Content is king

[Roberto Lequeux]

Sometimes I think the right tone is the only thing missing. I've seen many ideas that probably sounded like viral gold. A large part of those were clearly executed by talented crews. However, aside from the craftsmanship of the cinematography, sound design, score, grade, performance, set design, wardrobe, make-up, VFX, props, etc, etc, etc... there also has to be a gravity pulling all those individual works of art in a cohesive manner. That direction also has to be art in and of itself, or the talent of all goes to relative waste. The right tone needs to be discovered, and properly executed.

In my humble opinion all humans can appreciate art no matter the form; silent moving pictures, paintings, statues, music, architecture, etc. That's the nature of it, it does something to you. But for what we chose to do, there also needs to be that cohesion -- because we are in a team sport. It takes understanding of human motivation, and of the reality of our current society. It also takes removing the self from one's actions, to be able to create from the proper subjective objectivity that is fitting to the particular project. So it is a shame when we see talent diminished by too many hands in one plate, or the wrong captain at the helm. But the boat ride experience has only so much to do with the captain's decisions regarding the best route, because the passengers experience the ride from their plush living quarters and grand ball rooms created by the entire crew.

I'd take Messi's left foot over that guy.

Finally something everyone can agree with!

 

[Jeremy Torrie]

Absolutely the writing has to be at a level so we can attract the stars who will provide the audience with the incentive to go and see the film (and pay to do so).

We are in a very interesting exercise at the moment that speaks precisely to the challenges facing CDN filmmakers. Our project called Killing The Shaman has been in development for 4 years with the support of Telefilm Canada. They've invested into the low six figures to develop the package this far, which included story editor fees so we could bring on an award-winning writer (he won the Prix Francois Chalais at the 2010 Cannes Film Festival, and it's now the nomination by South Africa for Foreign Language Oscar) to help me with the last two drafts and current script polish.

We've worked really, really hard to get it to the point so Alliance (a major distributor of studio fare such as Harry Potter, Faster, etc.) is committing to worldwide distribution and pre-sell four territories. That means real and significant cash for an MG -a major coup for a CDN film (this also triggers equity investment from Telefilm).

They would not have done so without believing first in the script. It's a Native story with characters speaking their language...so they did their homework to see what has worked before (Dances With Wolves, Little Big Man, Atanarjuat, and to a lesser degree The Last Samurai) and provided creative input that would help them attract a major non-CDN director and Hollywood star who can open the film and have it go wide.

Alliance is not doing this for altruism, or because they feel guilty about the North American genocide of my ancestors (though that would be nice and make my job a bit easier). They're doing it solely because they believe the film will make money. They know who they can cast and they know how much our stars will be worth as far as additional territories.

Rob -your point is easier said than done...you have to remember Telefilm is an agency that reads thousands of scripts each year. They also have an extremely limited budget and through the selective envelope commit a maximum of $1.5 Million per film...which is very, very little believe it or not. And if a large part of Telefilm's annual operating budget is used to finance French language films, you can see how dire the situation gets for the few thousand independent filmmakers are vying for more realistically $300-500,000 being awarded to their projects.

Shaman is tracking at about $8 Million -that means Alliance is going to bat with our film and finding the rest of the money (not factoring in tax credits of about $2 Million) to get it made...this doesn't include their P&A commitment which will be either high six figures or low seven.

So, they have to feel very confident that ancillary media sales are going to make money for them...they're a company with shareholders and must generate dividends.

Would Telefilm love to find and fund the next Primer? Of course they would, but those scripts and filmmakers have yet to be discovered by Telefilm, who are absolutely overworked and underpaid.

The crazy thing is I have had to compete against my fellow filmmakers to get the attention and papered commitment of such a major distributor. Will we be a success? I will certainly be letting everyone know here how it goes.