6:15 Thursday 29 November
Te Auaha – 65 Dixon St, Te Aro, Wellington
…direct from BSS
STRAY is the debut feature film from award-winning writer/director/producer Dustin Feneley and producer Desray Armstrong.
The film was made outside the traditional funding system, and was financed through private investors, crowdfunding donors, sponsorships and the goodwill of cast and crew.
STRAY has subsequently been received positively by international film festivals, critics and audiences. Hailed by The Dominion Post as “one of the very best films ever made in New Zealand”, Flicks writes that STRAY “fortifies hope in the breadth and ambition of New Zealand film”.
STRAY had its World Premiere in Main Competition at the Moscow International Film Festival in April where it won the award for Best Actor. After receiving rave five-star reviews and numerous sell-out sessions at NZIFF, STRAY secured theatrical distribution in New Zealand and Australia, released nationally in October and is screening in over 40 cinemas.
STRAY holds the record for the highest amount ever raised through donation-based crowdfunding for a New Zealand film. In 2016, STRAY raised over $125,000 in a 30-day campaign on NZ arts crowdfunding site Boosted.
In this StS Talk, Dustin Feneley and Desray Armstrong discuss how STRAY was financed as an independent film. With a particular focus on securing private investment and the record-breaking crowdfunding campaign, they explore the entrepreneurial skills, drive and tenacity needed to succeed as independent filmmakers.
VENUE: Te Auaha, 65 Dixon St, Te Aro, Wellington
DATE: Thursday 29 November
TIME: 6:15-7:15. After the TALK, stay and have pizza on Script to Screen, there will be a cash bar and sociallising with fellow filmmakers.
$5.00 KOHA: Please bring cash as we do not have eftpos. Your contribution helps us to continue StS TALKS
This StS TALK is possible thanks to the support of the New Zealand Film Commission. Thanks to the New Zealand Film and Television School for the venue.
|
|
|
DUNEDIN: 9am-12:30pm Tuesday 9 October
Venue: Petridish – Green Room, 8 Stafford Street, Dunedin
Co-presented with Film Dunedin
Book tickets for Dunedin – $ 15 (limited spaces)
CHRISTCHURCH: 9am-12:30pm Wednesday 10 October
Venue: Belmont Studios, 31 Southwark St, Christchurch.
Allow time to find a park and walk to the venue.
Book tickets for Christchurch – $15 (limited spaces)
This Script to Screen workshop is made possible thanks to generous support from
The New Zealand Film Commission.
Saturday 11th August 2018
MIT Pasifika Centre North Campus, Gate 13, Alexander Crescent, Otara
Come along to hear from the groundbreaking feature film writer/director behind HIBISCUS & RUTHLESS and THREE WISE COUSINS. Stallone Vaiaoga-Ioasa (S.Q.S) talks about his journey from making short films to feature films.
He’ll share snippets of rarely seen short films and discuss the connections to his feature film work. Stallone will talk about lessons he’s learned and how he approaches the current film landscape in New Zealand and the Pacific.
After the TALK, Stay and have pizza on Script to Screen and socialise with fellow filmmakers.
Venue: MIT (Manukau Institute of Technology) Pasifika Community Centre, Gate 13, Alexander Cresent, Otara.
Cost: $5 Koha appreciated. Please bring cash with you as we don’t have eftpos. Your contribution helps us to continue doing these TALKS.
Script to Screen TALKS are made possible thanks to generous support from NZ Film Commission, Foundation North, Images & Sound.
Sat 4th Aug & Sun 5th Aug 2018.
Samoa House Studio, 20 Beresford Square, Auckland
Here’s a fantastic opportunity to learn from IIML screenwriting teacher Ken Duncum.
This one and a half day course on writing a feature film looks at strategies for Coming up with a Cinematic Concept, growing Captivating Characters, locating the Core of your story and establishing your personal Connection to it.
Over the course of the weekend, Ken Duncum will coach and cajole you through a process of developing your own film idea, giving you tips for finding and building a story that resonates.
Don’t miss this interactive and practical workshop that will help you navigate through the complexities of writing a feature film.
Who it is for: Emerging to established screenwriters
When: Saturday 9.30am-4:30pm & Sunday 10:00am-1:00pm
Where: Samoa House, 20 Beresford Square, Auckland CBD
Cost: General Admission $80.50 (incl. GST) or Student $51.75 (incl. GST) bring your student card on the day if you purchased a student ticket. Tickets available via Eventbrite
What to Bring: Pen and paper, and some participants may want to bring their lunch
Morning and afternoon tea will be provided. If you don’t bring lunch, there are many cafes in the area.
Last year Script to Screen worked closely with the Whirinaki community to design a storytelling workshop where the outcome would be making a short film together.
The workshop was aimed at rangatahi aged 16-25, along with their teachers, community leaders and whanau. It took place in July 2016 over three days at Matai Aranui Marae in Whirinaki, and provided rangatahi from the Far North region a safe and creative space to write and develop their short ideas into compelling outlines. With access to talented screenwriting mentor Michael Bennett, the workshop fostered and encouraged a huge step forward for these Northland storytellers. On the second day participants had the chance to share their stories, and receive feedback. A judging panel chose one idea for the group to make together as a community short film.
The idea chosen was called NATALIE, by 16-year-old Northland College student Qianna Titore. Mentor Michael Bennett spent 6 hours guiding Qianna as she wrote a 9 page script for the film. The workshop ended with a read through of the script, performed by participants of the workshop Jo and Julina Wikaira – who were later cast as Natalie and Natalie’s mum.
The workshop participants came back together at Matai Aranui Marae ten days after the writing workshop, to shoot Qianna’s short film NATALIE in three days. Script to Screen brought heads of department from Auckland and Northland to mentor the novice filmmakers in the crew roles like camera, clapper loader, continuity, art department, lighting, grip, sound recording, acting, and catering. Mentors included esteemed writer/director Michael Bennnett, one of NZ’s most reputed cinematographers Leon Narbey and grip Annie Frear.
All the participants worked incredibly hard over the three days, with the rushes being assembled in the evenings, allowing a rough cut to be screened at the wrap party. The process of making a short film from start to finish in only two weeks was a massive learning curve for the whole team, and the community were very proud to have made their first film. The mentors were thrilled to be part of a community-minded project, fuelled on generosity and heart.
See NATALIE at Wairoa Maori Film Festival as part of the Kiriata Māori: Māori Shorts 2017
and part of the Ngā Whanaunga Māori Pasifika Shorts 2017 at the New Zealand International Film Festival.
Script to Screen and WIFTNZ in association with UniFrance and the Alliance Française French Film Festival are proud to present a masterclass delivered by renowned and visionary French film director and screenwriter, Rebecca Zlotowski.
Rebecca began her career writing several short films, before making her directorial debut with feature film BELLE EPINE (2010) starring Léa Seydoux. The film screened at Critics’ Week, was nominated for the Camera d’Or and won the Louis Delluc Prize for Best First Film. Her next film GRAND CENTRAL also starred Seydoux, and premiered in Un Certain Regard at Cannes in 2013. She also co-wrote feature films JIMMY RIVIERE (2011) and DESPITE THE NIGHT (2013), and in 2015 she was on the short film jury for the Cannes Film Festival.
Zlotowski is in New Zealand to promote her latest film PLANETARIUM, a supernatural drama set in 1930s Paris starring Natalie Portman and Lily-Rose Depp, which premiered at Venice Film Festival. The film will now screen at the 2017 Alliance Française French Film Festival.
Join us for an in-depth 3 hour masterclass with Rebecca delving into her process of bringing PLANETARIUM to life. Participants will be provided with a copy of the script of the film, and are invited to watch the film at one of the four Auckland screenings before the masterclass. For any participants coming from out of town, PLANETARIUM is also screening around the country.
See the screening schedule for PLANETARIUM HERE.
When: Monday 13th March, 1-4pm
Where: Auckland Art Gallery Auditorium
Registration: The workshop is free, but places are limited so please register your attendance.
Rebecca Zlotowski was born in 1980 in Paris. After graduating from the prestigious Ecole Normale Supérieure and being a French Language and Literature agrégée, Rebecca Zlotowski joined the famous Paris film school La Fémis where she encountered other distinctive filmmakers such as Teddy Lussi Modeste, Jean-Claude Brisseau, Philippe Grandrieux, Antoine d’Agata (with whom she will collaborate on a future project), and Lodge Kerrigan. Selected at the 2010 Cannes Critics’ Week, her first directorial effort Belle Epine won the Prix Louis Delluc as well as the Critics’ Award for Best First Feature Film. Three years later, Grand Central was selected at the Un Certain Regard in Cannes. Planetarium is Zlotowski’s third feature film.
“Arguably the most important British filmmaker of his generation, Terence Davies is a poet of the cinema, at once austere and passionate … His films’ combination of art-film style and reverence for working-class popular culture is unique in British cinema.” – Film Critic and writer Tom Charity
Script to Screen and the New Zealand International Film Festival present a discussion with one of cinema’s most beloved auteurs, British writer/director Terence Davies.
Davies is here to present two films at this year’s festival. A QUIET PASSION, Davies’ portrait of 19th century poet Emily Dickinson, stars Cynthia Nixon and was described as ‘an absolute drop-dead masterwork’ by the New Yorker; and SUNSET SONG, his ‘ beautiful and brutal’ adaptation of Lewis Grassic Gibbon’s novel of the same name, stars Peter Mullan and Agyness Deyn.
Join us to hear director Terence Davies in conversation with writer Fiona Samuel, as they discuss his approach to cinema and his life’s work. The discussion takes place in the Wintergarden, following the Sunday screening of A QUIET PASSION.
Sunday 24th July, 4-5pm, The Wintergarden (The Civic’s basement), free entry
SCREENINGS
A Quiet Passion
Wed 27 July 10:30am, The Civic
Sunset Song
Mon 25 July 10.30am, The Civic
Born in Liverpool, Terence Davies is one of the most distinctive talents to have emerged from British cinema in the last thirty years. He shows a passionate concern with film craft, and his approach to filmmaking has been called “the cinematic equivalent of literature’s magic realism.” His feature film titles include DISTANT VOICES, STILL LIVES (1988), THE LONG DAY CLOSES (1992), THE NEON BIBLE (1995), THE HOUSE OF MIRTH (2000) and THE DEEP BLUE SEA (2011). All of his films have been critically acclaimed and received numerous nominations and awards in Britain and internationally.
Presented in partnership with the New Zealand International Film Festival.
Script to Screen and the NZ International Film Festival present a special discussion with the creative team behind highly anticipated NZ film THE REHEARSAL, which enjoys its world premiere at the festival.
THE REHEARSAL marks the return of avant-garde director Alison Maclean to New Zealand. Alison reunited with producers Bridget Ikin and Trevor Haysom, and co-wrote with novelist Emily Perkins, to adapt Eleanor Catton’s first novel for the screen.
“I want it to be an intimate, authentic experience of what it’s like to be a young person in New Zealand now.”- Alison Maclean.
Join us for a discussion with Alison Maclean, Bridget Ikin and Emily Perkins, as they talk to Philippa Campbell about adapting and making THE REHEARSAL. Hear them delve into the decisions made at each stage of the process to create the brave, modern film starring Kerry Fox and James Rolleston.
Tuesday 26th July, 3:15 – 4:15pm, The Wintergarden (basement level of The Civic), free entry
FILM SCREENINGS
Sat 23rd July, 8:30pm, The Civic
Tues 26th July, 1:15pm, The Civic
Presented in partnership with the New Zealand International Film Festival.
Join us for a discussion delving into the creative process of low budget feature films as experienced by recipients of funding from the NZ Film Commission’s Escalator scheme. This is an opportunity to feed into the NZ Film Commission’s discussion around different options for low budget funding moving forward.
Writer/director Max Currie (Everything We Loved), writer/director Paolo Rotondo (Orphans & Kingdoms), writer/director Gerard Johnstone (Housebound) and writer/director Guy Pigden (I Survived a Zombie Holocaust) talk to producer Tui Ruwhiu about how being part of the scheme shaped and changed their filmmaking process.
The Escalator low budget funding scheme was an initiative of the New Zealand Film Commission which ran from 2010 – 2012. Over three years, eight teams were given production funding of $250,000 to make their first feature film.
Join us afterwards for a slice of pizza on us and a drink.
Tues 2nd September, The Classic, 321 Queen Street, 7pm drinks, 7:30-8:30pm talk, $5 koha appreciated.
There’s no doubt about it. Escalator funded horror-comedy Housebound is a remarkable accomplishment. At its SXSW festival debut earlier this year, the film was praised for its freshness of voice, strong performances, carefully handled script, and the perfect dose of NZ’s dry humour.
The July Writer’s Room celebrated the screening of the film at the NZ International Film Festival with a special session. Housebound’s writer, director and editor Gerard Johnstone (The Jaquie Brown Diaries) and producer Luke Sharpe (The Jaquie Brown Diaries) sat down with filmmaker Jackie Van Beek (Go the Dogs) to talk about the challenges of writing and making this debut feature.
The film played to a packed house at the Auckland International Film Festival and Housebound is ‘bound’ to be an audience favourite when it makes nationwide release in September. “This film is funny, scary, emotional … and reveals some truth about the New Zealand character,” said Jackie.
Housebound is indeed an extraordinary achievement. Made with the help of the New Zealand Film Commission’s Escalator funding scheme and capped at $250,000, the process from one-page idea to the screen was not the easiest of journeys for Gerard and Luke.
“We started in mid-2010 when we were shortlisted for Escalator,” said Gerard, “and turned around a first draft of the script in two months. We began filming in late 2011 and finished filming this year. The whole thing took about four years but it wasn’t a continual process. We worked in patches.”
Escalator is essentially a quick turnaround scheme. The associated pressures of working within the parameters are high but it’s hard for a film maker to turn down the opportunity to make a film when there is money on the table.
“There was a lot of pressure,” said Gerard. “The Jaquie Brown Diaries was successful. I thought people were expecting great things and that led me into this inertia where I couldn’t be as productive as I wanted to. Housebound was short listed for Escalator off a one page idea and there’s a big difference between having an idea and turning that idea into a 100 page script in two months. It was really hard. The challenges got on top of me. We started shooting because we had to, or risk losing the money. I naively hoped that we’d start shooting and I’d see how it went.”
Filming in ‘patches’ created multiple difficulties, not the least of which was some of the cast decided to move to Australia before the film was completed and Gerard didn’t like much of what he’d shot and wanted to re-write the script. “I was crestfallen because things just hadn’t gone at all like I’d hoped they would.”
For the first three years of the project Gerard was ‘filled with regret’ and thought it was the ‘stupidest decision’ he’d ever made. “Luke would come over to my place and it’d be 2 o’clock in the afternoon and I’d be in my underwear and socks, just having gotten up. It was a sad state of affairs. I had post-it notes all over the walls and I’d walk him through them, get his reaction, bounce ideas around.”
The two were good friends before venturing into the project – and the fact that they’re still speaking now is a testament to the strength of their relationship. Producers are there to crack the whip and Luke said this put their friendship under stress for about 3.5 years. “We were best mates going into it and we still are. My decision process is always guided by, ‘will it make the film better, yes or no?’ If yes, then we’ll try to make it happen. We want to do the best we can – otherwise, what’s the point?”
However Luke admitted that they were outside their comfort zone from the very start. “A limitation of Escalator is the fast turnaround. We knew we’d need as much time as we could get because we knew there wasn’t an easy template out there for the film we wanted to make.”
His work on Jaquie Brown did not prepare Gerard well for turning his hand to a feature film script and there wasn’t enough time for him to really get his head around it. “With thrillers you have to be one step ahead of the audience, full of surprises. I found that very hard coming off a 22 minute sit com. The pressure when writing a feature – and a mystery on top of that – is so different. I wanted it to be the best thing ever and it was so completely beyond me.”
If the luxury of time had been on his side, Gerard said he would have valued the chance to work with someone who had written thrillers and could guide him along. “I needed a solid thriller narrative and I could add comedy to that. If you haven’t worked with a writer in this genre you’re taking a big gamble. I didn’t know anyone because we don’t have a long history of thrillers in New Zealand. Writing the script was almost an unpaid gig too so the option of engaging a co-writer wasn’t available to me.”
Luke said there was money allocated within the Escalator funding for a script editor, if needed. They did receive some outside help from other script writers but it wasn’t too helpful. “When you collaborate you’re always looking for people who have the same sensibilities as you,” said Luke, “and it was hard for us to take that risk.”
With their timeline blowing out, Gerard and Luke were forced to front up to the NZFC and explain themselves. “We were in the dog box,” said Luke.
“They were angry but not unreasonable,” said Gerard. ” We took just inside 12 months before we started shooting and there was pressure to have it done in two months. If I’d known at the start that I could’ve had that year, I would’ve tracked down some other writers, watched more movies but as it was, I didn’t have the time to do that. There was this panic.” Jackie noted that the NZFC have since shut down Escalator and are bringing in two new programmes, one for features under 1 million and another for lower budget films up to $500,000.
Escalator required each film maker to submit three different one-page ideas. Most applicants had their favourite idea and knocked up two more, hoping selectors would pick the one they most wanted to make.
Gerard felt having to submit three ideas was too much. “I think one is better. The idea for Housebound was their least favourite. The year we applied to Escalator, everyone was making genre films. They sat us down and showed us Desert, an example of a low budget film and I thought, ‘Why didn’t you show us that before we all had our ideas? We could’ve made nice films about relationships but we’re all making zombie films and time traveller movies. How is this going to help us when we’re all trying to make The Terminator?’ And the first time we went down, the 12 teams were put up at the Museum Hotel. It was all glamour and buffet lunches. After we were chosen, we stayed at this rat infested place with drains running overhead …”
Welcome to the real world of low budget film making …
“Accelerated development and low cost was the idea behind Escalator,” said Luke. “I think its heart was in the right place because a number of great films have been made as a result, but sometimes things will work and sometimes they won’t.”
Gerard felt much of the stress could have been avoided if Escalator had asked for scripts, not ideas. “We ended up making Housebound for $350,000 so we had to find another grand on top of the $250,000 from Escalator. If I’d had the script to start with, I could’ve made the film for $250,000.”
The constraints of Escalator meant that Luke and Gerard went into production with a shooting script they were not happy with, thus initiating the convoluted and difficult process that followed. Keeping the cast and crew engaged and enthusiastic over the years it took to make the film was no easy feat.
” At the start they felt it was ridiculous and chaotic,” said Gerard, “and it got worse as we went on. I eventually realised I needed to take control, have more confidence and be more assertive and they started to spark to that. I showed them clips and they began to love it. Once that started happening, they saw the magic of the movie coming together and there was a real sense of camaraderie.”
However the road was still not easy one and it wasn’t until 2013 that Gerard and Luke felt they had a solid script and a good film coming out of it.
“I remember watching the latest Jane Eyre film,” said Gerard. “It was all about images, so refreshing to watch. I had come from a TV background – radio with pictures, dialogue heavy – but watching this I gained an understanding for how and why the camera moves and things got better when I started injecting that. I’d been trying too hard for comedy and it was awful. The script was telling the actors to go larger. The crew was laughing and when that happens you know it’s awful because they’re laughing when they feel they should. It just doesn’t work. I thought to myself, ‘This movie has no soul.'”
“We threw away a lot,” said Luke. “It was boring. We needed an active protagonist. We were bringing all these things to her but she wasn’t doing anything.”
The feisty protagonist Kylie (Morgana O’Reilly) initially faced up to the ‘haunting’ of the house with a ‘f*** off’ attitude but when Gerard had her move with slightly more trepidation, he infused her character and the film with the edge-of-the-seat nervousness it desperately needed to ultimately engage the audience. Imbuing chatterbox Miriam (Kylie’s mother played by the wonderful Rima Te Wiata) with a touch of racism brought an otherwise classically awkward and predictable dinner table scene to life with its subtle reflection of NZ society today.
Gerard said that while a director has to fight for his or her vision the ability to compromise has to be there too. However he was often hampered with decision-making due to the stressfulness of the situation. “In the early days I knew so little about anything. I was so stressed, unable to make a decision, it was all beyond me. But throughout it all, Luke and I were on the same page about most things. His words to me were often ‘hurry up!'”
The two had some hard-won advice for producers and writer/directors working on low budget features.
“Our low budget film was quite contained in terms of location,” said Luke, “and we knew the script needed a lot of work so we could put much of our resources there. Time is always a big one. We were under such pressure to start filming, otherwise we would lose the money. My advice is to always fight to make the best decisions you can on paper and negotiate ways to buy yourself more time. If there is no one waiting at the other end for the product – like a distributor – fight for as much time as you can.”
In spite of it all, both Luke and Gerard are immensely proud of the performances delivered by their actors.
“It just shows what these actors are capable of,” said Gerard. “We had a lot of rehearsals and usually between 7 and 12 takes and managed to get the best performances. I think film makers don’t always allow for multiple takes so that the actors can relax and really get into it.”
During question time, the panel was asked if distribution had been organised beforehand.
“No, not until we finished,” said Luke. “That was mainly because we didn’t know when the film would be completed. We wanted to make the best film we could so decided to take the time to do it right. We submitted a rough cut to SXSW … and when they asked for an updated cut we cancelled Christmas to get it done. We’ll have a distribution plan for our next film and having a track record now will make that process easier.”
When asked how they managed to come up with the extra money needed to complete the film, Luke said they couldn’t go back to the NZFC as that would have set an undesirable precedent for the funder.
“Our ‘in kind’ budget was crazy,” said Gerard. “The only way you can make the film is if everyone takes a massive pay cut. I’d say it’s $350,000 cash but $1.5 million in kind.”
Luke explained that films just can’t happen at such a low budget level unless people work for much less. “We shot in chunks and I told people that if they got a better offer, then take it and we’d cope.”
Gerard says one advantage of low budget is less interference and lowered risk. “The NZFC did keep the pressure on but they were not unreasonable.”
Both Gerard and Luke praised their production team, cast and crew for working within the constraints of low budget. “For example, our production designer never complained about the budget,” said Luke. “She’d go out and raid peoples’ rubbish bins.”
Gerard remembered a moment when he walked around one of the sets that had been constructed for a scene, in awe over what had been created by very talented people with such reduced resources. “I was walking around in it, thinking how great it was and it was a big moment because I thought, ‘this set needs a better story to go around it’ so I went home and rewrote the scene. Our production designers worked tirelessly and were freakishly talented. Much of the filming was done inside and I think the cinematography is amazing. We took alot of time to get it right and I’m so glad we did.”
And for the future? More movies, of course …
Gerard encouraged those who are thinking of making a genre movie to get onto it. “Do it. They track well, there’s a big audience for them. Lots of offers have been coming in since … and I have Peter Jackson’s email now …”
“We have our next film in development with the NZFC now,” said Luke, “and we’re hopeful it will be a far less laboured process.”
Written for Script to Screen by Jane Bissell