Production Office

We have now secured a production office in Ponsonby, thanks to the assistance of a very generous supporter of the arts. Over the next couple of weeks we will begin setting it up, and then be open for business.

The office space is great - vintage Ponsonby. And it has most recently been used for some of the post-production work on Vintner's Luck, so hopefully there will be some good karma there which will rub off on us.

We've also gained both warehouse and office space for the art department, once again through the generosity of a supporter who is the proprietor of the building. It's always thrilling to find the goodwill which exists in the community - a factor which will play a big part in this film in so many ways.

Moon Madness

Just a note to let you know our Lotto promotion is now in full swing! I've put a web page up at www.moonmad.co.nz

Spread the word! It's a crazy opportunity to participate in the making of the movie! Our target draw is full moon September 5 (tickets on sale from 31 August), but feel free to buy and send tickets both before and after...

Write your name on the back of the ticket if you like, so we can give credit in the film!

The address is: The Insatiable Moon Ltd, 46 Williams St, Cambridge 3434.

Careful with that Axe

Just been working my way through the most recent budget for the film - drastically revised after the NZ Film Commission turned us down. I'm sure there are people somewhere who find nothing better than to pore over columns of figures - but I'm not among them. It makes me want to have a drink and a lie down.

When it comes to finance, you're either a realist or a visionary. Realists treat numbers with dollar signs in front as being concrete realities - beautiful in their specificity. They become accountants and chastise the rest of us for our frivolity. Visionaries are similar to Jewish Kabbalists - treating numbers as if they were mysterious entities which might represent something else.

On the macro scale, I've long been a proponent of the view that economists are the new religious dogmatists. They make grand pronouncements about 'the way things are', when in reality they are operating totally from a faith perspective. These people gamble with the universe, the same as the rest of us. The difference is that they cloak their magic with an aura of science.

However, when it comes to making a film, realists and visionaries need each other. The relationship is symbiotic. Just so long as financial plans remain a scaffolding, and not a substitute for the creative venture which filmmaking is.

When wielding the axe, you need to be mindful of what you're cutting!

All Roads Lead to Ponsonby

When I first lived in Ponsonby (in 1985), the community was just on the point of change. For decades it had been a haven for low-income tenants, students, and Pacific Island immigrants. Because of the availability of cheap accommodation and it's proximity to Carrington Hospital, the village also become a collecting ground for psychiatric patients.

All of these factors helped to form the vibrancy and cosmopolitan nature of Ponsonby. But already something had shifted. The oil shocks had made residential accommodation close to the central city desirable, and house prices began to rise.

There was an incoming tide consisting of trendy and well to do white people. They brought with them their culture and passions. It's not that the area became any less interesting or vibrant, but it became a much more difficult place for poorer people to survive.

The novelist Chaim Potok says that all fiction comes from the clash of cultures. It's that clash which generated the material for The Insatiable Moon as a novel, and also undergirds the film. Ponsonby is a crossrosads, a threshold, a creative cauldron. It is as much a myth as a reality. The setting is one of the lead characters in the film.

The Daily Struggle

The secret of realising an artistic dream is similar to achieving anything else - it's a matter of overcoming your inner demons and doubts. A hundred times a day you need to draw on your faith in the vision that first motivated you, to see it and believe in it.

But when you're spending other people's money, and particularly in the indie film world, you also have to overcome a chorus of external doubters. They're never short of reasons as to why your project will fail, what's wrong with it, and why the obstacles are too massive to negotiate.

Producing, writing, directing - all of them are the equivalent of walking on the water. You can do it if you don't look down. It's in the hour by hour, day by day struggle that the battle is won.

Punt for the Moon

In the continuing series of crazy ideas to get funding for our feature film, comes the great Lotto weekend. On the weekend of the next full moon, we're inviting (NZ) supporters to buy us a lotto ticket and post it to us at : The Insatiable Moon (NZ) Ltd, 46 Williams St, Cambridge 3434. Should any of the tickets strike it rich, all proceeds will be applied to the making of the film.

It's just mad enough to be in keeping with the whole project, and our hero Arthur who makes the impossible attainable!

And in case you didn't know, the next full moon is on the weekend of 5th September. Click on the image above for full details.

Feel free to forward this to anyone you want!

Aroha

A great outpouring of support since people have learned about our rejection by the NZFC has been hugely encouraging. Thanks all those who have written to say they believe in the film and are sure that it will be the stronger because of the process.

We need a few days to regroup but are already pursuing alternative strategies. But it is the communal love which undergirds this and makes it a special project. A friend sent through this quote:

"Nothing in the world can take the place of persistence. Talent will not; nothing is more common than unsuccessful men with talent. Genius will not; unrewarded genius is almost a proverb. Education will not; the world is full of educated derelicts. Persistence and determination alone are omnipotent. The slogan "press on" has solved, and always will solve, the problems of the human race."

Wise words.

On Death and Dying

Just finished our location shoot and received the phone call to tell us that the NZ Film Commission has turned us down flat. Not even $20 to buy a beer...

So, it's the death of the prospect of making this film the easy way. But the resurrection of the low budget route which fortunately has been kept alive throughout. We're going to need all the help we can get from all the friends we have. But we'll get it made.

Two things today made me sure. The first was that we just happened to be cruising past the church we want to use as a location when a funeral was spilling out the doors (see photo above). Those in the know will recognise that as a scene from the script!

And secondly we spent a wonderful hour down at the boarding house, where the marvellous manager Lynda and my mate Johnny gave us tea and sandwiches (courtesy of Ella), and we had some great conversations with the residents. It reminded me of what this project is all about. We talked of humanity and community and the need for simple things in a world gone mad. This is a story from the grass roots, and that's the way it will be made.

It's in death that we find life. At least so I've been told. Thanks to all those who have believed with us in this film.

Gone Shooting

And as for me, I'm away to Auckland to do some location shooting. I'll leave the decision makers to decide; meantime it's good to be doing something practical in preparation for the making of the film.

Business Time!

After six years of development; after endless script revisions; after numerous meetings in London, Birmingham, Cannes and Auckland; after negotiations and consultations and frustrations; after collecting talent and equity; after a few thousand pages of documentation - after all of that and more, it comes down to this.

Tomorrow and the next day, the NZFC Board will meet. They have a new chair, several new members, a new CEO, a new government, and an ongoing review headed by one Peter Jackson to contend with. And also on the agenda is a production funding application for a feature film called The Insatiable Moon.

The Board will consider many reports on the project - some negative and some positive. They will look at the package - UK Director Gillies Mackinnon, lead Rawiri Paratene, attachments from Timothy Spall, James Nesbitt and John Rhys Davies, double BAFTA winning producer Tim Sanders. They will consider the finance plan and the budget, and look at the distribution deal. With any luck they will watch a five minute promotional video about the film.

And - they will decide. Whether this is a NZ story they want to support, or whether it does not meet their criteria. That decision will determine whether we proceed with a low-budget option for the film, or have the benefit of making a better quality product with the aid of NZ's only film funding body.

By the end of the week we will know the result. Meantime, we try to press on with the tasks necessary to the November shoot. And wait.

This is it. It's Busines Time.

Location, Locations

Next week we begin scouting and shooting locations. We need to make up a DVD to send over to director Gillies Mackinnon, as he begins his preparatory work for the shoot. The DOP also needs to get a feel for the places we're going to be operating in.

One of the primary locations is a boarding house in the Ponsonby area. We've been lucky enough to be offered the use of an existing and operating house which is perfect for what we're looking for. Because it currently runs as a shelter for psych patients, it has an authenticity which is better than any amount of set dressing. And the owner of the house is brilliant - she's a great supporter of the film and keen to do anything she can to help out.

It's that kind of grass roots encouragement which keeps us going in what are sometimes difficult times. This is a film which everyone involved in believes in. It's a story which has been gathering momentum and is now ready to go. Hence our steely determination to make it. It's kind of refreshing to be with a group of people who still have some regard for the art of cinema - not in any highbrow sense, but equally not designing plots by asking audiences what they want.

As the NZFC board meets next week, we'll be out making preparations for the film.

Hang On for the Ride!

What goes up generally comes down. With the my pocket retroscope, it's plain to see that yesterday's post was incredibly prescient. The roller coaster reached the top and began to feel the effects of gravity.

A couple of reports commissioned by the Film Commission have some complimentary things to say about the story and the script, in among some negative conclusions which seem to advocate against the funding of the project. Given that these reports are for the Board, it appears unlikely that we're going to win support.

In short, folks, it will take a miracle for the NZFC to come on board. Not that anyone's giving in just yet. Arthur, the hero of our film, is nothing if not a miracle worker. Only thing is those miracles seem to happen in the most unexpected and unpredictable ways!

The ride's just warming up...

Roller Coaster

We're on a little bit of a roll at the moment, having just received a provisional certificate of qualification for SPIF, or the Screen Production Incentive Fund - which provides for a tax rebate of 40% on NZ expenditure for features over $4m. It's another step on the journey.

Of course it could all come to a downhill rush at any minute - that's the nature of the game. But that won't stop us celebrating the small achievements along the way, in the long march toward making a feature film.

I sent out a newsletter update this morning to our supporters, and several people commented on what a roller coaster ride it seems. The main thing is to chill out and not fight what you can't control. Wheeee!

In the Nick of Time

Like a swooping superhero to the rescue comes our distribution deal, swinging between the skyscrapers to bring justice to Gotham City!

Yes folks, with two hours still to go, we have provided the documentation necessary to allow our application to go forward the NZ Film Commission Board next week. Nothing quite like living close to the edge to keep the adrenalin pumping.

And just to make it sweeter, a television broadcast deal is on its way by close of business today.

Now for the next hurdle...

Tick Tock

"Like sand through an hourglass, so are the days of our lives..." Eight hours to go and counting. Hard not to be conscious of each grain of sand falling.