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Vanessa: Two things with the short film. Firstly, I would like it to get into festivals. But also it is like a calling card. Hopefully people will see this. When we had one of our first meetings with Jon and Huw you could very much see the potential of the film and the ensemble cast. I would love to make a feature film.

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Richard: It has the potential to be a great British film.

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Vanessa: I am such a champion of British film so I would love to make it into a feature.

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What are you shooting on?

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Vanessa: I’m not sure. I have left that to Jon. Not film. Because it is too expensive. We want to do a few different takes on this film and we don’t want to worry about how expensive it would be. I know Jon was talking about filming on mono. So a combination I think.

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What’s next?

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Richard: I just graduated. I am not sure what is next. I am just putting myself out there.

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Vanessa: You are developing….

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Richard: Oh yeah, with my company, Antler, we are constantly developing work. Putting things together and trying out new ideas.

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Vanessa: Everything at the moment is Three Days. Then hopefully after that it will be the festivals. [Vanessa also has a lot of acting work coming up. Including a part in Southcliffe and some short films]

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Thanks Vanessa and Richard.

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Director: Jon Rennie @jon_rennie
Writers: Vanessa Bailey, Jon Rennie @vbaileyactor @jon_rennie
Producer: Sam Smith-Higgins http://www.redbeetlefilms.co.uk/ @SamSmith-Higgins
Executive Producer: Suzie Boudier @Superboooo
Cinematographer: Huw Walters http://vimeo.com/user4428776 @huwcamera
Composer: William Goodchild http://www.williamgoodchild.com/ @WGoodchildMusic
PR: FireflyPR http://www.firefly-pr.com/ @FireflyPR

Hair Design: Jason Hall http://www.jasonhallhairdressing.co.uk/ @Jhhair

Mark Potts Cinema Six Interview | Raindance 2012

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The Raindance Film Festival was as brilliant as ever, and we have an exclusive interview with Mark Potts, director of one of the festival’s films, Cinema Six.

1. What made you want to be a filmmaker?
– It was probably a few things. First, The Blair Witch Project. It’s embarrassing to admit, but that got me into it initially. My friends and I took my dad’s Hi-8 camera and made a parody of it. It was a little over 2 hours long. I edited it with VCRs and honestly, I cannot really remember how I set it up. It was two VCRs connected to a television and the camera and somehow it worked. But from there, my high school Spanish teacher encouraged my friends and I to do a public access show, and we did that. Then, I started working at a movie theatre, met Cole, and it just clicked. That theatre was my second home and I loved being there. And the feeling I got being there and immersing myself in films and just escaping life made me fall in love with cinema. I wanted to give someone else that experience, that escape, and some relaxation.

2. Tell us about yourself
I’m currently living in Los Angeles but am from Oklahoma. My partner in crime, Cole Selix, and I met in Enid, Oklahoma while going to school together and working at the movie theatre. We started Singletree Productions in 2006 and have made, literally, 100s of shorts and four features (most can be seen on singletreeproductions.com, even the first three features.) I am married to Hailey Branson-Potts, who works at the Los Angeles Times and she is a million times funnier and smarter than I am but don’t put that in the story because then she’ll be a dick about it.

3. You were co-writer and director of Cinema Six. How did you find directing your own work?
Cole and I have been directing our own stuff for years, so it isn’t too difficult for us now. If anything, while directing, we discover all the things we missed while writing and it creates this odd paradox of feelings where we feel like good directors but bad writers. But a lot of that is because Cole and I are always changing stuff, trying to make it better, trying to make things snappier, funnier, more emotional. And that’s why we asked a lot of the guys who worked on it to come aboard because we trust their opinions and tastes and wanted them to help make us better.

4. Tell us about Cinema Six.
Cinema Six has been around for about nine years. Cole and I first started talking about it while working in the movie theatre back in 2003. Of course, at that time, the script was really just un-connected scenes of us messing with customers and complaining about customers and being jerks to customers. Since that point, Cole and I have moved multiple times, gone to college, gotten married, had kids (Cole has two awesome kids, I have a pug) and have gone through some big changes which all can be seen in the version of the film now. It’s a love letter to the cinema and a commentary on growing up and just doing whatever you have to do to be happy.

5. What was the hardest thing about making the film?
Oddly enough, there wasn’t anything too difficult about making the film. The two biggest things were the budget because we were very limited and finding the perfect movie theatre. We needed a theatre that was older, not that flashy, and still ran film. It’s hard to find film theatres, which makes me sad. For me as an actor, the hardest part was remembering lines. I don’t memorize lines, which is terrible. Brand Rackley and John Merriman, the other two leads, are as professional as you can get and they were always prepared even as far as to tell me my lines. It was embarrassing but also humbling to know I had two friends and actors that cared enough to do that and not give me too much shit for it.

6. Where did you get the funding?
We received our funding from Reilly Smith and some of his family and friends. They chose to believe in all of us and I will forever be in their debt. There isn’t a day that goes by where I don’t pray to God we make their money back. They deserve it because they took a chance on some young filmmakers who just wanted to talk about growing up and tell vulgar jokes. I can never thank them enough.

7. How did it feeling getting into Raindance?
It was shocking and awesome! I was dumbfounded by the news and still kind of am. I am incredibly upset I couldn’t make it as well. But, we did make a special video Q&A that we hope people stay and watch. It answers a lot of questions. Not really.

8. What advice what you give to others filmmakers?
The best advice I have is to keep making things. Just keep making, even if it’s bad. We made many, many bad things. We still do. But we’re always making something and you learn something from every video and every mistake. Watch movies, read screenplays, make stuff.

9. You co-wrote the script, can you tell us about your writing process.
Cole and I have written scripts together for over six years. Our process is pretty solid now. When we get ideas, we talk about them for a long time. We throw around jokes and scene ideas and if we still love it months later, then we feel like it’s worth writing and trying to make. This process has weeded out many, many ideas and I love doing it. Just talking things through and seeing what sticks. When we’re at a point that we want to write it, we’ve talked about it so much that it really just needs to be put on paper, so I write it all out, then we get to ripping it apart and fixing it.

10. What’s next for you?
I’m hoping to start another feature next year. I have a few ideas and none of them are like Cinema Six, which excites me. They are all funny, but much, much darker.

Tony Scott ‘Had Cancer’

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After the incredibly sad news that Tony Scott killed himself, his friend have revealed that he
had inoperable brain cancer and only killed himself so his family were spared watching him die slowly and painfully.

ABC News revealed why the 68-year-old director jumped to his death on Sunday, by leaping from the Vincent Thomas Bridge. He left a suicide note.

A friend told the New York Post:

‘He has been suffering from cancer and he had a relapse. He wasn’t depressed, he was a lovely guy. On Sundays everyone went to his house, there would be the guy who worked in his local restaurant sitting by the pool by Michael Caine.’

Another source added: ‘He did have cancer, and for a while he was cancer free. He didn’t have any money problems or marriage problems.’

Scott directed such classics as Top Gun, Beverly Hills Cop II and Enemy Of The State and was the younger brother of director Ridley Scott. He fell within feet of a cruise boat around 12.30 p.m in front of horrified tourists.

‘He landed right next to our tour boat, and many of us saw the whole thing,’ a witness, who had been on the cruise told TMZ.

The Contra Costa Times reported that Scott climbed a fence on the south side of the bridge, which spans San Pedro and Terminal Island, at 12.30 p.m. on Sunday and leaped off ‘without hesitation’.

Simon Halls, a publicist for the Scott brothers, said. ‘The family asks for privacy during this time,’

Ridley Scott is flying from London to Los Angeles to be with his brother’s family.

He leaves behind two twin sons and his wife Donna. Hollywood is poorer today at the loss of such an amazing talent.

FilmWorks development scheme for budding directors and producers calls for applications.

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FilmWorks development scheme for budding directors and producers calls for applications.

Emerging regional producers and directors can fast track their film careers with FilmWorks, a new networked professional development scheme managed by Watershed in Bristol and co-produced by Showroom Workstation in Sheffield and Broadway in Nottingham which will give the participants the skills, contacts and knowledge required to raise their profile to a national and international level.

FilmWorks, a Film Networks project supported by the National Lottery through the BFI and Creative England, is specifically targeted at filmmakers in the English regions: it will give 45 producers and directors in Bristol, Nottingham, Sheffield and their surrounding areas a priceless opportunity to expand their creative and commercial potential, with the benefit of working with world class producers, such as Julia Lockhart (Aardman’s The Pirates), Colin Pons (Hush, The Acid House), and Alastair Clark (London to Brighton, Better Things).

FilmWorks launches in September with a live simulcast from Bristol-based Encounters Short Film & Animation Festival and runs until early December 2012. Candidates have until Mon 20 Aug to submit their application at http://filmworks.org.uk

It is a timely development scheme that responds to the current issues being faced in the film industry today: how to survive and prosper in the digital age, new models of distribution, the effect of digital technology on cinema production, new routes to market and much more.

Mark Cosgrove, Watershed’s Head of Programme, said:

“FilmWorks is a unique opportunity for emerging local talent to develop their skills and learn about the film industry from leading UK producers. Based at three creative hubs in the English regions this 360 degree fast tracked networked development programme will create that all important bridge between production and cinema exhibition. I’m looking forward to working with partners to share regional expertise, work with industry leaders, and most of all, to introducing 45 great filmmakers to the world.”

Liz Harkman, Managing Director at Encounters Short Film & Animation Festival, said:

“We’re delighted to be launching the FilmWorks programme in September at the 18th edition of the Festival. Encounters has always provided international new and emerging talent with opportunities to grow and a direct access to industry which makes it the ideal platform for the next generation of regional producers and directors to develop their projects, practice and networks.”

Fluid Football set to score big this summer!

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Andy Gray bringing match strategy and tactics to iOS later this June

AppyNation and Gray Cooper Media today announced FLUID FOOTBALL, the next evolution in tactical football games, coming as a universal app in late June 2012 for all iOS devices.

Developed in collaboration with professional football pundits Andy Gray and Richard Keys, Fluid Football puts real-time tactical decision making at your fingertips. Direct your whole team’s actions by simply drawing runs and passes. Use real world tactics to score in a series of challenging set piece scenarios.

Fluid Football features fully voiced commentary and tactical insights from the Sony Award-winning commentary team of Andy Gray and Richard Keys.

“I’m thrilled to have helped create a game that explores the tactical aspect of football, in a fast and exciting manner,” said Gray, .Director, Gray Cooper Media “Fans might have seen football apps before, but nothing like this.”

Simon Prytherch, the CEO of developer Chromativity, has a track record of making innovative football games, with console hits such as under his belt. Simon says “With Andy Gray’s renowned, analytical insight, we designed Fluid Football for a touch screen with deep tactical game play. We wanted it to also have intuitive control with quick levels you can drop in to any time, but that will keep you coming back until you’ve mastered them.”

Each Fluid Football level recreates the pivotal moment of a match – throw-ins, penalties and corner kicks that set the stage for sensational goals. You have complete tactical freedom – string together passes, outpace defenders, set up pinpoint crosses – if you can do it on the field you can do it in Fluid Football.

Once you’ve out-manoeuvred the defence, you’ll switch to the 3D ‘player’s eye’ view and swipe to take the decisive shot on goal.

Fluid Football will be released as a Universal App (supporting iPhone, iPod Touch and iPad devices) in late June 2012.