Four British-Based Artists Share More Than $200,000 For Moving-Image Projects

LONDON -- Four new moving-image projects from London-based artists will take a share of more than $200,000 (£135,000) from Film London's Artists' Moving Image Network (FLAMIN).

The British capital's movie agency has picked Mark Leckey, Simon Martin, Gail Pickering and Grace Schwindt to benefit from commissions via FLAMIN Productions, which provides artists with the opportunity to produce “ambitious and original moving image works."

FLAMIN is supported by the Arts Council England and dedicated to funding large-scale, single-screen works which represent "a significant step forward in an artist’s practice."

STORY: Mayor of London Pumps $3 Million into Film London Agency

To date the program has produced a range of pieces, including Ben Rivers’ feature-length project Two Years at Sea, which was released theatrically and acquired by Channel 4, Elizabeth Price’s West Hinder, which was part of an exhibition for which she won the Turner Prize in 2012, and Hilary Koob-Sassen’s Transcalar Investment Vehicles, which won the European Media Arts Festival Award in 2012.

Among this round of recipients is Leckey, who won the Turner Prize in 2008 and whose work has recently been exhibited at this year’s Venice Biennale.

His project On Pleasures Bent has been greenlighted by FLAMIN.

STORY: Film London Creates Department for Artists Looking to Make Movies

Martin, whose recent work was featured in solo shows in London, New York, Toronto and Amsterdam will make UR Feeling.

Pickering, who has exhibited her recent moving-image work across the U.K. and Europe, will mount a project named Dirty Pictures Mirror Speech.

And Schwindt, whose recent work was featured in solo shows in various cities including New York, Edinburgh and London, will make Only a Free Individual Can Create a Free Society.

Film London and the British Film Commission CEO Adrian Wootton said, "Central to Film London’s strategy is to ensure we continue to discover and nurture London’s filmmaking talent. Through FLAMIN, with crucial funding from Arts Council England, we support artist filmmakers to develop and produce interesting works which also progresses them in their careers."

Four British-Based Artists Share More Than $200,000 For Moving-Image Projects

LONDON -- Four new moving-image projects from London-based artists will take a share of more than $200,000 (£135,000) from Film London's Artists' Moving Image Network (FLAMIN).

The British capital's movie agency has picked Mark Leckey, Simon Martin, Gail Pickering and Grace Schwindt to benefit from commissions via FLAMIN Productions, which provides artists with the opportunity to produce “ambitious and original moving image works."

FLAMIN is supported by the Arts Council England and dedicated to funding large-scale, single-screen works which represent "a significant step forward in an artist’s practice."

STORY: Mayor of London Pumps $3 Million into Film London Agency

To date the program has produced a range of pieces, including Ben Rivers’ movie-length project Two Years at Sea, which was released theatrically and acquired by Channel 4 and Elizabeth Price’s West Hinder, which was part of an exhibition for which she won the Turner Prize in 2012, and Hilary Koob-Sassen’s Transcalar Investment Vehicles, which won the European Media Arts Festival Award in 2012.

Among this round of recipients is Leckey, who won the Turner Prize in 2008 and whose work has recently been exhibited at this year’s Venice Biennale.

His project On Pleasures Bent has been greenlit by FLAMIN.

STORY: Film London Creates Department for Artists Looking to Make Movies

Martin, whose recent work was featured in solo shows in London, New York, Toronto and Amsterdam will make UR Feeling.

Pickering, who has exhibited her recent moving image work across the U.K. and Europe, will mount a project named Dirty Pictures Mirror Speech.

And Schwindt, whose recent work was featured in solo shows in various cities including New York, Edinburgh and London, will make Only a Free Individual Can Create a Free Society.

Film London and the British Film Commission CEO Adrian Wootton said, "Central to Film London’s strategy is to ensure we continue to discover and nurture London’s film-making talent. Through FLAMIN, with crucial funding from Arts Council England, we support artist film-makers to develop and produce interesting works which also progresses them in their careers."

Study: Management blocking IT projects due to rampant "fear"

There are lots of things in this world to be afraid of. Spiders. Terrorists. Clowns.

 

Now it seems you can add IT projects to that list. Online storage provider Mozy recently released results from a study which note that 55 percent of IT managers complain that the companies they work for "perceive the adoption of technology as a risk" and that 57 percent of company executives are "fearful of new technology implementations."

 

37 percent of respondents to the survey said that IT projects had been axed or blocked due to this fear.

 

Fear? Fear of what, exactly?

Mozy

Fear in the workplace is a topic that is far more complex than a simple phobia involving snakes or walking under ladders. At the office, workers have a veritable minefield to navigate. According to the study, they worry over just about everything: accidentally sending an email to the wrong recipient (25 percent), being on the mark during presentations (15 percent), and even clicking on an "inappropriate link" during Internet searches on the job (21 percent).

 

Some workers really end up in the weeds. 13 percent worry about accidentally setting off the alarm in the office, 8 percent are afraid of the coffee machine, and another 8 percent believe that the office photocopier is "plotting against them."

 

That's a lot to be afraid of, but it doesn't really touch on the biggest fear of all: Getting fired.

 

The fear of losing your job is not an irrational one in today's market — although 23 percent of workers say they are "always" thinking that they are about to get fired — considering how stillborn the national economic recovery has been, particularly in the arena of employment.

 

For IT workers, that fear expresses itself in a different, more subtle way. IT projects are undertaken based on the promise that they will make a company more competitive, more productive, or more profitable, but as many IT managers know, calculating a legitimate ROI can be elusive. Business managers, in turn afraid of losing their own jobs should a project they approved ultimately fail, keep their cards close to the vest. Unless a project can be proven to be absolutely vital to the ongoing existence of the company, management is likely to simply say no.

 

Of course, those fears also have a flipside. If a tech project fails it could bring the company down… but if it succeeds, it could isntead make the manager that approved it irrelevant and cost him his job in a different way. It isn't hard to see how, for many, approving a tech project really is a no-win situation.

Mozy

Coping With Fear

 

IT managers are slowly learning how to overcome these fears and push their projects through, and Mozy Senior Director Gytis Barzdukas has identified a number of ways that IT managers can help this process. To wit:

For starters, consider the buzzwords you use. Certain terms and phrases go in and out of fashion, often with alarming speed. Today's best buzzwords: Cloud, collaboration, on demand, and virtualization. Bad buzzwords: Gamification and …as a service. (The fact that "cloud," "on demand," and "as a service" mean functionally the same thing should not be lost on the reader.) While both terms are positive, "cloud" is currently a far better choice than "on demand."Drive from the bottom up: Get employees to suggest technologies that the companies need and encourage their adoption, then build proposals around them.Start small: Pilot programs keep risks — and the level of fear — to a minimum.It's all about the money: Any tangible financial benefits should be placed front and center in any project proposal.

Highlights from the study can be found at the above link. The full report, Mozy says, will be released in the next few days.

 

 

Screen Australia Commits $13.7 Million to Film, TV Projects

Screen Australia has approved $13.71 million (AUS$15.5 million) in funding for three new feature films and five adult TV drama series, one telemovie and three children’s series, the national film agency announced Wednesday, marking a return to direct investment after a six-month hiatus after it had committed all its annual direct funding for projects in those genres by February.

The agency said the funding will trigger nearly $74.3 million worth of production

Feature films given the greenlight by the agency include writer/director/producer Robert Connolly’s kids-focused feature, Paper Planes; Ruin, a low-budget drama set in Cambodia from Amiel Courtin-Wilson and Michael Cody and emerging director Ariel Kleiman’s arthouse drama Partisan.

PHOTOS: 'Wrath of the Titans' Stars Sam Worthington, Liam Neeson Step Out for New York Premiere

Screen Australia chief executive Ruth Harley said, “It’s great to support a feature film for child audiences from such an experienced director as Robert -- exciting new distinctive films from rising Australian talents.”

Paper Planes is about a young boy from a small outback town who dreams of competing in the World Paper Plane Championships in Japan. The writers are Connolly and Steve Worland, producers are Maggie Miles and Liz Kearney. Connolly and John Maynard’s company Footprint Films will distribute the film in Australia and Arclight will handle international sales. The film will shoot in Western Australia later this year.

Ruin, a fable of violence and love in modern-day Cambodia has been written, directed and is being produced by Courtin-Wilson and Cody, who collaborated on Hail. XYZ is handling international sales and Madman Entertainment will distribute in Australia.

Partisan, a confronting tale about a vengeful man raising his children to attack the world that wronged him, is the debut feature from Ariel Kleiman and will star Oscar Isaac, who was recently seen in the Coen Brothers’ Inside Llewyn Davis.

STORY: Sam Worthington Arrested in Atlanta for Disorderly Conduct

Penned by Kleiman and Sarah Cyngler, Partisan is being produced by Anna McLeish and Sarah Shaw at Warp Films Australia. Madman Entertainment has signed on as local distributor and Protagonist Pictures is handling international sales.

TV dramas receiving direct funding include the previously announced The Gallipoli Story, a four-part mini-series produced for Foxtel, being produced by Matchbox Pictures and Sam Worthington’s FullClip Productions, about three journalists sent with Australian and British troops to Gallipoli in 1915, and how their quest for the truth helped change the war’s course. The mini-series is produced by Penny Chapman, John Schwartz and Jacquelin Perske and is written by Perske, Shaun Grant, Cate Shortland and Stuart Beattie. Worthington, Penny Win, Michael McMahon, Michael Schwarz and Luca Scalisi are executive producers on the project.

An eight-part series for Network Nine, Love Child, is a character drama set in 1969 in Kings Cross. The series is produced by Playmaker Media’s David Maher, David Taylor, Sarah Lambert and Sue Seeary, written by Tim Pye, Liz Doran and Sarah Lambert and will be directed by Shawn Seet, Shirley Barrett, Geoff Bennett and Ian Barry.

Southern Stars’ John Edwards and Imogen Banks meanwhile will produce Party Tricks, s a new six-part series for Network Ten written by Michael Lucas, about a woman’s campaign to be the next State Premier and the complications that arise when her ex-lover is announced as the new leader of the opposition.

The Seven Network meanwhile has commissioned a telemovie from Screentime based on the true story of the investigation that led to the arrest of serial killer Ivan Milat, Catching Milat, while the ABC will air eight part series, Anzac Girls and SBS cult comedy series Danger 5 will receive investment for a second season

Children’s TV drama investments include series two of the 26-part live-action adventure In Your Dreams, produced for the Seven Network by Noel Price; a mockumentary children’s comedy series about what happens at snack time in the primary school playground, Little Lunch, produced and written by Robyn Butler and Wayne Hope and directed by Hope; and the second series of live action kids drama Mako: Island of Secrets from Jonathan M Shiff for Network Ten and ZDF Germany.

With Australian broadcasters and TV drama producers clamoring for funds as local dramas continue to rate exceptionally well, the agency said it will run just two funding rounds this financial year.

 

Polish Projects Pitching for Partners in Russia

MOSCOW – Polish filmmakers presented a raft of potential co-productions at a Moscow industry event Monday that included some of the country’s top cinematic talent.

The pitching event at Moscow Business Square, a three-day industry sidebar that runs during the city’s international film festival, included I, Olga Hepnarova a $1.7 million co-production between Poland, Czech Republic and Slovakia about the 1973 mass murder of eight people by a deranged 22 years-old woman.

With two Czech directors attached – Petr Kazda and Tomas Weinreb; a producer, Agata Walkosz whose credits include 80 Million, a Polish hit film about a Solidarity-era bank heist; and a cinematographer, Jolanta Dylewska, who lensed Agnieszka Holland’s Oscar-nominated In Darkness; the film marks a growing trend towards projects mining the common cultural and historical themes of central and Eastern Europe’s former Communist countries.

Holland, who graduated from Prague’s famous FAMU film school, directed HBO’s Burning Bush, released as a three-part television film earlier this year, based on the story of Czechoslovak student Jan Palach who in January 1969 died after setting fire to himself in protest at the crackdown that followed the relative political thaw of the “Prague Spring” in 1968.

Walkosz’s project is a much darker episode from the period about a young woman with mental health problems who decides to take out her anger and bitterness on society by driving a truck into a queue of elderly people at a bus stop.

Hepnarova later became the last woman executed in Czechoslovakia for a crime that is remembered there to this day.

With a soundtrack by Canadian indie group Crystal Castles, Walkosz said that although the film will be made in black and white and is set in the early 1970s, it is a universal story about the alienation that still drives “children in America to kill other children or a young man to start shooting at a Batman premiere.”

Other projects pitches included Kobro – logline “love, art, hate” – an arty interpretation of the life and times of Russian-born Katarzyna Kobro, one of the greatest abstract artists and sculptresses of the early 20th century whose life was torn apart by war and family breakdown.

The $2.6 million project has won plaudits from Holland and veteran Polish director Andrjez Wajda who noted how “life and art can be destroyed by the forces of history,” producer Iwona Siekierzynska said.

There were also pitches for The Photographer -- a psychological thriller featuring a disturbed son of a female Russian army officer in a 1970s Soviet military base in Poland and ends with a contemporary account of the murderous consequences years later of the child’s affliction; The Night Train a planned remake by producer/director Jan Kidawa-Blonski of a famous 1959 Polish film by Jerzy Kawalerowicz; Veles Veles, a “Wild Bunch in the snow” about seven stragglers in Napoleon’s army during the retreat from Moscow in 1812 written by producer/director Michal Otlowski and other projects.