BEAST with a BAFTA

In May last year I reviewed 'Beast', a film in the First Feature Competition of The London Film Festival 2017, written and directed by Michael Pearce and produced by Lauren Dark. I sang its praises loud and long. I was thrilled to see them go on to win at this years BAFTA award ceremony in the category of Outstanding Debut by a Writer/Director/Producer.

Michael Pearce decided at sixteen that he wanted to make films and has spent 20 years honing his skills to reach this stage in his career. Consider the monumental task of filmmaking.

You have an idea, you write it down, you write a script, you write and you re write, again and again and again. You plan the entire film out shot by shot, making storyboards. You find a location, you then need to obtain permission to film there. You need equipment, lights, cameras, costumes, make up. You need a crew, you need those fabulous mercurial beings known as actors. 

You will have none of these without funding, so get ready to sell yourself in the world of finance. There are individuals and companies out there who fund indie films but you need to convince them to fund yours. Prepare to speak confidently and credibly about your film, its style, the budget, the type of audience it is aimed at. There may be other ways of shaking down the money tree such as grants and crowdfunding but the same rules apply. You need to convince people that your film is a good investment and that despite being an absolute beginner you know what you're doing.

So far so good. You are passionate, driven, and have worked tirelessly to get your film made. It's a wrap, yes mate, you are a filmmaker. You throw a huge party and get drunk for days, maybe a week. Finally you emerge from your self induced haze of oblivion to face the dawn of your next challenge, getting your film seen.

You submit your film to every film festival under the sun, your film is selected and is considered worthy of a prize. You have earned some laurels, you now have kudos, you have credibility, but still your job is not yet done. Once the festivals are over you need to get your film out there and to do that you need a distributer.

I have seen many good films at festivals that never make it to cinema release because they fall at what is really the last hurdle. Fortunately 'Beast' cleared the last fence and did go on to secure a short release at selected cinemas, exposing it to a much wider audience. If you have yet to see this film you are missing a subtly enticing thriller.

It only remains for me to say that I truly admire anyone who can pull off the tremendous feat of filmmaking. The glitz and glamour of industry events like the BAFTA's belie the creative vision, hard work, talent and dogged determination needed to get films made. Now if only I could persuade someone they should pay me to watch films and write about them! 

© Theresa Collins