Release your own film on DVD with this step-by-step guide that walks you through the most complex aspects of production and provides detailed information to create a DVD that will sell.   The book passes on insider information used by independent film pros, including   -Authoring high-quality DVDs comparable to major studio titles -Negotiating Distributor deals in your favour -Launching a gueri...

As the credits rolled, the audience sat in stunned silence as if they had lost the ability to speak or move. I felt as if I had been punched in my solar plexus, such was the impact of Marc Rothemund's chronicle of courage and quiet heroism, Sophie Scholl, The Final Days. For two hours we had followed a few days in the life of a young German student  who, in 1943,  distri...

It’s looking like a pretty quiet summer for blockbusters. Harry Potter has caused a stir but seems somehow slight, Transformers 2 has distinguished itself by being absolutely diabolical and Star Trek seems like ages ago. So, if you’re not fancying your local multiplex then Special Edition # 31 would seem to be the perfect option for all your film watching needs. Laurence Boyce leads...

The Guerilla Film Makers Handbook is the ulitimate guide to low-budget movie-making in the UK and around the world. It's a rich and vibrant mixture of no-nonsense technical guidance, inspirational case studies, hot tips, contracts, forms documents and even free filmmaking software.The Guerilla Film Makers Handbook, now in its THIRD major edition was written by Chris Jones and Genevieve Jolliffe...

Now available to buy on DVD, September remains one of the most affecting and beautiful British short films of the past few years. The film beat off stiff competition from the likes Sam Taylor Wood’s passionate and impressive Love You More to walk away with the 2009 BAFTA Award for Best Short Film (Live Action) to add to its numerous other awards and accolades. The film tells the story of Marv...

Laurence Boyce had just got back from enjoying the vodka in Krakow and sunning himself in Portugal and was ready to get back into business. And then his computer blew up. It’s always the way isn’t it? Thanks to friends, some technical nous and a lot of crossing his fingers, he’s managed to sort out the problems and is ready to bring Special Edition # 24 to the world. There are...

It’s the time of year when the summer blockbusters that filled the cinemas begin to fill the DVD shelves instead. In Special Edition # 27, Laurence Boyce looks at one of the biggest hits of the summer alongside some cinematic classics, some laughs and a few TV staples. I've also been watching films with a lot of porn in them, but as its work then it’s allowed. You know,...

It’s starting to become an interesting time to be a DVD fan. With an increasing number of movies being released on the format for a second time (watch out in the next column for a review of the upcoming ‘Definitive Edition’ of Fight Club which might gall the thousands who bought the already extra laden DVD only a – comparatively - scant few years ago) and talk of...

  Producer: Generic Pool Productions Wildlife films have long been family favourites on TV, but the smooth and easy presentation of the earth's fauna on the box belies the infinite patience and dedicated professionalism of the men and women who set out to capture it on film. This special interest video DVD gives us the inside story. And for those who feel they would enjoy th...

Taking Liberties, a documentary which explores the possible erosion of civil liberties under Tony Blair's government, supported by the UK Film Council P&A fund, is out to rent or buy on DVD on 15th October.  Director Chris Atkins has grand aims for the film:  "If there's one thing I've learnt from making this film, it is the understanding that politics is not about s...

There were no accidents. Nothing blew up. So, unless I spontaneously combust in the middle of writing this column, then it seems we can go ahead with Special Edition # 25. Yay. And, yes, we’re on number 25. Laurence Boyce would have got some mugs specially produced but who needs merchandise when – as always – there are a multitude of delightful DVDs for your perusal. T...

  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...

After a few columns in which Hollywood has been heavily featured, Special Edition # 39 focuses upon some great cinema from across the world (though with one or two releases from the US studios). Laurence Boyce will check out new releases and classics from Mexico, Czechoslovakia, Russia and Sweden whilst also dwelling upon remakes of classic TV shows and the usual mention of Doctor Who. For th...

From the striking opening credits, with a boy throwing eggs at the screen, you know that Mischief Night is going to live up to its name. It is both an irreverent look at life in a Leeds suburb, as well as an exploration of the effects of increased ethnic segregation. The setting of Beeston, Leeds – home of three of the July 7th bombers – also provided the backdrop to Pen...

Films, films and more films. And some TV shows. Yes, Special Edition# 34 has plenty of fun things for you this time around. It’s a good job the clocks went back or Laurence Boyce wouldn't know where to find the time…. It seems that all our directors have decided to have a laugh: after Mike Leigh decided to head down the comedy route in Happy-Go-Lucky and some would say that Guy Ritchie has be...

Paul Taylor takes a tragic story and makes an up-lifting, life-affirming, non-preachy film. We Are Together (Thina Simunye) has as its backdrop one of the most urgent (and shameful) issues of our time: the spread of HIV, Africa's 1.2 million AIDS orphans and the lack of access to life-saving anti-retroviral (ARV) drugs. That less than 17% of HIV sufferers have access to the drugs in ...

What is the difference between torture and punishment? According to Ridley Scott’s latest thriller, which casts a harshly critical eye on the spy game, it is simply the fact that one is efficient and the other is not. Set against the backdrop of the infamous “war on terror”, Body of Lies centres on the hardships of a CIA agent who heads to Jordan to track down a high-ranki...

Tim Burton has always had something of a schizophrenic career. On one hand he’s the eccentric visionary who works on the fringes of Hollywood with such films as the fabulous Edward Scissorhands and the commercially unsuccessful yet brilliantly twisted Mars Attacks. On the other hand he’s at the heart of the Hollywood machine, helming the merchandise monster that was Batman and ...

This book’s subtitle is The Power of Color in Visual Storytellling, but it’s also something of a tribute to the power of a good title. I would defy anyone to spot this in a bookshop and not have their curiosity aroused. Publisher: Focal Press ISBN: 0-240-80688-3 Published date: Current Country of origin: US Subject area: Colour in Film Design price: £24.99 Personally, I’ve know all about the...

"I'd like to finish with a word of warning. You may have started something. The British are coming." If that statement, made by Colin Welland during his 1981 Oscar acceptance speech for Chariots Of Fire, is true then the British have been taking their bloody time. More than 25 years on, it's only now that British cinema seems to be at the beginnings of resurgence that could ...

Back in March during the battle between The Hurt Locker and Avatar at the Oscars, much-loved political theorist Zizek waded in with a comparative review of the politics of the two films. His conclusion was that James Cameron's film had been the best attack on the military-industrial complex and US corporate hegemony. Kathryn Bigelow, on the other hand, he argued, legitimised the Iraqi invasio...

The Lives of Others, which won the Best Foreign Language Film at this year's Oscars, will be available to buy next Monday. The critically-acclaimed film, which was nominated in an unprecedented 11 Deutsche Filmpreis categories (German equivalent of the Oscars), is set in East Germany in 1984. It follows a member of the Stasi, the secret police force of the German Democratic Republic, ...

Laurence Boyce has a lot to catch up on as he’s been under water for the last couple of weeks. Nope, he’s not been on a fun diving holiday. He’s been in the city of Hull, which – for those of you who haven’t been following the news – has the kind of weather that would make Noah very happy. He wrings himself out and removes the damp from his DVD player to find...

  Reviewed by James MacGregor Publisher; Wildeye      ISBN 978-0-9541899-3-8 It has the elements of all good screen stories; the long slow build of anticipation, the tension, the frustrations and finally, the reveal. Yet the wildlife film is film art in a class all of its own, requiring painstaking research and endless patience, often in less than c...

  That is how Barbara - the chillingly unreliable narrator of Notes on a Scandal, played by the pitch-perfect Judi Dench, describes her first in-depth conversation with Sheba, the new girl - sorry, teacher - at school. Barbara quickly becomes her confidant, and records the minutiae of her and Sheba's life and conversations in a diary that will prove to be the undoing of both of the...