IAN COTTAGE

Wild Filmmakers

2011-08-25T12:33:00.000+01:00

I've written two articles for the Film London MicroWave film website. The first, Wild Filmmakers concerns the rich and wonderful history of low budget European film-making. Enjoy!

Keel review

2011-08-08T17:25:00.002+01:00

"I honestly believe that this will stay on my top 10 shorts list for quite some time to come."
Keel is reviewed on Boolean Flix website: http://www.booleanflix.com/2011/07/12/short-keel/

Werner Herzog

2011-07-06T00:36:00.002+01:00

A 2 hour interview with the Bavarian film director Werner Herzog. "You see the problem with festivals is a very fundamental one. We have 3,000, maybe 4,000 festivals per year worldwide but we have only 3 or 4 real good films."

Keel on BBC

2011-06-10T01:06:00.004+01:00

My short film Keel is now featured on the BBC Film Network site. In the words of the BBC; "A chilling ghost story about a girl who befriends a perilous companion." I made the film in the tradition of British ghost stories written by such authors as M.R. James and Walter de la Mare, where the ghost is on the periphery and the story unfolds like a creeping paralysis. I hope you enjoy the film.

The Mystery box in storytelling

2011-05-25T00:51:00.007+01:00

"As the Emmy-winning creator of the smart, addictive TV dramas Lost, Alias and Felicity, J.J. Abrams' name looms large on the small screen. As the writer/director behind the blockbuster explode-a-thon Mission: Impossible III, Cloverfield and the new Star Trek movie, these days Abrams also rules the big screen -- bringing his eye for telling detail and emotional connection to larger than life stories." TED

A good year for stories

2010-12-19T11:05:00.003Z

It's been a good year. Two of my feature scripts, The Airman and The Ghost Song, have been optioned and there is co-production interest with UK, Finnish, Estonian and South African producers and financiers. I've also been developing a thriller, The Chase, and writing a crime novel, Cranberry, which I expect to finish in the Spring.

Helsinki trip

2010-10-10T11:57:00.002+01:00

I went to Helsinki with the producers from Vita Nova Films. We met our co-producer, three writers, an actor's agency, fascilities house and film funders. A good, positive trip. All being well, we will shoot the feature The Airman next summer.

International features

2010-09-17T16:47:00.003+01:00

I haven't blogged for some time, so here's a small update:

My feature script The Airman (which was optioned by Vita Nova Films) has found co-production interest in Finland. I will be going to Helsinki to meet the Finnish producer in the coming month.

Airship Films is in first stage talks with a South African producer to co-produce my feature The Ghost Song.

Cannes

2010-05-12T21:35:00.005+01:00

Vita Nova Films will be at Cannes talking to potential financiers and co-producers about my feature screenplay The Airman. Initial meetings in Berlin were very positive.

The Airman

Finland 1944. The Russian Soviet army has taken over south east Finland after bitter fighting.

10 year old Jan and his family head out of their war ravaged town to stay with his grandfather at a summer house. One night a Soviet bomber crashes in a nearby field. All crew members are believed to be dead, but Jan finds the pilot alive, caught by his parachute in the forest trees. The villagers refuse to help the Russian and leave him to die overnight. When this fails they decide to shoot him and bury his body in the forest soil. The next day, Jan finds the Russian wandering across a field. The boy is faced with a dilemma; to tell the villagers that the pilot is alive or hide him.

The Airman is a universal story concerning trust, prejudice and a simple act of humanity.

Handprint

2010-02-20T09:37:00.011Z

Handprint from Ian Cottage on Vimeo.

A rough cut of a sequence shot for the Handprint film. This sequence was devised through a number of improvisations, games and excercises.

Handprint - working with actors from Ian Cottage on Vimeo.

This short film shows the way we worked to break down the physical barriers between the two main actors over a two day period. At the very beginning of the process, the actors did not fully engage with each other, but through a series of games and exercises the actor's performances became more intimate.
For more information see: www.handprintfilm.com

HANDPRINT

2010-01-28T22:32:00.003Z

HANDPRINT from Ian Cottage on Vimeo.

HANDPRINT is a micro budget feature film written by Alex Elliot and myself. This is a short test for the camera we will be using, the Cannon EOS 5D Mrk II.

For more information please see: www.iancottage.com

INFORMER - Channel 4

2010-01-24T15:30:00.003Z

INFORMER - Channel 4 from Ian Cottage on Vimeo.

Commissioned by Channel 4, INFORMER reveals the world of a man in hiding after informing on a gang of bank robbers. We take the informer back to the places where he was involved in bank robbery, getaway driving and deception.

INFORMER received critic's choice in Time Out magazine, describing the film as being "more than a little scary"

Never forget this...

2010-01-03T12:33:00.004Z

"Play is the highest form of research"

Albert Einstein

The Ghost Film

2009-12-21T22:26:00.004Z

I've started a new website for a feature film I want to make called The Ghost Film. Please take a look.

http://theghostfilm.com

Pictures

2009-12-08T01:43:00.005Z

"Film is a picture story. There is a plot, but it's told with pictures, just like our lives. I've never done a telephone interview, I think you've got to look at someone, to check that you're making sense"

Nic Roeg (director; The Man Who Fell To Earth, Walkabout, Don't Look Now, Performance)

A summer's influence

2009-09-02T06:11:00.009+01:00

I've spent the good part of the summer working on feature length scripts and outlines. These include The Airman, The Ghost Song and The Summer House. During this time I watched a number of films as a way of learning about genre or ways in which films handle specific moments within a story.

The Ghost Song and The Summer House (both ghost stories):

Let the Right One In

The Innocents

Anti-Christ

BBC Ghost Stories at Christmas: A Warning to the Curious, A View From A Hill, The Signalman, Number 13

Dark Water

La Boucher

The Airman (a rites of passage film set in Soviet occupied Estonia):

My Way Home

Muukalainen (The Visitor)

The Go-Between

Books read during this period which helped in my research of my scripts include:

M.R James stories

Memories Denied by Imbi Paju

Thursbitch by Alan Garner

Music influence:

Fever Ray

Cinema

2009-06-08T19:54:00.005+01:00

Cinema is best served by emotion and story.

Cinema should take you somewhere.

The best films leave you thinking long after the light has died.

Films can be short, medium or long. The story is more important than the number of minutes.

The worst cinema is sometimes made by the best people. And vice versa.

Cinema is a desire...

2009-06-05T16:56:00.004+01:00

"The French New Wave taught me that cinema is a desire, not a school. Cinema just happens, full stop. Nobody can tell you how to do it or what the rules are. And you do it with new faces. Personally I don't like actors who have already been the bearers of other withered desires. Isn't the camera more suitable for discovering than filming - for discovering the inner soul through those big, big mystery-revealing close-ups of which I am so fond?"

Catherine Breillat (director 36 fillette, Romance, A ma soeur) taken from Sight & Sound May '09.

Voices

2009-06-04T20:58:00.004+01:00

I'm reading Voices of Akenfield by Ronald Blyth. It's an extraordinary book with first hand accounts of life in a Suffolk village.

KEEL - Best British Short Film - EIFF

2009-05-08T08:24:00.009+01:00

I'm pleased to say KEEL has been put forward for the Best British Short Film award at the Edinburgh International Film Festival and will be premiering on the 27th June.

A promo for KEEL can be found here.

KEEL promo

2009-05-03T17:50:00.004+01:00

KEEL

A holidaying father and his daughter encounter a girl who is intent on becoming friends, even if it may lead to tragic consequences. KEEL is a ghost story concerning obsession, friendship and a simple act of betrayal.

KEEL is premiering at the Edinburgh International Film Festival on the 27th June.

For more details please see: www.keelfilm.com

The Shoe Tree - production stills

2009-04-22T17:06:00.006+01:00

If they follow you...

2009-04-17T21:23:00.006+01:00

"Well, first of all, screenwriting isn't really writing: it's really part of the oral tradition and it has a lot more to do with the day your uncle went hunting and the dog went crazy and the bird got away than it does with literature. One of the indispensable ways of of judging whether an idea will work as a film story is oral presentation - you have to tell your story to someone.

When you first get an idea, maybe its five minutes long, then the more you tell it, the more you elaborate on it and the longer it grows. When the story gets up to about forty-five minutes in length and is still holding your listener's attention, so that you know that if you walk out of the room they'll follow you to ask what happens next, then you know you have something that will probably work on screen."

Paul Schrader (writer; Taxi Driver, Raging Bull, Affliction) taken from Schrader On Schrader published by Faber and Faber.

If only it were that simple

2009-04-15T11:49:00.009+01:00

"All you need to make a movie is a girl and a gun"

Jean Luc Godard

Possibly, maybe...

2009-04-14T13:03:00.008+01:00

"Since the Old Testament there haven't been any new stories. Everything that has ever happened is written down in the Old Testament. Starting with the holocaust and fratricide to incest, everything has happened before. So what I don't understand is why we always want to invent new stories because we keep repeating these old stories in our lives every day."

Bela Tarr (taken from Sources of Inspiration published by SOURCES)

A woman and Chabrol

2009-04-12T10:02:00.005+01:00

"A woman confronting men is a proper subject, it is inexhaustible."

Claude Chabrol

DAMAGE - production stills

2009-04-11T11:17:00.008+01:00

From conversation to story

2009-04-10T20:39:00.004+01:00

I overheard a woman say to another woman: "I didn't want him coming in, he had blood all down his front". I didn't hear the rest of her conversation and can only speculate as to why he had blood on him:

1) the man had been in a fight.

2) the man had been in a car accident.

3) the man was a butcher.

The first two of these explanations are fairly obvious. The third is less obvious and could (with some thought) be the spark for an original story.

A good script...

2009-04-08T17:12:00.002+01:00

"With a good script, a good director can produce a masterpiece. With the same script, a mediocre director can produce a passable film. But with a bad script even a good director can't possibly make a good film. For truly cinematic expression, the camera and the microphone must be able to cross both fire and water. The script must be something that has the power to do this".

Akira Kurosawa

A mood can evoke a story...

2009-04-07T13:09:00.002+01:00

Remember this....

2009-04-05T22:57:00.005+01:00

"Everyone has their reasons."

Jean Renoir

A case for speed

2009-04-04T13:43:00.005+01:00

Early in his career the director Rainer Werner Fassbinder visited Werner Herzog to ask him if he would produce his films. Herzog's response was that he should do what he did and produce his own films. So far Herzog has made over 50 films, whilst Fassbinder made 35 features and two television series in his 15 year career.

On average, Ingmar Bergman shot one feature film per year. He would write his script in winter and produce the film in the summer. His model for making films (working with modest budgets, a small dedicated crew, limiting locations) helped create masterpieces such as Persona and Cries and Whispers. His technique of regular production has been copied by Michael Winterbottom who has made 16 features since 1994.

Whilst speed of production does not always yield great films, it can enable the filmmaker to work constantly at his or her craft. Filmmakers such as Hitchcock and Micheal Powell made "quota quickies"(1930's UK low budget features) in their early careers and were adamant that this was a firm grounding for their later features.

You can get it wrong...

2009-04-03T17:48:00.005+01:00

"Photography is a fad well nigh on its last legs, thanks largely to the bicycle craze."

Alfred Stieglitz, 1897

Satyajit and the Owl

2009-04-02T22:03:00.002+01:00

'It so happened I woke up one morning and glancing at the window behind me saw a whitish brown owl (it was more white than brown) sitting on the shutter of a window that opened on the outside.

The owl had its eyes riveted on me. I came up to the window, looking silently at the bird - it didn't move a muscle. While I stood watching, I heard shouting from the neighbouring flats. Our house was set back from the main road, but could be seen by at least a dozen neighbours from adjoining flats. They were now calling out to the owl and making enticing noises.

My wife joined me. The reason for the excitement dawned on us both at the same time. In Indian mythology, the owl is the mount of Lakshmi, the goddess of luck and wealth, and an owl sitting on your window must naturally arouse the neighbours' envy.

All the shouting and crying and whistling didn't perturb the bird at all. It kept its eyes fixed on me. I took out my Leica and took a picture of the bird. The 'click' didn't bother the bird at all. The owl stayed in the same position for two whole weeks and then it was gone. Whether it moved during the night, I couldn't say, but each morning I found it in exactly the same spot - looking at me in exactly the same way. '

From My Years with Apu by Satyajit Ray (published by Faber & Faber). The Satyajit Ray Foundation.

As you fall to sleep tonight...

2009-04-01T11:16:00.011+01:00

The subconscious can create some very unusual and distinctive stories. As you go to sleep tonight ask yourself what is the most amazing story I can tell? The trick is not to accept the first story that comes to you, but to push to find ever stranger stories.

I've made two films using this game: Mangetout is a story about a boy who reguritates the past and Keel is a ghost story.

How to obtain luck...

2009-03-30T23:11:00.005+01:00

"Luck is when opportunity meets with preparation"

Tom Waits

KEEL - production stills

2009-03-30T09:34:00.005+01:00

KEEL website

Poem Film Manifesto

2009-03-29T14:00:00.011+01:00

MAKING POEM FILMS

1. The poem film must be an original creation.

2. The poet and film-maker should work on an idea for a poem film. They should explore the idea together. The process of exploration should take no longer than a day.

3. The film-maker should not interfere with the poet's writing. Similarly, the poet should not interfere with the film-maker's filming. The film and poem should be created in no more than three days.

4. Both poet and film-maker should push the boundaries of the poem film.

5. The poem film must be shot on film.

6. A minimal crew must be used for the shoot. Preferably the film-maker and a camera.

7. The poet can discuss the poem with the film-maker. However, no lines should be cited by the poet. The film-maker cannot read the poem before filming is complete.

8. The film-maker can discuss the images they have filmed with the poet. No rushes can be shown to the poet. Sketches or storyboards are prohibited.

9. The poet can only show the film-maker the completed poem on the last day of filming. The film-maker can use the remaining time to shoot additional material.

10. The film-maker must edit the film on their own.

11. The poet and film-maker decide whose voice is used to recite the poem.

12. The poet can record the poem with the film-maker being present.

13. The film-maker is at liberty to erase the voice-over from the film if s/he does not like the poem.

14. The poet is at liberty to scratch the film's negative if s/he does not like the film.

Ian Cottage 1995

_______________

The manifesto was written after I'd completed the poem film Blue Scars with Matthew Sweeney (the then resident poet at the South Bank Centre, London) in 1995. Blue Scars was premiered at the Purcell room, South Bank and screened in the UK as part of the British Film Institute's Film Poems programme curated by Peter Todd. The film was also shown in Delhi, India where the manifesto sparked heated debate amongst the audience. There is an essay concerning poem films and my manifesto here.

Stare

2009-03-29T10:27:00.007+01:00

"Stare. It is the way to educate your eye, and more. Stare, pry, listen, and eavesdrop. Die knowing something. You are not here long."

Walker Evans

Filming Derek Jarman

2009-03-28T10:21:00.019Z

I first met Derek Jarman at the Berlin Film Festival in 1985. He had just shown his feature Angelic Conversations at the Film Kunst 66 and the audience was ecstatic. In the cinema foyer, Jarman was surrounded by friends and admirers. I was with two fellow film students and we approached Jarman, and asked whether we could see him to talk about filmmaking. He wrote down his telephone number and we headed off into the bitterly cold February night.

In June, we met Jarman at his small flat in Phoenix House, London. The place looked like an Alchemist lair; crammed with canvases, books and objects from his films (Jubilee, The Tempest, Shadows of the Sun). There was a reporter interviewing Jarman for a magazine. At the end of the interview Jarman let the reporter take one of his paintings as a gift. The man was very touched by his offer. We talked a little with Jarman and showed one of our film school projects (an adaptation of The Blind Man by D.H Lawrence). He was kind with his criticisms of our film and encouraged us to pick up a camera and make personal films, to work with friends rather than professional actors.

I had a Super 8 camera with me and I asked Jarman if it was ok for us to film him. He brought out a musical saw into the sunniest part of the room and we took turns to film. The saw made an incredible haunting sound that resonated through the flat. We filmed Jarman playing with objects in the sunlight: a skull with a tiara, a large gold leaf book, large dress scissors and a face caste (it resembled a death mask). Jarman played up to the camera, at times taking on the guise of a serious artist before breaking into manic laughter.

Jarman decided to go up on the rooftop to get some air. As he walked up the outside fire escape stairs, he saw a shadow of himself caste against the wall. We encouraged him to play with the shadow and he ran up and down the steps and reached out to the shadow. He became lost in his own world. On the rooftop he was curious about the Super 8 camera and its macro lens. He held his eye up to the lens as I filmed him fall backwards. I also lay on the roof as he walked over the camera. Jarman was beginning pre-production on his feature Caravaggio and here he was playing around for the camera. It was a day I'll always remember.

I lost contact with Jarman, though I kept a lookout for his name. In August 1993, I saw an interview with him on the BBC's arts programme, the Late Show. Jarman had Aids and looked very ill. It seemed impossible to me that this man who looked so frail and old, was the same person I'd met eight years before. It was very sad.

In 1994, after Jarman died I looked at the footage we'd filmed on that hot summer day and cut together a short film. I decided to call the film Small Gestures as Jarman described Angelic Conversations as being "from the cinema of small gestures". The film was premiered at the Kiev Film Festival, received a special jury mention at Berlin and shown around the world at major film festivals. Everyone felt the same sense of loss at the passing of this truly unique man.

Six words Hemingway

2009-03-26T17:32:00.007Z

Hemingway bet $10 that he could write a complete story in six words. He wrote:

For sale: baby shoes, never worn.

Hemingway won the bet.

The Joys of Storytelling

2009-03-25T18:09:00.006Z

11. Without fighting, stories have won over more people than all the great wars put together.

12. The greatest religions convert the world through stories.

18. The fact of story-telling hints at a fundamental human unease, hints at human imperfection. Where there is perfection there is no story to tell.

28. We are part human, part stories.

39. The stories of the Egyptians and the Greeks, rather than their poems, shaped the world's consciousness and named the stars.

52. A good story keeps on growing. A good story never dies.

60. Stories are always a form of resistance.

94. The imagination is one of the highest gifts we have.

Extracts taken from Aphorisms and Fragments by Ben Okri (published as part of Birds Of Heaven, Phoenix books).

SLEEP

2009-03-24T14:40:00.001Z

A man, a woman, a story

2009-03-23T22:06:00.011Z

This photograph shows:

a field of corn

trees

summer

a thin old man

violin and bow

poised fingers

round wire rimmed glasses

an eye behind reflection

a bent nose (possibly broken)

a tie and fastened collar

creased, puckered lapels (an old jacket)

grey short hair

a moustache and stubbled chin

browned weathered skin

missing front teeth

A woman (younger but not young)

long neat skirt and jacket (circa 1920's)

a stockinged ankle with shinned shoes

a pencil or pen held against a notepad

dark tidied bobbed hair

a plain face with frown marks

straight back chairs (one leaning)

uneven ground

each of these details can tell a story or is part of a story.

The photograph is of the great fiddle player J W Day (aka Jilson Setters or "Blind Bill Day") and his manager Jean Thomas, taken in Rowen County, Kentucky 1926. The self-taught fiddle player Day was a recluse who lived in the Kentucky mountains. Aged 65 he was discovered by Thomas (a traveling court stenographer) who presented him at Ashland's American Folk Song Festival. Thomas managed Day and he traveled the world, recorded for RCA Victor, played at folk festivals, high society functions and to King George V at the Royal Albert Hall.

KEEL - production stills

2009-03-22T22:17:00.009Z

Photographs by Johan Forsstrom.

4 short films by Jan Svankmajer

2009-03-22T10:10:00.006Z

4 short films by Jan Svankmajer.

The Flat (1968)

Dimensions of Dialogue (1982)

Down to the Cellar (1983)

Darkness/Light/Darkness (1983)

Days by Philip Larkin

2009-03-21T22:38:00.007Z

Days

What are days for?

Days are where we live.

They come, they wake us

Time and time over.

They are to be happy in:

Where can we live but days?

Ah, solving that question

Brings the priest and the doctor

In their long coats

Running over the fields.

Philip Larkin

MANGETOUT

2009-03-21T08:01:00.000Z

Mangetout was commissioned by the BBC, received Critic's Choices in the UK national press and was seen by 1 million people. It was my first commissioned drama and was based on my nephew's experiences of communicating as a child (he is profoundly deaf). The film mixes reality and fantasy as an uncle comes to stay with a deaf boy's family and eats everything around him, toys, ashtrays etc. The boy is delighted, until he starts to regurgitate his uncle's past.... The still (above) is a continuity polaroid taken during filming and shows the boy lying on top of a room full of circus paraphernalia that he has regurgitated in the night.

100 word story

2009-03-20T17:30:00.000Z

Can you write a good, original 100 word story with these images?

Bendito Machine...

2009-03-19T17:22:00.000Z

Bendito Machine

with thanks to Robert Jefferson

A game for stories

2009-03-18T10:53:00.000Z

Take four random images from flickr.com or diviantart.com

Place them side by side.

Connect the images to make a story.

With the same images make another story.

Today I saw....

2009-03-17T16:08:00.000Z

Not far from me, lives a blind man. In the Spring and Summer he stands in the corner of his small garden by the gate post and suns himself. I haven't seen him all Winter but today he was there with his head raised to the sun. Nearby a man was weeding the blind man's garden which is full of bright yellow Daffodils.

Jonas Mekas - filmmaker

2009-03-17T13:04:00.000Z

365 films by Jonas Mekas, collection of 40, classics and guest filmmaker Jim Jarmusch with Tom Waits.

The Shoe Tree

2009-03-16T22:50:00.000Z

The Shoe Tree was inspired by a tree in a local park which has over 200 shoes in its branches. I wrote a story in a notebook and put it to one side, then there was an opportunity to make a film in Estonia, so I wrote the script in one sitting. Sometimes scripts or stories come out like that, the more instinctive the better.

Note books

2009-03-16T12:08:00.000Z

Ingmar Bergman wrote in yellow coloured paper note pads. When he heard that the company that produced them was closing, he bought up as many of the pads as he could. I think I'd do the same with Black & Red notebooks (in fact I've already started storing them). They're the only kind I like writing in; pocket sized, un-fussy and practical. Other makes I've bought still remain unused.

I keep one note book where I write the first idea for a story and nothing more. Each entry is dated and the notebook can contain over three years worth of stories or ideas. I'm not sure why I choose to use this method, but there is something interesting about keeping a single idea untouched within a notebook. I tend to use the computer or other notebooks to develop the story further.

Sketches

2009-03-16T11:51:00.000Z

Photos by Vitas Luckus (1943-1987)

2009-03-16T08:02:00.000Z

Visual ideas

2009-03-15T21:39:00.000Z

Before making a film I pull together images and arrange them on sheets of A4 paper. I use the photos to further explore the story I've written or to find the visual style of the film, particularly the colour & textures of the piece. I share these images with my cinematographer as it's a way of communicating ideas and finding a visual style. The page of photos (above) is one of six I made for a short film I'm hoping to make called Blackbird.

A writer's challenge

2009-03-15T14:50:00.000Z

A challenge:

Write 52 short stories in a year (one every week).

In the second year write 4 novellas (one for each season)

In the third year write a novel.

Stories read this month

2009-03-14T16:00:00.000Z

Novellas:

First Love by Ivan Turgenev - a bitter sweet story of unrequited love. Highly recommended.

The Fox by D.H Lawrence - Post First World War, a young soldier stays with two self efficient women at a country home and decides to marry one, with tragic results. A psychological story which examines friendship, love and jealousy.

Dr Glas by Hjalmar Soderberg - a surprising novella concerning a doctor's adoration for a female patient that leads to murder. Beautifully written as a journal, this story feels contemporary in tone despite being written 103 years ago.

KEEL

2009-03-14T15:18:00.000Z

Filming Keel - summer 2008

A short ghost film set in a remote part of the Finnish coastline. Represented at international film festivals by the British Council.