Recently in Cannes '08 Category
As I mentioned very briefly in my last post I am just back from Cannes.
My feelings about the place are pretty conflicted most of the time, but there is no doubt that it can be very inspiring.
It is not really suited to doing anything regarding short films but there is the Short Film Corner there where you can see literally thousands of shorts.
I recommend trying to see Love You More by Sam Taylor-Wood, a brilliant period piece but also something that really seems to echo the feelings I had as a teenager - if it's possible to go about exploration in a mopish fashion I guess that would sum it for me.
Also quite inspirational was a discussion between Jason Solomons (well worth listening to his Film Weekly podcast) and Mike Figgis. I found when I first started making films that it was greatly heartening to hear people you admire talk about problems you were experiencing and that you both came to the same solution or opinion completely independently. My feelings have changed a little since then.
I now feel a bit more confident that my own solutions to problems are just as valid as those of the people I admire and in fact it's probably better that they are different. I suppose that's just growing up but when you become aware of it as a maker of things, particularly in such a formal craft as filmmaking, there is a very real sense that you have made some kind of step.
That was what I took away from my time listening to Mike Figgis. I love a lot of his work and I loved listening to him speak. In the interview he spoke very much in anecdotal terms rather intellectual hypothesising, which can often become impenetrable and meaningless, but I didn't agree with everything he said. I don't know why that feels important at the moment but it does.
The long and the short of it is that I have come away from Cannes feeling that there are some slight but very important changes I need to make to our script. I'm not quite setting my stall out properly at the moment and that needs to be right.
If anyone would like to recommend some dark comedies please feel free to leave them in the comments. Cheers...
My feelings about the place are pretty conflicted most of the time, but there is no doubt that it can be very inspiring.
It is not really suited to doing anything regarding short films but there is the Short Film Corner there where you can see literally thousands of shorts.
I recommend trying to see Love You More by Sam Taylor-Wood, a brilliant period piece but also something that really seems to echo the feelings I had as a teenager - if it's possible to go about exploration in a mopish fashion I guess that would sum it for me.
Also quite inspirational was a discussion between Jason Solomons (well worth listening to his Film Weekly podcast) and Mike Figgis. I found when I first started making films that it was greatly heartening to hear people you admire talk about problems you were experiencing and that you both came to the same solution or opinion completely independently. My feelings have changed a little since then.
I now feel a bit more confident that my own solutions to problems are just as valid as those of the people I admire and in fact it's probably better that they are different. I suppose that's just growing up but when you become aware of it as a maker of things, particularly in such a formal craft as filmmaking, there is a very real sense that you have made some kind of step.
That was what I took away from my time listening to Mike Figgis. I love a lot of his work and I loved listening to him speak. In the interview he spoke very much in anecdotal terms rather intellectual hypothesising, which can often become impenetrable and meaningless, but I didn't agree with everything he said. I don't know why that feels important at the moment but it does.
The long and the short of it is that I have come away from Cannes feeling that there are some slight but very important changes I need to make to our script. I'm not quite setting my stall out properly at the moment and that needs to be right.
If anyone would like to recommend some dark comedies please feel free to leave them in the comments. Cheers...
