Last week I finished up work on a music video that I directed, edited and colour graded for Turnpike Glow, a cool little rock band in London.

The budget of the video was about £450. But the actual cost was much higher.

What do I mean by that?  Well, our budget broke down roughly along these lines:

• Location: £100
• Cinematographer: £150
• Equipment: £150
• Food and Transport: £50

All that was a one-day shoot.  Sounds great, right?

Yes, BUT… had it not been for the generosity of people lending their support in-kind (doing it for free), this video would not have happened.

First off, the cinematographer we hired usually charges much, much more to do this kind of work, but he decided to be very nice to us.  And we got equally good deals on the location, and on equipment.

If we had been paying full rate, then location, equipment and cinematographer would have cost at least £1500 pounds right there.

Food and transport are fixed prices, not much you can do there.

The other big jobs were the director, editor and colourist.  In this case, I did all three of those jobs, because I happen to be quite good at them, and enjoy them all.  I spent one day directing, five days editing, and three days grading.

I edited and graded the video, using my production company’s own post-production facilities.  (Edited on Final Cut Pro, graded on Apple Color).

So in total, I worked on this video, full time, for 9 days, for free.

Had everyone on this video been paid at the full rate, the cost would have been much closer to £3000 pounds.

My point here isn’t to complain or gloat.  In my case, I’m happy to spend my time doing these things, because they benefit me in the long run, and I really love making films.  But, as a highly skilled individual, I also know what my time is worth.

It’s important to consider that, while digital technology HAS brought the costs of filmmaking down, the most expensive part of the process – the people – won’t ever go away.

My point is, yes you can create kick ass productions for little or no money… but that doesn’t mean they didn’t cost anything to produce!

(TL;DR: Be nice to your crew! They are giving you their time, for free!)

Last night, those words were rattling around my head.

I had gone to see a film called The Room, which was preceded by a Q&A / merchandise flogging session by the Director / Writer / Star of the film.

If you haven’t heard of this film before, please watch the trailer now.  Go ahead, I’ll wait.

Looks pretty awful, right?

The trailer doesn’t even show the half of it – it actually manages to make it look like there’s some sort of narrative drive. There isn’t.

This film is so awful, that it has been dubbed ‘the Citizen Kane of bad movies.’

So why would I bother going to a screening of such a bad film? And WHY would the director bother turning up to do a Q and A? Why is this film screening AT ALL? And in Central London, right on Leicester Square no less?

Turns out that this film is so absolutely god-awful, that it’s actually spawned a cult following – sort of along the lines of Rocky Horror Picture Show. Once a month, people turn out at The Prince Charles Cinema to watch this film, yell at the screen, throw plastic spoons, and generally have a riotous night. (Similar screenings happen in other parts of the world too).

And here’s the kicker: The Room has been released under director Tommy Wiseau’s own company. Which means that he takes a significant portion of the money made.  It may not be a lot, it’s definitely not block-buster levels, but it’s a consistent source of income.

On top of that, they sell DVDs, posters, and little plastic statues that yell taglines from the film when you press a button.  The fans lap it up.  Can you believe that?

I can.

Now, to be perfectly clear – Tommy Wiseau is not some kind of marketing genius.  The man is David Brent brought to life (or Michael Scott if you’re American).  Meeting him, you realize that he lives on another planet, and I’m 100% certain that he made this film thinking it would be good.

But somewhere inside that crazy head of his, he’s also realised that there’s an audience for his film, and he’s playing right to it.  Which brings me full circle to my point:

If you do something extreme, somebody will notice.  If you want to make a film, either make it extremely good, or extremely bad, and you’ll in all likelihood find an audience.

It’s mediocrity that’ll kill you.

Some stills from the rushes for our music video!

Yesterday was utter madness.

Indie band Turnpike Glow asked me and a colleague to make a music video for their new single ’1986′ (listen here), but having very limited resources meant we had to improvise a lot of what we were doing.

This morning, it’s got me thinking about some of the techniques we used for maintaining high production value on a tiny budget.  These are skewed towards music video, but can also be applied to any other form of filmmaking.  Here they are, in no particular order:

• A little bit of money goes a long way! Don’t make the mistake of thinking you can do it all for nothing!  On our shoot, we spent about £40 on food, £120 on lighting, £100 on location and £150 on hiring a professional cinematographer, willing to work at a reduced rate (Charley Meyer, a great guy!).  Most bands don’t realize how far you can stretch even that little bit of money – it makes a huge difference in the production value you can achieve.




• Find one fantastic location.  Finding a good location on a low budget is tricky. It should have very little natural light, interesting features, and cost little or nothing.  We lucked out in finding a theatre called The Yard, which has closed down for the season. They charged us a nominal fee to use the place.  Even better, it was located right next door to my office, which meant we had decent green room facilities (very important!).




• Maximise the use you get out of your location! The defining feature of the yard is the amphitheatre style seating.  But on the reverse angle is a white brick wall, which we also shot against.  This made it look like we had two locations, when we in fact had only one.




• Use all resources available to you! We happened to shoot on the only day of the year where we had significant snowfall in London. So, naturally, we put the band outside in the snow, and had them do a few takes of the song while we threw snowballs at them. Get creative, have fun!




• Shoot as few days as is humanly possible! A music video can be done in a day. A short film over a weekend.  A feature in two weeks.  Of course, all these factors depend on how complex they are.  BUT…




• Don’t go over schedule! This one is very important – people are being extremely nice to you in giving you their time for free. Don’t take advantage of that by making them work 12 hours.  Our shoot went from 10am to 7pm, including cleanup time. Those are decent hours, that everyone can be happy with.




• Work with your performers! Often overlooked, this one can kill your production.  With all the 9000 things going on in your head, it’s often easy to forget that the most important people on your set are the ones in front of the camera. DON’T forget this! Be nice to them, help them give their best, make them feel like everything is super relaxed, even when it isn’t.

Got any more tips you wanna add? Go for it!

The Turnpike Glow music video will be out in a week or so – now that’s a fast turnaround time!

We’re both extremely self-motivated and driven people, never happy to wait for success to fall into our laps – we chase in constantly.  However, I had been feeling somewhat despondent lately, as I just couldn’t see how making short films was worth it. They don’t make money, they don’t lead directly to features or commercials work – they’re really only good for practicing your craft.

Ari, on the other hand, was completely inspired by how self motivated and industrious a lot of people in the states appear to be.  With his influence, we came up with a cunning plan:

We’re going to convince an ad agency to give us a job making ads for them – by making a viral ad for ourselves.

Huh? How does that work?

Well, the thing is, the only way to get work, is to have done work.  People want to know you can deliver a product before they stump up the cash.

So we’ve decided to create a spec ad – a fake ad for a real product.  We plan on creating something so wild and over the top, yet also insanely clever and attention grabbing, that people won’t help but sit up and take notice.

A few requirements we’ve set for ourselves:

• It needs to look convincing – good enough to be a real ad. So it’s going to cost money.
• It needs to do well on the internet, generating thousands of views. So we’re targeting a younger audience.
• It needs to be shocking enough that said young people feel compelled to share it.

Our ultimate goal is for it to reach a critical mass and go viral – but even if it doesn’t, we’ll still shop it around in London, New York and Los Angeles, to see if we can’t score some work off the back of it.

I can’t talk about the contents of the ad yet, because we’re still too early in the process – but it’s truly inspired, to say the least.

Oh, and we’re working together with two production companies, Digital Snowball and 10 Thirty Entertainment, both of whom have pledged monetary and / or in kind support through equipment and facilities.

Plan on things happening quickly – it’s coming!

Me on a Normal Day

I haven’t been updating my blog a lot lately, which is a shame because I really enjoy writing it.

The reason for the lack of updates is simple- I haven’t had a lot to say lately.  The latter half of 2011 was largely about getting all my ducks in a row.  Being a filmmaker is all well and good, but making enough money to live can be tricky when you’re in such a competitive industry.

So I spent most of 2011 making contacts, applying for work, etc.  And I can now safely say, it has all worked out for the best.  The start of 2012 is looking very good, as I’m now getting in enough corporate promo and editing work to maintain myself while I develop my short film and feature film projects.

The crazy thing is, I still don’t know if I’m doing the right thing- but I think that’s what it’s like in this industry. You never know it’s working, until it’s actually working. So here’s hoping that I’ve gone down the right path- the alternative is far too depressing to even think about.

That said, this should hopefully mean that I get to stop worrying about earning enough money to survive, and start worrying about getting my film funded.  It’s all coming together, one step at a time.

I just have to keep reminding myself, it’s a marathon not a sprint.  Slow and steady wins the race.

In terms of exciting projects this year, I am writing and developing a feature film with a private company, directing two more episodes of the interactive series Timedancer, and I will be directing at least one new short film.

It’s going to be a busy year.

It’s no big secret that I’m currently working on a script for my first feature film.

Through discussions with Producer Gareth More, we are currently looking at going down the path of Horror / Thriller with this film.

But as we’re finding out, it’s a tricky line to walk. If you go straight up traditional horror, it gets boring quickly. But if you stray too far toward thriller, then pretty soon you’re looking at having to get big-name actors attached to help sell the film.  (One of the advantages of horror is that you can still sell it on concept alone).

So it’s a fine line we’re walking. One of the things we’re considering in writing this film is the difference between horror and terror.

Horror is something that comes from within – it should horrify you, and get under your skin.  It comes out of the moral decisions characters make, not from the situation they are in.

Terror, on the other hand, comes directly from the situation that a character finds themselves in.

Torcher movies like Hostel are pure terror, and very little horror.  The classic Dracula is the opposite, with very few moments of actual terror, but a lot of subversive and horrifying motives.

The best movies in the genre, in my opinion, manage to implement strong elements of both – on top of having excellent characters and plot.  Think Se7evn, or Silence of the Lambs.

So right now, this is the path we’re going down.  But as always, everything is subject to change.

By the way – if you haven’t watched the video yet, give it a glance now.  It’s the perfect example of the meaning of terror (and not horror).

Got any examples of horror you’d like to share?

I often talk about the importance of having a solid strategy to inform all the decisions you make when carrying out a project.

Last year I made a short film called Vincent : The story of a Time Traveler.  My goal in making it was simple: Create a film that is solid enough to make people look up and take notice of me as a filmmaker.

I decided to make a simple film – one main character, one main location – so that I could focus on the emotional core of the story.

The response to the film has been overwhelming, with literally hundreds of people writing me to tell me how much they loved it.

Better yet, the film got tons of invitations from festivals – that is, festival programmers who saw the film have actually written to me to ask me to enter the film in their festival.  This has earned it several Official Selections as well as two awards.  (Special Jury Prize at Huesca Film Festival, and Best Actor at the London Lift-Off Film Festival).

This film has been great to me – it let me travel to cool places like Dubai, Clermont Ferrand and St. John’s, Newfoundland – and I know I genuinely met people in all those places who I will continue to be friends with for years to come.

So now, at the end of its festival run, I have decided to make it available online, for free, for everyone to see.  Just visit the film’s website, www.vincentthemovie.com, to watch it!

Why am I doing this?  Because, as I said, I wanted a film that will put me out there, and get people to notice me.  The internet is, simply put, one of the most powerful tools I could possibly be using to do this.

Phase I of this film’s life was all about getting me to the festivals, to meet people and learn about how this industry works.  Mission accomplished.

Phase II is about opening it up to a wider audience, and just getting as many people to see it as possible – and, by extension, getting them to notice me.

One part of that strategy is to make the film available online for free.  But I have another, much more ambitious plan for it, that will ensure Vincent lives on for years to come, and gets me and my work noticed by as wide an audience as possible.

I don’t want to reveal too much about it right now, but believe me, you are going to love it!

So now that you’ve seen the film, what do you think about it?

EDIT: Here’s a link to the film on YouTube

Early this week I was informed that my high-budget short film Hotel Arabia was not selected for funding by the Dubai Media Organisation.

It came as something of a blow, mainly because my relationship to that organisation is quite personal and because they informed me that it was a very VERY close call, and that they were really sorry.

It was a shame, and I gave myself a day to mope about it.

But it was also, as project producer Gareth More said to me, “a blessing in disguise.” Gareth and I worked pretty hard on all the submission documents- and all that hard work is not for naught.

On all future projects, we will be able to appropriate elements as and when we need to- meaning a lot of work is already done for us.

And failing to secure funding has also given Gareth and I pause about what kind of projects we want to pursue. Thinking about it, we have made the decision to back away from short films (for now). What we really, ultimately, want to do is make features. It’s true, the short film is a great way to practice for a feature- but it isn’t the only way.

From here on out, we are focusing on a short form that is high concept, high production value, and profitable. We want to earn money, dammit, and making short films feels too much like you’re turning yourself into a charity case.

That’s not to say Hotel Arabia won’t get made of course- the project is just on hold for the next little while. (I love the project too much to let it go entirely).

In total, we are looking at raising approximately £30,000 – a pretty sizeable sum, but also something I believe is needed if we are going to be able to spend the time and resources on the project, and make it look absolutely stunning.

There’s a lot of work that’s been put into this upcoming funding application.

I’ve hooked up with Producer Gareth More, who has taken a lot of the legal work off my hands.  This has probably been the single biggest step of them all in moving this project forward.

Then, I’ve managed to find two extremely talented and professional actors, who are very interested in this project.

I am ensuring that we are putting together the single most attractive funding application we can manage.  This includes having an amazing script, a tight budget, a worked out schedule, and lots of little bits of information such as background biographies about myself, Gareth, our cinematographer, and the actors.

On top of all of this comes the fact that I seem to be an ideal candidate for this funding scheme.  I’m a filmmaker of Gulf Arab origin, with proven production experience and an keen interest in strong narrative filmmaking.  Competition for these sorts of funds is nowhere near as fierce as for example UK Film Council short film funding- meaning that we should have a fairly decent chance of winning some form of production support.

But despite all this- there’s still the overarching feeling that you just have to cross your fingers and hope for the best.  I’ve sent out enough applications to know that most of the ones your really want never end up coming through.  Which is why it’s so tiring being a filmmaker… it’s always a struggle.  Always.

But I guess that’s what keeps it interesting.

I can’t tell you how many filmmakers I have met who seem to never be able to finish their projects.

I know countless people who do constant re-shoots, edits, more shooting, some sound additions, more shooting, re-cutting- the process seems to drag out forever.

No matter who you are, this is no way to make a film.  It’s important to work to a schedule with serious deadlines.  Shooting, picture edit, sound edit and colour grade all need to have finite schedules- otherwise you will never make final delivery.  If you want to be taken seriously as a filmmaker, learning to meet such deadlines is incredibly important (especially once you start dealing with other peoples’ money).

When I work on my projects, I make it a point to enforce deadlines upon myself.  It helps me to focus, and keeps me from micro-managing the process- which is absolutely deadly.  I can’t even count how many filmmakers I’ve seen stumble over this hurdle.

At the end of the day, it’s about an inability to commit to doing things a certain way- perhaps a fear of making the wrong move.  And you freeze.

But the sad truth is- you aren’t a filmmaker until you’ve FINISHED a film.  And yea, there will always be things that you want to change.  In fact, 20 years from now you’ll probably find things in your films that you wished you could change.  That’s the nature of the beast.  It’s a temptation that should at ALL COSTS be avoided.

A rather sad case-in-point is George Lucas, who seems unable to resist in meddling with his original series of films.  His latest Blu-Ray release of the original films features some new sound additions.  Watch the clip above and see if you can spot what I mean.

Now, obviously George Lucas has a finished series of films that made a lot of money.  Yes, his meddling pisses people off, but at least he’s a successful director.  Then again, he’s done very little since Star Wars, hasn’t he? Perhaps he’s too busy cutting and re-cutting, adding visuals and sound effects.

So don’t make the same mistake.  Shoot your film. Cut it, mix the sound, grade the picture, and get it out there- and then sit back as it takes on a life of it’s own.  Perhaps slightly scary, but infinitely more rewarding.

Visit the website for Vincent, my award winning short film here.