Little Jade Productions in London

On set in Jan 2012

2012-01-14T07:28:00.000-08:00

Had a brilliant beginning to 2012 with some film work in the first 4 days!

We were filming in the New Wimbledon Studios - which used to be the home of The Bill. Downstairs is a massive hospital set that was just amazing. Real medical gear and an Intensive Care unit, even a Morgue in the basement.

Check out the videos below!

On Set

Masterclass with Ralph Fiennes

2011-11-05T04:33:00.000-07:00

Ralph Fiennes Master class

A few weeks ago I was lucky enough to attend an acting ‘Masterclass’ with Ralph Fiennes.

It wasn’t so much a masterclass the usual terms(where you work with the tutor and they give you tips on technique etc) but it was really a talk.

It took place in the theatre where Ralph is currently performing The Tempest – which has an amazing set. Ralph was interviewed by the Head of Central School of Drama (I didn’t catch his name).

The interview was rather hilarious as though the Head of Central tried his best to create leading grandiose questions diving into the depths and mystery of acting, Ralph was quite blunt about his techniques (I don’t really know), and his method of getting into a character (I start by memorizing my lines)!

Here are a couple of great points he made that I wanted to share:

¨ Every project carries a different spirit of truth

¨ I don’t really know what my technique is. We were exposed to many things which was great and you just take what works for you.

¨ I guess I just use my imagination.

¨ Script – learn the lines, and latch onto certain lines that are important to the character. These help unlock the charater.

¨ What is acting? What is truth? Ralph explained his year at RADA were exposed to everything, all different types of teachers from different disciplines.

¨ You need to find a way to effortlessly slide into the truth. Which is part of letting go of the work and forgetting it once you get into the audition or the show.

¨ On directing: “Its natural, youre involved in so many things creating the piece it just seems to be natural progression”

¨ On how you keep going and keep creating in this industry. “You form these bonds, these connections - its important and sometimes things happen.” I thought this was really pertinent to the various meetups and networking events especially UK Actors Tweetup. Its about meeting your fellow collaborators and working with/alongside them. It also helps you stay connected to your truth and “keeps the hunger going”.

¨ Working with Anthony Hopkins taught Ralph “he works in immediate truth. No big discussions on character, its all about right now.”

¨ We are all in a constant state of learning.

¨ Asked about watching/performing to different language shows. “It is about the skills of actors but Im interested in the spirit of actors. Especially with non English speaking audiences.”

¨ “A performance that happens on stage no on can edit”

¨ Asked about Doubt: “Every actors wrestles with doubt. Fear of failure or fear of self belief – but you can bounce off of it. I have it in my head. Everyone has doubts and fears and if they don’t they’re suspect. Use support of other actors to help you. You can be very lonely so doubt surfaces – so community is very important.”

¨ Asked about advice for young actors:
Keep the Energy Alive
Don’t Drop the Ball

So that's it - it was lovely to hear such a great actor still talking about imagination, fun and just getting back to the basics.

Hope you enjoyed reading it too!

London Screenwriters Festival

2011-10-31T14:59:00.000-07:00

London Screenwriters Festival

What a fantastic experience, I was asked to be on the Producer’s panel for the Speed pitching sessions on Friday 29/10/11.

I turned up early in the morning not knowing what to expect when I ran into Rav whom I’d met at a Raindance networking session earlier in the year.

We started chatting and on our way to the first session encountered Rob Grant from Sci Fi Film Festival.

We all sat in Kate Ley’s talk in the morning which was my highlight of Friday talks.

I’ll rewrite all the important notes I took in point form. Please forgive me but it would take too long to tell the speech bit by bit!

¨ The average screenplay and novel is getting shorter and shorter. A novel is normally 80,000 wheras a feature film is 10,000

¨ Writing a screenplay for a feature is very very complicated process and don’t let anyone tell you differently.

¨ Remember “Only if it is brilliant on the page can it be brilliant on screen”.

A motto I’ve always kept to as a producer and actor.

¨ Every feature needs a great HOOK. A hook is the story reduced to its bare essentials – which should still make it sound exciting.

Hook = Spine of the story.

A hook is not a tagline (usually seen on posters for the film and dreamt up by marketing people), and its not a logline (which is literally what production companies use to log scripts by describing them.)

¨ You can check out people competing with others to write great hooks on imdb

¨ Themes. Your themes will and should come up in the script over and over again. It should recur every scene, character, even in the props that you use.

¨ The more of your theme you put in and feel like its obvious the more subtle & complex the film becomes wheras if you try for subtlety the audience knows it a mile off. Dramatise the idea all the way through the script.

¨ BIG CHARACTERS – this has a short addition after a great discussion with Bob Portal (producer of many feature films incl. Lord of War with Nick Cage). Rob qualifies it as BIG & COOL.

¨ Kate says whatever the characters traits, they are OVERTLY that trait. And must be clear, well definted and strong personalities (not necessarily dominant). The audience must recognize them

¨ Your character must WANT SOMETHING and then DO SOMETHING.

Woe betide if you have a passive character, it is very very difficult.

¨ The COOL bit is because the audience wants to be like them, because the character is SO that way, eg. Ms Jolie in Tomb Raider is SO kickass we want to be like her, or the lead in Thank you for Smoking is SUCH an ass we kinda want to be like that sometimes. To certain people in our lives!

¨ Kates next tidbit of advice about character is that a lot of great films are about the ‘awkwardness’ characters feel. Mirroring our own journey – the “I know I should do something else but I don’t want to or I don’t know how” type characters.

¨ Stakes MUST BE HIGH. The stakes must matter. Even if to the world they are small. A young boy prizes his toy trucks above everything in his life, they matter to him, but when a bulldozer drives over and smashes them his world is shattered and we the audience are affected by this.

¨ CONFLICT. If for any reason your script is not working 9/10 times its because its not enough conflict. Kate believes there is no middle act problem its just a lull because there is not enough conflict.

¨ Characters show their true colours under extreme life/death circumstances – just like us. We need to make more trouble to see this.
“Film stories eat trouble”

¨ EXERCISE: WRITE 50 THINGS TO CREATE MORE CONFLICT
No excuses come up with 50. You’ll see after about 30 some great ideas come up. This gives you a great resource of conflict and layers to use.

¨ Conflict shows us the character but also shows us what the character needs.

¨ Make sure the conflict is real and you cant think of a way out, because if you can so can the character. Write yourself into a brick wall and then the audience will love seeing how you get out. That’s exciting.

¨ Plot – this does not drive a story. What drives a story is what really matters.

¨ Rules for rewriting: Nothing is Sacred. Be prepared to let it all go.

¨ EXERCISE: Simple blocking out of story

¨ EXERCISE: Tell the story out loud

¨ Best advice is here are a few questions and if you are having trouble writing your script try answering these:

Who’s story is it?

What do they want?

How do they get it?

What do they need?

Why haven’t they got it?

Remember story starts on page 1. Don’t do exposition, we’ll pick up the world as we go along.

Q: Is my story too long? A: YES !

¨ Q: Is my story too long? A: YES !

¨ Microbudget scripts these days are around 83-84 pages long (shooting time=£).

¨ The end of your story is where you say what you’re going to say.

¨ EXERCISE: Hot seat. Take your central character and a smaller character from your script, then remove them from the world. Get them to say things they’d never say to eachother in the script. Let rip. And some interesting things will come out.

¨ Remember: Whatever is wrong with your central character has always been wrong throughout their lives. It just comes to a head in this story. Deep down – what is really really wrong?

¨ Keep asking why. She is sad, but why? Because she’s lonely.

Why?

Because no one ever looked after her

Why?

Her father was busy trying to look after others and she got left out

Why?

Because she had no place in his world.

Why does she feel like this?

She has to prove to him she does.

Wonderful session – truly inspiring!

After this I had the pitching panel which was amazing and exciting, the writers had such varied ideas and ways of pitching. My advice on the speed pitch is hold someone’s attention by sticking to the story, no waffling, and sell the story on your passion for it.

One writer did this and I could see the film unfold before me, it was lovely. I never expected to like his story it was not my area at all but the way he pitched it I was entranced.

All up the London Screenwriters festival was a great experience and it was lovely to be surrounded by such great creativity!

Thank you to Vanessa Mayfield for inviting me, and to the organizers of the event. Thank you to Kate Ley’s for her inspiring talk and to Bob Portal for the discussions.

Breakfast With Stuart Murphy Director of Sky1 & Head of Commissions

2011-07-30T05:58:00.000-07:00

Meet the Commissioners
Friday 29th July 2011

Breakfast with Stuart Murphy
Director of Sky 1 and Head of Commissions

**This blog is for anyone interested in tv, pitching to Sky.**
I was lucky enough to come across a stray ticket (kindly given by a fellow actor Mo) to the Rushes Soho Breakfast at Bafta with Stuart Murphy.
I went along yesterday and was pleasantly surprised. Im not entirely sure about Sky but I have to say that Stuart Murphy is an amazing man.
Like Sky or not, this man has great visions for Sky, and british tv in general. I came away enlightened and excited by what he might commission, although a bit sad about the sci-fi (I'll get to that).

He started off by giving us the names of the heads of each department and their emails so we can send them pitches via email:
Entertainment: Duncan Gray
Head of Drama: Ann Mensah
Comedy: Lucy Lumsden
Head of Factual: Mark Sammon
And if in doubt or if it is for Sky 1 he said send an email to him.
(For email addresses please email me and I'd be happy to give them to you).
For Sky Atlantic - Elaine Pyke

The purpose of Sky 1 is that they are a family entertainment channel, they want broad shows that are family orientated, which give a 'premium service for free for Sky customers' (as in they dont have to pay extra for Sky1. They see themselves as younger/cooler/naughtier than ITV or BBC (main competitors).
Stuart brought a lot of this with him when he moved from the BBC years ago, he said even now, British tv is dated, outmoded and fairly bland. He wants to change all this.
He wants to commission more shows that are broad, but with a slight twist, yet not too far left of field (like The Mighty Boosh - which he confessed to liking).

Less Commissioning Shows

He explained that when he started at Sky it was a fairly blah service and they commissioned 20 shows with £100,000 budget each. Any producer worth their salt knows this is ridiculous and to get the quality you need to create a tv show you need a lot more than that.

So he cut commissions by a third, instead of 20 they commission 4 with great big budgets, however that does mean they are less likely to take a punt on unknowns creating a project. As he said, they want to work with established companies that can deliver what they need. Therefore its better to team up with a production company who already work with Sky. Even so, last year they took on a completely unknown writer who is now writing for Strikeback.

A good question came up of what have they tried that did not work in the past, and they wouldnt try again?
Pets
Surrealist comedy (too surreal - ie Mighty Boosh).

Even though he loves surrealism don't bother.
However a few good things he likes are
Mockumentary
Comedy LOTS OF COMEDY.
But it needs to be comedy with heart, or as he termed it 'kind comedy', love, family, rural based.

Now coming up on Sky they've just announced their new shows which are airing soon and sound great fun,
The webseried now tv show 'Trollied'
http://www.youtube.com/user/skyonezone
This is Jinsey (not sure if that is correct spelling)
and
Spy (Looked hilarious!).
See bits of these here:
http://sky1.sky.com/comedy-fridays/sky1-hds-brand-new-comedy-teaser-trailer

Drama
He started by explaining drama is trickier than comedy,
1 Its more expensive
2 You cant keep repeating all the peaks, it peaks and thats it.
3 It is harder to get an audience for it.
However they still do commision drama,

"What I love is when you meet someone who is so excited about their project!"
And he genuinely meant that. He wasn't one of those crazy execs who speak business jargon to your face and have egos the size of small planets. He was down to earth and open about what Sky is looking for and how you can go about giving it to them.

New Drama:
Strikeback - Action
Pratchett & Treasure Island (looks amazing) - Kooky/Adventure - Although there is a gap here too, they are looking for more adventure drama
Lyrical Drama - there is a gap here for someones amazing project. He admitted to wanting a 'Darling buds of May' Reboot. If you have one send it to him asap!
Also if you have a drama, dont give him a depressing one, he said after BBC, he's seen them all and got depressed by them all. Instead of druggies, single mums and homelessness he wants to see people winning! However thats not to say that you cant make a documentary pitch about these (they are looking for a domestic violence doc), as their doc department is also looking for new things.

Saying all this if you have
1 A List Cast
2 Brilliant and established producers
3 Sense of Epic
4 Sense of Naughtiness
Then you might just have the next Sky Drama show!

Digital/Online/Games
They are not doing any online series or games and admits this might be an oversight. They are interested but not hugely at this point. Still I'd send it in just in case!

Finally make sure your show has more than one level, great shows have on its surface one idea and underneath its about something else entirely. Eg. Madmen is about corporate drama underneath its about men and women, feminism and rights.

Tips for pitching:

2 page document send to the HOD

but its not about the document its about YOU, the person behind it.

Apparently the whole pitch interview for Trollied consisted of Stuart asking the writer all about her live, her interests, her family etc. Because just like a job they are interested in who you are, rather than just the content of your script. They need to see you are flexible, interesting, workable and able to work with them.

Happy pitching and Goodluck!

Here's a secret - shh The Unit List

2011-07-20T05:33:00.000-07:00

Do you want to work in TV?

Here is a great site my friend told me about. It has tv jobs from runners to AP's and production co-ordinators.

Best of all its free!

Run by a wonderful lady with a great background in tv she puts up the latest jobs around London and beyond. These are all paid professional jobs - bear in mind if you dont have broadcast tv background then it will be tough, but every so often they do advertise for runners and researchers too.

The Unit List has got details on their free jobs’ site: http://www.theunitlist.com/

Please feel free to share but bewarned that you keep to the rules! Only put yourself forward if you have the right experience they are looking for! Thank you!

Brilliant Article

2011-06-05T08:04:00.000-07:00

Great article on the "Produced By" Conference in LA Burbank recently.
My favourite quote being Mark Gordon saying that tenacity was the key to successful producers: “If you stick around long enough and if you have a little bit of talent and a lot of drive, it’s better than a lot of talent and a little bit of drive.”
http://www.hollywoodreporter.com/news/harvey-weinstein-vod-internet-still-194911

Would love to hear other peoples thoughts and if anyone else went there!

Cannes the beginning

2011-05-16T04:05:00.001-07:00

Thursday eve!
Arrived late last night, and promptly ran into friends in the bathroom! Dropped my bags and then off to the Arte Yacht party. Great blagging to get in if I say so myself, they never suspected a thing!
Partying (or Blagging) in Cannes: If you’re invite got lost in the email post or mislaid, even stolen then never fear. You can still get into those parties you were definitely invited to, I understand. Each year there is a coveted list of parties that is released to certain press members, get the list, then start to ask around.
After getting meetings, getting into the parties is the next big thing in Cannes.
Of course you already know that. But I’ve come across people who are too shy, too nervous or just not sure to try.
It never hurts, we are all creatives so find a creative reason to not have your name on the list. Find out who you know is already inside, get them to help you, what was their contacts name, do you have any contacts who might know the company itself, etc etc.
Of course you have to do this with authority, purpose and be surprised when they stop you. Toe the line but don’t go overboard. Some parties are easier to get into and others, well……they are very very strict. But lets face it, in true Studio 54 style, if you have a room full of celebrities no one stands out, but mix in some randoms and suddenly you have an exciting party.
I’ve had some amazing stories in my two years, the best being a friend who blagged his way onto the Paul Allen Yacht party. The Rolling Stones were playing, Kanye West was there too, I think Beyonce was as well – it was last year my alcohol dazed memory can get confused. But that is a pinnacle party blagging, because that is one of the top parties in Cannes!
Here are some of the top parties:
Paul Allen Yacht party
AMFAR after party
Wild Bunch after party and villa parties
Miramax Party
Vanity Fair
Calvin Klein
Playboy Moonlite Party (this year)
Chopard Party
RedDirt Party
There are others but these are the ones that I know happen and are pretty amazing. The size and scope always gets people talking (real tigers at Amfar after party, The Rolling Stones at Paul Allen, Kanye West at Reddirt, Madonna performing at AMFAR after party, celebs at Chopard), not to mention the guest list. You could actually end up talking to Harvey Weinstein (I did), or CEO of Universal, or Eva Longoria, Cate Blanchett perhaps a Jury member like Uma Thurman.
Then further down the list, slightly more accessible:
Big film afterparties (Pirates, Robin Hood etc)
Abu Dhabi Party
Nikki Beach party
VIP Lounge party
Variety
Little White Lies & Magazine parties
Sales/Distribution Yacht parties
Various country parties on their yachts/pavilions

Ok so that’s the parties.
Friday – I ended up getting accredited, running into a producer friend Andrea Farrena and finding out there is a free day spa in the palais!
Is this rumour? Or is this for real? I never got a chance to figure that out!
We met up with our Cannes Crew, consisting of Angela Peters (Actor aka Playa), Elisa Armstrong (Actor), Felicity Jurd (Actor), Andrea Farrena(Producer), Matt Mccombs (Sales) and the Spotlight crew (sales) Doug (Director), Zara Symes (Actor), Matt Carter (Producer) and his director, and finally myself . A rather large Cannes Crew this year but still it’s great and important to establish a group, you can exchange party info, get eachother into parties, and find great places to drink.
Like Heaven. Which I will not disclose the location here, suffice to say that Heaven (that’s our nickname) is where you get free champagne, right on water, it is beautiful, sitting in deck chairs sunning yourself next to the ocean with free flowing champagne (and coffee if you need it).
So were spent the afternoon in Heaven, drinking and wondering why this didn’t happen more often to us….

Later on a trip to the UK Pavilion to check in with the events this year, and I ran into producer friends at the South African pavilion next door (which incidently has better wifi!) who were in meetings for the film I was in late last year.
They’ve sold the film to Aspect and are now holding screenings for distributors! Very exciting for us all, if we get theatrical distribution!

That night was Little White Lies and Abu Dhabi, both at the same time, so we legged it and did both. Abu Dhabi was one of the hot tickets last year after the beach swept away and reduced their capacity by half. It was AMAZING night and VIP’s turned up in force, this year, it wasn’t quite as great, although the food was wonderful, alchol plentiful and music awesome. So we danced and danced, with anyone and everyone!

- Posted using BlogPress from my iPhone

Cannes Guide - what to bring in my own words...

2011-05-15T17:31:00.000-07:00

Cannes Guide

I started writing this last week. Then time got away from me and I tried to keep writing during Cannes and then....well its 1am and Im home now!

So I thought instead of letting it linger any longer I'll publish it now!

Below is just an essentials for producers/actors/filmmakers/others to take as a guide of what to bring to Cannes.

Hopefully it helps you on your way, and if you are a longtimer maybe you'll find something new in there, or possibly just find yourself nodding!

What to pack, its simple really, when you are roughing it (which is probably most of you reading this), make sure you remember the little things:

Business cards: Yes if you don’t have any or forgot them or whatever. Sorry if you cant remember this one little thing I probably wont have much faith in your filmmaking/industry abilities.

There are always exceptions to this rule of course, but if you are starting out, then forgetting your cards makes a TERRIBLE impression on the exciting sales agent you just met or the wonderful producer who is keen to make your film……

Sleeping Bag/Sleeping Mat – you might be staying on someones floor (just check this out, don’t let it be a surprise) as its cheap and close to Cannes don’t forget this stuff.

Laptop, Phone – If you’re not here to work, just to chill out then Im not sure why you came. Honestly, if you are coming to Cannes you are trying to meet new people, sell films, buy films, get funding and my favourite work and best work ethic – COLLABORATE! So you need to be accessible via email and you need to be contactable on your phone. (Remember roaming rates are exhorbitant so text pls! Or else an unpleasant surprise can come in the form of a £300 phone bill….; (

Film Material -

For producers, obviously your one sheet ( a beautifully professionally printed double sided sheet with all factual info on your film like loglines, cast, genre, etc), DVD's of the film, DVD of the trailer, have it on your phone, your laptop and dont be like me and have it on a memory stick that doesnt work ; (

Then ask yourself these questions:

What are you here for?

Who do you need to see to get it?

Why them?

What will you SHOW them?

This will go a long way in helping you find your path in Cannes.

As someone once said, the path is wind-y dont lose your way. Maybe that was me. Anyway, Cannes is a great ocean of sales, films, madness. So DO YOUR HOMEWORK, register to your country's Cannes Pavilion before you go. Then go to said pavilion and look up the sales/distribs/producers and email them early. Try to get meetings, pitch your work to anyone who'll listen and you'll be surprised what you find yourself saying (also a great way to refine your pitch!).

Another way is to hit the Croisette and door knock. I've heard a birdy say that during the first 3 days in Cannes all those big companies doors are fairly open, and getting meetings off the cuff is not so hard. Then after day 3 its lock down and everyone is hard at work. So go hassle your favourite sales agent in the world (even though they dont know you yet), talk to the Weinsteins - at least poke your head in and get rebutted by their interns (its a great story and hey who knows you might get lucky!), annoy Ealing Studios (no dont, just say hi), crash Arte's yacht because all they can do is say "we are busy". If you are smaller producer like me, or filmmaker you've lost nothing but your dignity and maybe pride - which you will get back, after several drinks, I assure you. But you might be lucky like me and in the midst of crashing the yacht looking for a meeting you wind up getting invited to a free lunch! Not bad going.

Then go to the Film Marche (Market) and try those guys, see what is selling, see what is not, then make a film of what will sell. Try picking up goodies in the March, freebies, there is happy hour at the Short Film Corner each night from 5pm I think. So go, drink, mingle with tomorrows talent.

Clothes – Boys Black Tie. Yes the Black tux and bow tie. I’ve seen security refuse red carpet attendees because they wore a tie not a bowtie.

Girls – Dresses Dresses Dresses!!!! This is the time to shine! You cannot overdo it and you cannot bring too many. Trust me. (And bring flats to wear during the day as the walking is a killer, and you can shove them in your purse at night when the dancing starts!).

Sunglasses / Hat (got a free, nice one from the Kodak pavilion this year).

Chargers for EVERYTHING

Universal adapator for your iphone, laptop and ipad. Trust me these are always overpriced at FNAC so get it at the airport before you come!

Lastly, bring your character - come ready to meet great people, expand your network and Collaborate. I believe creativity is collaboration. You know how people talk about everyone knowing everyone at the top, well its because they've been coming to Cannes for years. They all know eachother, and soon you will know them too. Just keep on coming, keep being yourself and be open to meeting new and interesting types. You never know who you will end up working with, or for!

Bring your best smile, your fun and the party will come to you!

Sci Fi Genre Filmmaking Day

2011-05-09T04:01:00.000-07:00

Recently I was invited to Sci Fi London's Genre Filmmaking Day as part of the festival this year. It was a fantastic day full of interesting panels from different aspects of the industry, distribution, crowdfunding, storytelling.
The only real shame was that so few producers and filmmakers turned up for it (the cinema was about a third full). I highly recommend as something to look out for in 2012, the speakers were a really high level and the lack of a big audience meant that chatting to them afterwards about your projects and getting feedback was much easier.
Here are my notes from the day, they were really for my own use, but I thought someone out there might find something useful!
Especially if you are into low/micro budget filmmaking. Dont miss it next year!

Brought to you by http://www.sci-fi-london.com/
http://www.sci-fi-london.com/festival/2011/programme/lab-film/genre-film-campus-day-sci-fifantasy-filmmaking

Sci Fi Genre Film Making Day – put on by Sci Fi London Film Festival 2011
(Unfortunately missed Simon Guerrier and Sable Jak speak about telling the story and writing the fantasy film).

FINDING THE FUNDS
Nic Wistreich – Co Founded Netribution and in 2007 wrote How to Fund your Film sold it details more than 1000 film funds and incentives in over 40 countries.
Gregory Vincent – creator of www.sponsume.com which is the European equivalent of Kickstarter
Corine Dhondee – Director of Queens Suite (documentary) who raised funds for the film via Kickstarter
Tessa Inkelaar – Producer/Script Developer at Bonepalace Pictures & Production Assistant at Film London for the Microwave scheme
Mark Stolaroff – Film producer and founder of No Budget Film School Producer of Pig which was showing at the festival.

Crowdfunding
Kickstarter Stats
45% success rate
1700 Films funded so far
100,000k for 6 six projects (2 features, 4 doc’s)

Don’t expect your crowdfunding to bring money into your film. Its better used a tool to promote and the money is a bonus. Mark Stolaroff was very much in this camp and he said that the final figures for Pig were raised this way. He mentioned that crowdfunding $ is also called ‘stranger dollars’ in US.

To really get a kick, try to get on the homepage of the online funding site. It will boost your viewers and you’ll have more chance of being funded by people who are part of the kickstarter community.

Downside is kickstarter is in US dollars (difficult for UK & Europe, as the conversion rates are expensive, paypal charges extra fees and people believe they’re giving £50 when instead they are giving $50 US). I’ve experience this before and also paypal takes a cut, plus the banks do as well for the conversions. So in reality a donation of 50, is $50US which then converted and fees taken out is more likely to equal £25-30.

Mark found that with Pig they were equally funded through their website, as through kickstarter. So make sure you enable people to put money in through bank transfers and various means not just the funding site.
Offering good perks is important $25 for a dvd plus t-shirt plus extra.
Corine, said to sell everything as she did, – sell your cast & crew’s abilities as prizes. She also stressed that the cast and crew need to take ownership of the project. It’s the only way you will get past your immediate network and out to other networks. Once they do this, you need to let them push the project.

Eg. Email, inform your immediate social Network – then go to – Friends of Friends and Friends of Friends of Friends……etc

You can also have the option of putting your project on the sites several times. Once for startup funding, then again for completion funding but make sure your perks match the stage you are trying to fund.

You need to make sure that you followup everyday, update the page, update the funders, spread the word by using bigger blogs to do articles on your project. Write articles about your project, about the websites you’re funding too. Mark being head of the No Budget Film School, wrote an article about Kickstarter and got it published in several big blogs. The article was really to push Pig’s page, but he focused on how kickstarter came about and what it was, then brought in mention of his project being on there.
Be creative in getting the word out!

The Microwave scheme (see their website for more info)
http://microwave.filmlondon.org.uk
They will only fund films of £120,000 budget.
They will give only £60,000
Approach with a script and director who has good credentials. (This means a director who has worked commercially in music videos, or more recognized and award winning short films.)
Crowdfunding began with Robert Greenwalt, who had a large following from previous films and decided to ‘pre-sell’ his next film to his following.
He raised $300,000 in 10 days from four 4 emails (although he sent out around 150,000 emails).

30 days seems to be the ideal time for crowdfunding a feature. Any longer and the project starts to lag. (according to Mark and Corine).

Hit potential investors 3 times;
1 To tell them about the project
2 To remind them
3 To followup and remind about the deadline.

1 Month, there will be lag in the middle but go hard and go strong.

Try to get onto the Front Page of whatever funding website you are part of. Sponsume is good right now as it is smaller and growing, easier to get onto their front page, wheras Kickstarter is massive and growing every day – therefore making chances of hitting the front page a lot harder.

A couple of Sponsume projects are getting sponsors to match their donations.
Creative Scotland is looking at doing the same thing soon.

Its about a network, building your network, keeping your network and informing them.
Write your emails to different communities, and make it personal to certain people. If you do all the work before hand and then you can just send them out.

MICRO PRESALES – crowdfunding is essentially that.
Reasons to do Crowdfunding on a crowdsource website (indiegogo, sponsorme, kickstarter).
1 Test the Audience – do they like the concept? Is there Interest? If not maybe you should reconsider the project
2 Marketing & Collaborations – You never know who will offer to help out and what they might have to help your project. Printing companies, locations, contacts etc.
3 Money is the last thing you should do it for.

Next Event on the Agenda was;

Social Media Marketing
Tom Hunter - in association with Spread the Word, talks Social Media Marketing: the tools, the techniques and how it all comes together. Tom is a marketing and PR specialist with a background in the arts & cultural sector. He is also the current director of the Arthur C. Clarke Award for science fiction literature.

Build a tribe!
(Note must check out what Omelet is doing in the US – Branded Content).

Check out Mashable.com and Daily Motion for up to date info on social media.
Social media is NOT FOR MARKETING!!!!
Social media is for building, joining and participating in communities!

Twitter is for older (29 upwards) professionals
Linked In as well.
Wheras Facebook is for younger audiences.

Ask yourself ‘What do I want to achieve?’

You are all creatives – play, experiment with different ways of media

Give permission to not have to DO EVERYTHING.

Best way to market your film project, is to use existing communities that would be interested in your project, instead of trying to create a community yourself. Find a group, join them, add in your project. Don’t overload them. Its about sharing information. If you are honest and upfront, whilst also contributing to their interests they will be happy to help.
For example on Twitter ask people to pls RT your tweet.
(Keep in mind that it should be short and sharp as more people RT, more the message drops off as only 140 characters are allowed)

Also always share good links, help others, bring the community aspect into it. People are not always interested in YOU! (Remember those tweets from people who only write about themselves, and their projects and eventually you stop following because they are SO ANNOYING?)
Its about adding to the pool and contributing to the community by RT’ing others and adding information, not just your own projects.

For Twitter newbies, start by LISTENING to conversations. Get a feel for it.

Then start to format an idea of:
- the message you want to send out
- the tone of your messages
- who’s talking
- whats of interest

Then think of twitter like a pub conversation between two people about crazy cat videos, don’t barge into it, and tell them about your crazy cat video, but start by RT’ing theirs, talking to them about it and then mention yours. Don’t barge in.

1/10 tweets should be about your message/project.

You can schedule these using Tweetdeck, Hootsuite and others in your lunch hour!

*NB. Google is optimized for Audio and favours the audio links.
Audioboo is twitter with audio
You could use it for:
Dialogue from the film
Fragments of the score

Also try Google Alerts

Thank you for the talk
@clarkeaward @idiottrends
Look at @documentally he is amazing with being on every social media platform.

Lastly……
Go to people who HAVE followers, Don’t do PULL marketing, Work others who have the followings!

Low Budget Film Distribution
Mark Stolaroff of No Budget Film School

Mark used to work for Next Wave Films helping on finishing funds, and distribution.

Mark produced PIG $50-60,000

Reasons not to try traditional distribution
- more films
- less sales
- less advances
- no $ beyond advance

Everyone needs a business plan for their film.

PLAN A - Traditional Distribution
Licence to distribute in overall deal with advance covers cost
- You sell your project for 15-25 years
- You have no control over marketing & distribution
- You only get paid if they’re honest and if you live long enough
- You don’t know who’s buying your film or who’s interested

PLAN B – Hybrid Distribution
- Control all rights and partner with the best companies in each distribution channel
- Sell directly to core audience
- Increase control and profit margin
- Relies on creating a custom marketing plan and marketing to your audience
- Higher profit on sale
- Control over accounting and money
- Control over marking, distribution, P & A
- Best partners in each market
- Names and email address of your audience – so you can follow up in the future
- Empowering approach

If you do decide to go on your own with distribution you need to make sure you are found by your audience:
“YOU CANT GET HIT UNLESS YOU’RE IN THE MIDDLE OF THE ROAD”

Service deals – where you hire a distributor to distribute the film. Loads of big US films are doing this now and distributors are offering it too.
See http://filmprofit.com/samples/ServDealSample.pdf

You could have semi or nontheatrical – one night only event where you get the filmmakers to do a Q&A, then promote the film using merchandise outside the cinema.

VOD – Cable and Net

TV VOD (cable like sundance, syfy) You could get a sales agent to do this.

DVD retail (stores, Netflix, lovefilm) direct

Digital downloads/streaming

ADVANTAGES OF FILM FESTIVALS
- Reach buyers
- Seal of approval (playing at festivals, winning awards)
- Press – hire a press agent
- Spread the buzz
- Thrusts your film into the zeigeist
- Crucial marketing info. Who likes it and why.
(use exciting and innovative marketing, ‘have you seen this man posters’, badges, cards, posters)

CORE AUDIENCE
- Discover, aggregate, nuture
- Smaller and more fragmented
- Not demographics – niches
- Audience don’t care how good your movie is
- Build communities of fans, engage and inspire
- Social media – viral, ARG
- Loyal & passionate – spread the word “1000 true fans”
- Broad categories – drilldown and engage
- Organisations, blogs, traditional press, zines, FB, conventions
- Opt-In Email list

The film doesn’t have to be perfect – just make it a BOLD statement.

DISTRIBUTION PANEL
Kobi Prempeh – Creative Director at Projector.tv a dynamic platform for world cinema, indie films and international documentaries as well as a range of short movies and other types of audio-visual content
Jerome Mazandrani, self-appointed 'King Geek' at Manga UK/ABE UK who has the coolest job in the world! He buys new animated TV series and movies and live-action movies from Asia, North America and Europe for UK distribution.
Mike Hewitt – Home Entertainment Marketing Manager at Revolver Entertainment one of the leading independents in the UK and a multi-award winning, marketing-led all rights distributor who, in recent years, have shaken up the industry with a unique approach to managing releases

Always think about the distributor from start

Preselling territories
POSTER
Go into Tesco and see films that go direct to video most of those are impulse buys for the customer. Check out those films.

The MULTI-PLATFORM release
It’s a same day release of:
VOD/Theatrical/DVD
Mike said it worked really well for their film Mum and Dad.
It also potentially brings down the level of piracy.

Check out Black Death

A recent experiment, where they did a pre-release on VOD before theatrical release didn’t work so well.

Projector TV covers Edinburgh, so you can see films during the festival streaming live for £4-5 per film.

“We don’t necessarily pick up good films, we pick up films we’re gonna sell” Revolver

Thank you to Louis Savy and the Sci Fi London Team 2011

Birthday Changes

2011-02-26T05:40:00.000-08:00

Change….
Change is good. This week, my birthday week has been a week of changes for me. As I sit at my lovely table overlooking all my flowers and lovely plants I realize that Im not scared of being the age I am now.
When I was 17 I thought by this age I’d have a house, a career maybe even live in an exotic location with my own designer house, amazing designer clothes, an expensive shoe collection and I would be very happy with everything.
Its funny how you don’t question how this would all happen, and the intricacies of it all when you are say….19, or 20 or even 23!
So now firmly in my early 30’s I sit, broke as ever and wondering why I am actually happier?
APPRECIATION
Appreciation for everything you cannot afford is a big lesson in life and one I feel many people underestimate. Like my shoes, luckily for xmas my mum gave me some money to spend and I went to River Island (after I spent most of the money on rent!) and bought a pair of grey shoes, grey ankle boots that have a furry collar. And I LOVE them. Wear them all the time, everywhere and almost a month later, they are still my ‘new’ boots!
NEW DIRECTIONS
In this week, I was simultaneously offered 2 full time contracts and got two acting jobs and also signed with an acting agent. I was honestly shaking as I was told I was offered the most amazing production job with a great company. Huge life questions springing up in front of me:
Am I abandoning my dreams?
Will I end up abandoning my path, because I cannot commit the time to it with this new job?
What about all the projects on my slate I am concentrating on – will they fall by the wayside as well?
What happens when I get bored of this job and start to hate it and hate my choices (as so often happens in full time work)?
And yet with all these choices and questions battering about my brain I still took the job. (Possibly from some induced concussion)
As we must learn, we have to go forward and take brave new steps as artists, as creatives, locking and chaining oneself to an idea is just as stifiling as working full time in a job you don’t want (and I actually want this job!). It’s the way you look at things and I realize there are things I want to learn (Final Cut Pro is a great start!) that I want to experience not just for me but for my own future projects.
And with my burning determination (I have been described as a tornado blowing everything out of my path! In a good way – I hope) I need to trust I wont lose focus but in fact have more time to work on those projects as Im not scrabbling around, but have a routine.
Routine is good for us routineless creatives. (I hate routines after 2 days).
As we can concentrate our energies into our creative pursuits rather than getting grumpy with everything around us.
So to sum up, being 31 has brought me; fantastic new opportunities to learn, grow and hopefully find the courage to step forward on the great path.
As someone great said somewhere:
One can only learn by stepping outside of their comfort zone
Go forth and step outside!

PS You need to read this blog - especially if you are a writer. Its hilarious about the writing craft by Chuck Wendig
sit down with a cup of tea and enjoy.

Its January in 2011 already....!

2011-01-18T06:31:00.001-08:00

There are two speeds in this industry crazy and so painfully slow it drags.
2011 is gearing up to be more crazy than slow, which bodes well for the rest of the year.
Getting back to London last week after a lovely xmas and new years in the sun it hasn’t stopped! Literally!
I came back not knowing what I was going to do and ‘BANG’, Im now co-producing Martin Gooch’s feature film Death.
After working on a lot of the promo material last year, and also dragging my feet through a profoundly disappointing year, it’s a lovely surprise that in 2011 I am co-producing a feature. I flew into London and now one week later, I am working in my tiny production office on location in Basingstoke at Malshanger Manor House.
Its beautiful, huge grounds full of woolly sheep, pheasants (I’ve never seen them live before), woodcocks and chickens. We are actually living on the Coleman Estate – remember the mustard?
Lord Coleman has a house out the back!

Its beautiful yet crazy, we have so many amazing people on this shoot, including Leslie Phillips, Linal Haft, Paul Freeman, and of course BAFTA winning director Martin Gooch and our amazing editor Paul Davies (Octopussy etc).
Im very lucky to be working with an amazing crew who are lovely although most of the time it is madness around here!

Great start to 2011, bring on the work!

Skype rehersals and Uk Tweetup!

2010-10-21T12:32:00.000-07:00

Its a chilly thursday night and I have to go to rehersal. But its ok, Im rehersing at my house, over skype!
Seriously Im actually getting to love this new technology although at times it does feel restricting movement wise.

Skype rehersal? you say what a lazy way to reherse. But no my friend not at all considering in the film we are only on skype. Its an excellent way to get into character and chat as our characters having a normal dialogue as friends would.
I have to recommend it even if you are rehersing for a play.
Besides you can stay warm on your own couch, with a nice hot cup of tea beside you!

Also the new networking group Ange (Angela Peters) and I started called UK Actors Tweetup is on facebook now.
Check out the great pics from our first meetup last month, click the like button and then join our twitter page.

See you next time

Return to the black inbox...

2010-10-08T09:23:00.000-07:00

Whats happening around the place?
Having just come back from a 10 day holiday my inbox is overflowing, literally and very difficult to manage!

However I was completely blessed, when I just happened to be seated on the plane next to a financier!
We chatted the whole flight away, as he was a rather interesting gentleman and is quite interested in a two of my projects in development.
One was the webseries ‘8’ and the other being a tv series I’ve been writing for about 5 years now (!) entitled Any Other Day. A sci-fi/spy series.

Hope to meet up with him soon, also having some meetings with advertising execs and line producers as well. So fingers crossed we move forward on projects to be ready for pre-production come March 2011.

In other news I’ve noticed recently, The Hobbit, has had major issues.
Not just from being sold off as an MGM project, left with no director, New Line is now backtracking to let Peter Jackson direct. .(Probably the best for them – let go of the ego people) .Originally they said ‘never’ as PJ tried to sue them for withholding revenue.
Now this from FilmInk Magazine.
Four hundred New Zealand performers have passed a resolution calling on THE HOBBIT’s producers to hold negotiations in good faith on their terms and conditions of employment and recommending all performers wait until this occurs before accepting any engagement on 'The Hobbit'.

Read the resolution, made by New Zealand performers at a meeting in Auckland in full here: http://www.actorsequity.org.nz/

Simon Whipp, Assistant Federal Secretary of Media, Entertainment & Arts Alliance said:
“The resolution made by New Zealand performers has the full support of Australia’s acting community.

What they are asking the producers to do – sit down and discuss the employment conditions of New Zealand performers – is a reasonable, and lawful, request.
Good on you Simon!

Other exciting news is that co-productions with Australia have a 40% rebate and also bypass a lot of the content ruling set by the Australian Film Council.
Check out the article here. http://www.filmink.com.au/filmbiz/notice/3028/
Hope you all have a great weekend,
Till next time!
Jade

Interviews and developments

2010-09-21T06:14:00.000-07:00

Hello!
Its been a while, but things have heated up recently!

Little Jade Productions has been going full storm from project to project.
Whilst we are developing Unify (currently in script development), I’ve managed to pick up another exciting project called 8. An internet webseries about 8 people who recieve a mysterious summons, and their lives begin to unravel.
More on that to come.....

Recently I’ve been in touch with Martin Gooch, director extrodinaire, who has sent me several interesting scripts to peruse and is currently in development for a new project which hopefully will be shooting this January.

Acting wise, I’ve been busy working on my character for the feature film ‘Dead by Midnight’, please see the website

http://www.indiegogo.com/Dead?a=29720&i=wdgi

Dead By Midnight -The film is a unique and entertaining dark thriller presented to the audience in a way unlike any film that has ever been made. Designed to surprise and shock, we offer the same morbid satisfaction one gets from seeing real life tragedy unfold before our eyes.
We are voyeurs. Nothing has changed in the history of mankind from the time of watching gladiators battle to death, to public executions in the middle ages to live news footage today.

We are the generation who will click on youtube to watch someone die on the other side of the world, then forward the link and move onto the next video clip.

Check out an interview I did for a new webshow called IVIEWME.
I had to create 10 questions I’d like to be asked....see below

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=X4bZ15z6c9w

Hope you enjoy it
Till next time!
xoxo

Latest film industry news

2010-07-13T04:45:00.000-07:00

Dreary day thoughts.

Hobbit is now officially in pre pre production. What does that mean? Ian McKellan is on it, and said he is going forward – yay!

However there is still issues with finding a director and I’ve heard a source say, there are funding issues as the film is MGM….

I hear the MGM sale is still going on, and although I met a man in Cannes on a yacht who boasted he bought the entire back catalogue, yet apparently that is still on the market so who the hell knows!

This is also why the new Bond 23 film is stalled. And I thought it was a british film, but no, of course not.

On the grapevine is X Men casting in London! Yes that is right! So I will be duly forwarding my resume and headshot to them if you wanna know who just ask.

Other news is that an animation film Despicable Me has beaten Eclipse of the twilight fame in box office takings over the weekend! Wow!

Very big.

However right now, things are slowly starting up, had 4 auditions last week and although Im still looking for an agent I must say its nice to be able to manage my own career. Producing wise I am waiting to hear back from a job with Focus Features(eek!), and considering asking Lauren Schuler Donner if I can be her assistant when she arrives for XMen!

Lauren is an amazing woman and if you don’t know her name then you need to google her. She is a Producer who works at the highest level, with major studios, like Sony, Universal etc. She has produced some films you may know like, X Men, Constantine, Ladyhawke, Free Willy, You’ve Got Mail.

But I digress, Im off to the Lake District next week, and hope to have a final draft of Unify which will now by 7min long.

We are still looking for funding so if you would like to support us please go to:

http://www.indiegogo.com/unify

For more info see:

http://www.wix.com/jadealexander/unifythefilm

That’s all folks!

xoxo

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Preproduction is stressful….

2010-07-07T06:35:00.000-07:00

So its been a bit of stress recently with the pre production of Unify and then the last minute funding issues, but then maybe the funding issues that have temporarily halted the film are a blessing in disguise.
Unify is going to be postponed till mid October to give us more time for funding.
I really love our project and believe that had we tried to film it on a budget it would have compromised the whole look and feel of the film.

So although Ridley Scott will no longer have the viewing pleasure of our film however, more festivals will, and we will have less constraints with corporate funding, better script and a product we can send to festivals like Sundance, Cannes and Clermont Ferrand!
If you havent donated and would like to do so (and help the future of British film!) go here
www.indiegogo.com/unify-the-film
www.wix.com/jadealexander/unifythefilm

Onwards and…onwards!
Had a great audition yesterday and another tomorrow, also fingers crossed as there are several projects that are possibly flowering so fingers crossed for those!

Im attending the Limelight Awards night on Thursday and if anyone else is please come and say hi! Should be a fun night.

Today Im working on rewrites of Any Other Day, a tv show that I have been valiantly working on for years now! But it is good, Im just a perfectionist!
Also check out the new brit film Skeletons directed by Nick Whitfield, it has great reviews and just won the Michael Powell award at Edinburgh for Best new British Film!
Congratulations Nick!

That’s all for now
Jade xoxo

It's a lovely day when Tony Noble comes to you!

2010-06-26T02:20:00.000-07:00

Hi folks
Just a quick update on the film we have just had the lovely

Tony Noble come aboard as art director! Yes the Tony Noble who worked on Moon!
Very exciting, our little crew is growing but we still need your help budget wise! If you can please give anything and we will make a great film, sing your praises and win this competiton!

Last night we trooped along the thames looking for locations, any derelict and abandoned buildings and we found a great one at wandsworth. I migt have seen some people breaking in..; )
Very heady exciting stuff.

Will keep you posted!

Jade xoxo

Crew scouting over a bridge!

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Cannes funny

2010-06-21T01:52:00.001-07:00

Ah well I couldn't resist while some of the films Cannes screened were amazing some that were being sold were hilarious!
Naked Nuns with Big Guns is a great example or Big Tits Zombies.

What you have to know about Cannes is that it is a film market for professionals. It's not a film lovers festival, it's about buying and selling. Everyday the trade magazines come out, yep that is a daily colour glossy magazine and there are at least 5 important ones. Hollywood reporter, Independent, 2 Variety's, Screen etc etc. I had to collect them for our guys and I'm slowly reading thru them now.
They report on who buys what, who is selling, who has money and how countries are doing film incentives. It's really interesting...,ok to me!!

But in case you were wondering what films were good that I saw, then in a few months check out Fair Game, new Doug Liman film with Sean Penn and Naomi Watts. It's Amazing!!!!
Poetry from Korea had me in tears.
Carlos the 5.5 hour miniseries is fantastic.
Heartbeats is ok but long.
Robin Hood? Well if you haven't don't bother, unless you wanna hear Rusty's crap accent!
And in case you were wondering, no I did not see big titts zombies!!! But it is has been bought and will be available in the uk. Scary!
Xoxo jade

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Home again

2010-05-31T05:23:00.001-07:00

Now Cannes is over I'm left with a cold and lots of work to sort out!
Also my first day back my job gave me 6 weeks... So this is a shout out, if anyone knows or needs a production co-ordinator or producer assistant please let me know! I need paid work at this point, preferably full time but happy to take part time too!

Now is when the real cannes work begins, emailing all the contacts and as my friend says coming ou. Of the alternate reality that Cannes resides in, leaving the parties people celebs crazy money and amazing opportunities, the free booze the excuses to get into VIP sections behind and go back to my old life....
Platinum Chisel my film was very well recieved and although short distribution is few and far between I am hoping to hear back from the buyers I contacted.
I made a pact, over bellinis, to go back next year and somehow by hook or by robbing a bank or even (shock horror) going to promote a film I will get back. I will be back in Cannes for 2011. See you there.
Jade
Ps this blog like that titanic song will go on.....

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Location:London

Cannes wind down

2010-05-21T09:24:00.001-07:00

Well Cannes is winding down most of our friends left this morning or yesterday and there is a definately feel of finishing. Which is sad but honestly I'm exhausted fromgetting 4-5hours sleep a nite!!
Recent news is I entered the flip camera competition mainly cos they give you a free flip camera worth 500US and you have to shoot a film. So I entered yesterday very late(blagged myself in really as I hadn't registered and registration was cut off last week). I had 24 hours to make a short
film!
Which isn't so bad but I had to work both days and fit It in around that!!
But I did it, chck out the film at
You can watch it here:
http://vimeo.com/11895211

Tickets Please!
http://vimeo.com/11895211

"Made for the 2010 Flip Contest at Cannes Film Festival.

Tickets please is a short film about the non professionals who attend Cannes. Coming from around the world, standing for hours outside the Palais with handwritten signs hoping to see the films, or even walk the red carpet."

Directed by Jade Alexander.

Today is the day for the competition judgeing so fingers crossed!
Also as a side not today at the carlton hotel I saw a bugatti and a new concept mclaren. Wow.
Just about to head home to get changed for tonigts parties!
Beautiful weather and I can't wait to swim and sunbake tomorrow!
Me and alyssa being papped.

Beautiful weather

Bugatti

Concept mclaren see the wing door!

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Location:Cannes

Thursday!!

2010-05-20T07:53:00.000-07:00

Hi everyone,
Sorry I have been a bit lax but when your average day begins at 7.30am and you arrive home at 3am, there is very little time to spend blogging!

But its still amazing.
Im sitting in the lobby of the Carlton hotel as I write this, regretting ordering my espresso, it is 7 Euros. Officially the most expensive coffee I have EVER had. And yet still not the best!

Today is a beautiful day and I was lucky enough to have to run errands and walk up and down the Croisette (which is the boardwalk alongside the beach. People are sunbaking and its real sunshine and warmth.
I have just recieved another text for an errand so I'd better go and fill you all in on the juicy goss after....

Paul Allen unfortunately did not invite me to either of his yacht parties, I am a little sore about that but its fine, I will not invite him to my house for dinner.
In case you're wondering Paul is one of the Microsoft founders and owns one of the largest private yachts in the world. In fact it has a submarine on board that seats 8 people!
Last night he had the Rolling Stones perform and on Sunday night it was Wyclef Jean and Bono. I think my invite was lost in the post...At the party, all of ICM and all the big guys in town, including talent like Meg Ryan, Cuba Gooding junior, Jean Claude Van Dam, Xavier Bardem, Giarmo Del Toro etc etc...

Oh dear have to run an errand blog again soon!

xoxo jade

Party Time!!

2010-05-15T03:13:00.000-07:00

So the tough thing about Cannes is that in France I have no access to internet when and where I want it. Mainly because of global roaming costs.

Please excuse any rambling I do right now, I have had about 5 hours sleep for 4 days and cannot remember what day it is. Someone had to tell me!

Last night was a blast, half work half play. I got into the hot party which was Abu Dhabi film commission on the beach at Century Club! I did have to wait an hour outside as I had my bosses tickets but when he turned up it was all good.
So Hal Sodoff is 2nd in command at ICM and he turned up with Sam Gupta a financier man who - lets just say Im beginning to suspect might be a millionaire, but Sam is a great guy and buys me drinks : ), but I also had to give tickets to Suhail, the man who OWNS ICM. Suhail is a man with money, he just went to Monaco and partied on a private yacht. He brought 3 leggy blondes (one is his wife) and two young men with him.
I went to chat to them to see what they do, and the tall african american guy seemed really nice, we chatted while dancing and drinking and he told me he works for google. So I ask if he is a programmer. Honestly I must have just drunk too much.
He laughed at me.
We chatted about other things and I asked him what his actual title was as he seemed to be not a computer guy....he gave me his card
Vice President of Google.
Oh. Wow. He was with the 2 guys who started the company way back when.

Then my friend Ange came over with her producer friend Andrea who I got into the party, and we chatted to the other guy. He seemed young, and then I found out, he started YouTube. Hmm ok. (I wasnt feeling at all out of place!).

Music was great, heaps of people were there and we all danced like crazy!
and I made sure I got people to go and see my film!
....................................................................................................................................................................................
ICM is the most amazing company to intern with, they are awesome and take us 4 interns out to every party introduce people to us and even give us red carpet invitations.
So on Thursday night (had to think about that one), we went out to dinner at Le Pizza, a famous restuarant/institution here. ICM booked 35 tables and I am working by the way with Hal Sodoff (2nd in command of ICM). Hal invited us interns out to dinner with his friends, all of whom are bankers, financiers, sellers, producers, etc etc.
On my right I sat next to a man who works for a company called Technicolour. They do everything from making the film (actually creating film to shoot on) to colouring to all sorts of technical things I could not remember. Lots of distributing of film stock etc etc.
On my left was an older man who seemed a little cold. His name was Tony. I chatted to him and gradually wore down his aloofness and asked what he does "oh I work for a little company called Fox"
Me: "oh" (great reply huh!)
Him: "yes"
Me: "so what is your title there?"
Him: "Im chief executive officer of fox"
Me: um...wow.

So Tony is the guy who buys and sells films. This is his 21st Cannes Film Festival and he is not a party guy. People are always trying to get him to buy or sell stuff and he doesnt even go to the Palais (where the film market and films are screened). Fox has offices in their hotel The Carlton Hotel.
Now in case I didnt let you know, the Carlton is the original of the Ritz Carlton, its grand and old and all the studios who can afford it set up their offices on the ground floor.
Its amazing, they fully redecorate the corridors for their offices so it doesnt even look like a hotel room!
We are based in the Carlton. But we are not so lavish, we do have a suite though and an amazing ocean view!

Tony was great, I invited him to party and he wanted to go home and read his book!!!!!! in CANNESS!!!!!
But I did manage to get him to take my film pack and he said he would go home and watch it! Yay!
I also managed to meet David Lancaster of Bold Films who met me Friday morning and took my film as well. David has productions in UK, USA and Australia coming up!

So Im doing pretty well, giving high level people my film and making friends and contacts. Gotta dash off to a meeting with a producer/director from London but love to all!
Try to post again soon!

PS we are trying to get into the Dolce and Gabbana party, and Vanity Fair soon, also Paul Allens Yacht party with Bono and Wyclef Jean will be sure to be the best!!!
love
jade xoxo

Cannes this morning!

2010-05-12T08:14:00.000-07:00

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Chillaxing at Carlton Hotel in Cannes!

2010-05-12T08:11:00.000-07:00

Well I'm living it up in the nicest hotel on the Croisette! Our internship is with ICM. If you don't know them think of the most famous celeb and ICM represent them. They are Hollywoods oldest and biggest agency representing A List actors, writers, directors, and producers And they sell and buy films, set up financing and distribution.
So I'm helping out them sitting in the office on meetings with moneymen and overhearing what films are going on. It's great!
I even got to show my film platinum chisel to them
And they loved it!!! Yep!
James shepherd our Platinum made a real impact on them!
We are now trying to get tix to robin hood premiere tonight with all the starsopening Cannes!
So exciting!!!
Also were hoping to go to the after party eek!!
Bye for now

Xoxo

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Off to Cannes

2010-05-09T20:47:00.000-07:00

Despite the volcano Efflakjoutyx.... ( I cannot spell or pronoune it), I'm currently en route to marble arch station to catch another bus to get to Luton airport at an early hour. Therefore it is now some ungodly hour where tube is not on yet, and I share the beginning of my journey, rather ironically,with a load of tired drunks.

The weather is frozen and sky barely lightening and I'm hoping to be under 30 kgs or incur the wrath of easyjet. Financial wrath that is, for 45£ for each 3kg...,yes.
Slowly other travellers have boarded and I don't feel so dirty now.
; )
So very excited and worried I've forgotten or misplaced but- no I have everthing including my stuffed security blanket, Totoro.
He will be witnessing all my adventures and may even blog once.
Lots of love
See you in Cannes!
Jadie xoxo

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Location:Bus to airport

Sci Fi Film Festival, Cannes Countdown, Auditions!

2010-04-29T07:02:00.000-07:00

What a couple of weeks!
For the first time ever I was laid down by severe muscle strain in my back. How did I do it you ask?
I have NO IDEA!!
Then this week I have had 6 days of gastro.
Tell you what its been really crazy. Maybe that’s the reason for all these illnesses, Im getting sick because Im worried, stressed and trying to hold it altogether!

SCI-FI Film Festival
I attended the opening last night, complete with storm troopers, press and directors. The free chocolates were fantastic and then it was trumped by free drinks and then cupcakes and icecream. Which did nothing to cool the hot atmosphere inside the Apollo theatre. But it made a very happy Jade and Siti who accompanied me.
We saw the Arthur C. Clarke awards, and watched China Mieville win for his latest novel, and then were ushered in to watch the feature film Splice by Vincenzo Natali, its now in talks with Warner Bros to be released worldwide!
The short film that won the 48 hour film challenge was inspiring and amazing - better than films Ive done with no time limit!
Well done to those guys.

PLATINUM CHISEL
Its been fantastic, offers have been coming in for it to be screened in places as far as Vladivostock, France and Portrugal. Not to mention a few interesting distribution offers.
I've been hard at work on the website refining everything I want. The new website is fantastic (I did it myself so it must be!) and will be launched very very soon.
Watch this space…..

AUDITIONS
Auditions have been great, I met with a certain agent who seemed very nice and proceeded to tell me about what I should do in an audition…..it was a bit bizarre.
Im torn, not so sure about them, although the feedback so far has been very good.

CANNES
On the other hand I will be working very hard with ICM at Cannes. So very exciting to be paired with such an amazing company!
I will be working with their US branch as a production intern. Should be a very interesting experience, and hopefully they might be interested in representing me in London (I should be sooo lucky!).

That’s all for now folks,
Keeping you posted and thank you for reading!
Jade xoxo

Mike Leigh goes to Cannes!

2010-04-14T11:28:00.000-07:00

Wow, the question is now who ISN'T going to Cannes!

Mike Leigh has a new film, confirmed to be premiering at Cannes this year. Have a read!

Also on that there are a whole heap of films that will be shown at Cannes at the bottom of that email. Im a little hurt Platinum Chisel is not there. I guess the Guardian is biased to UK films.

In other good news we are invited to show at the Vladivostock Film Festival. A little strange and - to use a very aussie saying - RANDOM, but there you go.

What am I watching right now? A great interview with Ricky Gervais and some other guy (no actually Stephen Merchant) about their new film Cemetary Junction. Which incidentally has been advertised to hell and back. Have a look here.

In other great news, we have an imdb page for Platinum Chisel.
Please go there, vote for us, visit the page and boost our numbers!
And then go to facebook, join the group and tell your friends.

Its been a long labour of love to create this film and come friday we will be uploading the FINAL version to Short Film Corner. Fingers crossed,
Until then.
In the words of our fearless leader,
Go Hard, Go Chisel.

Frustration

2010-04-12T04:35:00.000-07:00

Having one of those days where everything seems so hard and so much effort and I wonder will any of it pay off?
I know we all have days like this and its probably caused by too much work, yet I still wonder whats going on!
A good friend advised me that probably this crazy life where I am constantly on the edge of being broke and working all the time has to stop sometime. And today is one of those days that I agree.
Although to be fair I worked all weekend and am feeling just exhausted mentally and physically. Not to mention that since I woke up, its been one setback after another.

When you put so much effort into one thing, for example my film, and then to have it knocked back in your face at the very end stages just really reallyfrustrates me.
Waiting waiting. Waiting for other people to let me know, to get back to me, is so frustrating!

Breath deep. Know it won't last forever. Keep pushing up hill even when today I don't feel like it.
Hopefully it will all pay off one day.
Fingers crossed.

Platinum Chisel is accepted into Cannes Film Festival!

2010-03-30T08:37:00.001-07:00

We got in. To Cannes that is!
Its official, my first short film (as sole producer) Platinum Chisel has now been accepted into the Cannes Film Festival Short Corner!!!

I cannot tell you how excited and happy that makes me.
All the long..….well, I mean everything, the long process really!
Its actually over a year since we first started work on the film. I think I first came up with making Platinum a film in January 2009, and approaching Mike Lewis our writer around then…back in Sydney back at Sydney Theatre Company.
And now in March 2010 after career changes, changing continents, moving to 3 different places to live, and touring for 5 months around australia and that’s just me. My director had holidays, moving house, computer blowing up (yeah really).

Now finally I feel like the hard work is paying off, and it’s a GOOD feeling!

I just found us on the Short Film Corner's catalogue:

http://www.shortfilmcorner.com/sfcfilm/filmfiche2.Aspx?id=13749596
That is just surreal!
So while we gather our breath, gather our courage and our sales pitches. Look out for us at Cannes Film Festival 2010
Go Platinum. Go Hard, Go Chisel.

www.platinumchisel.com

2010-03-24T12:42:00.000-07:00

The 1000 Journals Project, I stumbled upon whilst surfing.
A man releases 1000 blank journals in the world for people to write, draw and illustrate their life experiences and pass on..did they ever come back?
What happened to all those journals?
See www.1000journals.com
Or read the book at amazon! Its beautiful, leather and stiched inside too!
I would love to start a project like this, linking people around the world through experience of expressing yourself in a journal then passing it on, and on and on......

I found this article on Raindance, my new favourite newsletter.
It is great for actors in London, gives you lots of things to sign up to and ideas to ponder...
http://www.raindance.org/site/the-10-tips-of-networking

A photographer I went to auditon for, has the most beautiful photos of her dreams!!! They are just amazing!
Maybe I'll begin another dream journal....
www.lottiedavies.com

What inspires you?

2010-03-19T07:38:00.000-07:00

Well, its been a while since my last post and I have been recovering from bad laryngitis.
Trying to speak in Chinese with my basic working level of mandarin whilst having said laryngitis over the weekend was a massive challenge.

Also I found being sick on a film set is not fun. I have been sick on set before, but not on a no budget film - ahhhh chaos……weirdly fun when you are well and not so much when you are very ill.
One thing I Always inevitably find on set, whether or not there is money behind the project, is that if one or more people aren't into the film then….well chaos reigns.
In this case, surprisingly, it was the producer.

Maybe people underestimate the effort and time involved? Who knows. I just know that this certain person decided that we didn't need key props the morning of the shoot and that he didn’t have time to collect them.
But rather than complain about this, I take it as another lesson about having a DEDICATED crew and cast.

Reminds me of my own film, which by the way is doing well. Understatement - its doing AMAZING, racing against the Cannes Independent deadline. Im currently conversing with Sydney and London based post production crew which is kinda fun, although costly!
I do not want to look at my phone bill next month!!!

Still reading up on Cannes, it sounds crazy yet amazing. Im really hoping to meet some celebrities, being, in my world, anyone from any Joss Whedon project. Or even Joss himself.
I think I would probably just gape. And maybe do that thing in Waynes world, kneel on the ground and worship saying "im not worthy!".
Who knows what will happen, but I am hoping to be placed with an awesome producer. Im in two minds, someone big has massive kudos and pulling power. Warner Bros, or Fox Searchlight!
But someone smaller probably has more to teach me, yet may not be able to offer me a job afterward or have as much wow factor. Decisions decisions!

BTW if anyone knows a Grader please give them my number/website please!
www.jade-alexander.com so they can contact me!

Also Im crazy excited about my new film poster for Platinum! Check it out!
Xoxo Jade

Auditions and Craziness

2010-03-11T07:34:00.000-08:00

What a week! Its been a bit crazy and hard to believe it is still only Thursday.
I think my panda eyes are getting larger, not to mention the fact I feel off because of a coldy/fluy thing in my throat.
My best friend just had a baby, her second. Shocking, I know.
But what a beautiful girl, Ella! Welcome to the world.

I am shooting this weekend and I cant seem to get to bed before 11pm each night! Too much to do!
What? I hear you ask. (Well actually I do not kid myself that people are reading this but it is a good exercise for me and way to keep writing!).
Well, on Tuesday I had an audition with Greg (yep he actually was asked to act), where we played an aussie couple (scary huh?!) and said aussie stuff like sheila, bloke, mate, koala, fosters, backpacking in earls court (WTF???!!!) and pretended it was another language.

Then we must have impressed as we were asked to come back for a callback on wed. So back we went and hopefully impressed the directorwith our ocka

Then afterward I had an audition for XBox Live which consisted of being amazed and "just look like the Xbox is changing your life right now!". Hmmm…ok.

Then this morning I got a call from a rather large prestigious theatre company who would like to audition me for their new show which sounds Amazing!!
So I say:
J: Sure, umm when are you devising the show?
Them: During May
J: Oh sorry I am actually at the Cannes Film Festival then.
T: Oh alright, well we need to think about that, we'll call you back tomorrow.
J: (idiot idiot idiot).

Although I may still have an audition with them it really is not the worst possible choices; do a show with the National Theatre or go to Cannes? Oh life has changed!
So in summary things are going well.

Also my last film I was involved in has gone live.
I am featured in the opening scene, as a chinese woman in Beijing having yum cha with the girls. All in Mandarin!
The Night the Creatures Came Alive part of the 28day Film Festival Challenge is going to be in competition this Saturday so fingers crossed!
Here is a link to the trailer.

Im shooting a short feature this weekend called Spring Rolls, speaking in Mandarin, but written by an Italian scriptwriter, with an Indian director, produced in London.
Should be interesting…….
Bye for now
Jade xoxo

Film Sound Article

2010-03-05T08:51:00.000-08:00

Hey,
Just thought to share this amazing read on film making. Its about sound and filmmaking, or to be more accurate about Sound Design and how sound is not just about words, spfx, music. Its about what is being absorbed by the audience when there are no words or less visuals.
Have a read, it taught me a bit about scriptwriting and creating a film.

http://www.filmsound.org/articles/designing_for_sound.htm

New Film

2010-03-03T01:30:00.000-08:00

Hey everyone,
Im in a new film called Spring Rolls. Its a chinese film where I play the - well I won't give it away!
But the film is centered around a Chinese woman, and we all have to speak in Mandarin. So I will be working to brush up my chinese.
This is pretty exciting, as it is my first official role since landing in London. I had the European Winter blues through dec-jan and now things are starting to look up. Spring is sprung, the bulbs are popping up over Ealing Green and things are looking much much better.
Funny how much a little sun can change your mood!
till next time
xoxo jade

Cannes 2010

2010-02-15T14:58:00.001-08:00

Hi everyone,
This is my new blog where I will be posting exciting morsels of juicy gossip when I get to Cannes, and of course other inspiring notes along the way.
Here we go!
Almost my birthday (this weekend) and its a big one (i wont say how old - you have to guess). But hopefully 2010 brings lots of amazing new adventures. Greg and I are off to Marrakesh for the celebration, now thats pretty adventurous.
Stay tuned.
xoxo Jade