Filmmaking has been something of a roller coaster ride for Anil Rao, but when you have received writs from Warner Bros because you made your own award-winning Batman movie (for £300 from the Prince's Trust), had your graduation film described by Total Film magazine as 'British Cinema being in good hands' and have worked with Luc Besson and hung out with Quentin Tarantino, you can probably take anything in your stride. This is the story of the rise and rise of Shooter Anil Rao and how he came to edit "Half Life" and gained access to a completely new career experience as an international film editor and film music composer to sharpen up his own film-making goals, picking up a lot of tips and new experiences on the way.

In an extensive interview with James MacGregor, Anil Rao gives an insider guide to editing world cinema features, not only bridging cultures from Europe to Asia, but also editing dialogue in Tagalog, the language of Filipinos, of which he had no prior knowledge. That didn't stop the film ALA VERDE ALA POBRE from sweeping the board of Oscar equivalents in Manila, including a best editor award for himself. Anil went on to edit further features for the acclaimed Manila-based artist, director and producer Briccio Santos, all gaining local and then European endorsement at Rome. And it all kicked off with a notice on Shooting People's Filmmakers bulletin.

As the Age of Stupid opens with a record-breaking simultaneous world premiere to a potential million viewers across 550 screens in over 60 countries over the next few days, a look back at James MacGregor's interview with Franny ahead of the UK release: It was over three years ago that James MacGregor first reported here that Franny Armstrong, director of the acclaimed McLibel, was looking to sell shares in her new climate change film. It seemed a long shot at the time, yet, through selling shares to hundreds of people, Armstrong and producer Lizzie Gillett raised over £450,000 - by far the most successful use of crowdsourced funding in the film industry to date (Greenwald/Gilliams' Iraq for Sale raised $287,000). From this beginning, through to a 'people's premiere' this Sunday across 64 cinemas in the UK - which makes it both potentially the world's largest ever film premiere (Guiness Book of Records on standby) and the first solar powered gala to grace Leicester Square - Armstrong and Gillett have redefined the boundaries of what is possible with a documentary that, in the words of Ken Livingstone "every single person in the country should be forcibly made to watch". Where An Inconvenient Truth focussed on facts and figures to build an indisputable case about global warming, the Age of Stupid, takes us to the human stories around the world that illustrate the impact, denial, and inadequate responses to climate change right now. There are repentent oil workers and a defiant budget airline entrepreneur. There's the incredible hostility from the Brits to windfarms (80% of applications get rejected because of reactionary local groups) and the fatherly figure of Pete Postlethwaite watching from the future, asking why we never did more when we still could. The format seems really well shaped for a YouTube era, lending itself easily to be broken into small segments under 10 mins; animations and mini-films which focus on different areas of the topic and hopefully after the film is released more fo these mini-films will be released online to spread the message further (and promote the full feature). They work well independently and together paint an ever stronger picture that the economic recovery must be used to res .....

Writer and producer Paul Abbott, one of Britain’s best and most successful screenwriters, is to become a regular contributor to movieScope magazine. Starting with the March/April 2008 edition, he will contribute a two-page article in the magazine’s CRAFT section, centred on writing for the screen. 

 

Legendary producer Verity Lambert died yesterday - one day before the 44^th anniversary of the airing of her first production on the 23^rd November 1963 - the BBC's iconic Doctor Who. Lambert cast William Hartnell in the title role and established the show's format which has endured to this very day - a centuries old alien wandering time and space with his companions in his Police Box-shaped TARDIS, having adventures in the past, present and future.

 

The director of the Scottish Gaelic film Seachd has called "foul" on BAFTA's decision not to put forward an official British entry film in the Best Foreign Language Film category at the Oscars, suggesting one member of the selection committee, a Scottish producer, may have had a commercial conflict of interest when sitting in judgment on their film, which was warmly received by press and public when it premiered at this year's Edinburgh International Film Festival.

 

Recognisably one of the best channels for recognising and promoting British indie film talent, the British Independent Film Awards (BIFA) are about to celebrate their 10^th year championing the best new indie films and the talents of those creating them, on both sides of the camera. On Wednesday 28 November 2007, the 10^th anniversary a special awards ceremony will be hosted by James Nesbitt, at the Roundhouse in London. Nominations and this year's jury will be announced on Tuesday 23 October at the Haymarket Hotel in central London.

Propeller TV, the national channel for new film and television talent is running a first in a series of unique and revealing master classes, supported by Skillset, to help and advise the region's new filmmaking and television talent.

"BAFTA toppers have been taken aback by the strength of Scottish protests. Privately, they admit that a London-based jury might not be the best way in future to make the U.K.'s Oscar choice, given that candidates typically come from the distant Celtic fringes, where languages other than English are still spoken." Adam Dawtrey, Variety

A film producer has resigned from the British Academy of Film and Television Arts because he said they will not put forward his Gaelic film for an Oscar. Edinburgh-born Christopher Young is angry that Seachd: The Inaccessible Pinnacle has not been nominated for the foreign language category.

He said the decision was "explicitly anti-Gaelic". 

Bafta said it had considered making a submission on three occasions and stood by its decision. In a statement, Bafta said it would only submit a film it considered "outstanding".

Seachd sees a young boy's life hijacked by his dying grandfather, leading the youngster to the Inaccessible Pinnacle. Sgurr Dearg - the red peak - is considered one of the most treacherous climbs on Skye . The film tells the story of a boy's quest for the truth behind his dying grandfather's "fearful stories". Scenes were shot on the Cuillin ridge on Skye.

 

 

Britain's latest and remotest filmfest in the Shetland Islands got off to a great start with a screening of BBC 4's drama Reichenbach Falls, a fast-moving drama made by a BBC Scotland team. The TV programme clearly proved that low budget does not exclude high production values - something known to indie filmmakers for a long time - but clearly the message is now getting through to TV drama bosses as well.

 

The BBC has joined forces with French film studio Pathe to co-produce a $50m (£24.8m) movie based on Rudyard Kipling's The Jungle Book. The film will be shot as live action and CGI techniques will be used to appear to make the animals in the story talk. Director is to be BBC natural history filmmaker John Downer, who filmed the Emmy-nominated drama documentary Pride. Michelle Fox will produce for John Downer Productions.