Martin Cuff Consulting

Whilst on the subject of remakes, the US version of the creepy Swedish chiller “Let the Right One In” is also nearing our screens. Made by the same guy who made Cloverfield, it was originally slated to shoot in beloved Colorado, but ended instead in incentives-rich New Mexico. Clearly understanding the maxim that “No Publicity is Bad Publicity”, the host town of Los Alamos has even allowed itself to be named in a movie that features (if the original was anything to go by) alcoholism, child abuse, bullying, pedophilia, poverty and gangs – let alone the small problem of Vampires in their midst. In the spirit of July 4th, I shall be generous and allow that Americans may be able to pull off English language versions of good foreign movies (even if Death at a Funeral sometimes proves they don’t even get the English bit right). The trailer looks like it rocks.

There’s a fascinating article at the New York Times about the Sandra Bullock surprise hit “The Blind Side” – a true tale about a wealthy white woman who adopts a black teenager and helps him to become a football star. Made with $35 million (including $5.5 mill of Georgia state incentives), the movie is currently topping $235 million at the box office and has garnered Oscar attention with Best Film and Best Actress nominations. I haven’t seen the film yet (American Football movies don’t translate well to South Africa, where we like to play physical games without padding and helmets) so I’m not blogging the location today.

Rather, I’m interested in my other pet topic – how the savvy filmmakers took control of their own destinies and created a movie with multiple levels of appeal, which they then rode like hell.

In this case Grace Hill (Media) took the unusual step of offering online sermon outlines based on “The Blind Side,” with clips that could be used in churches equipped with video screens. According to Mr. Johnson and Mr. Kosove, about 23,000 churches downloaded the sermons, laying an exceptionally strong base for the film.

It’s clever stuff. Read more here.

I’m in Tbilisi in Georgia for a few days, working with the Georgian National Film Center. Had a remarkable meeting with the Minister of Culture this morning; there’s clearly a genuine commitment to attracting international productions, creating jobs, passing on skills. I’m loving it. Of course, they had me at the deep fried cheese…..

Having watched it again last night, I’ve decided that The Prestige is a very good movie.

Beginning in turn-of-the-century London, it tells of two young magicians who set out to carve their own paths to fame. Angier (Hugh Jackman) is a consummate entertainer, while the rough-edged Borden (Christian Bale with a truly horrible accent) is a magical genius without the pizazz to showcase his artistry. They start out as friends but following a tragedy become sworn enemies, each intent on outdoing the other. Trick by trick, show by show, their competitive lust even takes them to Colorado, where they co-opt the fantastical new powers of electricity and scientific brilliance of inventor Nikola Tesla…..

And here I divert to the point of my irritable missive today. Unlike my previous entry, there’s kudos due to Christopher Nolan since he did in fact shoot The Prestige in Colorado for a couple of day - on the Georgetown Railway loop (amongst other places.) I assume he did this for authenticity, since most movies with Colorado settings generally end up being shot in Canada. I can rattle off several: As Good as it Gets, Alien v. Predator II, Blades of Glory, Catch and Release, the entire series of Stargate SG1 to name but a few. 

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In the greater scheme of things, how an interfering official in the State of South Carolina dealt with the filming of the new Jessica Biel, James Marsden, Jake Gyllenhaal movie Nailed is a lesson on how not to engage with the film industry.

In Nailed, Biel’s character Alice is a sweet, small-town waitress who gets a nail lodged in her head in an accident, and begins acting in an erratic and outrageous (read sexual) manner as a result. Uninsured, she heads to Washington to fight for better health care and ends up falling for a clueless new congressman (Gyllenhaal) who must summon the political courage to save her.

South Carolina was selected as the location for filming largely due to a competitive incentive programme driven by the South Carolina Film Commission. (The incentives are in the form of a cash rebate, paid to the production company within 30 days of final audit. How it differs from tax credit-based incentives is clarified here.) But according to Mattheus Mei at the Leonardo’s Notebook blog, the State’s unpopular Commerce Secretary, Joe Taylor, actually tried to block filming in the State, because he didn’t like the sexual content of the script. 

‘It actually took maneuvering around the Secretary and confronting the legislature directly that was crucial in landing the film in Columbia. It was so bad that last week the Senate apparently had to have a committee meeting calling members of the Film Commission, the Commerce Department and the film itself to count before it to discuss the film – including the Film’s Director.’

Now anyone who has worked at the intersection between government and film knows that there are a whole heap of objections (some valid, some entirely spurious) to the efficacy and applicability of incentives. And it really depends on the creativity of the sitting politicians to grasp – and manage appropriately – the economic potential thrown up by the film sector.

But as I discussed at the last AFCI Cineposium in New Mexico, there’s a little thing known as the Law of Unintented Consequences that always comes back to bite you: in this case, the self-important opinions of an (elected?) official.

Sadly, it looks like it’s adding up to a fairly lousy experience for the producers. Inspite of a production that involves at least two of the most beautiful people in film - AND features the luminescent Catherine Keener to boot – this hasn’t been an easy shoot.  Veteran actor James Caan apparently left the film set three weeks ago in a dispute with the director over the way his character should choke on a cookie (I kid you not) And then on Friday, the South Carolina State newspaper reported that The Screen Actors Guild had called all its members, including Gyllenhaal and Biel, on strike, after film producers did not keep enough money in accounts to pay actors. They’re back at work now, apparently, but my, I’m sure the producers will all have really fond memories of Columbia, SC……..

OK, so it’s been hectic and there’s not been a lot of time for movie watching. Instead, I did see the first couple of episodes of Holly Hunter’s first foray into TV, the oddly bi-polar Saving Grace. It’s part Walker, Texas Ranger, part Touched by an Angel. Though the drunk and wayward cop thing has been done to death elsewhere, it’s entertaining enough. The religious stuff, by contrast, is horrible, horrible, horrible. Fortunately I’d tivo-ed it, so I could fast forward through the crap bits – which is basically whenever the guy with wings appears. It’s set in Texas, though – which is really the reason for this post.

I came across this fantastic review by Sara Mosle on Slate.com, of the high school football drama, Friday Night Lights. It’s set in the fictional West Texas town of Dillon, and based on Pulitzer Prize-winning author H.G. “Buzz” Bissinger’s book about small-town Texas life.  Now, FNL is a show I haven’t ever seen, haven’t ever wanted to see, mainly because, American Football is not really big news anywhere other than, say, America, and too much “U-S-A, U-S-A” sporting testosterone makes me nauseous. But it would seem as if I’ve misjudged FNL…..  Says Mosle:

Friday Night Lights is….Texas as it’s seldom been seen—which is to say, as it really is. Virtually no one in Dillon wears a cowboy hat, and certainly no one under 30 does. The show has yet to show a single character on a horse. The only person depicted as remotely connected to an oil well is a businessman from Los Angeles, briefly passing through, representing faraway interests…..

….Hand-held cameras follow actors around on location, as they go about what appears to be their actual lives—to the gas station, to the grocery store, to the local diner, into one another’s homes. The cameras even ride in the car, like passengers, staring out at the passing scenery.

The show shoots in and around Austin, using city locations rather than sets, in order to build authenticity. (though this was a close call; filming nearly moved to New Mexico when much-hoped-for Texas film incentives were initially not forthcoming.)

If only for the realistic portrayal of modern America, I really think I must check this series out…..

Durban’s getting a lot of good word-of-mouth as a production location; the Durban Film Office, its staff and its website are well thought of by the SA industry generally.

Made in Durban: Blood Diamond

But here’s more good news that I missed late last week, reported in the Natal Mercury on Feb 15th; in the flurry of media surrounding the announcement of city funding for the Dreamworld Studio in Cape Town, Durban-based movie supremo Anant Singh – a key partner in the project – has also reconfirmed his commitment to building a complimentary studio in Durban, on the site of the old Marine Parade Military Base.

Martin Cuff Consulting worked with Videovision on a Feasibility Assessment of the site last year, and we were pretty impressed with the potential of the site. It also bodes well considering the latest tranche of incentives introduced by the Department of Trade and Industry last week.