Martin Cuff Consulting

I am really really proud to announce that the Film Commission has finally launched in the Republic of Georgia. For more information on the new commission and its services, head to the informative new website at: www.filmingeorgia.com

And here’s the trailer of the forthcoming Renny Harlin film starring Andy Garcia that filmed in the country.

There’s an interesting article on the new pressure on Film Incentives (or “Bail-outs for Hollywood,” if you’re on the other side of the aisle) in todays International Herald Tribune.

Tax credits for Hollywood were recently expanded in Florida and North Carolina but are under fresh scrutiny in states like Pennsylvania, Michigan and New Mexico, all of which have new Republican governors reviewing film subsidy programs that were begun under Democratic predecessors.

No big spender has yet pulled out of the subsidy business, though Arizona, Iowa and Kansas have suspended or dropped their relatively small programs. In Missouri, meanwhile, a bipartisan review of all the state’s tax credits recommended that a film incentive be dropped…

Even New Mexico – which has arguably scored just about as big as anyone from their aggressive offering (really, does anyone actually think it’d have become so meteorically successful otherwise?) – is talking seriously about ditching their program.

Now, I’m no great fan of incentives which I think catapult participating territories into a bidding game that will only end when we’re agreeing to pay in full for movies that shoot in our homelands. But incentives have shown, time and time again, that they do actually work, stimulating jobs and direct local spend – at least in the short term. But in the current economic climate there’s really a horrid sense of inevitability to this discussion that doesn’t bode well for Hollywood.

Clearly I have developed Tourettes: since last night’s movie Did You Hear About The Morgans?, I’ve been blurting out all kinds of ill-advised and off-colour swear words at inopportune moments.

The Morgans starts on tricky ground for a comedy – an estranged NooYoyk couple, her wounded, him pleading – witness a murder and are whisked off, together, into the Federal Witness Protection Program in rural Wyoming. (Wyoming’s all rural, actually, but it just sounded better written that way). There they have to learn to trust each other and learn to laugh together again and learn about just how nice and homely the folk are in the state that beat Matthew Sheppard unconscious and left him strapped to a post – all the while unaware that the incompetent assassin is tracking them down.

Listen, Did You Hear About The Morgans? is not, on paper, a bad film. The plot is obvious, sweet, fish-out-of-water, town-and-country vignettes kind of stuff, Sarah Jessica Parker is (gasp) really quite touching as the emotionally injured wife, and there’s a nice enough cast of supporting players. However, what you’ve probably already heard about The Morgans is that it’s basically unwatchable, and that is all down to Hugh Grant. OMG – here comes the tourettes again, fuck fuck fuck fuck fuck – what the fuck was that performance? A role so completely at odds with the tone of the movie, so grating, so stilted, so shallow, so totally self-referential (Hugh as himself, basically) that every time he’s on screen the movie dies a thousand small deaths. Awful.

As for Wyoming, the movie of course filmed in New Mexico – allegedly because Wyoming Republicans (led by that charmer Dick Cheney) objected to jokes about Sarah Palin and the state’s venomous attitude towards liberals. As a result, the ranch that appears in the film is actually to be found in Pecos NM, the rodeo grounds in Galisteo, and there really is a town of Ray. It’s just not in Wyoming. As a result of Cheney’s political interference, 75 NM crew and 1000 NM extras scored the jobs that could potentially have gone to Wyomingans (is that a word?) Apparently the DVD’s extras include “an interesting look at how a small New Mexico town cheated for Wyoming.”

Jennie Punter in this week’s Toronto Globe and Mail unpacks why Hotels make such good film sets:

filmgoers spend a lot of time, cinematically that is, in hotels. From the luxury suites where James Bond pitches woo and thwarts assassins to the vacant inns where travellers encounter unspeakable horrors, from flophouses offering refuge to the ribaldry of bedroom farces, hotels are the ultimate go-to spots for a myriad of storytelling needs:

Yes? No? Read more here.

What a dog’s breakfast! And I don’t mean Sarah Jessica Parker. Or at least I don’t just mean her. The whole of Sex and the City 2 is a flagrant, farcical, wince-making attempt to cash in on the relative kudos of the previous film, and of course of the longer-running tv series.

This time round, under the flimsiest of pretexts, the spoilt, self-obsessed and increasingly unpleasant women head off to Abu Dhabi for a vacation of preening and falling about and whining and performing excruciatingly bad karaoke. In the process they do tremendous damage to the Emirate’s reputation as a tourism destination. And, like a fake Louis Vuitton bag – cheap, gaudy, inauthentic, dishonest and ugly – it wasn’t even filmed on location in the UAE. In spite of the efforts of the well-funded Abu Dhabi Film Commission, the production was wisely rejected by the censorship board and ultimately filmed in (an embarrassed and ashamed) Morocco instead.

The film’s utter lack of sincerity is literally gob-smacking and I found my mouth going “0″ on more than one occasion – though the gay wedding scene is particularly, excruciatingly stomach-churning. Honestly – and this is from someone who liked the first movie – this film is utter, unadulterated rubbish. It may actually be an affront to Islam, but quite frankly, it’s also an affront to common sense, basic human decency and to anyone who ever bought a movie ticket.

A year in movies.

Amazing things that Fan-based buzz can achieve. The Johnny Cash Project is a crowd-sourced music video, fashioned from drawings done by Johnny Cash fans, which accompany Cash’s final studio recording ; “Ain’t No Grave.”

Visit the site and watch the video so far, rate completed frames, and even, if you are so moved, add to the project yourself; the site features a drawing tool that allows you illustrate a frame from the video….. More at Mashable.com.

Who knew? The revolutionary title sequence for “Se7en” (1995) by Kyle Cooper was named by New York Times Magazine as “one of the most important design innovations of the 1990s”

Hat tip to The Redhead for directing me to this fascinating article on the Art of Film Title Design throughout Film History from Smashing Magazine;

Savage County a small indie horror that tells the tale of a group of teens who have a terrifying run-in with the mysterious Hardell family, will air on a mainstream network (MTV 2) on October 7th.

How did such a small film get such a big break? According to Mashable, the deal was this: If 100,000 people “demanded” to see the film (via the Eventful’s “Demand It!” feature) it would air on MTV. If not, the film was formatted to function either as feature or in chapters, so it would have merely appeared on digital channels with less reach.

According to David Gale, executive vice president of MTV’s new media division, the network therefore focused on creating a dynamic fan base for the film in advance, and getting the word out to them at a low cost. And, judging by the 100,000 people – and counting – who want to see the film, Gale and MTV have succeeded. This is a fascinating addendum to my current fave idea: 1000 Fans – how you find ‘em, how you keep ‘em, and how you get them to pay for your work. More on this from me soon.
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CineLink is the industry development section of the Sarajevo Film Festival and it’s designed to reshape and meet the needs and expectations of Southeast Europe’s film industry. Activities take place throughout the year, including Project Development Workshops, Industry Screenings and a Coproduction Market.

It all culminates in the Regional Forum that runs for the next few days at the Hotel Europe here in the city, concentrating on key issues in the audio-visual sector of today – sustainable financing, digitalization, funding schemes, regionalization, sales etc. I’m up this morning, presenting on Film Commissions and Film Incentive Programmes and their applicability in Eastern Europe.