Amicus Release

Hi Bloggers

Here it is as promised. I was going to upload it on Thursday when it should have premiered in Nantwich but that festival kinda fell through due to a lack of uptake and I was looking through the flick and decided it wasn't quite there so I decided to re-cut the entire film, resulting in firstly the delay but secondly and more importantly a better film. Here it is

Amicus from Richard Stephenson on Vimeo.

Please leave feedback and comments :P

Enjoy

Week 1 Of Production

Hi Blogworldians

It's week 1 of production on three films that I am involved with . As you guys know Marionette is one, the other two are A Baked Mess which is directed by Steven J Cooper and the third is Trick Poker which is going to be directed by myself and Steven.  Below is the first of what we are hoping will be a weekly production diary:


Week 1 Video Diary from Richard Stephenson on Vimeo.

As you can tell things are really busy at the moment and we are all really excited to be making these films. I'll post more details on A Baked Mess , Trick Poker  and any Marionette news next week.

Cheers

Marionette

Hi Blogworld

Just thought I'd update with that promised "Marionette" teaser poster and a short synopsis are below:

"Jack Ridley is a smart man, a scientist to be precise and he has just lost his wife Claire in a car accident. Unable to come to terms with the loss he decides that he will cheat death and recreate his wife using the skills of his craft. However his creation is not his wife no matter how much Jack wishes it to be. The new Claire has plans of her own."

 I hope everyone can pick up on the steampunk-esque/sci-fi that I was going for in the poster. My overall hopes for the film are that it challenges me, "Amicus" was the biggest film I've ever made and this is bigger, much bigger! Both in idea and production, "Amicus" was made for about £350, with "Marionette" I'm pushing the budget to somewhere between £600-£800, firstly because I will need special effects, make-up and some pretty awesome props and secondly because I'm looking into shooting some footage on Super 8/16mm and a few other cameras. I think it's gonna be a real fun final semester, the script is slowly taking form, the initial plot is laid out and I'm researching the hell out of anything and everything that might be in the film or that influenced the film.

Anyway that's enough about "Marionette". The "Amicus" screening in Nantwich this Thursday is still go for launch, I think both Len and Clementine will be attending so it will be great to get their feedback on the film and will be a really great end to a fantastic production. Finally to all the film-makers or wannabe film-makers reading this blog I cant recommend enough the "SMoviemakers" Podcast (http://smodcast.com/smoviemakers/) its an hour long(ish) podcast basically interviewing filmmakers like Richard Kelly, the director of Donnie Darko, and Edgar Wright, the director of Shaun Of The Dead, Hot Fuzz etc. The podcasts really go into the making of the directors films, the highs and lows, and are really informative and show that even the best directors can mess up and make mistakes. Another good podcast on the Smodcast network is the Red State podcast which is kinda the same for Kevin Smiths new film "Red State" (http://smodcast.com/redstate/). Right I'm gonna grab some food and have a film binge!

Cheers
Rich

Twitter Times

Hello Bloggers

This is just a quick update as things have begun to slow down a bit on Amicus. The film is being prepped for festivals at the moment and it has been entered into it's first festival "Screentest Festival" which runs from 18th-20th March in London. It's now just a case of crossing my fingers and hoping it gets selected. However the film has a premiere on the 27th January at the Crown Plaza Hotel in Nantwich for the "Short Shorts Film Festival" the cast and some of the crew will be present and I'll make sure to post some pics here on the blog. As "Short Shorts" is it's premiere I've decided to hold of uploading the film to vimeo until after the event.

My final film is now officially in pre-production and I'm still slogging it out with the script and is currently going under the working title of "Marionette", a teaser poster is being created along with some concept art, so watch this space. The main news though is that I have bitten the bullet and joined twitter, I'm sure in time my tweets will be integrated into the site but until then you can follow me at http://twitter.com/#!/dmcfilm.

Right I have to get working on this script!

New Year, New Title

Hello Blog world

I hope you have all had a lovely Christmas and New Year.Although it has been the holiday period work hasn't stopped on "Wheels". A final edit is being put together as I type and I am very pleased with the film, the footage although ungraded looks crisp and appealing and more importantly the message I aimed at getting across does. However the title which as you may have guessed by this updates title has changed once again, as I have said in previous blog posts "Wheels" didn't really tie in with the film or it's message and "You've Got A Friend..." made everybody instantly think of the Toy Story films so I did a bit of thinking. I searched through every dictionary I own looking up words to do with friendship, adventure and escape and drew a blank until I stumbled across the latin word "Amicus" which means friend. The word sounds good, has everything to do with the message and has no relation to toys of any sort and as a result is now the official title of the film. Below is an updated version of the poster with a little more grading and changes.

Some other good news is that Folk Uke a small folk band from Austin, Texas in the US have given permission for their track "Shit Makes The Flowers Grow" to be used in the film. I can't thank them enough for their kindness and feedback on an early cut of the film as without their music the final act of the film would have been terrible empty and nowhere near as poignant. Please follow the link and check them out as they are awesome! (http://www.myspace.com/folkuke)

Finally although Amicus hasn't even been released yet I have started work on a new script which I believe will be my final film at university I am looking forward to a little bit of a break once Amicus is completed (hopefully in the next few weeks) as I am really excited and eager to finish the first draft and begin another film all over again.  I am aiming to upload a final cut of the film by mid January but until then I'll keep updating with what's going on as it's going on.

Cheers