We're back! - Henry Bramble on the move at last.

It's been a a frustrating few months. The visual effects on our wonderful short halted at the beginning of July last year. Six long arduous months later and we are finally beginning to see light at the end of the tunnel. As of yesterday I have been 'linked-in' to the VFX team based in Pakistan via Asana, a clever collaborative task management application that allows me to keep track and manage the workflow, offering feedback quickly and efficiently.

Today I had my first glimpse of the work they have been doing for the last month or so and it's very promising. The texture and colour of the legs and arms of the Voydarkatron are much  closer to how I envisioned them and the shoulders have that 'gravestone' fungus on it that I was so keen to have. The top of the head still needs to be semi-translucent and slimy like a slug, but apart from the that they are progressing well - Can't wait to see more!

Proto - A Screen South Innovation Short Film

Thought I'd let you know about PROTO one of the four innovation short films commissioned by Screen South in 2011 and the first I believe to be completed. This is the first short film directed by Nick Pittom and I think he's done a great job - Much better than my first film (Drakkon) way back in 1993! Despite our problems with the guy running the show at the time, VERL's animators did a wonderful first class job on the CGI for this short film. You can follow it's progress here or on Facebook or just watch the trailer below.

First Henry Bramble Screening ...Sort Of

On Friday 8th February, Berlinale 2013 (part for the Berlin Film Festival) is presenting the first official screening of all four Screen South innovation shorts that were commissioned back in 2011 ...The only snag is our film is still not finished! So instead we are presenting our teaser trailer which will still be an interesting experiment in terms of how the audience respond to it. 

Although we missed our deadline for this, we are actually very close to completion with the music currently being composed by the charming and highly talented Evan Jolly (Unfortunately Richard Chester, my regular composer had to drop out due to bigger and probably better paid commitments). Miha Jaramaz is standing by ready to design the Voydarkatron's roars, thumps and squelches, while Ian Macbeth is cleaning up the dialogue, atmos. and adding additional sound design where needed.

We are all now just waiting with baited breath, to see what will come back from the VFX team that DiRoom have pulled together (on a shoe-string budget of just £15,000 - less than half the cost UK major VFX companies were quoting). The VFX work is been completed by no less than ten artists from Pakistan and Dubai. They've been at it for six weeks now and so far I have seen not one pixel. The anxiety is unbearable, but if they pull it off on schedule, not only will we be submitting it to Cannes for its international premiere, Screen South also plan to present another private industry screening at Bafta in early March, so keep your eyes peeled!

Incidentally Annabel Bates (producer) bumped into one of the Sales Agents that we pitched to back in November, who said that Henry Bramble was the only pitch he remembered and was keen to hear it's progress - Always good to hear positive news.

Screenwriter Chris Terrio on Argo

I found a very interesting interview with Chris Terrio, the writer of the critically acclaimed 2012 thriller Argo.  I was amused to hear he shared similar views on working. He says he would rather get paid to deliver Christmas baskets and explain that 'this is not my real job' than write or direct bad films or TV and have to admit 'this is my real job'. I much prefer to feel humiliated telling people I work as a night porter in a hospital but write and direct when I can, than admit to regularly directing East Enders.

Reached page 124 of Henry Bramble!

It is with great relief and excitement that I can announce I have reached the final page in what has been a huge slog writing the feature length screenplay of Henry Bramble. 

The writing itself was not necessarily hard, it was just trying to fit in the time to write around a full time job, a demanding family life and having to spend too much time on the short film that by all accounts, should have been finished over a year ago. Despite this I have thoroughly enjoyed every minute of it. There were a couple of tough psychological barriers I had to get past, but hey that's what the re-writes are for. 

Anyway before you get too excited and demand a copy to read, please remember I have simply reached the end of the first pass - one of many re-writes. The story has been laid out, but it has many flaws, problems and discontinuity. Many of the characters are not clear enough on the page and the dialogue really sucks, but the point is, I reached the end!

I'm going to go through it in the new year page by page, scene by scene, tidying it up the best I can so it is in a readable state for my Producers, but it is still along way off yet before I can send it out to investors! In the meantime I'm off to Florida to rest my imagination over Christmas. See you in the new year!

CBB pitching event for Henry Bramble feature

Last Thursday we had the finale of our Creative Business Base programme run by Screen South. After six months of support and advice we ended up in the Blue Room at the BFI pitching to Film 4, Bfi, Prescience, The Works, Vertigo, Revolver, Bankside Films, Moviehouse Entertainment and Guerilla Films. 

Set up like a speed dating event, we had ten minutes to impress before moving to the next table. It was a lot of fun, and seemed relatively easy to impress with our crisp one-pagers featuring the new poster design and my passionate animated pitch of the story. However it was also a sobering moment of truth as we learned of the sheer size of the difficulties we will have to face if we are to succeed in bringing this wonderful story to a big screen international audience.

Although nearly everyone who attended the pitch really enjoyed the concept and would be very keen to see it made we had several issues to address:

• Henry Bramble is not a successful entity in any previous form (e.g. best selling novel or computer game) and will require large amounts of strategic marketing to get it into the public's psyche. 
• It is unlikely that we will be able to raise enough finance from the UK or Europe.
• No financier in their right mind is going to let a first time feature film director like myself be in control of $40 million. 
• Despite her impressive low-budget feature film achievements, Charlotte as Producer is also considered a high risk .

The advice that we received was extremely welcomed and gave us a lot of interesting facts to mull over. Here are a few of them:

• You need a strong Executive Producer backing you who has produced a similar film (in terms of content and budget) - someone like David Heyman for example.
• To compensate for not having directed a feature film before you will need to surround yourself with very experienced crew in particular the cinematographer. That way if you turn out to be a complete waste of space, the film can be competently made without you. 
• You will need to attach an extremely attractive cast (monetary not aesthetic). 
• If you want to make an independent film outside of the Hollywood system then you will have to slash the budget considerably.
• Even if you get the film financed you will not be able to raise the sufficient marketing costs required for this kind of film in order to compete with similar Hollywood titles.
• If one of the Hollywood studios agrees to distribute the film, they may (like Valiant) bury the film on purpose so that it does not compete with their current release slate.
• Hollywood will want to develop the project from the beginning and would more likely buy you out than let you direct the film. However you could probably pay off your mortgage with this fee though!
•  If you publish it as a novel first, it will take a minimum of three years to become a bestseller, which statistically is unlikely anyway with such competition already out there.

As you can see, it was a daunting experience, but a valuable one and something that I am certainly not phased by. I have a plan on how to deal with these issues and will report back with my final conclusions very soon. In the mean time I will leave you with the news that I am literally pages away from completing the first draft which although will be very rough and full of poor punctuation and verse, underneath is a very exciting and emotional story that I am desperate to share.

The Creative Business Base teams at Maidstone Studios.

Henry Bramble completed short in sight!

I am relieved and excited that we are finally on the road to recovery for the completion of the magical fantasy 3D short film The Infectious Imagination Of Henry Bramble. Unfortunately the hard working creative team up at VERL were unable to complete the VFX due to a 'project management'  issue that has now finally been eliminated. A big thanks to VERL and Screen South who have worked tirelessly to sort this problem out. 

The completion of the visual effects for the film are now going to be managed by DiROOM based at the Truman Brewery in east London who have also come on board to complete the on-line, grade and 2K deliverables. We are aiming to have a completed film for Berlin where the Innovation Shorts Scheme will be holding the first industry screening. We are hoping our international premiere will be at the 2013 Cannes Film Festival in May.

New Henry Bramble Poster

This is the latest poster design for the feature length version of The Infectious Imagination Of Henry Bramble. It will be used as part of a pitching pack to raise development finance for the film in London on November 27th so fingers crossed - It's come along way from the sketch I did at the beginning of the year.

George Lucas hands Star Wars over to Disney

I feel very emotional about the news this morning that George Lucas is retiring and handing over his Lucasfilm empire to Disney. It feels like he has died. I guess it's that realisation that we've come to the end of another era. That unlike Star Wars, George Lucas is mortal and getting older every day. This then reminds you that you are not five years old boy anymore, but a middle aged man and time is running out for you too.

Despite all the grief he was given over the Star Wars prequels, lets not forget that without him, Star Wars and Indiana Jones would not exist. It must have been incredibly hard to let go of such a huge part of your life - your legacy. No wonder it has taken him four years to do. I think he must feel incredibly sad, relieved and excited all at the same time. I know I do. 

Kathleen Kennedy (The Producer of Indiana Jones and many of Steven Spielberg's other films) is going to take over the running of Lucasfilm and will be producing the next trilogy of Star Wars films which follow on from Return Of The Jedi. Lucas wrote treatments for these around the same time as he developed the first three films. They subsequently became novels and graphic novels in the early to mid-nineties. 

Way back then, when I was still at University, I learned that they were going to be making the prequels. I swore (to anyone who'd listen) that I would direct the ninth Star Wars film. I worked out that it would not be released any earlier than 2015, which gave me nearly nineteen years to calve out a successful directing career. I even made Danny Boyle sign my Trainspotting/Shallow Grave screenplay book "Good Luck with the ninth Star Wars." 

In 1997, while working on The Phantom Menace, I asked George Lucas' daughter Amanda if he would be making the final trilogy and without hesitation she said no. At that moment my dream of directing a Star Wars film had been shattered. Over the years I had forgotten that dream and instead been grateful for the wonderful experience I had working on Episode One that summer. The opportunity to meet the big man himself was inspiring enough for me to leave Star Wars behind and crack on with my own fantastical ideas and possible franchises. 

Despite the fact that in the last fifteen years I have unfortunately not yet reached a Hollywood level career in directing, this morning's news reignited a spark of excitement. There was still a chance, however small that I, Derek Boyes, could direct the ninth Star Wars film by 2020. 

Anyone know Kathleen Kennedy's number? 

The Fears Of A Stereotypical Imagination

I have just watched Snow White and the Huntsman which by all accounts is much better than I anticipated. Having been bored to death by Twilight, I was expecting a modern retelling with a lot of pale sullen faced  teenagers suffering mild depression from their broken hearts, but I was pleasantly surprised to see they were passionate about making this film. It's not quite the classic they were aiming for, but there are moments of beauty and inspiration. The beach attack on the castle was spectacular, some of the fantastical trees, fairies and toadstools were inspiring and the dark magical forest exceeded even Tim Burton's visions. The Huntsman (although his Scottish accent slipped into Australian from time to time) was convincingly masculine, without becoming homoerotic (Anyone see the film 300), though Charlize Theron's performance, particularly when she screamed, was cringing and about as effective as Ewan McGregor's 'younglings' performance in Revenge Of The Sith. However, to her credit, she has since perfected the ice cold performance in Prometheus.

Anyway the point I want to make, or rather the irritation I'd like to point out is that while I have been plodding along with the writing of the Henry Bramble feature I had absolutely no previous knowledge of this film, except for it's title and the DVD cover. I was just about to tackle the scene in my script where Henry and the two chumninks enter the Castle of Shadows through the sewage pipes when I decided to take a break and look at Snow White & The Huntsman. To my surprise and annoyance I discovered they had an almost identicle scene. Three dwarfs sneak into the castle via the sewers with Ray Winstone making almost the same 'poo' one liner that I had written. In reference to my previous postings, when you are coming up with the same scene as someone else rather than the same archetypal tool, then not only does it look like plagiarism but you then start to question your own ability to imagine original thoughts. For now I am not going to change my scene, just aim to develop it differently so that it exceeds and surprises expectations of audiences who have seen Snow White.

My other concern is the increasing release of gothic teen fairytale adaptations that are beginning to saturate the market with the same style and tone that I had previously liked, but is now becoming too familiar with audiences. The challenge is to have an original vision and style that audiences will be drawn to, which is no easy feat. As a result I am leaning much more towards a 'steampunk' world were medieval mixes with futuristic Victorian. It makes more sense thematically. Henry has a vivid imagination, the contents in his Uncle's country house are very traditional and Victorian, but as a boy living in a modern world, he is much more aware of technology. Merging these in his imagination would give him Steampunk which represents Uncle Geoffrey and the negative aspects of the adult world.

Finally, the last lesson learned from this film is that short actors playing fantastical elves, dwarves, goblins, sprites etc. in big Hollywood fantasy films could well be a thing of the past. Firstly, short actors playing these kinds of fantasy creatures (without complex prosthetics or CGI) arguably don't come across as 'magical' in a more diverse and progressive society. Secondly, in order to have more choice in casting, the filmmakers of The Lord Of The Rings and Snow White chose instead to shrink normal sized actors to play these parts. Since the creation of a completely CGI Gollum, there has been a surge in performance capture techniques allowing filmmakers to cast A-list actors that appear physically inhuman. I think for Henry Bramble, if we were rewarded with such a budget, this could be a direction we are forced into in an attempt to put financiers at ease by attaching well known actors (of any shape and size) to play Grimbo and Raygo. Can you imagine Charlize Theron and Brad Pitt playing three foot chumninks?