Wow, somehow I am wake this morning despite being up late last night talking about the Film Festival Doctor to the lovely Janice from The Film Festival Radio show.
Besides being a lovely woman, Janice has created a very useful radio station as she lets her guests talk freely for up to 30 minutes. In addition, she doesn't tend to cover exclusively festivals since she has film makers, producers and stars from all over the world.
Its hard to beleive that this show haasn't gone more ma...
Well, The Film Festival Doctor has now moved its offices from Wales to London! I've been here now for 2 weeks and am loving the London life. I've now become immune to the sweaty armpits on the tube. I've also been doing the infamous crab dance on the tube when you have to move from one small space to the other!
Whilst reading this months Sight and Sound, my alarm bells started to ring when I saw an editorial discussing film festivals. Basicaly the article said that film festivalsare no...
Well, its been a manic few days (well weeks actually). I submitted my phd thesis yesterday and it felt very anti-climatic. It kind of felt like when the first cut of a film is finished; its not quite finished until the picture is locked and that final tweak/sound edit/picture grading has been made. That is exactly what it feels like regardinga PhD... Its in, but there's still another mountain to climb as I've got an exam to sit in a few months time (called a viva) which is typically scary ...
Gosh its all go here at Abertoir Headquarters today! I am delighted to announce that submissions for Wales’ National Horror Festival; The Abertoir Horror Festival are now open.
In addition, for the first time in Abertoir history, the festival will run for 6 days (as opposed to a miniscule 5) from the 8th-13th November 2011.
I'm the Acquisitions Manager for the Festival and the key thing which we are looking for are 'different' types of horrors which are professionally made ...
Hello All, Big a plug type of blog today, but would you like to see a proper scary film? Well I certainly would, since myself and Abertoir crave for good fresh horrors like this little gem all of the time. Click on the link below to legally download SUBCONSCIOUS -
http://www.distrifilm.net/apps/webstore/products/show/2178537
There you go, that might have been the worlds first plug-blog.
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Hello All, I have been away at the Berlinale Film Festival last week which was a very productive trip. The parties were fun and as a bonus its always great meeting new people and also new friends. Â
One thing which struck me was the film market. DVD distributors currently appear to be in no mans land when it comes to picking up titles since there is currently a dilemma regarding what they feel is most lucrative and profitable etc to distribute (if it doesn't have a star in it). ...
My apologies for the lack of blogs recently, it’s all happening here at Film Doc towers, as I’ve recently re-shaped my business, as I am now both a film festival & sales agent. I also have 2 other associates on board (paediatricians if you will!), John and Paul. In addition, the company has been renamed The Film Festival & Sales Doctor. Both companies are obviously different and work in separate sectors of the film industry; however they trade under the film festival and sales doct...
Happy New Year everyone! Onwards and upwards for 2011 as my colleague Paul would say! I hope you’re hangover has now officially gone, since it is Sunday 2nd Jan. My xmas was very pleasant; I eat healthy on Xmas day, didn’t over-indulge or watch any rubbish T.V. either (as I was playing on my new Dell laptop from Santa)! :D
As you all know, Xmas is the time when big blockbusters are released (this year we had Meet the Little Fockers or whatever its called, for example) plus, you a...
Well today is the day - its Xmas Eve. This is the day I like best, much more than I do Xmas day to be honest, as I love the build up - shops are manic and plus this is the day that I drive to my parents from Aberystwyth to Worcestershire which is lovely because no cars are on the road (since everyone rushed off on Thursday). It was not much fun coming back to 4 inches of snow though, since I hate snow with a passion, but it was good to get back and arrive into a warm house with a massive fire....
Well, I expect if you're reading this in the UK, then you're all snowed in right now. I hate this bloody weather, in Britain everything stops and grinds to a halt thanks to the friggin snow including planes, trains and automobiles (ohh there's a film title in there ;) ).Â
Anyway, I've been ill today with the most aching body known to man (which still hasn't shifted) but I'm not going to let it spoil my plans for this evening as I've got a few Xmas drinks to attend (in a cold pub nonethe...
Over the past few weeks, word on film street is that short films are dead; but is this true? Well, from my point of view, coming from a film festival angle, in all honesty I'm not sure. It might be a bit harsh to say that they are dead (they are certainly a lot less fashionable than what they were) yet I would argue that they are still important for a certain type of audience.
Who are shorts important for, or more specifically who watches short films? Whilst at the Encounters Film Fe...
One thing - well the only thing I guess - that this cold English weather is good for, is that I can read all about film festival gossip on my laptop in a warm toasty pub! However, whilst freezing my boobies off in -12 temperatures in my flat I was delighted to see that Paddy Constandine's directorial debut will be screening at Sundance in Jan next year. Here's hoping he does the UK proud, so fingers crossed everyone for glowing reviews from un-snobbish critics and hopefully even awards.
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My goodness its cold here - I feel like I'm in the North Pole. I personally hate this weather, in fact mid-Wales was the coldest place in the UK at the weekend; -17 on Saturday night...
Anyway, what this means though is that those old cinemas with no air con are nice and warm and whilst I was in Glasgow on business at the weekend I had some free time to chill and watch a film in one of these types of cinemas. I had the choice between Unstoppable and Machete. You'd probably think that...
Well, the riot that is the Abertoir Horror Festival has now finished - and what fun it was. In all honesty this has been the most stressful year for us to organise although this kind of made us all stronger as we were prepared, and knew how to react, if anything during the festival went wrong.
Overall it ran smoothly - the first day went without a hitch although we had a bit of a problem on Thursday when 2 of our Mystery Grindhouse Film event guests, Nico and Joe, couldn't make it to...
When it comes to the topic of 3D, I’m really not sure what to make of it - perhaps this is because it’s too early to make a judgement on it. I don’t love it and I don’t hate it. I didn’t enjoy Avatar but I did have fun watching the dire Pirana 3D. An upcoming cinema release of a 3D film never tends to excite me, however Iron Doors in 3D certainly has. We were originally going to screen it during Abertoir in 2D but director Stephen Manuel requested that we show it in 3D – which we...
The Abertoir Horror Festival is now only 2 days away and excitement has hit fever pitch here in Aberystwyth, Wales.
Sticking to the topic of film festivals - click on the link below to view a webchat between myself and Dr Karen OughtonÂ
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YWGT1iWjoQsÂ
Please feel free to rate it & leave comments.
Thank You :)Â
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I was in Edinburgh Fri-Sat for a flying visit (without flying actually as I travelled by train) and on the Friday evening I decided to take a few hours off from my laptop and go and see a film at a lovely soulless multiplex (this being cineworld).
Since I also work in the horror sector I had the choice between Paranormal Activity 2 and Saw 3D. I really wanted to see both as I was curious as to how Saw had used 3D technology and also how Paranormal Activity was starting to turn itself ...
There was a very interesting article on-line in The Guardian newspaper the other day which discussed how film festivals were changing the way that they presented films. The Branchage festival in Jersey was an exemplary example of a new breed of film festival emerging in the UK. During the festival at Branchage this year, they put on a drive-in show of Superman projected on to the side of a dam, screened a documentary about bee colony collapse in an agricultural polytunnel and on a bris...
I've had a productive afternoon re my phd and catching up with film festival gossip :), as you are probably aware the London Film Festival has been running for these past two weeks (a friend of mines short; Scent, was in competition during the festival too) there hasn't been many headlines in the way of controversy or anything, however Clio Barnard won best British newcomer for her film 'The Arbor'...
This is great news, but is it me or is anyone else starting to see a pattern o...
Yippee! It’s finally here! The Abertoir Horror Festival schedule that is – sounds like a terrible plug but please visit www.abertoir.co.uk to start getting excited and booking your train ticket to Aberystwyth for what is the riot of the year in a small, pretty seaside town. J It’s taken all four of us a long time to put this schedule together but we are very proud of our line up this year as we have some cracking films in store, as well as a few premieres, short films and great guests. I e...
As previously mentioned in my earlier blog, I explained that I had been busy with Abertoir stuff. One of the tasks I faced last week was to try and save this huge Zombie Diaries 2 event which was due to take place on the final day of the festival; November 14th. Loads of different things began to plague the shoot to which the film makers had no choice but to cancel the shoot.
We at Abertoir are all extremely disappointed by this, especially since its our 5th birthday this year and this...
Gosh what a few busy weeks I’ve had its been non-stop here in the ystwyth its only now that I have time to devote to a bit of blogging – and to be honest I’ve been missing typing away in my little ‘blog box’.
Today’s musing is nothing to do with festivals (although thats a lie as discuss the topic at the bottom of the page!) I’ve been thinking long and hard today about the power of the e-mail - the whole world appears to rely on e-mails for important things to happenÂ...
Good grief what a manic few days it has been here in Film Doctor world. Goodness knows how I managed to slip some PhD work in today during an otherwise manic day (had loads to sort out re Abertoir & film production shoot).
One thing which happened this week that actually made me stop what I was doing for 15 minutes (and just not do anything) was when I heard the tragic news about Sally Menke, Tarantino's long-term editor. That woman is by far the most amazing editor in the worl...
Well, I have finally seen ‘I’m Still Here’ and thought it was a great film – it’s a film not a documentary. It is by far a carefully edited and well-acted film much more than it is a documentary. I hear that a lot of people are bored now guessing whether it is a hoax or not (and I think I heard someone mention that Affleck has admitted that it is a hoax…) but either way its defiantley not a documentary.
What I found most interesting was the very beginning of the film, as i...
I’ve been doing a bit of phd work this morning and one of the areas I’ve been researching is on film authorship and I appear to have fallen in love with that word ‘auteur’ its such a rich, fresh word and very French (when you say it you kind of feel as if you live there).
When I first started researching this area, I used to think that the word applied only exclusively to film directors, but - to varying degrees – I’d argue that we are all actually authors whether we ar...
