My Very Own Film - Please Support...

Production is moving along with my film, David Vaughan : Black On The Canvas, which I am producing with the guys from Donkey Stone Films.

We have launched a crowdfunding campaign on Indiegogo.com/vaughanthefilm to help raise the profile of the film & and build up a fund for music rights, trips to meet contributors, funding application fees and so on.

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Es

My cinematic adventure challenge

You know all about the Best Picture Nominees, and I in my mission watched them all. But the Oscars overlook so many films. The Kermodes addresses this from a critical standpoint, but what about those films which will be worth a watch but not critical darlings?

Here’s my pick of what you should watch instead of the overly publicised 10 Best Picture nominees:

127 Hours : Monsters – British director Gareth Edwards wrote, shot, directed and created the visual effects for this film about a journalist, tasked with accompanying his boss’s daughter to safety, sharing a precarious journey with his charge, where death could come at any second and normal life is both tantalisingly close and hopelessly distant.

Black Swan : Soulboy – Any film with Martin Compston is worth a ticket, this one has him dancing to a Northern Soul beat in 1970s Wigan.

The Fighter: Sons of Cuba – A moving documentary set in the legendary Havana Boxing Academy, a boarding school that hand picks 9-year-old boys, and turns them into the best boxers in the world.

Inception : Scott Pilgrim vs The World - Superb visual style cleverly meshing the lust of a dysfunctional teenager within a comic book/video game setting.

The Kids Are Alright : Abel – A young boy takes on paternal responsibilities when his father abandons the family. The kids may not be alright but they try to cope as best they can.

The King's Speech : Jackboots on Whitehall – An alternative British period piece in which Winston Churchill hides out in lawless Scotland, as an all-star cast voices an alternative animated history of WWII.

The Social Network: Catfish – The other Facebook Movie. Cynical and enlightening, this reminds you how little we really know our online “friends”, as a photographer whose ego is massaged gets embroiled with a mystery artist and her family.

Toy Story 3 : A Town Called Panic – A fun, frenetic Belgian animation, about a Cowboy and Indian’s surprise birthday plans for Horse, which backfire as they attempt to make a homemade gift, destroying their house in the process.

True Grit : The Last Rites of Ransom Pride – In 1910, a young woman tries to take the body of her murdered lover back home to Texas for burial ... with all guns blazing. Stylishly tipping its Stetson to the likes of Peckinpah, Leone and Tarantino, and featuring a genius cast.

Winter's Bone: Winter’s Bone – Watch it or watch it again. It was awesome and the least well known of the Best Picture Nominees. Great performances, I reckon Maddie Ross would concede that Ree has True Grit in hunting down her father to save her family whilst negotiating the underbelly of her rural community.

I hope these choices give you food for thought and much entertainment, once you’ve engaged this spirit of cinematic adventure – seek out the Foreign Language, Documentary & Short film nominees as they are probably all better than the majority of the big 10 and probably worked harder for their nominations (except Biutiful which I’m slightly reluctant to see).

Happy viewing!

Oscars 2011 predictions

• Best Picture. Toy Story 3 was the best of these IMHO, but I would be stunned if it won. Next for me was Winter's Bone. I still haven't seen True Grit (I'm watching it on sunday-very close to the wire!) but my 3 horses in this race are Inception (if Titantic can be LA Confidential this is possible), The Kings Speech and The Social Network. I'm going to go for The Kings Speech based on number of nominations although my heart thinks The Social Network may win.

• Actor in a Leading Role. Colin Firth for the win

• Actress in a Leading Role. Natalie Portman - the first of my "and the award for dedication to getting thin". A fantastic performance and a deserved win. Very glad Jennifer Lawrence was nominated.

• Actor in a Supporting Role: Christian Bale - the second of my "commitment to my craft" oscars. Has he ever won one? If not, again a career of fantastic acting finally rewarded.

• Actress in a Supporting Role: Always a toughie, I think Melissa Leo will edge it as the academy has had their eye on her for a while. Although the same could be said of Amy Adams. I always find this category torture to predict. (Well not last year, but usually). Right I'm going for Jacki Weaver because she's the character I'd be most terrified of meeting.

• Directing: I want Aranofsky, I think David Fincher will get it.

• Writing (Adapted Screenplay): The Social Network. There can and should be no other winner.

• Writing (Original Screenplay): Whilst Inception was truly orginal, The Kids Are Alright was very well written so that's my bet.

• Animated Feature Film: Toy Story 3. As I said, actually my Best Film of the year.

• Art Direction: Alice In Wonderland - although The Kings Speech set was designed by a Brit from the West Midlands so if she wins I'll be happy.

• Cinematography. Roger Deakins has been nominated 9 times without a win. It needs to be done.

• Costume Design. I hate betting against Sandy Powell, who I suspect has won every time she was nominated in the past, but the costumes for Alice In Wonderland were superb and so that's where my money is.

• Documentary (Feature): No clue. I think Restrepo will get it, but both Exit Through The Gift Shop and Inside Job are very popular which would be a more similar choice to last year's The Cove.

• Film Editing: The Social Network was a pretty amazing job.

• Foreign Language Film: I always like these more than the Best Film nominees so it's a bit Sophie's choice for me. I haven't been able to see them all but I didn't really care about Biuitful and whilst I love Susanne Bier (In a Better World) and loved Days of Glory by the director of Outside The Law, I think Incendies might take it.

• Makeup. The Wolfman. No clue, based purely on Rick Baker's form.

• Music (Original Score). Between The Social Network and The Kings Speech in my opinion. The Kings Speech.

• Music (Original Song). Randy Newman for Toy Story 3. That man knows how to torture the heartstrings.

• Sound Editing. Inception - because it will win well in technical categories

• Sound Mixing. The Social Network - I totally stole this one from Roger Ebert - he should know.

• Visual Effects. Inception. Folding Paris alone is an achievement and there were several more which made me watch this film twice.

I've only watched Day and Night so based on an online trailer of the shorts nominees.

• Documentary (short subject): Killing in the name.

• Short Film (Animated): Madagascar, carnet de voyage (Madagascar, a Journey Diary). I wanted to hunt this down to watch it based on the trailer.

• Short Film (Live Action): Na Wewe. This one looked like it had the potential to be a feature based on about 4 seconds of footage.

Job opportunities with Theatre Company, Manchester

Organised Chaos are looking for the following:

Film Maker
Marketing Officer
Events Officer

The closing date for applications is 5 March, 2011. Click here for more information.

Shorts whatever the weather...

I have begun my Oscars vieiwng campaign by looking up the 20 films on the best short film longlist so that I can watch as many as possible – rather than waiting for the shortlists to be announced. After all they aren’t long!

So far I’ve mainly found trailers although I have seen one nominated short already – and you will too if you watched Toy Story 3 in the UK.

If not the link is supplied below for anyone who wants to take a look. I've supllied trailer/clip/film links for anyone who wants to join me in appreciating what look like some excellent films.

Tonight the marvellous London Short Film Festival kicks off until 16th January, so if these whet your appetite you'll find plently to love there.

Live Action Shorts longlist

Ana’s Playground - webiste/trailer
The Confession - Clip
The Crush - trailer
God Of Love - The facebook page - still tracking down the trailer.
Little Children, Big Words (Sma Barn, Stora Ord) : Trailer
Na Wewe - website/trailer
Seeds of the Fall (Slitage) - trailer
The Six Dollar Fifty Man - trailer
Wish 143 - Not yet found
Shoe - Still hunting for a link

Animated Shorts
The Cow Who Wanted to Be A Hamburger - Filmmaker blog, no clip link yet but this is my favourite title so i included a still!
Coyote Falls - Still looking
Day & Night - Actual film!
The Gruffalo - It's been on the bbc, so hunting around iplayer
Let’s Pollute - trailer
The Lost Thing - clip

Madagascar, A Journey Diary (Madagascar, Carnet De Voyage) - The actual film
Sensology - The actual film
The Silence Beneath The Bark - The actual film
Urs - Clip

Resolutionary road!

Popularly considered a time when we set ourselves impossible goals I usually try and make January a time when I focus on one or two specific things I have been meaning to get round to.

One year I made a concerted effort to save money and eat more healthily by making sure I always took a packed lunch to work. It was a great year for pre-prepared soups, healthy noodle dishes and, okay, a lot of baked potatoes – but hey that’s definitely one I’ll pick up again and is much more fun than going to the gym as a way of staying healthy.

But my big 2 resolutions are to considerably reduce my lateness and to watch every film nominated for an Oscar this year. The first one is just purely because I am fed up of myself and I hope will have the knock on effect that if I will just get more done with my life. And the second is that if I am going to set myself a ridiculous goal and balance out the whole healthy eating kick – I feel I need to be grand, ambitious and sedentary! Also that one is done by March which is about as long as my attention span for resolutions is likely to last.

Watch this space for progress, here’s to a leaner, more punctual, more square eyed me.

Looking for creative people in Manchester looking to get together with others

Happy New Year!

This post on the Manchester Creative Industry group on LinkedIn caught my eye if anyone is interested.

If you have any of the following contacts/skills/ideas/premises/investors/SEO/Website designer Producer/Director/Cameraman/Graphics/Arts/Theatre and would like to get together with others to form an enterprise that will provide a service/s for Media City, let's start talking!

Either contact me and I'll pass on your interest or apply to join the group on LinkedIn directly and join the discussion.

Photographers and Filmmakers Call - Manchester

PapergirlMCR Papergirl Manchester

We need photographers and filmmakers to document the Papergirl Manchester ride. Get in touch papergirlmanchester@gmail.com

Kim Emson - Freelancers and Tax

I thought some of you new freelance creatives might appreciates Kim Emson's Blog on the daunting subject of bookkeeping.

Oh What A Night!

Abandon Normal Devices Festival hit Manchester at the weekend and I attended the extraordinary gallery opening at Cornerhouse, the astronaut’s chair at Cube gallery, but my unreserved delight was being part of the Peaches Christ Midnight Mass screening of All About Evil.

It was a night so controversial it angered the local librarian community – although they might have been in on it!

Not for the faint of heart or stomach (there was a lovely gift of returning food at the end of the night: whoever left it – please leave me off your Christmas list) it featured more fun and frolics than you can shake a sequined gown at and that was just the preshow! The film itself was hilarious, wonderfully acted and a true sensation. I haven’t been part of an audience that enjoyed itself that much...EVER!

So Team Peaches are off to Sitges so if you are lucky enough to catch the whole experience there or even better at the Victoria Theater in San Fransisco itself – check out the website for dates.

AND runs until Friday and the exhibitions until November (Phil Collins) and January (UnSpooling) so do yourself a favour and add some abnormality to your life!

Photos by the deliciously talented Neil Shearer, and the AND Digital team