getting our priorities right

It’s an interesting process to be shortlisted for an Oscar. In Los Angeles the screenings went really well. People clapped and the Q&A; went on for some time with really great questions. At the end a small crowd gathered round to talk about the film. One woman proffered an A4 poster of the film and asked me to sign it. Then she held out a large headshot of me that she’d downloaded and printed on glossy paper. She wanted me to sign that as well. Oh so now I’m signing headshots of myself like I’m a star. Later I asked her why she would want my autograph. It’s what she does, she said. ‘Just in case’. Like an insurance policy – in case I get famous. I think that little incident is emblematic of the Oscar short-list palaver. Certainly it’s a distraction. A pleasant one to be sure. But it’s… Read More

Imagine This

Imagine this – our protagonists live in a mansion in the best part of London, in a four storey house that is so chock a block with paintings, books, theatre maquettes, sculpture, archaeologia and assorted bic a brac that there wasn’t enough room to open the legs of the tripod I humped all the way from NZ. This is not a small house by any maens. Next door sold for 7 million pounds last year, This is a street of rock stars, diplomats and high financiers – these are BIG houses. The house is jammed, there’s no room to breathe – by definition we have to be in our movie – I can’t frame Sumner out. But the filmmakers play only supporting roles if you like. So now that we’re in the movie, we’ve opted not to have any narration, but to accentuate the feeling of claustrophobia and read the… Read More

Enmity of Kin

On the surface This Way of Life and our new film currently in post Yolanda’s Last Portrait could not be more different.

This Way of Life was filmed in the wild open of backcountry New Zealand. Yolanda’s Last Portrait was captured inside the last unrenovated house in the posh St Johns Wood district of London.

But according to Georges Polti there are only thirty-six dramatic situations. As we edit our way into the heart of the story for Yolanda it is increasingly clear that we are stuck on number 13: Enmity of Kin. In This Way of Life Peter Karena has made his life in direct opposition to his malevolent father. He is everything his father is not.

In Yolanda’s Last Portrait, Yolanda and her brother Joseph have made their lives in the shadow of the cruelty of Freda* their long dead stepmother. Her selfish… Read More

A Trojan Horse of Blessings

A remarkable analysis of This Way of Life by Mary Trainor-Brigham (Shamanic Screenwritng) for her Deep Cinema series.

A Trojan Horse of Blessings

The iconic image of a ruggedly handsome man atop an equally impressive steed ~ rearing up between dappled grassland and dazzling sky, mane and tail lashing in all directions ~ tells us some essentials about THIS WAY OF LIFE, the sterling documentary it advertises.

It tells us, in a glance, that the man in question is capable and seasoned, outdoorsy and independent, the sort of man who can probably fish and hunt, read the land and weather, wrangle wild horses and build their corrals ~ living as best he can outside any deadening constraints of Western civilization. And all of this proves to be true.

What this image doesn’t disclose is that what we actually have here is an inverted and updated… Read More

Cardinal Sin

The editing room is like the confessional. There’s just nowhere to hide your mistakes, your conceit or your assumptions.

As we get down into the nitty gritty of editing Yolanda’s Last Portrait we’ve realised we are not making the film we set out to make. This revelation causes issues – for one it has exposed the flaws in our filmmaking. We committed the cardinal sin of assumption.

We thought we knew the story before we even switched on the camera and we carried that assumption through our filming and now it has come back to bite us.

But the beauty of true stories is how no matter how we try to manipulate to suit our own agendas the truth wants out. While the camera lies with every frame, it conversely also reveals the truth. It takes an editor as finely tuned as Cushla Dillon to allow that… Read More