I am finding it harder and harder to be critical of films. 

Because I am a filmmaker who understood distribution I decided in 1998 to help other British & Irish filmmakers, who were unable to secure distribution for their films. Apart from Alex Gibney's ZERO DAYS, all I released were British & Irish films. 

This week someone discussing the films I have distributed, asked me why I had distributed xxxxx (it would be unfair to name the film). Admittedly it was not a great film, but I managed to place it in the cinema, on DVD and even sold it to TV. This person just tore it apart and was very cruel about the filmmakers who have never made another movie. The “critic” has never made a film nor attempted to make one, but they are very well paid within the film industry. 

No one sets out to make a film that is not as good as it should be. I have now released over 120 films in the UK & Ireland and only one, SANCTUARY has had 100% great reviews. That said I have never had a film that had all bad reviews. Most films tend to get mixed reviews. 

What one person thinks is a not very good film another sees merit in it. 

There are an awful lot of people in the film industry who are so censorious about other people’s films, and I do not mean film critics, but so many of these people have never even tried to make a film. They make a living within the film industry in some kind of supply or facilitation function that relies on others making films. They have never nor will ever produce, direct or write a film. 

Sometimes some of those films they watch may not be as good as they should be. 

However, if you are one of those people who make a very good living from films, but you do actually make films yourself, the next time you see ones of these not as good as they should be films please do not rubbish it behind that persons back. Think of the years of hard work that have gone into making that film, often working for very little or nothing at all, and please just give the makers the respect they deserve. 

People laugh at Ed Wood’s films. They laugh as if he was an idiot, in a way they once laughed at people in lunatic asylums. He had such enthusiasm and love for the films that he made and the people he worked with, and although the result was not what many would think great films he tried his best. For that reason, he deserves respect and admiration. He was a dreamer and what the world always needs are more dreamers. 

For many reasons, Ed Wood would get my vote for Patron Saint of filmmakers, for every filmmaker I ever met is Ed Wood but some of them got very lucky along the way. 

What is the difference between a star and a jobbing actor?

Luck.

Somewhere on the road to where they are they got that lucky break.

I know an actor who was cast in a TV series that made them into a star. 

That actor was cast in the TV series because they were seen in something else, a very obscure BBC production hidden in the schedules and only shown once. 

The writer of that something else told me that when casting that role it was down to two actors. He and the director just could not make up their minds and in the end, cast the actor who would become a star because they thought the character he would be playing would have the same hair colouring. 

Now if that is not luck I don't know what is. 

Few stars I have worked with ever admit this. Derek Jacobi did. He was well down the list for I CLAUDIUS, lots of other actors having turned it down and told me that if he had not been cast in that role he would today be just a jobbing actor. He said that was his lucky break. 

Derek is in my view one of the greatest stage actors I have ever seen but over the last 48 years, I have been in the industry some of the best stage actors I have seen or worked with really struggle to make a living because they never had that lucky break. Most theatre as those who perform in it know full well does not pay a decent wage, unless you are doing it 52 weeks of the year. 

Therefore please try to treat that actor who has just sent you their CV or comes up to at a networking event well and with respect, because they are a star, a very big star, waiting for that lucky break.

This is why my regular London networking events have more actors than directors, producers, writers, sales agents, film financiers, etc. They are all stars in the waiting. 

(Also I co-host them with the actor Toby Osmond). 

Is a cinema release worth it?

In the last 48 hours, I have had two detailed phone calls with good friends directors Piotr Szkopiak and Liam O Mochain about whether a cinema release is worth it for a small lowish budget film.

Increasingly more and more micro-budget to low budget British and Irish films are failing to have a cinema outing. Why?

With the exception of Alex Gibney’s ZERO DAYS, all I have released for the last 20 years are British & Irish films and usually ones that other distributors have turned down so I have learned a thing or two along the way that might be worth sharing. 

A film released theatrically will result in guaranteed reviews in an array of publications. Sometimes a straight to video/online release can bring some reviews but it is increasingly unlikely. 

For certain low budget films, my advice is to only ever release in the cinema in the country of origin. What some filmmakers seem to forget is that the losses from a cinema release are carried forward into other areas such as TV etc. I have released so many films where I have not returned any money to the sales agents/ filmmakers because of this. 

In the last 20 years when I have discussed with the filmmaker the option of forgoing the cinema because it would be better financially to go straight to other sectors, only one of them, Merlin Ward has opted for this route. I licensed his film to a broadcaster and once I had taken my commission his grateful investors had a decent return towards the recoupment of the budget.

That said my four most successful films in terms of ongoing TV sales Terry Ryans’ THE BRYLCREEM BOYS (4 different broadcasters), Ira Trattner’s TWO MEN WENT TO WAR (3 different broadcasters) and ADAM & PAUL (3 different broadcasters), Chris Jones and Genevieve Jolliffe’s URBAN GHOST STORY (3 different broadcasters) only achieved this because they were released in the cinema which resulted in good solid reviews. However the first two I have not been able to license to TV for well over 10 years. 

Many films that I could have sold straight to TV first have later failed to sell to TV due to poor reviews the then received when released in the cinema. A bird in the hand. 

Also, many films I have released in the cinema have never sold to a UK broadcaster even with fairly good reviews. Unlike say in France, a cinema release does not guarantee a TV sale. 

This is not because these films are not good it is simply because of the huge volume of films that are made every single year. Chris Jones says this figure could be as high as 15,000 per year. 

I would seriously doubt that any more than 2,500 of these make it to the UK and that includes all forms of online and TV (TV show now fewer and fewer films each year).

Therefore, any low budget film that manages one week in the UK cinema these days on 5 prints or more and results in a few good reviews really is a winner. 

However, for broadcasters such as Netflix, there is a greater value to them for films that have not been seen on the big screen but debut on their platform. 

Ask yourself this. You have £10 to see a film on Friday and only one day free. Do you see the $200 million film set in outer space with lots of people, you have heard of or the £250,000 set in Penge with no one you have heard of?

Sometimes straight to TV/ online is the better option. 

A dilemma which only the filmmaker can really answer. 

Times they are a changing. 

A cheery note on the eve of The London Screenings.

In the entertainment industry it is kind of never too late.

This tale is all that I love about being part of the entertainment industry.

After I do not know how many years as a carpet fitter, retiring at I assume 65-year-old, Ray Castleton decides to tread the boards. 

A bit Jess Oakroyd in THE GOOD COMPANIONS I hear you say. (What do you mean you have never read it)?

Now at the age of 70, he has not only written a very powerful four-hander theatre play, he has got off his arse instead of sitting around waiting for someone else to do something about it he has taken control. All very Norman Tebbit you might be thinking, but the subject matter is most definitely not Norman Thatcher Tebbit. 

Ray Castleton with no experience whatsoever has raised money from Peter and Paul and various arts funding bodies all by himself and booked theatre's, church hall's, town halls, arts centres, museums, social clubs, trade union institutions and colleges and given four actors well-paid work for two months staging this remarkable play.

I think all actors should try to produce. There is no better way to ensure you work, than to employ yourself. 

On top of this, it is actually an impressive, entertaining, thought-provoking, moving and wonderfully acted by four actors all of you filmmaker reading this should be checking out for any Northern films you are working on. So many times this kind of venture by someone new to showbiz is sadly not. AND Ray has also started acting. Not in this. He hands that over to Ray Ashcroft my temporary landlord, which is why I had skived off Sheffield Doc/Fest, to see his thesping once more. 

It should be on the Edinburgh Fringe. It should be playing in London. If only I knew more about this sort of theatre I could help. I shall have to put Ray in touch with Sarah Berger for she is to theatre what Chris Jones and Elliot Grove are to film. 

Ray Castleton in just 5 years is now a well-reviewed playwright and actor and also a very successful producer. How many other professionals offer such chances at such a late stage of a persons life?

What is even more extraordinary is that in the audience at the Theatre Royal York last night was a young woman Sophia Tamaro who came on my Meet The Experts panel last year at the London Screenwriters Festival and had cast Ray Castleton in her latest short film (we gave her great advice apparently Gary Phillips and was kind. Apparently, some of the others who attended found me scary) AND wait for this someone  Toby Osmond  who was at our last networking event of actors, crew, crafts people, film financiers, sales agents, distributors etc. I did think she looked familiar but she ignored one of the most important rules of our industry - tell people who you are and what you do and then remind them ALL THE TIME. 

    

It is as they say a small world.

Sometime the Best Film in not the best film

Given we have just finished the awards season so many people have asked me for my favourite British film of the year.

Off the top of my head, I will say PADDINGTON 2, GOD'S OWN COUNTRY or THE DEATH OF STALIN but this is not exactly true.

The Best British Film for me was IN ANOTHER LIFE.

Which one I hear you say.

It is a film that sadly has passed so many by, even by those who work in film.

When executive producer Alan McQueen showed it to me I was sorely tempted to take on this minor masterpiece for UK distribution. It is a very powerful film and one that in a just world would be seen in cinemas around the UK.

I spent almost 20 years only releasing British & Irish films and most were difficult films that all other companies had passed on. IN ANOTHER LIFE was in many ways suited for me and I liked everything about it. However, there is just one element that made it just too hard, even for me.

It was filmed in black & white.

Artistically this was the right decision but commercially it made it almost unsellable.

When I release a film in the cinema I know that it will not even come close to recouping its P&A let alone any kind of advance. The lucrative video/ DVD market is almost no more so it is left to TV and online sales (Netflix/ Amazon) to recoup. VOD is tiny.

The film buyer for a major UK broadcaster once said to me on a panel at the London Film Festival to name him one recent black and white film any broadcaster has bought recently. None of us on that panel or in the audience could come up with a film. Although he said that 17 years ago it still rings true today. Black & white is such a hard sell. The public just do not like watching them. Very occasionally once every 10 years or so one will break through. 

In a fair world, IN ANOTHER LIFE would be snapped up by every UK broadcaster because it is that good. These days small underfunded companies like mine just can no longer take the risk.

It should have been in the BAFTA shortlist but without a cinema release, it was not eligible. (It did win a BIFA).

There are now so many emerging filmmakers are making interesting and often brilliant films but in such a crowded market so many distributors, sales agents, broadcasters are looking for reasons not to take a film. Supply has grealty outstripped demand. 

Sometimes the Best Films really are not the best films.....in my view.

https://www.imdb.com/title/tt6809036/reference

Male actors still get the better deal

Yet another two examples of how male actors get the breaks that female actors don't.

In 1997 the National Theatre staged a highly successful stage production of Patrick Marber's play CLOSER.

The cast was -

Dan .... Clive Owen

Alice .... Liza Walker

Anna .... Sally Dexter

Larry .... Ciarán Hinds.

21 years on the two men work on first-rate productions - films, TV and stage work.

The very brilliant Liza Walker does not appear to have worked for some time. The equally good Sally Dexter is currently in EMMERDALE. Good TV soap as it is, it is not Hollywood.

Some years ago I released a micro-budget film UNDERSTANDING JANE.

The lead cast was -

Kevin McKidd ... Elliot

Amelia Curtis ... Dallas

John Simm ... Oz

Louisa Milwood-Haigh ...Popeye

15 years on the two men work on first-rate productions - films, TV and stage work.

The brilliant Louisa Milwood-Haigh does not appear to have worked for some time. The equally good Amelia Curtis has recently been in EMMERDALE, DOCTORS, CORONATION STREET. Good TV soaps as they are, they not Hollywood.

In both productions, the women we just as good as the men, in fact, I would say they had the edge over them…just.

My friend Sarah Berger, founder of the So & So Arts Club says women don’t get roles because the parts are just not written for women, especially once they get older.

This is true. Almost every production I seem to watch on stage, TV, and film has far more men than women.

Within the British TV arena though all the good producers and TV executives are women. 

So, why are all my actress friends, especially those over the age of 40 not getting better roles and more of them?

With major players like Netflix and Amazon entering the production, drama sector is going through an explosion of commissions. Ted Hope head of Amazon Studios told me in the summer of 2016 there were over 400 TV series in production from all the English-speaking broadcasters.  

I bet that the subscribers of both Netflix and Amazon Prime are pretty equal between men and women. If so do their algorithms show an equal demand for programming of interest to women as much as men or are women watching a lot programming aimed at men?

If women are interested in watching more stories about women, directed and written by women with the majority of the roles played by women then this should lead to an increase in more productions with more female characters than men?

Shouldn’t it?

I for one think it will change and for the better. 

Am I right or am I right? 

I made two films in the 1980's base on very famous books by women, Virginia Woolf's TO THE LIGHTHOUSE and Rosamond Lehmann's THE WEATHER IN THE STREETS but all the key important roles - producer, screenwriter, director, editor, DOP were all done by men. Not great. 

My advice for producers out there is to start developing more projects written and directed by women with more female actors to meet the upcoming demand.