Founder @ HYPERREAL | WORK: Crafting brand stories. Positioning leaders to dominate their market | PLAY: Thought-provoking film, art, and literary work exhibited internationally
It doesn’t take £3m to make a first feature (as the heads at BBC Film and Film Four suggest) - and the idea it does makes it difficult for new voices to be heard. We spent (roughly) 1/30th of that budget to make Lapwing and had a UK cinema release and digital release across the US and Europe. If we had any more money it would have been spent on supporting our release which was the area most impacted by a lower budget. So yes, more money would have been great. But the idea it must cost millions to make a feature does not come from independent filmmakers - I can name multiple excellent films made for a fraction of that. So what are we optimising for? Better stories? More adventurous filmmakers? Developing talent? If we were doing that, we would make more, faster, and allow unique voices to develop in a space where risk and play is actually encouraged. I can tell you with certainty that Lapwing would never have happened if it needed £3m to get started and that would mean the talent involved would still be waiting for a chance to shoot something longer than a short. Show me someone with £3m to invest, and I’ll direct them to 10 exceptional projects that can be shot and still leave them with change. https://lnkd.in/edi-ybQD
