Act of Grace...

[gepetto]

Film made in Liverpool last year....any takers?

Shame about James Mc Martin (or is it James Hughes McMartin/McMartin Hughes). He wrote Dead Man's Cards - don't know if anyone saw that here - I heard that James is now a heroin addict.

The pressures of filmaking before and after I suppose

George

 

[gepetto]

The writer/producer of Act of Grace was Alan Field..

 

[Cop]

Bar Stewards' Chris Finch and Ashley Hyland both appear in Dead Man Cards, Ashley was recommended to us by the director James Marquand.

She is pretty good.... as is Chris

 

[Booth]

That is a shame for James McMartin if it's true. He's a decent actor.

 

[johnmoordon]

Have you not seen 'dead mans cards' michael?

 

[Booth]

Yes and liked it a lot despite its flaws.

It's a very distinctive UK film.

 

[johnmoordon]

No thats 'dead mans shoes'. Dead mans cards is the usual scouse gangster shite, which is always badly acted, poorly written, and makes little sense.

 

[gepetto]

I saw that..

It was terrible. I mean it was great to see it made and realised as said..but the acting, plot and execution were woeful.

Andrew Schofield was great as usual...but would anyone really have wanted to protect that club anyway?..It was always empty.

George

 

[Booth]

From what I heard it was a struggle and a labour of love to get made. They made it for next to nothing and it appears to have worked as a calling card for James Marquand, who is a nice fellow.

I personally liked it for what it was. I thought it was trying to do something a bit different which is more than can be said about a lot of things over here.

Making a film for f*ck-all can be difficult chaps. More compromises have to be made than I suspect is usual. Chatting to James Marquand it sounds as if lessons were learned and they couldn't achieve what they wanted on occasion. But like I said as a calling card he's got a few irons in the fire as a result. He made it without the assistance of the UKFC and that in itself has to be commended in a country that tries its best to not make films. Infact the UKFC only makes the odd film now and again to justify themselves, and quickly bury the productions before anyone can see them. After all they don't want to tread on Hollywood's shoes, this is their territory now.

I'm finding this out with Bar Stewards, although I've always tried to take a leaf out of Rodriguez's book and turn a compromise into something creative.

I thought Dead Man's Shoes was over-rated to be honest. But that can be attributed to Empire Magazine trailing it as a hark back to the video nasty, which it wasn't. So I was expecting something a bit different. Considine was brilliant in it though as was Toby Kebble, and I did like it. Not a patch on Romeo Brass though. Considine's excellent in that too.

 

[johnmoordon]

I worked on 'dead mans cards' and it wasn't made cheap, it actually had a fairly decent budget. Yes and James is a nice chap, but i don't agree about the calling card thing, infact i think it goes against you. Its part of the same 'there's no money in it, but it'll look good on your showreal' philosophy. Given his other connections those 'irons' will always be in the fire. If you make a bad film with a decent or half decent budget then i don't think you get a second bite. If you have no money its a different story, or at least thats what ive found.

If Paddy Considine and Kebbell were brilliant, how can it be over-rated? Not because a lot of people liked it, i hope. i suppose when a film receives too much attention people turn against it. The old 'i thought res dogs was rubbish, i much prefered the french film 'la quinto quinto bonne' that it was based on', philosophy.

Don't be fooled by Rodriguez when i presume he was talking about El Mariachi. That film has millions thrown at it post production and he was connected beyond belief to money. I would be more proud of what you have achieved in reality rather than living in some sort of movie blair witch fantasy world.

 

[Booth]

If Paddy Considine and Kebbell were brilliant, how can it be over-rated?

It was rated highly and I didn't agree with that high rating I suppose. It's as simple as that. Romeo Brass on the other hand was pretty much the opposite.

I'm pretty sure you can have great performances in a film, and yet the film not be great itself. I thought DMS was alright and there were parts of the film which really took me out of the film, it's as simple as that really. Like what was a bunch of thugs doing driving a 2CV round the estate? Why didn't they try to shoot Paddy twice from the sunroof? They may have hit him a second time. He didn't look like an elephant, he looked like a bloke in a gas mask. The other thing was that I guessed that all was not what it seemed between Considine and the kid from early on in the film.

That said, I'm not a hater of the movie. I've met people who don't rate the film one bit, I've met people who think it's the dogs bollocks. I'm neither. The face-off with Considine and Gary Stretch was absolutely brilliant.

All power to Shane Meadows. The fellow has proved it can be done over here. But speaking to his producer Mark Herbert, those guys still struggle. Compromises are made, etc. And a large portion of Shane's success has to do with Stephen Woolley who championed him (back in 96 if my memory serves). He got his bit of luck I suppose.

Don't be fooled by Rodriguez when i presume he was talking about El Mariachi. That film has millions thrown at it post production and he was connected beyond belief to money. I would be more proud of what you have achieved in reality rather than living in some sort of movie blair witch fantasy world.

Really, that's interesting. I didn't have a clue he was connected to money. Before or after he got the deal with ICM and Columbia?

I've often wondered why exactly El Mariachi would need the rumoured millions thrown at it. Desperado had a $3.1 mil budget itself and that was a remake of it. It was shot on 16 which probably would have looked nice from the off. All it needed was a sound clean up and a tidy up. Hardly millions I wouldn't think.

Ps, I thought DMC was made for next to nothing. What was the budget? Any ideas?

 

[johnmoordon]

Yes but a films budget and what is invested in the promotion and advertising etc are slightly different. El Mariachi was rumoured to be made for $7000, which i'm sure is true(although who can quantify the value of the work done for free), when it was purchased by Colombia pictures(the US distrib rights) they spent millions on promo(and upgrading the print to 35mm). The origional piece was only meant for a mexican market as far as i know and then he had millions invested in him and the project and a three picture deal. I'm not taking away from what he did, infact i think everyone should do it and avoid 'funding agencies' at all costs, i'm just a little sick of the myth that surrounds it. The reality is always different, its the same with the blair witch story of how it was made for buttons. The reality is that they are both huge studio pictures and there is nothing like it in this country. So El Mariachi needed the money for people to see it, there are hundreds of films that are as good that have never seen the light of day in the UK or the US(or much of the west). I'm a big fan of Mexican and Japanese cinema and El Mariachi doesn't come close to many of them. It's just a tokenistic story 'forced' on us by big US studios. The point i make is that Robert Rodriguez would continue to make film regardless and that is whats important. I thought El Mariachi was very poor, but i can see why it was big given the modern day fairy tale element. Desperado on the other hand i loved.

As for the budget, if i remember correctly it was well over a million and one of the accountants said it was closer to 2.4, but who knows for sure.

 

[Booth]

As for the budget, if i remember correctly it was well over a million and one of the accountants said it was closer to 2.4, but who knows for sure.

Was that the budget of DMC or Mariachi John?

 

[johnmoordon]

Dead mans Cards..

 

[Booth]

Blimey that's a shocker

Bar Stewards this far, and yes I know we've been making it for a long time but... So far it's been £50,000... Pence.

 

[johnmoordon]

all credit to you...keep up the good work as i'm sure you will. You can search on the web for film budgets and even the 'official' budget for DMC was £500 000, but it was much more than that.

 

[gepetto]

Michael..

Good luck with Bar Stewards mate - really looking forward to seeing it when you're ready.

George

 

[Booth]

Thanks both of you that's much appreciated. Don't know exactly how much it's cost so far as we haven't added it up. Can't be much though. Even the equipment that I purchased for it has made it's money back from other work. I was going to say a few wigs and a prosthetic penis but even they were old props from Bad Lad.

Now that's recycling!

 

[johnmoordon]

Just had a look at the footage of bar stewards and it looks great....let us know of any screenings.