Tag Archives: Films

Film Characters To Put Into Your Low Budget Film.

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The key to low-budget film-making is to have as few locations as possible. Locations and travel cost money.


Anna Paquin who is in the vampire TV show True Blood

Now, onto characters. You can’t afford to have a baseball player in your film if you want to see him in action. The key is having characters who can look authentic without renting expensive stadiums.

CIA agents are always popular in films. All you need is an actor in a suit, and, possibly, a fake gun. (If you are filming outside with a fake gun you must alert the authorities and tell them you will be filming in the area. Least you get shot by armed police thinking you are some kind of homicidal killer).

FBI agents: Ditto.

Waitress. Make a gritty, real life drama. It is relatively easy to talk a cafe owner into filming in their establishment for free. They will probably say yes for some publicity and a thank you in the credits.

People in love; everyone loves a good love story, and a happy ending. The purpose of film is to tell a story visually. Is there possibly an easier story to tell than a story about love and relationships. Something we all understand and go through?

Gangsters. a suit, a fake cockney accent and a fake gun. Brevity is the soul of low-budget film-making. Be careful when doing a gangster film though. They are heard to do well as Martin Scorsese has put the bar so high. You could make a good short if you have a good, original take on it.

Zombies; It’s easy to find a trainee make up artist who wants to add to their portfolio so your zombies will be authentic. It’s another popular genre.

Vampires; They are huge right now thanks to Twilight and True Blood. How hard is it to find some black clothes and fake blood? Bloody easy in fact.

More important than the genre and characters for a film is the script. An original film, well acted, and with a good script can beat any big budget blockbuster. Money is no longer a problem for independent filmmakers. You can make a film on a shoestring budget.

Photo credit: DarkChacal

Raindance announces Jury for Festival Awards

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Raindance announces Jury for Festival Awards for 19th Raindance Film Festival

28 Sep – 9 Oct

Raindance is delighted to announce the jury for this year’s Festival Awards. The panel, which includes
actors, directors, presenters, journalists and members of the film and photograph industry, will judge
the films nominated in each of the eight categories, with the winners to be announced on Saturday 8th
October, 8pm at the Festival venue, the Apollo Cinema in Piccadilly Circus.

The eight categories are:

Best International Feature, Best UK Feature, Best Debut Feature, Best Documentary, Best Microbudget
Feature, Best UK Short, Best International Short and the Film of the Festival.

“Our jury represents the spectrum of the film industry – from actors to directors and critics to
programmers – they bring an in-depth knowledge of film to the judging panel and will have the
difficult job of choosing winners from the outstanding titles nominated this year,” said Elliot Grove,
Festival Director.

The jury is as follows:

Sally Bibawy
Sally Bibawy joined analogue photography company, Lomography, in 1995 and took over the art direction
and product development in 2000. She is a board member, together with Matthias Fiegl and Wolfgang
Stranzinger, since 2004 and is based in Vienna.

Dexter Fletcher
Best known for his role in Lock, Stock and Two Smoking Barrels, Dexter Fletcher has grown up on screen,
beginning with his role as Baby Face in Bugsy Malone and on the British TV series Press Gang. His many
credits include The Elephant Man, Layer Cake and Kick Ass. Dexter also appeared in the 2009 Raindance Film Festival Trailer.

Gillies MacKinnon

Scottish Director Gillies MacKinnon has assembled one of the most impressive bodies of work in
recent British cinema with directing credits including Small Faces, Trojan Eddie starring Richard Harris
and Stephen Rea, A Simple Twist of Fate with Steve Martin, Regeneration starring Jonathan Pryce,
James Wilby and Jonny Lee Miller, Hideous Kinky with Kate Winslet, and the Golden Globe-winning
television Film, Last of the Blond Bombshells starring Judi Dench. His other work includes The Escapist,
Pure, historical drama Gunpowder Treason and Plot with Robert Carlyle, Tara Road , and The Snow
Goose starring Billy Connolly.

Céline Masset
Céline Masset is the co-founder and Artistic Director of the Brussels Short Film Festival, which will
celebrate its 15th anniversary next year. Her company, Un Soir Un Grain, also distributes and produces short films.

Helen McCrory

Helen McCrory is a multi award-winning actress on stage, television and the silver screen. She played
Cherie Blair in The Queen and The Special Relationship and played Narcissa Malfoy in the last three Harry
Potter movies. She will appear in Martin Scorsese’s soon-to-be-released film, Hugo and We’ll take
Manhattan for the BBC.

Wendy Mitchell

Wendy Mitchell is head of news at Screen International and ScreenDaily.com. Before moving to London,
she worked on staff in New York for Entertainment Weekly, indieWIRE, Rolling Stone and CMJ, as well as
freelancing for the New York Daily News, Playboy, Variety, Billboard, Time Out New York and The Wall
Street Journal. She is also the author of New York City’s Best Dive Bars (published in 2003).

Alex Zane
Alex began his career hosting the film review show Screenplay and fronting MTV’s flagship show, TRL.
A talented radio broadcaster, Alex began working at Xfm in 2002, and hosted the station’s Breakfast
Show for two years. His TV credits include Popworld, Balls of Steel, 8 out of 10 Cats and he hosted this
year’s Red Carpet Live for the Golden Globes and the Oscars. Alex currently hosts Channel 4’s Rude
Tube, Alex Zane’s Guest List and is the lead film reviewer for The Sun.

Festival Awards – nominated films

Best International Feature

Just Between Us / Rajko Grlic – Croatia
No Return / Miguel Cohan – Spain / Argentina
After Fall, Winter/ Eric Schaeffer – USA
Youth H2 “Come As You Are” / Kota Yoshida – Japan
War Games / Cosimo Alemà – Italy

Best UK
Acts Of Godfrey / Johnny Daukes – UK
A Thousand Kisses Deep / Dana Lustig – UK
Flutter / Giles Borg – UK
Hollow/ Michael Axelgaard – UK
Seamonsters / Julian Kerridge – UK
Stranger Things / Eleanor Burke – UK

Best Debut
Tilt / Viktor Chouchkov Jr. – Bulgaria
Synchronicity / Joe Tanaka – Japan
Exteriors / Marie Kristiansen – Norway
Restive/ Jeremiah Jones – USA

Best Microbudget Feature

MONK3YS / Drew Cullingham – UK
Julius Caesar / Adam Lee Hamilton & John Montegrande – UK
Uspomene 677 / Mirko Pincelli – Bosnia Herzegovina / UK
Meso Cafe / Ja’far ‘Abd al-Hamid – UK
Black Pond / Tom Kingsley – UK

Best Documentary

White Button / Igor Stoimenov – Serbia
The Echo Of Astro Boy’s Footsteps / Masanori Tominaga – Japan
Where My Heart Beats / Khazar Fatemi – Sweden
How to Start A Revolution / Ruaridh Arrow – UK
Heaven + Earth + Joe Davis / Peter Sasowsky – USA

Best International Short

The Lady Paranorma / Vincent Marcone – Canada
Martyr Friday / Abu Bakr Shawky – Egypt
Words / Sven Vinge – Denmark
Zoltan- The Hungarian Gangster of Love / Justin Reardon – USA
Hemingway’s Pen / Renzo Carbonera – Italy

Best UK Short

This Side of the Afterlife / Adam Horton – England
God View / Billy Lumby – UK
The Girl Is Mime / Tim Bunn – UK
Love At First Sight / Michael Davies – UK
Rough Skin / Cathy Brady – UK

About Raindance Film Festival

Raindance Film Festival will run from 28 Sept – 9 Oct at the Apollo Cinema in London’s Piccadilly Circus, with the
Opening Night premiere of Another Earth at Cineworld Haymarket on 28 Sept.
For press accreditation visit: www.raindance.co.uk
Tickets and passes to the festival will be on sale from 6th September on www.raindance.co.uk

Now in its 19th year, Raindance Film Festival is Europe’s leading Independent Film Festival showcasing feature films, shorts and docs from around the world and specialising in independent films and directorial debuts. The
festival has a strong legacy of showing alternative, edgy films. Since 1993 Raindance Film Festival has uncovered
the hottest new filmmakers to hit the cinematic scene. Raindance-premiered hits include Pulp Fiction, Memento,
the Blair Witch Project, Ghost World and Love Exposure.
Raindance – The Voice of Independent Film

Raindance is dedicated to fostering and promoting independent film in the UK and around the world. Based in the heart of London, Raindance combines Raindance Film Festival, Training Courses, the prestigious British Independent Film Awards and Raindance.tv

Frost will be covering the Raindance Film Festival.

Look at Andrew Garfield in his Spider Man Costume {Film}

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Sony’s released this picture of Andrew Garfield as Spider Man and we think he looks like he’s been saving marine animals from a BP oil spill.

There’s also a Facebook page for the Spider Man 4 that you can join too.

So what do you guys think?

Carrington (1995) [Retro Film Review]

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Carrington starring Emma Thompson, Jonathan Pryce, Rufus Sewell and Alex Kingston.  1995.
“I love you….but I can’t sleep with you.” A wonderful film about the artist Dora Carrington (Emma Thompson) and her relationship with the author Lytton Strachey (Jonathan Pryce), this film is humorous, intelligent, thought provoking and one of my faves. Set in the English countryside during World War I the film explores their unlikely friendship, the role (or lack of) of the upper classes during the war and Dora’s numerous unsuccessful love affairs…as their life is unravelled we gain a glimpse of their artistry and the work that made them famous.
Maybe they’re not that famous because I had heard nothing about Dora & Lytton before watching the film and you may not have heard of them either, but that really isn’t necessary to enjoy this. Jonathan Pryce is such a talented actor and he has some really funny lines, Rufus Sewell (Dark City) is present as one of Carrington’s lovers, Alex Kingston (Dr Corday from ER, River Song in Doctor Who) plays the lover of Dora’s lover. The film is 15 years old but seems to be frozen in its own time capsule; Alex Kingston and Emma Thompson look much younger and different to how you have seen them before on screen.  They are classic and elegant.
If you watch this film you may think I’m rather naive to rave about how well the film looks in terms of period, costume and set but I’m not so naive as to believe you will like Carrington as much as I do – it has one of the best endings a film could have.

Buy Carrington on DVD [Product Page]

by Wendy Thomson

Film Review: Robin Hood (2010)

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Frost Rating ****

There have been many interpretations of the legendary man himself. Popularly first known by Errol Flynn in The Adventures of Robin Hood (1938) and then the Kevin Costner version, Robin Hood: Prince of Thieves (1991). I’ve only seen the latter, it was all good fun and one of the few films I watched mostly as a kid. I loved the idea of a man standing up corruption and just being an old fashioned swash-buckling adventure. Although Kevin Costner was miscast as the English rebel, only reason for being cast was his big heyday back in the early 90s and winning awards for Dances With Wolves. The only plus side was having a scene-stealing Alan Rickman as the Sheriff of Nottingham. It has been nearly 20 years since, and Ridley Scott/Russell Crowe have now brought us their version of the story.

We’ve seen the tale of Robin Hood been done to death and it’s actually a sigh of relief to see something fresh to an otherwise adventurous story. Another point to make that it’s more a revisionist take, than a remake or reboot. As many have mentioned, this is a prequel than the typical Robin Hood story we all know. Stealing from the rich and giving to the poor is explained, rather than making it a basis of the film. It shows how Robin Hood (known through-out as Robin Longstride) becomes the man we all know and love. It may be not needed, but Ridley Scott pulls it off rather well. Robin is a soldier for the crusades under the rule of King Richard (Danny Huston, a brief but wonderfully played role), and returns back to England from his long fight in France after Richard dies. He comes back finding the country in a total mess, now Prince John (Oscar Isaac) is pronounced King and starts making an example to his rule by using threats to make the whole of England pay the kings taxes. Robin returns a sword to Walter Loxley (Max Von Sydow) as a promise from his dead son, which his wife happens to be Marion (Cate Blanchett). The theme of the story is self-discovery, although it slightly acts as a bit expositional but it doesn’t linger on to make it that much a critique. Meanwhile, the sub-plot is with France preparing to invade England.

Slightly distracts us from the story of Robin and Marion, but it unravels an exciting climactic battle sequence and the reason King John declares out leading hero to be an outlaw. The performances from the entire cast are top notch. Russell Crowe still proves to be a convincing leading man, although his dialect goes a bit off once or twice (although better than Kevin Costner sticking with his American accent). Cate Blanchett is always a treat whenever she’s on-screen, and is the heart of this film. Both Crowe and Blanchett’s chemistry does spark but only so subtle to make the scenes together work. Oscar Isaac is brilliantly juvenile and devilish, practically a scene stealer and one of the best things of this film. Mark Strong delivers a good performance, but unfortunately doesn’t stand out the best of the villains roles he’s played (the best would be as Frank D’Amico in Kick-Ass). Matthew Macfayden plays as the Sheriff of Nottingham, he doesn’t make it as hammy as Alan Rickman did previously but still makes himself being devilishly likeable. Especially when his house is about to get burnt down by the French, and slyly says to a soldier to save his house “I’m half French, on my mothers side!”

The script by Brian Helgeland is also very well done, showing he’s still at his game being a talented writer. Given credit the development of Robin Hood had been going around quite some time, and went through 2-3 stages before they finalised on a story they wanted to make. It’s a story that somehow makes it culturally significant; especially when we’ve just dealt being in the recession. It also brings a strange cultural heritage, having the character and its setting a strange mythical history. Admittedly, the story may mislead people. Given the title ‘Robin Hood’, it should be about Robin Hood and it does. Ridley Scott mentioned he likes to create worlds, and he does so by bringing up events that will revolve around and has Robin involved to make it plausible.

Ridley Scott’s eye for detail is always staggering and beautifully well shown on-screen. The cinematography is gorgeous to look at, shot very well and all around a great looking film. What also strikes me as the film looks it could be plausible in the history books. Although Scott doesn’t treat it as a History Channel documentary, he makes it very clear he mixes with history but also with a bit of fantasy. The action sequences are exciting and thrilling to watch, just shows how much Robin Hood can be an action hero. It also amazes me Ridley Scott is the only filmmaker who’d do these sequences with very little digital effects and make them look spectacular. Also kudos on the wonderful costume design by Janty Yates (who designed costumes for Gladiator and Kingdom of Heaven).

The music by Marc Streitenfeld is atmospheric and delivers emotion to every scene being delightful or tragic. Overall; people may expect the conventional Robin Hood tale, but going to a different route can lead to surprising results. This delivers the goods on both story, characters and the visual spectacle. It doesn’t stand along with Scott’s best films (Alien and Blade Runner), but it certainly amongst his really good ones (American Gangster and Kingdom of Heaven: Director’s Cut). I’m very sure there will be a director’s cut version in future. This is epic filmmaking at its best, and no one does it better than Ridley Scott.

Robin Hood is showing at cinemas right now. See the trailer on the official site.

by Owun Birkett

Frost Film Review: Cemetery Junction

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Frost Rating ****

A group of 20 something’s living in the early 70’s in the isolated Cemetary Junction, a sleepy suburb near Reading. Their days consist of mundane jobs, chasing girls, drinking and drawing bits and bobs on billboards.

So far it doesn’t sound like a premise for a hilarious Gervais-Merchant film but underneath the gushy-feel-good-coming-of-age premise is an observant and clever comedy.

I don’t want to give too much away but the story follows three friends living in sleepy Cemetary Junction; Freddie (Christian Cooke), Bruce (Tom Hughes), and Snork (Jack Doolan); who’s lives are transformed by the reappearance of Freddie’s childhood sweetheart Julie (Felicity Jones).
Gervais and Merchant manage to get away with some incredibly politically incorect jokes but it’s set in the 70’s so the audience forgives them. What really makes this film keep you laughing is the brilliant script.

So my advice, if you want to be entertained by a warm, funny, easy on the brain-film…definately go watch it!!!
15 cert (94 mins)

Cemetery Junction Official Site – Sony Pictures

httpv://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XYDeHIszUqA