2017 Speakers
Red Lion Hotel – Basing Room
Katie McCullough 13:00 - 13:45
FILM FESTIVAL STRATEGY
Katie has over a decade of festival strategy experience handling shorts and features on the competitive worldwide circuit - she created Festival Formula to be able to help filmmakers navigate this process.
Festival Formula is a prominent presence on the industry, film festival, and education scene. We share our festival strategy insight and industry knowledge in the form of guest lectures, workshops and seminars.
Previous appearances include: Encounters Film Festival, BFI, YouTube Pro-Panel Series, FilmFest Dresden, Independent Cinema Office, East End Film Festival, Cork Film Festival, Aesthetica Short Film Festival, BFI Flare, Shooting People and LOCO industry events.
Manuel Puro 14:00 - 14:45
CASTING FOR SHORTS, FEATURES & BEYOND
Since beginning his career in 1995, working across film and television projects with directors including Guillermo del Toro, Richard Attenborough and Nic Roeg, Manuel has gone on to work with A-list clients including Hugh Grant, Rachel Weisz and Michael Caine.
In 2007 he founded Puro Casting, a full service casting company working across feature films, television, video games, commercials and music videos.
Manuel is regularly invited to host mentoring sessions with organisations such as the National Film and Television School, iFeatures, the Edinburgh Film Festival and the Directors Guild of Great Britain, and has held casting workshops all over the world.
Daniel Kemp 15:00 - 15:45
CONNECT. COLLABORATE. GROW.
Daniel is executive producer at Hiive, coming up with interesting ways to work with broadcasters, publishers and brands that result in exciting opportunities for Hiive members.
Hiive is a 100,000+ strong creative community that’s commissioning a range of film projects on behalf on broadcasters, publishers, brands and charities… as well as connecting its members with courses, jobs and knowledge.
Hiive is part of Creative Skillset, a not-for-profit tasked with developing screen-based industries, with a board of directors that includes the CEOs of Channel 4, Pinewood Studios, BBC Studios, Endemol Shine and Double Negative to name a few.
Learn how you can get involved
Matt Harlock & Steve Martin 16:00 - 16:45
Halflife Films
CROWDFUNDING HORROR STORIES
Insights from Matt on his journey with subject/collaborator Steve Martin (AKA Krent Able), making Ink, Cocks & Rock’n’Roll, placing it with Vice.com, and then using that exposure to raise nearly £30K on Kickstarter for their next short project, supernatural horror Deep Clean.
Award-winning director Matt's drama and documentary films have been screened widely at festivals and on TV.
In 2011, he completed directing and producing his first feature film, ‘American The Bill Hicks Story’, an animated documentary on the life of the legendary cult comedian. It was the 2nd most successful documentary released in UK cinemas in 2010, played over 40 international festivals, was Grierson-nominated and won several Best Documentary prizes (Dallas, Little Rock, Downtown LA, Biografilm Bologna). It is 6th on iTunes UK All-Time Bestsellers Docs chart and no.4 on Rotten Tomatoes Best Films of 2011.
Stewart Le Maréchal 17:00 - 17:45
FROM SHORTS TO FEATURES
Stewart Le Maréchal is a BAFTA winning producer and head of MetFilm Production.
He’s currently in post-production on SWIMMING WITH MEN directed by Oliver Parker and starring Rob Brydon.
Previous fiction producing credits include THE INFIDEL starring Omid Djalili; FRENCH FILM starring Hugh Bonneville and LITTLE ASHES starring Robert Pattinson.
Feature documentary credits as executive producer include Jerry Rothwell’s HOW TO CHANGE THE WORLD and SOUR GRAPES, Sarah Gavron’s VILLAGE AT THE END OF THE WORLD and Jeanie Finlay’s THE GREAT HIP HOP HOAX.
He produced Esther May Campbell’s short film, SEPTEMBER, which won the Best Short Film BAFTA.
Stewart will discuss his transition from short films to feature films and the lessons learnt along the way. The session will be open for questions.
The Willis Museum - Lecture Room
2017 Judges
Best Film Award
Mark Searby 12:45 - 13:15
AL PACINO: THE MOVIES BEHIND THE MAN
Author Mark Searby will be joining us to talk about the making of his new book AL PACINO: THE MOVIES BEHIND THE MAN.
Mark conducted over 50 original interviews with actors, directors, producers and writers, including the likes of Stephen Bauer (Scarface), Jerry Schatzberg (The Panic in Needle Park), Israel Horovitz (Author! Author!), Hugh Hudson (Revolution), Bruce Altman (Glengarry Glen Ross), Lowell Bergman (The Insider), Jay Mohr (S1m0ne), Cary Brokaw (Angels in America), Kris Marshall (The Merchant of Venice), Lawrence Grobel (Salome and Wilde Salome) and many more.
As a result he has more than a few incredible insights and stories to share of one of the greatest living film actors!
Be sure to check out Mark's book here.
Andrew Spooner 13:30 - 14:30
Pupeteer, Actor, Voice-over Artist
PUPPETRY IN FILM & TV
Andrew has worked on projects such as Muppet Treasure Island, Jim Henson’s Animal Show, The Hoobs,101 Dalmatians, Muppets Most Wanted and The Furchester Hotel as Furgus Fuzz. He also worked on a number of commercials for Jim Henson’s Creature Shop.
Andrew trained at the Guildford School of Acting and upon graduation attended a workshop at Jim Henson Creature Shop and has since performed puppet characters for the BBC, Channel 4, Sky and a number of independent production companies. His first puppeteering job was on Spitting Image in the mid 90’s.
So far in 2017 he has helped put together The Furchester Live (which is now running at Alton Towers), completed a viral campaign for Cheetos, started work on a new web series, was lead puppeteer on a music video for Cid Rim, completed shooting a proof of concept short Dead Air and continued prep as puppet coordinator for Gerry Anderson’s Firestorm.
Andrew will discuss the use of practical creature effects and puppetry in both TV and Film, drawing on Andrew's expertise as an actor and puppeteer in the Industry over the last 20+ years.
2017 Judges
Best Film
Diane Pearlman
Producer
Diane is an independent entertainment producer, studio executive and businesswoman with over 25 years experience in media creation and production. She currently serves as the Executive Director of the Berkshire Film and Media Collaborative, an non-profit dedicated to creating education, workforce and production opportunities in the film and media industry as an economic initiative for the western Massachusetts.
She is the producer of the award-winning short film, A Tree A Rock A Cloud, based on the short story by Carson McCullers. The film was adapted and directed by award-winning actor, Karen Allen and is currently on the international festival circuit. Diane is also producing a screen adaptation of Edith Wharton’s novel, Summer, written and directed by feature film art director and production designer, Carl Sprague.
In the 1990’s, Diane was Executive Producer and General Manager of Mass.Illusion, a visual effects movie studio located in Lenox, Massachusetts and Alameda, California. MI created effects for The Matrix (Academy Award 2000, Best Visual Effects), What Dreams May Come (Academy Award 1999, Best Visual Effects), Starship Troopers, Evita, Eraser, Die Hard with a Vengeance, Judge Dredd, and others.
Stewart Le Maréchal
Producer
Stewart Le Maréchal is a BAFTA winning producer and head of MetFilm Production.
He’s currently in post-production on SWIMMING WITH MEN directed by Oliver Parker and starring Rob Brydon.
Previous fiction producing credits include THE INFIDEL starring Omid Djalili; FRENCH FILM starring Hugh Bonneville and LITTLE ASHES starring Robert Pattinson. Feature documentary credits as executive producer include Jerry Rothwell’s HOW TO CHANGE THE WORLD and SOUR GRAPES, Sarah Gavron’s VILLAGE AT THE END OF THE WORLD and Jeanie Finlay’s THE GREAT HIP HOP HOAX.
He produced Esther May Campbell’s short film, SEPTEMBER, which won the Best Short Film BAFTA.
Stewart is from Basingstoke, so we are especially delighted to welcome him back to present our BEST FILM award at the Judges 6 screening.