Welcome to the 2nd Bulletin of the CWFN (Coventry and Warks Film Network Bulletin). News and events for filmmakers and the moving image. Released now every Friday.
Join our new online network at http://covwarksfn.ning.com/

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FREE FILMMAKING MASTERCLASS FROM GUERRILLA FILMMAKERS HANDBOOK AUTHOR CHRIS JONES

How to make a short film and get it to the OSCARS!
Date: Wed 10 Mar | Time: 6:30pm | Location: Coventry
Herbert Art Gallery, Jordan Well, CV1
by a man who did just that, CHRIS JONES is sent to Coventry's Herbert Art Gallery,
6:30pm Doors for 7pm start with drinks and networking till 10pm
FREE for everyone, please book in advance email Rachel to book your free place:
rachel.heath@coventry.gov.uk
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SHOOTING THIS WEEK- GOOD LUCK to MATT AND VINCE

Handle With Care – new 40k production!
Posted: 1 January 2010, by Matt & Vince
News Image
“Life isn’t fair, but your friends are there.” The tagline for ‘Handle With Care’, an action-packed half-hour featurette focusing on domestic abuse. In collaboration with Chatback, a group of Dudley-based foster kids and their carers, the film is a dark fairytale and heist movie rolled into one.

Written and directed in collaboration with the foster kids themselves, this film aims to shed light on issues affecting our region’s most vulnerable children in a positive, inspirational way.

The movie is to be shot over nine intense days at famous landmarks around Dudley, and the cast includes famous faces (Josie Laurence, Jay Sutherland) alongside the real kids and carers from the fostering community.

We’ll have to work pretty hard to match the creativity and charisma of the fantastic Chatback gang, so wish us luck!

NEW website checkout http://www.mattandvince.com/

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FILM TALKS AT WARWICK ARTS CENTRE
Film Talk: Sergio Leone

Once Upon A Time In Italy by Christopher Frayling

Sat 13 Feb 11am – 3.30pm

Cinema £7.50 (£5.50)

Christopher Frayling, biographer of Sergio Leone and leading authority on Italian Westerns, will explore the cultural background to the arrival of ‘Spaghettis’ in the mid-1960s, their significance, and their longer-term legacy. Also, why they are still dismissed by many as “not quite the real thing”?

With particular reference to the career of Sergio Leone, he will share his enthusiasm for these films, which were usually filmed in Italy (interiors) and southern Spain (locations), with casts that included Italians, Spaniards, Germans, Yugoslavians – and American stars either on their way up or on their way down. Were these films just a case of chilli con carnage or were they more than that…?


Film Talk: Michael Deeley
Bladerunners, Deerhunters and Blowing the Bloody Doors Off

Sat 13 Mar 11am - 3.30pm


Cinema £7.50 (£5.50)


Michael Deeley is an Oscar Winning movie producer with the Midas touch – many of his pictures have gained cult status and become the stuff of legend. He has worked with the World’s toughest moviemakers and lived to tell the tale.

Few would imagine that one man links The Deerhunter with Bladerunner, The Italian Job with Don’t Look Now or the original The Wicker Man. Deeley’s adventures in motion pictures span London in the Swinging Sixties, Hollywood in the seventies and the blockbusters of the 1980’s.

He will be talking about his career with co-author Matthew Field and there will be a complete screening of the Final Cut of Bladerunner.



Close Up – David Rose

My Journey Together
50 Years of screen fiction recalled

Cinema Admission Free

Wed 24 Feb 10.30am – 2.45pm
David Rose, the former Head of Drama at BBC Birmingham, will present extracts from half a century of television and cinema. David's showcase uses film clips and his own recollections to explain how 30 years ago he had managed to employ such people as Mike Leigh, Alan Bleasdale, Willy Russell, Neville Smith, Stephen Frears, Alan Clarke, David Rudkin and Peter Terson.

His career has taken him from being the first producer of Z Cars to initiating the brilliantly successful policy of making cinema feature films for Channel 4 in the 1980s.

The event includes a complete screening of one of David Rose’s most successful productions, My Beautiful Laundrette, directed by Stephen Frears.


Post screening Discussions

The continuing programme of Post Screening discussions is enhanced by an additional event following the screening of Food Inc on Thu 18 Feb at 6.30pm. The discussion will be lead byProfessor Elizabeth Dowler of the Department of sociology, Director of the Politics of Food and Contemporary Health Issue course.


Tickets are available from the Box Office 024 7652 4524

On line: www.warwickartscentre.co.uk


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OTHER NEWS

WARNER BROS PLANS £100 MILLION STUDIO COMPLEX FOR UK

US studio Warner Brothers wants to open a permanent UK production base at Leavesden in Hertfordshire. If it gets the necessary permissions, it will become the first Hollywood major to own a studio complex outside of the US. Warner Bros' proposed development is on the temporary studio site where a number of big budget films are made, most notably its Harry Potter franchise. A £100m development, it would involve two stages, a lot for outdoor shooting and a state-of-the-art post-production village. Although it is very early days, the hope is that the new site will bring new film work into the UK. Warners said the studio is "central to our plans to invest in the production community, to create local and industry employment opportunities, and to continue the legacy of exceptional British filmmaking at Leavesden and across the UK". Echoing developments at other major production hubs, Warner would also like to open the site to the public. Although numbers would be carefully-controlled, the plan would be to give people access to some iconic film sets. Before all that, Warners Bros needs to get planning permission from Three Rivers District Council and Watford Borough Council. Given that Pinewood-Shepperton recently had a planning application rejected, this is not a foregone conclusion. One difference, however, is that the Pinewood proposal also included a housing development

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CAMERA FOR SALE

I'm selling my trusty Sony DSR-PD150P, Before I put it on Ebay I thought I'd take this opportunity to offer to members of CTS. Details below:

Owned from new, direct from Sony.
Very good condition and boxed with all accessories as listed below.
Used almost exclusively with the highly recommended Century Optics 16:9 Anamorphic adaptor lens (for full-frame 16:9 performance).

Sony DSR-PD150P Camcorder (Serial No. ****013)
ECM-NV1 Microphone and Windshield
NP-F330 InfoLithium Li-ion battery
Mains Charger & Adapter
Lens Hood and Cap
Shoulder Strap
Optional Eyecup (large)
RMT-811 Remote control and 2x original Sony AA batteries
4MB Memorystick and containing original overlay graphics
Memory Stick Reader/Writer and Software
RCA Phono AV connecting cable
PictureGear Lite vers 4.1 Application Software for logo generation
Operating Intructions Manual
Original Box and packaging
Hours Meter Readings:
Operation 175 x 10H
Drum run 89 x 10H
Tape run 72 x 10H
Threading 291 x10

Serviced at:
11th May 2007
Few hours added since then.

Additional Items:
Century Optics 16:9 Anamorphic adaptor lens
Fitted "Antarctic" weather jacket - similar to the Portabrace version
Long arm microphone mounting for use with longer rifle mics, such as Rode NTG-3 or Sennheisser ME-66 or MK-416 etc.)
Sony NP-F960 High capacity InfoLithium Li-ion battery
Hanhel HL-MF981 (Sony NP-F960 copy) 5550mAh High capacity Li-ion battery
0.42x Fish Eye and Macro lens

Email me at dcjinks@fridgeproductions.co.uk if you're interested.



Any news/events/crew/opps please email Rich at: info@calltheshots.org.uk

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FILMMAKING NETWORKS
Date: Tues 16 Feb | Time: 7:00 PM | Location: Coventry
CALL THE SHOTS Film group meets every 3rd Tuesday of the month at the ICE Building,
FREE for the first 3 visits.
For a years membership
£20 full member waged £10 for associate and unwaged

CTS NEWS: SCRIPTS WANTED FOR 4 x 10 mins shorts. FREE equipment support and post production by Herbert Media
MUST JOIN AS A MEMBER OF CTS first. Scripts no longer than 10 pages for any genre, but will be judge on shoot-ability on a low to no budget basis.
NEW WEBSITE WILL BE LAUNCHED SOON

More details email: info@calltheshots.org.uk

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SCREENINGS / FESTIVALS

ROOTS to SHOOTS short film nights, screening student to pro level shorts all in one night. £5 Adults and £3,50 students. Screening every month at these venues in Cov and Warks:

Date: Thurs 26 Feb | Time: 7:00 PM | Location: Coventry
Roots to Shoots Coventry
Taylor Johns House
Canal Basin
CV1 4LN

Date: Thurs 04 Mar | Time: 7:00 PM | Location: Leamington Spa
Roots to Shoots Leam Spa
Royal Cinema
Spa Centre
Leam Spa
CV32 4HN

To submit your shorts a DVD screener is required in a 4x3 or 16x9 ratio
email: info@rootstoshoots.org for details
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6. BUY ME PLUG OF THE MONTH

Here's the CWFN amazon BUY ME PLUG of the month:
Chris Jones Everything you need to know about filmmaking, the Guerilla Film Makers Handbook.

Here's a calender of forthcomming screen events that are happening in Coventry and Warks in 2010. Please come back to it as I'll be updating it every week. If you have any events you want to promote then send me an email at rwood@leofricfilms.com .



You can also add this calender to your own (if you have a google account), just click the add google calender button. Coolio

Cov Filmmakers network has been going for a year now, but not much action in the way of blogging from my part. So its another attempt to keep this blog updated about film making news that matters to filmmakers in the area and also beyond. So let me know of any news and events in the film world and I can help spread the word or blog.

Ok first peace of news which is fabulous!

Next Tuesday (19th Jan) is the first meeting of Call The Shots film group at the ICE Building, Parkside Coventry. Where and what am I on about click here) .



Who are Call The Shots, well we're a group of like minded individuals young and pasionate old and wise, who all love filmmaking in its many forms. Our ethos is to learn by doing, there's no right or wrong way in making a film, just a load of experiences to master. We feel we have members who a know a few things when it comes to making a short film and are happy to pass on that experience all for the cost of membership.

We've been hiding for about 9 years now and realised we don't do much in the way of advertising and promotion. Its all change this year, now we're based in the City Centre and also have support from the Herbert Art Gallery and Museum (what culture in Cov! click here) who have kindly offered equipment support for us which is fantastic news. So free hire of state of the art equipment and support. Oh yes this is the year. How do you get hold of this equipment, well pop down to our meeting next week and find out.

Second peace of news is our website is almost redesigned thanks to the skills and patience of Wojtek Kotowski our and Duncan Woodhouse our new webmaster. Duncan also took this pic on the shoot of Brian Harleys The Moustache. Checkout his site here.




Also Brian (from Short Night Films) and I have been working closely on the site. Yes CTS will be alive once more and a huge thanks goes to Sam P who previously started the old website. Thanks Sam your a star, no we're moving once more in a healthy direction.

So the launch is eminent and I hope we can all get to use it for what its been developed for which is to show off your film making talent and help put film making on the map in Cov and Warwicks.

All are welcome to our meeting on the 19th Jan at 7pm ICE Building, then drinks afterwards down the pub (weather permitting).

Enjoy the snow!

Rich

"These sausages are mouldy" a small little gang member moans. Fagin reacts in an instant "DRINK YOUR GIN!!!" . My favourite movie moment from my new DVD collection (thanks to Zavvi going under). The best doc I have seen for a while must be 'Man on Wire'...just see it.


Hows the resolutions going? Well I have made a pact with my soul to Consider myself a scriptwriter and get some short film scripts written.
Yes I have written my first few pages for my own short film ' Scrubber'. It feels great, its about a cleaner who becomes a poet against all the odds. I must finish it soon. Only taken me 16 years to finally start writing my own short film. Yes I have been making and producing films for a while now (mainly community videos and promo work for the past 6). So my film schooling is finally over and the people I have met in this City are now turning into text.

So enough about me what about YOU? Are you a budding writer? Have you a load of weird and wonderful ideas? You watch a film / short and you can do better? Paul Hardy's ' A Screenwriters Guide to Inspiration is a great short guide in how not to write! (If you attend short film nights you may have caught it). I digress.

Even better still if your in the West Mids area then why not pop down to our film group or a screening eventCall The Shots monthly meet up.

Me, personally - am I qualified? No. Have I done any courses? No, none at all? But, to use an old cliche,' no-one can teach you life experience and I'm lucky enough to have lived a rather full one so far. I did read one book a while back Syd Field, this is great to understand structure and the traditional narrative structure. If you're feeling you have a creative block then the Artists Way (the Mrs is writing two novels thanks to the tasks in the book) is excellent.


We also have Coventry's own published scriptwriting guru John Costello . He runs (or used to run) courses at Warwick University. A lot of my colleagues have trained with him.


And one more thing: technically, scriptwriting software can cost just as much as editing packaging. I use this great piece of open source FREE software called Celtx. You can download for mac or pc.

If you're thinking of writing or want to know more, then get in touch and I'd be happy to point you in the right direction. And for me: Consider Myself a scriptwriter??... not yet, so DRINK YOUR GIN!!!

OK, whats my special plan for 2009, just a few projects I have in the pipeline I'd like to share with you.

1. Coventry Music Doc
Have you heard of this local band that made it big (a few years, try 3 decades ago).
If you haven't then you've not been inducted properly to Cov's Music Culture.
The Specials are back and I have been stalking them for a while (not really interviewed Horace, Nev and Lynval a while back).It was a moment that was never going to happen, but I'm pleased its happening around my big birthday of the 3 0 ! (although one key member Jerry Dammers).
I'll be finishing off the Coventry Music Documentary about post war music from this City to the present. Backed by the Herbert Media and Lotto money.
Anyone seen the new extension?

2. Scrubber Goes into Production
My short film 'Scrubber' will be shot this year, but more of that latter. I need to finish writing it first. This link my give you a clue as to what the projects about click here.


3. Call The Shots - Masterclass
Its be along time coming but plans are being made to run a series of masterclass workshops. Spielberg will be popping over (no harm in asking), Directors, DOP's , Editors and Producers will hopefully grace the concrete jungle and inspire us.
Also lot of screening events too. Rapid Eye Movement returns this Jan 20th, and Future Shorts will be back Feb 27th both at Warwick Arts Centre.
Anyone who wants to join Call The Shots film group then come along to our monthly meeting on Tues Jan 27th 7pm.

Let me know your plans and any projects, there's loads more going on, I'll be behind the scenes on a few other projects and developing new talent. One project I'm most looking forward to is this one, Blood Actually... and one more thing if you've got nothing planned for NYE then pop round our place for the Anti NYE Party...Sad Bastards Club!
Bonjour for 2009!

Happy New Years Rich X

P.s Phew! I didn't blab for too long did I?