02/03/2009

After an intensive week-long directing workshop at the Berlin Film Festival, the chosen directors for the Advance Party II scheme (see news) have come up with the new rules for the initiative. They are:

1. Each film will be inspired by a location, a character and a secret supplied one of the other 8 filmmakers and assigned at random.
2. The film must contain no more than eight characters.
3. The backbone of the story must be filmed sequentially.
4. The film’s budget must be less than €1.5m.
5. The stories must make the audience laugh, make them cry and give them an uplifting ending.
6. The film, in some way, must end as it begins.
7. The script must be a maximum of 88 pages.
8. The film must be shot within an eight-mile radius.

Gillian Berrie, producer, Sigma Films, said, “Rule-making is mischievous, yes, but we all quickly realised that creating boundaries actually focuses rather than limits the creative process. And of course, it’s up to the individual filmmaker to transcend these boundaries, just as Andrea Arnold did, with the characters she was ‘given’ for Red Road [+see also:
trailer
film profile].”

Andrew Meehan, Irish Film Board Development Executive said, “If you identify the right talent, and encourage them to think creatively, and confidently, then you’re onto something. This initiative is being driven by the filmmakers themselves, which is so rarely the case.”

Tristan Orpen Lynch, producer, Subotica Films said, “In doing this workshop we’ve created a close community of directors who will support each other as they enter into the feature film-making arena. They have been allowed a unique opportunity to analyse the mechanics of film making and define a set of rules to impose on their films, which will be critical to their success.”