Give us yer money.

Go on…

For the duration of our fundraising campaign to date I’ve fancied that appeal up, down and left of centre in attempt to marshal a non-aggressive but determined approach in raising money for the production of our new short film, NEVADA, which I’m co-producing with Cinematographer David Liddell.

David and I have worked together across a few projects now, including short films, PARIS/SEXY (2010), BLOOD IS THICKER (2011) and BAROQUE (2011). The last we made on a budget of about £500 + titanic favours, and filmed in a rat-infested crypt with no running water, nor toilet facilities. BAM. You can see a wee teaser for this film HERE.

BLOOD IS THICKER (2011)

We’re not doing anything as noble as running for charity, nor are we producing a film that shines light on a politically overlooked topic for debate. But we are endeavoring wholeheartedly to make a film that will be both beautiful and meaningful and explore in a small way, what it means to be human. The value of which will be greater to some more than others. The impact of which, I hope, will reach even more.

NEVADA is a psychological portrait of two lovers, who fucking hate each other; who are well beyond breaking point, and who must separate.  Taking the story and image of Marilyn Monroe and Arthur Miller’s marriage as a springboard for content and style, NEVADA is a contemporary experimental study about humans and how exhausting hatred is, while also examining themes of identity and guilt.

PARIS/SEXY (2010)

The project has evolved from a small commission for award wining folk trio, LAU and will be made specifically for an arts festival, which the band are curating for Kings Place in October. Our film will premiere with live accompaniment by LAU during the same slot as KING CREOSOTE & JON HOPKINS – details of which are HERE. LAU have generously provided a budget for this venture but it’s tight. Our previous experience has taught us that creative options become more and more narrow the lower the financial threshold goes.  Although I took some persuading at first, we agreed it was worth considering crowd funding.

Putting yourself out there is rough. Exposing yourself when you’ve made a film is tough enough.

All independent filmmakers in Scotland know that the opportunities to get work made with financial support are incredibly limited. For a couple of years now, I’ve battled with two ways of thinking about my approach to getting films made. The artist in me wants to produce work, and thinks, fuck it – let’s make it happen. Write something worthy of everyone’s skills, get your Granny to cook soup and pay your crew with endless gratitude.

It is a way to go, and I’ve taken that road many times.

But there’s another side for the eternally emerging filmmaker like myself, which seeks to assert that we deserve support to make more work of the type, which has been proven to interest and engage viewers in the past. My ego seeks the endorsement of film financiers.

But punishing the world by denying them Paxtonworks while I’m hanging about waiting for validation, isn’t going to significantly starve the world’s movie-watching appetite…

And despite how pretentious it might sound, films like NEVADA are the ones I need to make. This project comprises a collection of things I care deeply about, themes that preoccupy me. Any artist worth their salt knows the feeling of needing to make certain work to exercise demons. And thankfully collaborators including David Liddell and our other hugely talented Heads of Department feel similarly, and want to create this piece with me.

BAROQUE (2011)

So there it is, once more into the breach old friends…

We’ve got the team in place. We’ve got the story and we’ve got the drive in droves. But we really, really need some more financial support. And it’s the support of good-willed strangers that we desperately need to entice…

So, why should you, kind stranger, give us yer money?

With just two-weeks left to go, we really need to PUSH the campaign. It’s the boring compulsory costs like insurance and travel expenses, which are really stretching our resources and sucking funds from our design and camera departments, which we so passionately want to keep healthy.

If everyone we were friends with on Facebook donated $10 (just over 6 quid) – we’d easily double our target. And it’s that kind of donation we’re seeking from multiples of ALL YA’LL.

We SO don’t want to patronise anyone considering giving – we won’t try and tempt you with a meaningless credit in exchange for cash. There are some quite cool ‘perks’ on offer with our campaign but the biggest reward David and I can offer is our gratitude, and while it might sound unexciting, it is huge and very real. And if you are brassic lint, you can still help us significantly, by spreading the word like runny jam via Facebook, Twitter and old-school word-of-mouth style.

And it goes without saying in the artist’s community it is the flow and exchange of favours and resources that enables the best work to emerge. If there’s anything we can do to help you – all you need to do is holler.

Thank you very, very much -
RUTH

For further encouragement, seek enlightenment on the following paths:
RUTH’S BLOG ABOUT MARILYN | DAVID’S BLOG ABOUT PHOTOGRAPHY
www.paxtonworks.com | www.davidliddell.com
@ruthpaxton | @davidliddelldop

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See more blogs by artists here.

“One of the most significant and challenging films of the post 9/11 era” is how I tweeted my reaction to The Oath. The winner of the Best Documentary at this year’s EIFF, it tells the story of two men.

The first is Abu Jandal, a former bodyguard for Osama Bin Laden who now works as a taxi driver in Yemen. The second is his brother-in-law Salim Hamdam, a driver for al-Qaeda who is locked up in Guantanamo Bay.

Through looking at the lives of these two men, the film explores many of the key issues following that most significant of days on September 11th 2001. It explores America’s changing attitude to torture and interrogation; the reaction of someone in Bin Laden’s inner circle to said event; and the differing views of a new generation of young Muslims to jihad, compared to that of the previous generation.

The film spends the majority of its time with Abu Jandal, who is a completely fascinating character. A charming individual with a wonderful animation to his speech and a captivating smile; he’s someone who seems impossible to pin down. Has he really given up on the idea of instigating violence against the West? If so, what made him do it: was it because his religious/political opinions changed, or out of commitment to his family and a need to be free? Is he so keen to appear on television to evangelise for his new set of beliefs or just because he enjoys the press?

Trying to figure him out for the length of this documentary had me completely captivated, as did the story of his brother-in-law. Someone who the US Senate had to invent a law for in 2006, in order to convict on terrorism charges. The story of Salim perfectly encapsulates the failure of the Bush administration to hold onto its most basic values of freedom and justice for all, in a time when those very values were being threatened by this new and dangerous enemy.

I don’t really want to reveal much more about The Oath and the story it tells since I want people to have the same dramatic experience I had watching it. When the film started and we met Abu Jandal for the first time in his taxi, I asked myself the question “Who is this man?” Ninety minutes later when the movie ended I left asking myself the same question. The journey in between asks a lot of questions of its Western viewer, forcing us to consider our own values and ask ourselves the same question: “Who are we?” or perhaps even “Who have we become?”

Monsters had its UK Premiere at this year’s Edinburgh International Film Festival where its director Gareth Edwards brought home the “Best New Director” Award. It tells the story of Kaulder and Sam who are in Mexico and want to return to America. The problem? Aliens have landed about six years earlier and their journey home forces them to go through “The Infected Zone”, where few people live now the monsters have taken over. You can read my full review of the movie here.

How many people were actually involved in making this movie?Well there were the two main actors who were in every scene, then I think about…another seven crew members. I actually counted at one point, we had more drivers than crew. So it gives you an idea how small a production it was.

What was the budget for the movie? I read Gareth got the money after winning a 48-hour film-making competition? How did the movie actually get made?

Yeah, Gareth won the sci-fi competition, then spoke to Vertigo and told them about his idea for Monsters, and how he could make it for next to nothing. They loved the idea and bankrolled it. I don’t know if you know much about Vertigo, but they normally get investors in to get movies made, so for them to just give Gareth the money was pretty good, especially since it was just this idea Gareth had had in his head for a while, and he hadn’t written a script or anything for the film.

As for the budget, you know if you read the right blog, they show how it could have been made for $15,000. I’m not sure on the exact figure, but what I think we had a shooting budget of around $500,000.

So when you started filming had you got a script?

No, just a plot outline. Well two actually. One was the basic plot points, the physical locations and so on they had to get to. The other was the emotional journey the two of them went on. When we meet Kaulder he’s quite difficult to like, but as the movie progresses he becomes someone we can really sympathise with. So Gareth had these two outlines and basically decided as filming went on how to mesh these two journeys together.

The actors didn’t have any lines or anything. We’d just drive along and Gareth would shout “Stop the car”. Then he’d tell the actors which scene this was supposed to be, how it fitted into the story and got them to ad lib the lines. He didn’t give them a great deal of direction in terms of that, most of what you see the actors made up. You know, the scene where Kaulder is drunk outside Sam’s room. Scoot just completely made that up himself. So yeah, they did a great job getting Gareth’s vision onto the screen.

And how did you manage to get all the other members of the cast to deliver their lines?

The majority of the extras were just people we’d met in the street. We’d just tell them a bit about the movie and then film their reactions to lines from the actors.

There’s a taxi driver in a scene at the start of the film- was she actually talking about aliens or something else?

Yeah, she was just talking about the hurricane that had hit recently [in real life]. So obviously we’ve edited it to make it seem like she’s talking about the monsters. There’s another scene round the campfire where the extra was just talking about his own experience seeing a UFO, and again we’ve made it look like he’s talking about the aliens in the film.

There’s also a scene when they get off the train, we actually filmed that backwards. Since in the film they knock on the door at night, but we started filming at the day, the member of our crew who spoke Spanish did a really great job of making that family comfortable and Whitney who plays Sam as well – since she really spoke Spanish. So between both of them, they steered conversation in the right direction so we had the right footage we needed to make that scene work.

It’s a very Mancunian outcome to that tale don’t you think?  Morrisey could have had a few b-sides from that one I reckon.

Whilst the technology in our living room and within our computers continue to shape the way we engage with narrative moving image in our homes, we are still drawn to the warming familiar glow of the cinema screen.  We consider going to the cinema a communal experience.  Although we may be absorbed within the narrative, we become aware of our fellow audience members through our laughter, jumping from our seats in unison, or from shared irritation at the chatty couple in row G.
There are other moments in cinema – not the jumps, not the laughs. Nor the epic establishing shots, or the final twist or unveiling – but moments in which an idea, an emotion, an event will be rendered so perfectly that it will extend and blossom outwith of its parent film.  With no audible clues – no gasps, giggles or snivels – we ride out these moments within ourselves, unaware of their effect upon those around us.  The opportunity to mull over these nugget like moments can often be lost in our discussion of the broader film on the journey home, particularly if the film disapointed.

So, at the end of this short, rambling post (I’m sorry but I find it far easier to express myself through film or animation) I have posted just a couple of movie moments that continue to transfix and inspire me in my own practice.  I do so in the sincere hope that you may wish to share some of your own favourite moments by posting in the comments thread.

For better or worse we are exposed to moving image from an early age and unconsciously we begin to learn some of the rules that govern its creation and presentation.
I have sometimes been fortunate enough to be asked to teach practical and critical moving image techniques to children.  To help the young people into a creative frame of mind I will often show them the opening sequences of a number of films.  As I often use films that are several decades old the students normal reaction is to moan and gripe that they are going to have to sit through 10 minutes without a hint of CGI.  Sometimes I’ll offend the class even further by introducing a foreign language with the subtitles turned off.  My mainstays are “Bad Day at Black Rock”, “To Kill a Mockingbird” or “Night of the Hunter”, and for a foreign film I will normally use “The Devil’s Backbone” a great example of the classic ghost story beautifully executed.
Using “Bad Day at Black Rock” as an example:
A train cuts through a western landscape to an overblown soundtrack.
The title appears in enormous letters across the cinemascope screen.
Me:         ”What’s going to happen in this film?”
Pupils:     “Well how do we know?  Nothing has happened yet?”
Me:         “Listen to the music.”
Pupils:     “Something bad is going to happen.”
“The train is out of control.”
“The train is bringing something or someone to Black Rock.”
Me:         ”Who do you think is on the train?”
Pupils:     “A murderer.”
“A bounty hunter.”
“A prisoner on the run.”
The train pulls into a dying desert town with a smattering of residents amongst the few houses.  The train hasn’t stopped here for many years.  A one armed man (an aged Spencer Tracy) disembarks and is immediately greeted with great suspicion from the locals he encounters.

Me:        “Who is the man and why are the towns people so distrustful of him?”
Pupils:    “He has a score to settle.”
“He’s the new Sheriff.”
“No. He’s just an old, one armed guy – what harm can he do to them?”
“He or the townspeople are hiding a secret.”
… and so on, until I turn it off to ask some more questions about the direction that the film might take and the choices the filmmaker made in establishing the mood.
I am not hailing “Bad Day at Black Rock” as the greatest film, but it and many other films are great ways of encouraging young people to develop an understanding of moving image literacy.
Whichever film I use the kids usually implore me to let them continue watching – not to escape having to do any work (motivating young people to take an active part in a class about film and filmmaking is thankfully not a concern), but from a genuine desire to see what happens next, to look around the corner, to walk to the next hill, to see what lies beyond.
On their own, channel flicking at home, chances are they would have continued past an old or foreign film.  Being able to share the experience with their classmates and encouraged to analyze the filmmakers’ choices they become invested in the story.  Connected to the one armed man, to Scout and Jem Finch, to the brother and sister fleeing Robert Mitchum, even to Santi the wronged boy haunting the orphanage in Del Toro’s tale.
To my great satisfaction and without fail, 5 or 6 of the kids (or their parents) will ask for details of the DVD so they can watch the film at home and share it amongst their classmates.  The communal experience of watching and discussing a short piece of cinema brings a class of disparate kids together.

And so, in the spirit of sharing, here’s just a couple of scenes that have captivated me over the years.
Have a peek at them and perhaps even seek out the originals, but be sure to post examples of cinematic moments that have connected with you in some way.  Be honest, this isn’t like spreading out all those novels by french authors around your bedroom to try and impress someone, but it is perhaps best to share clips from lesser known works.
Keep sharing and look out for one another’s footprints in the snow when you exit the theatre.

In the Soup – 1992 – Alexandre Rockwell
the Break-in scene
Self conscious screenwriter Aldolfo (Steve Buscemi) has written an unfilmable 500-page screenplay and is looking for a producer.  In steps Aldolfo’s “guardian angel”, Joe (Seymour Cassel at his best) a fast-talking shyster who promises to produce the film but has his own unique ideas regarding film financing.  In this scene Aldolfo finds himself unwittingly taking part in a break-in and the stage is set for an unexpected and heartbreaking confrontation with the elderly home owner.

The scene is established from about 2mins 20secs

Dreams – 1990 – Akira Kurasawa
the Fox Procession scene
A small boy witnesses the slow wedding procession of a fox, a sacred ceremony not meant for the eyes of man.

Night of the Hunter – 1955 – Charles Laughton
the River Boat scene.
Okay, forgive me for this far more well known clip, I’m sure many of you know and love this classic scene.
Reverend Harry Powell (Robert Mitchum), a serial killer and self-appointed preacher, relentlessly pursues the children of his dead cell mate in order to uncover a cache of stolen money.

Links:

My website.
http://www.fortsunlight.co.uk

The Art of the Title Sequence
http://www.artofthetitle.com/

Scottish Screen’s moving image education website – a great resource for parents and teachers.
http://www.movingimageeducation.org/