Ohna Falby

Sundance 2012

2012-01-23T22:36:05Z

Yesterday we celebrated the premiere of Long Distance Information at Sundance 2012. The screening went amazingly well, a packed out cinema and receptive audience who laughed emphatically at all the right places and applauded loudly when it was over. Doug was so nervous he had to stand outside by the doors listening in. I think next time he will feel braver. He is also keen to see the feature film we are accompanying which is called TEDDY BEAR, directed by Danish director Mads Matthieson as beth and I watched it yesterday and it is an absolute gem. Many will know Mad's short film DENNIS which I believe also screened at Sundance a couple of years ago. TEDDY BEAR is the longer story of the same body-builder character, whose strange relationship with his oppressive mother has made him confused emotionally and unable to find a life partner to love (or even just to have sex with!). Beth and I just had to pose with him as he was beaming from ear to ear, so proud and happy to be here!

The first film I saw here was a documentary called ETHEL, an HBO documentary by Rory Kennedy - the youngest (11th!!) daughter of Bobby & Ethel Kennedy about her mother. What a brilliant film, and I was stirred by the audience reaction which was so emotional it caught me by surprise. I guess the Kennedy's have a very special place in the American collective spirit anyway, but I think this portrait showed such a very special woman and how she forged a most amazingly loving and close-knit family, and the most enviable marital relationship you can imagine (especially when you consider all the circumstances) that the audience were blown away and gave the director a standing ovation at the end. The Q&A session at the end was peppered with emotional questioners who made clear the respect they had for the filmmaker and her film's subjects. Also super instructive as I realised I hardly knew about any of this! Not to be missed once it's in the UK!

Since we've been here, we've been pretty darn busy & it's been really great. We've made quite a few teams of the films that are in competition here from around the world. We will be seeing L tonight. More news later!

Long Distance Information Goes from strength to strength

2011-12-15T09:31:27Z

I've been so busy it's hard to keep the news up to date, especially as far as LDI goes. People are calling out for it from all over the world now. We have had the immense pleasure of being invited to screen at Sundance and now immediately following on from that at Clermont Ferrand. There will be a special screening of LDI at Glasgow Film Festival, where the film is probably most at home - being home to both director (Douglas Hart) and lead actor (Peter Mullan) and I believe the rest of the cast too (Caroline Paterson & Alan Tripney). They will have a special retrospective screening of Doug's pop promos over the years as well as the film itself.

For the Christmas launch of his sold out vinyl Christmas single Atheist Christmas, written for LDI, Gruff Rhys will be doing a special gig at Rough Trade shops in London on the 19th of December. Don't miss it!

At some point I'll have to update the festival circuit list as it is quickly growing with many more about to come... But first off in the new year will be The London Short Film Festival and Doug is schedule to participate in a Q&A on the 13th of January. More details to follow.

Cadburys The Final Countdown - full length version finished

2011-10-28T12:26:30Z

This has been a busy year so much so it's quite frightening seeing that Christmas and the next year are only around the corner! Summer feels like it was only a couple of weeks ago (the weather does have something to answer for on that one) and instead of lazing about the pool I was prepping a little Cadburys commercial. Then came the Tottenham riots revisted and we were watching London up in flames on our little Lacanau TV set. We had to move the shoot when it became dangerous scouting the city at night and one of our location finders was mugged by 8 youths with baseball bats! Thankfully he wasn't hurt. Anyway fast forward to Friday and we were finally delivering the finished job. Anyway here's a link. And actually here it is in the context of the keepteamgbpumped.com campaign

The commercial was shot through Independent and the directors were called Jonnie and Trevor. What a lovely pair of directors to work with! Trevor had to rush home to be with his pregnant wife who in fact gave birth to a little baby boy on the 27th of September - so we were all glad he didn't stick around!

They came to London at the beginning of August and were surprised by our eclectic weather. It very soon became a matter of urgency to get them to the shops to stock up on appropriate London weather gear after which everything ran smoothly.

You have to watch Jonnie's humping movie for MTV called "My Humps". Not sure if it was on the back of that he was approached to do a Cadburys commercial. Maybe this lovely film of Trevor's helped too?

All night prep and night shooting again, which does of course solve problems like traffic and parking, but doesn't half make loos an unwelcome preoccupation.

Long Distance Information Premiere

2011-10-25T11:55:07Z

So that's it! Last night was the London Calling screening in NFT1 and the last as part of the London Film Festival. Both short film programmes were really good and last night I particularly enjoyed Walk Tall by animator Kate Sullivan. It was a really fresh little film with beautiful illustrations and a most charismatic ex Olympic OAP, a really lovely film. Our film was also really well received and it was great to be immersed in the positive crowd reactions.

The School Of Life screenings were equally enjoyable and Douglas got to meet Terry Gilliam who also had a short in the programme. There was also a beautiful little film in the group called Bird by Jane Shearer & Steve Ayson of New Zealand. I hope it does well on the festival circuit & I look forward to catching all the shorts I missed at LFF at Encounters next month.

Night Shoots & Philips Light Chain (Director's version)

2011-10-24T14:49:33Z

What is it with all these night shoots? Hmm glamourous? I hope I don't become an expert in them because they are ever so exhausting - not so much the shooting but especially the prep. Having to scout through the night and do all the prep (casting etc) throughout the day. When I came back from Argentina, I slept for 3 days. And here also is an article I found in Televisual.

I realise I never posted the Philips ad which went on air in July I think. This version with Director music - much nicer than aired version.

It looks like I haven't posted any pictures from the shoot either, so here are a couple. Director Philippe André in Buenos Aires at night (just before the downpour!) and the dream team Jan (Production Designer), Franz (DOP), Philippe (Director) & Steve (1st AD) on a bright sunny start to the last shoot day (again ending in a downpour!).

Picture Finished

2011-06-09T07:26:03Z

Yesterday we finished all picture post work on Long Distance Information. It is looking amazing (see the trailer) and I can't wait to start sending it off to festivals. The tracklay is done and now all we need to do is the final mix.

Michael Clark at Tate Modern

2011-06-05T16:15:56Z

Mike's back at Tate Modern in the Turbine Hall for a short 4 or 5 days as of Wednesday next week - this coming week. We went to see him last night & it was a fantastic unmissable show, so I can only imagine that by Wednesday it will be even more so. He has new David Bowie footage, new costumes from Stevie, new tracks, new moves & apparantly there will also be screening of John Maybury & Ceryth's films - but I'm not sure if that's separate. I'll have to read up what it says. It's a really exciting space to see them dance in. Anyone who cares anything about dance & in fact everyone should go see it if you can get a ticket! Book here!

Mike was looking great, the only trace of his scary lung thing was that his operation scar
was visible beneath his costume...

It was all marvellous and i can't wait to see it again next week!

A Day In The Life

2011-06-05T15:27:37Z

This morning we went to a very special screening of A Day In The Life by John Krish at the Phoenix in East Finchley. The screening was sparked by John's recent success receiving the Best Documentary award at the 2010 Evening Standard Awards and organised by his family to help raise money for Jessie, his grand daughter. Proceeds from the special screening will go towards her trip to Uganda where she will teach at a rural school for one year. Jessie, who is currently studying for her A-levels will be working voluntarily for The Project Trust, a charity that organises gap year voluntary trips to deprived areas.

John Krish made these four documentaries between 1953 and 1964. Not widely shown at the time the films have been rediscovered by the BFI who have restored them and released them as a feature programme. The four films that make up the show are: The Elephant Will Never Forget (1953), a poetic farewell to London's trams; They Took Us to the Sea (1961), a poignant record of a seaside outing for disadvantaged children; Our School (1962), charting the beliefs of educators, and the aspirations of the decade's young school-leavers; and I Think They Call Him John (1964), a deeply moving account of the life of an elderly widower.

The films were amazing and the event generally was a great success. I wish Jessie the best of luck in raising the balance of the £5,000 she needs to raise in order to be able to go to Uganda for the year - go to her Virgin donate page & help if you can.

And if you have never seen John's films - buy the DVD on Amazon!

Silver Dragon Award at Krakow

2011-05-30T08:35:14Z

Last night we won a silver dragon award at the Krakow International Film Festival for Baby. We were really excited to get the news as this festival means a lot to us, Daniel having been awarded the UIP award there in the past for Dad and being nominated for a European Academy Award. Thankfully Laura was able to jump on a plane to be there for the ceremony, deliver Daniel's message of thanks and to collect the award (which she was then able to convince security to let her back on the plane with to take home).

So far in total Baby has got into 37 International Film Festivals, been nominated 12 times and has won 8 awards.

Line up for June onwards is still amazing:

31 May - 5 June, CFC Worldwide Short Film Festival, Canada
2 - 12 June, Mediawave IF and Music Festival, Szombathely, Hungary
3 - 11 June, Huesca Film Festival, Spain
7 - 13 June, Hamburg Short Film Festival, Germany
8 - 12 June, Tabor Film Festival, Croatia
15 - 20 June, Kortfilmfestivalen, Grimstad, Norway
17 - 24 June, Cinema Jove Int Film Festival, Valencia, Spain
22 - 31 July, Guanajuato IFF Expresion En Corto, Mexico
23 July Fujifilm Shorts competition, Rushes Short Film Festival, UK
22 - 27 August, Odense Int Film Festival, Denmark
14 - 23 October, Ourense IFF, Spain

Baby Screening at The Curzon

2011-05-24T07:52:02Z

Baby will be screening at Curzon Soho on Wednesday 25th as part of Film4's promotion of their new shorts.

Last day's night shooting

2011-04-19T18:00:53Z

I have been in Argentina shooting a Philips LED commercial with Philippe André at Independent. It feels like we have been travelling around in the back of vans every night for weeks, so this sunny afternoon feels special. Tonight will be our last shoot night in Buenos Aires. I'm really looking forward to coming home and thinking about Easter eggs for a change.

It's a beautiful busy place, but hectic and crazy. I can think of nothing nicer than a whole night's sleep!

Shooting Starts

2011-03-18T07:45:05Z

We start shooting Long Distance Information on Tuesday next week. All our cast are now in place and they are all brilliant! We've confirmed all our locations and key crew, now we're working on the rest of the crew, equipment, props...
We set up a page (although still WIP) on facebook and a fundraising site to Doug raise more money to finish the film and repay the debt. If anyone reads this and wants to help, please forward the link to the indiegogo page on.

Dad now on Arte Channel

2011-03-08T22:56:01Z

For people over the age of 18 who aren't too squeamish... You can now watch Dad online on the Arte channel.

Long Distance update

2011-03-05T12:58:30Z

We have had another bit of good news. Peter Mullan has agreed to star in Doug's film. He has been amazingly generous and we are over the moon about it. Shaheen is now helping us find people to play the son and the wife. We have also found some good locations and just hoping to firm those up next week.

A Year Ago Today

2011-02-25T14:48:05Z

Jobbles Wood and the new headstone, one year on.