If you’re a documentary filmmaker and you fancy a quick shot at fame on Channel 4, there’s a new competition being launched next month with your name on it.

To celebrate the release of Guy Maddin’s My Winnipeg, Channel 4 are looking for UK filmmakers to make a three minute documentary about your home town.  The winning films will screen both on Channel 4 and at the Branchage Film Festival.  You could even win a holiday to Winnipeg!

The competition kicks off on the 1st July, check out the competition home page for more details, and to set yourself a reminder.

To get you in the mood, here’s the trailer for My Winnipeg.

Think I might have a go myself…

Image via Wikipedia

The new sci-fi moonbase film is now plotted out to my satisfaction (thanks to some useful feedback from Tom, who stopped me taking in a direction that it probably really didn’t want to go).  So now the writing begins.  I’m aiming at 90 pages, mainly to keep the story tight and the budget down.

I’m really on the buzz to get the film made – I’ve been working my way through a new book on Jean-Luc Godard called ‘Everything Is Cinema: The Working Life of Jean-Luc Godard‘ by Richard Brody, and a good read it is too.  It’s really got me inspired at the moment. I got the first part of the Jean-Luc Godard Collection for Fathers day (amazing how the kids knew what I wanted!) so I’m working my way through his films as I read the book.

I’d already watched ‘Pierrot Le Fou‘ and really enjoyed it.  I liked the way Godard messes with film and isn’t afraid to a) push it to extremes/break the rules and b) get deep and meaningful at times.  I also watched ‘Breathless‘ the other night.  Again, strangely enjoyable, though you do wonder at that stage of Godard’s career how much of the rule breaking (crossing the line, looking into camera, jump cutting etc) was as intentional as Brody makes out it was in his book.

You may recall from way back in the dim and distant past (well, the end of last year) I mentioned the little project that Sony and John Malkovich were running.

Well today the fruits of the project have gone live, and most intriguing they are too. A fascinating little animation, perplexing in it’s storytelling (what else would expect from Malkovich?). I don’t get it, but that’s why David Lynch is my favourite director. People like Malkovich and Lynch aren’t afraid to leave things unexplained, to let non-sequiturs hang. That’s where the magic of cinema lies, when we take it away with us and it takes on a life of its own in our heads after we’ve stepped out of the theatre. I think that’s when it really affects us.

Anyway, before I get too carried away here is the final animation – I think everyone who took part deserves a big pat on the back:

I like it. I wish I’d taken part now… In fact, watching it back again now I’ve just embedded in the page here, it reminds me a little of Neil Gaiman’s Coraline, which I’m really looking forward to seeing when it comes out.

Had seriously good idea for a film that I think I make on a reasonable budget.

It’s a sci-fi feature, not a million miles from Alien or Solaris. A classic monster in the house movie. It’s set on the moon, about 25 years from now.

Twas on the evening of last Bank Holiday Monday and I was reading on the Universe Today web site about how you can send your name to the moon (which I did) and **poof** the film just popped into my head, pretty much complete.

There it was, the Big Fish, in all it’s glory, jumped out of the river by itself and flapping about on the grassy bank, waiting for me to pick it up.

So since then I’ve been working the few contacts I have – with feelers heading into the set building dept at Shepperton for provisional set costings, along with chasing my friend Simon in Sheffield about doing the exteriors as CG and Daz for the music.

My initial plan, apart from to write the script, is to hopefully edit together a visual pitch and tout that about, see if I can attract some investment. I’m hoping I can use Simon’s exteriors and get Ben and Ken and perhaps Keith and John if they’re about to record some voiceovers, to give a sense of the vibe of the film. Daz is already working on the music…

So now I’m doing my research, been re-watching loads of Sci-fi films, 2001 (mind-numbingly good), Mission to Mars (mind-numbingly poo), Alien (glorious), BladeRunner (great, but I still don’t think it’s that good a story) and so on… plus I’m reading up loads on funding, which is fascinating stuff.

As serendipity would have it, I’d been wanting to find out some facts and figures about previous sci-fi efforts to get an idea of how well they do in the market, but hadn’t quite got round to it. I sat down this evening with half a mind to do something about it, glanced at todays Shooting People Screenwriters bulletin to see Andy had put a link up to The Numbers, which has told me everything I need to know, and then some. Cheer’s Andy (again)! (although side note to the designers of the numbers web site – sort out the look and feel – it’s awful!)

So there we go. I’m going to make a film. With a Red Camera. I have no money yet, but it’s out there, just got to get cracking and track it down. Anyone want to come along for the ride?

So, Script Frenzy and new babies definitely don’t mix. Ah well, perhaps next year.

On the upside, I’ve plotted the rewrite of the Trimes to death, so it’s ready and roaring, and the adaptation of the novel that I wrote for NaNoWriMo is starting to take shape as well.

I’m also just putting in my application for the Guiding Lights scheme, which would be very cool to be a part of (cheers to Andy Conway for pointing that gem of a scheme out).

Filling in the forms was hard work. They limit your answers to 100 or 50 words, so trying to justify why you think you qualify in such a small amount of words is challenging.

I like that though, makes you think – cut to the chase. I guess that’s why I like Twitter too. Short and sweet. In late, out early, that type of thing…

BTW, all you Ken Colley fans out there, if you saw the end of last week’s Holby Blue, you’ll know that Ken is making an appearance over the next few episodes, culminating in a climatic showdown with his son.

We went out for a drink with him a couple of days after he filmed said climactic ending and the poor guy could hardly move, he was a bit beat up by it all.

Hopefully it’ll be a good’n.