Not such a Cruel World for Vito Rocco with $2m feature funding
Vito Rocco's Goodbye Cruel World, produced by the UK arm of Partizan (music video whizzes and creators of The Science of Sleep and Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind), has won 60% of the vote in the MyMoviesMashup contest. Rocco will go on to direct his feature Faintheart with a £1m budget and guaranteed distribution. While not strictly an amateur, as MySpace sister paper The Times describes him, it's a cracking short film. I won't forgive myself for not getting an interview with Oscar and Palme D'Or winner Andrea Arnold while editing Shooting People's Wideshot magazine, but James did, thankfully, interview Rocco after I saw this film - supported by Film London and Screen East - win the Kodak Shorts audience award in 2003.
James MacGregor asks Vito - what's is on your list of Must Do's for filmmakers?
Try and have an original idea. Any idea is pretty difficult, but think
about what kind of film you would like to see. Try and tell a story
that's never been told, not one that you may have seen somewhere
before, unless you are going to do something completely different with
it. Short films work best when they are only talking about one
situation, you know, this famous inciting incident that most shorts
start with. That's your starting point. Then there's a dilemma the
characters have to solve, which is far easier and more effective if it
is a simple and personal dilemma. It can be quite ambitious or surreal,
quite a large situation - I used death, which is quite a big issue - or
falling in love, which is another one. But in terms of locations and
the number of scenes, keep it simple and get rid of the superfluous,
but make it funny as well. People want to be entertained It doesn't
have to be a comedy, but do try and do something that is going to move
you and not just to try and impress people. Filmmaking's not a fashion
show, it's about story telling and even with an experimental film, an
audience is always looking for a thread; a narrative of some sort,
maybe a graphic one, but it is always going to be a narrative of some
form.
Anything else?
Don't try and be too ambitious and don't overstretch the budget. And
don't also worry about the budget. You can make a film for nothing.
Don't ever give up. You get a lot of support from your crew, so you owe
it them to do the best job that you can. My final one would be don't
ever work with young children, old people or people from Norfolk! No,
that's not true - we had a fantastic time making Goodbye Cruel World.
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[finally - a shameless plug - their producer was rather nice about our funding book as well:
“When producing Vito Rocco’s short film Goodbye, Cruel World, the UK Film Finance Guide provided us with a comprehensive list of funding sources and support organisations, key competitive events for the completed film, and invaluable advice from those in the industry. The project was greenlit by Partizan after receiving funding offers from Film London and Screen East... Because of the film’s success at festivals I often receive emails from other filmmakers seeking advice about funding and promoting their projects and I tell them all to buy the UK Film Finance Guide.”
Iain Thomson, producer of Goodbye Cruel World, winner of MyMoviesMashup £1m prize.