Spiffing

Did you know that total budget does not equal your TPE, and that neither equal your QNZPE, which is always smaller than the others? QNZPE, btw, is not a mutation of swine flu, but Qualifying NZ Production Expenditure, while TPE is Total Production Expenditure. Such are the sacred mysteries of SPIF (a special password standing for Screen Production Incentive Fund). It's as impenetrable as an accountant's rectum, but much more rewarding to a filmmaker.

Basically it's the government fund which allows a 40% rebate on qualifying film expenditure, albeit after the film has reached completion. And before anyone gets too excited, the threshold of qualifying expenditure for a feature is NZ$4m, which usually means you need to be operating a $5m budget before you get near it.

If that's not enough to put the faint-hearted off, I've just about completed our application, which amounts to 180 pages of supporting documentation. Just as well I haven't got a proper job! Nevertheless, to get the rebate would be, well, spiffing.

New Moon

In this part of the world it's Matariki, which is the traditional Maori New Year. It refers to the appearance of the new moon following the rising of the constellation Pleiades. It has been translated as both Mata Riki (tiny eyes) and Mata Ariki (eyes of God). Either sounds just fine to me. It marks the turning of the year, and for us in the southern hemisphere is the time when the dying of the day and the natural world begins to shift toward regeneration.

A great friend of mine, Tom Ffowcs Williams was an advocate of celebrating Fallow Day, for exactly the same reasons. It's not a bad thing to pick up the rhythm of the seasons and mark them.

All of us involved with The Insatiable Moon look forward to the turning of the wheel, in many ways. We're in that season of waiting, of preparing, before the real work comes. It's something of a time of hopeful anticipation.

Meanwhile, the moon waxes...

The Finishing Line

July 9 is the date by which our major funding application needs to be in to the NZ Film Commission. But before that, and hopefully by the end of this week, I need to deliver a draft application for provisional approval as an official co-production with the UK. Not to mention the application for provisional approval for the Screen Production Incentive Fund.

In the meantime, a flurry of activity is under way. Yesterday was budget delivery day, and it arrived in good shape. Our Welsh line producer has 30 years of experience and did a great job on it. Currently I'm extracting UK and NZ spends, which need to be separately itemised for the applications.

For someone who is primarily a writer, delving into the bowels of spreadsheets doesn't exactly turn me on. But it's all part of the process of making things happen. I think anyone involved in the film industry should learn as much about the entire industry as possible, and there's no way of learning quite like having to perform new tasks. When I first produced a short film, I had no idea whatsoever. By the end of it, I'd learned a few things and had a load of fun at the same time.

Not too much fun at the moment, but the finishing line looms. Unfortunately it will be followed by another, and another, and another... That's the biz we're involved in.

Credit/s

Thanks so much for people donating to the movie through 'Give A Little'. Just to say that if you would like your name recorded to go in the credits, just drop me an email here and consider it done! It's the little things in life that make a difference...

Review

Very funny cartoon from Tom Scott this morning, reflecting on the appointment of one Peter Jackson to head up the government review of the NZ Film Commission. It's a bit pointed given that Kathleen Drumm has just resigned to join the former head of NZFC Ruth Harley in the Australian film industry.

The new head of NZFC, Graeme Mason, looks like wielding a new broom - and he has the smarts and experience to do so. It will be very interesting to see how things shape up over coming years. At least the review has picked someone with actual filmmaking experience and passion to head it.

I wonder if Peter Jackson remembers his roots - having his projects rejected by NZFC and hounding them until they finally recognised he was worthy of support. I hope so. I wish him and the entire Film Commission well as they undergo this exercise, and trust that it will be of benefit to the entire industry.

Carbon Carnage

I'm personally responsible for the destruction of several small rainforests, and extending the carnage on a daily basis. Paper is churning through the printer like I was publishing a daily. And that's about it in terms of mixed metaphors for today.

I'm concurrently doing applications for production funding, provisional SPIF approval, and official coproduction status. I hope someone gets to read at least some of the bumf which is being generated. Is it complicated? You bet it is. I wouldn't wish it on anyone.

And as of tomorrow, just 3 weeks until deadline. If I was a tree, I'd be trembling...

Talking about Fire

There's a story which I first heard a few decades back which caught my attention. It involved a little boy who grew up with a passion for firefighting. He loved fire engines and firefighters and everything to do with them. He read books about fires. There was never any doubt about what he was going to do when he left school.

He was admitted to firefighters' school and soon rose to become top of the class. In fact he was so good and passionate about it that when he graduated his bosses decided to send him on a special course to do further training. From there he was invited to do his PhD on new techniques for fighting fires. After that he was offered a job at the school, lecturing other people learning how to fight fires. Eventually he retired after a long and successful career with the fire department.

But one thing he never did. He never got to fight fires.

I keep a model fire engine in my office to remind me of the story. After a few days of filling in forms and writing documents, it raises the question for me once again of how many people in this business still have the passion for making films, and actually get to do it? As opposed to talking about films, meeting about films, producing forms about films etc. Hard to relate what I'm doing at the moment to what it's all about...

The Forgotten History

To know what it's like to get a feature film into production, it's always useful to pay regard to the stories of other projects. Not the studio-backed films which are guaranteed to happen as soon as they've been green lit, but the indies that sometimes make it and sometimes don't. When a film hits the screen, the audience has little knowledge of the journey that has preceded it, and often that difficult process is lost - distributors don't want that story told in case it damages the positive spin around the movie.

But anyone on the filmmaking side needs to know these stories. It reminds us that very few ever got there quickly or painlessly. I like the story of Whale Rider - 10 years in development, with several screenwriters and many hurdles before it burst onto the screen and took the world by storm. The last two years of the project were spent battling the NZ Film Commission development crew over the script. But, naturally, no one remembers all that.

There are plenty of other such tales. They all teach the same lesson - those who survive against the odds will make it, and those who give up will fail. Unfortunately some of those with the necessary stamina also don't get there - such is the perilous nature of feature filmmaking. I talked to the producer of an Irish indie at a festival, who had one of their funders pull out a few weeks into shooting. They had to fold production, and didn't get the money replaced for another two years! At which time they resumed shooting, despite the continuity problems. And you know what, they got there - and the film is now in release. That's the kind of commitment it takes - a story worth remembering.

Give A Little

Those of you who have been following this blog for some time will know that we've been making good progress raising equity for the film from private investors, mostly in sums of around $50,000. But now, thanks to the brilliant site Givealittle, other small contributors can donate money to the film on a tax-deductible basis! Any amount from $5.00 upwards greatly appreciated and will help to make this film happen. Click here to go straight to the donation page.

And I think we can say we'd like to include your name in the credits. If you haven't got money to contribute, you can still sign up on the site as a supporter of the project.

Big ups to the people who have set this site up. It's a great venture.

Making It Happen

Rawiri Paratene does the work while UK producer Pip Piper and I look on - all in the convivial atmosphere of a London restaurant not far from the Globe where Rawiri is performing in Romeo and Juliet. Photo by David Cawley.

Target Audience

I've just written a statement on the target audience for the film, as part of preparing papers for the application to the NZ Film Commission. It's true that if you aim for no one in particular, you can be certain of getting them.

The Insatiable Moon fits broadly within the category of an arthouse film, as do most movies with anything remotely original about them. But for all of us involved, it is so much more. We have always believed it is a project with great crossover potential. A film to be compared to Whale Rider or The World's Fastest Indian to use some NZ examples, or perhaps Little Miss Sunshine on the international front.

What's special about these movies is that they are very true to their context and characters in the local setting, but address universal themes in such as way as to make them accessible to international audiences.

We'll need to open at a good festival, and rely on word of mouth to take the film wider. And to do that we need the best possible film we can make with the resources we have available. That's what is consuming the passions of all the lead players in the project. We can only hope that that will translate to the screen and captivate audiences.

Questions

We've had some hard questions asked of us in recent days by people who are not convinced we're ready to go in November. So I've spent a bit of time collecting the necessary data and assembling arguments to establish that we are in fact ready. One of the tasks I had was to get a reaffirmation of the director's commitment to the film.

He responded: "The danger is that the development process, if it is spun out, stultifies the desire to get the film made this year. I have seen this happen so many times before, and usually these films do not happen finally... If we make this film I intend to make an extraordinary film which will make everyone involved pleased and relieved they were involved. I have tried to answer the points raised. If there are any further, please contact me." This in the midst of a long and detailed email setting out his enthusiasm for the project.

Having just returned from the UK, it seems that everyone associated with the film is excited about it except some of the NZ bodies charged with making NZ films. Is this simply part of the 'cultural cringe'? Or is it associated with a form of artistic narcissism which makes the local creative scene so desperately parochial and lacking in imagination?

I'm simply grateful that the majority of our partners are people of not only rich experience in filmmaking but passion about the craft they give their lives to.

Box Ticking

Back again in New Zealand after a highly successful trip. It was the perfect timing to catch up with key players and sketch out the map of our journey toward filming in November. Perhaps the most important part of the whole trip was the sense of urgency and commitment from all parties, with a renewal of that steely determination that we're going to make this film.

Gillies Mackinnon has a theory that contemporary filmmaking has degenerated into what he calls 'box ticking'. Faced with uncertainty about what will succeed with audiences, film financiers have tried to manufacture security by measuring projects against a series of templates drawn from what has worked in the past. This, of course is a recipe for extinguishing originality - and often one which perversely diminishes returns as well in many cases.

I thought of this today as I began working my way through checklists for documents required for various applications, and found myself literally ticking boxes. Whichever way we get this film made, I do hope it retains something of the freshness, passion and originality which is what has kept us all going in the long quest. Now, back to the paperwork...