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talent spotting
Focusing on tomorrow’s generation of movers and shakers compiled by Jane Crowther
SWimon Welsford
riter/director Simon Welsford almost chucked in the filmmaking business because he was so disheartened. Luckily he decided to make just one more short film which then completely turned his fortunes around.
The off-kilter Walking With Walken won last year’s Manhattan Short Film Festival, netting Welsford the prize of the equipment and production time to make a feature film.
“When I made Walking with Walken, I thought ‘I’m going to make one more film and that’s it’ because I felt I was hitting my head against a brick wall,” Welsford admits. “But once I start- ed showing it to people the response was so different. The Festival was the biggest thing that has happened to me.
“It was the first public event after Sept 11 so it was amazing to be there. The screening had about 2,000 people and was really electric. I was happy with that. So when they said I’d won, my head was spinning.”
A film graduate from Sheffield University, Welsford, 30, now has an agent, a production company and is working on the second draft of the script for his feature, which will be an adaptation of his short.
The story of a man who believes he is possessed by
Christopher Walken, shooting is slated to start by the end of the year and Welsford is hoping that Walken himself will, Malkovich- like, agree to appear in it.
In the meantime, he is grab- bing the opportunities presented by his win in Manhattan with both hands.
“Everything I’ve been working for over the last few years is sud- denly happening!”, he says, excit- edly. “People are suddenly say- ing this really strange word to me which is ‘yes!’”
Andy Isaac
ndy Isaac couldn’t wait for someone to come along and give him the funding to make a feature film, so he went out and sold his house to invest in himself and other British hopefuls.
He now helms The Film Exchange, a co-operative where film industry people offer their skills and time to new projects.
“The Film Exchange basically works on investment,” explains Isaac, 40, “whether that be time, a few hundred quid, some equip- ment or an opportunity. We oper- ate under an honesty policy where we say if it sells, you’ll get paid. Certain people give their time for free, some don’t.”
The concept was started in response to Isaac’s own frustra- tions in getting one of his film proj-
ects funded and his disappoint- ment with the Film Council. “It came along with British people’s money promising to invest in new film and yet they’re spending incredible amounts of cash on American or French productions.
“British film needs develop- ment money, a distribution net- work and an exhibition set-up. Instead of sitting around, we decided to get together and see what we can make.”
Isaac has certainly put his money where his mouth is: he’s invested over £150,000 on editing suites and equipment, funds exhi- bition screenings in Cannes, sells features for new producers via sale and leaseback and runs an office in Notting Hill to help young filmmakers on their way.
His own feature Who Can I Turn To? is nearly in the can and Isaac expects big things for him- self and other Film Exchange alumni in 2002. “I’m under no illu- sions that I’ll be winning an Oscar for my film but, at the end of the day, I got it made.”
FTirst Light
he next Guy Ritchie or Shane Meadows could be in the pipeline with new film projects organised by First Light Ltd as part of an initiative by the Film Council aimed at providing young peo- ple with access to filmmaking. First Light have managed and
invested £1million of Film Council funds to give young people aged between 7 and 18, from all social and geographical backgrounds, the opportunity to have a cine- matic voice.
Art and youth organisations, schools and media centres all over the country have been given the cash to make 150 digi- tal films up to 10 minutes long and on a range of different sub- jects and genres. Participating kids will learn creative and tech- nical skills through mentors and advisors from the film industry - from scriptwriting to editing, cos- tume design to directing.
Director of First Light, Catherine O’Shea, is thrilled by the results beginning to come into the Birmingham-based com- pany, and she hopes to have a showreel of the resulting flicks very soon. “The diversity of age and diversity of group makes this very exciting,” she enthuses.
First Light’s website will also soon boast film downloads plus events and screening listings, opening up the huge range of films to wider audiences. www.firstlightmovies.com
Photos: Simon Welsford, Andy Isaac and some of those First Light filmmakers
new talent, new media
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