J. J. Abrams: on Filmmaking

Could The 'BitTorrent Bundle' Eradicate Film Piracy?

I hate going to the cinema, paying £10 for a ticket, only to find out that the film I was looking forward to was just in fact a clever piece of marketing and that the film itself was a complete waste of my time - I genuinely consider this to be daylight robbery. You should be able to get your money back if you are genuinely dissatisfied with the product. I also hate missing a film I really want to watch at the cinema. This is either because by the time you get round to it, the film has already been and gone (having kids is a killer for this), or the film had a limited release and is not playing at any of your local cinemas. The fact that you then have to wait a minimum of three months before you can watch it on the small screen just adds to the frustration.

I refuse to subscribe to Sky Movies, LoveFilm or worse Netflix as none of these providers have access to all the film titles I want to see. In addition to paying for each film you download, you also have to pay a monthly subscription, but why? I want to be able to search for any film and pay £3 - £4 to stream it in HD to a device of my choice. If after watching it I really like it, I should then be able to purchase a download copy to keep (minus the £3-£4 I have already paid) or be able to access it through the cloud for free at any time.

I worked out fairly recently that owning a video collection today is rather materialistic, a waste of money and environmentally unfriendly. Out of maybe 200 carefully selected DVD's that I have purchased over the last fifteen years, I have only watched about twenty percent of them a second time. I bought these films for the comfort of knowing I could watch them when I wanted to, but you can now probably download any of these films off the internet whenever you want, making a physical private collection completely unnecessary.

So for all these reasons above, I have recently found myself illegally downloading more and more films off the internet. This may seem rather contradictory from someone who is passionate about filmmaking (I do genuinely feel guilty at times), but as an audience member I am sick of paying to see rubbish, and as a filmmaker I am reluctant to pay to watch a film for research purposes (especially if you just need to see one or two specific scenes). To be fair, the films I do genuinely like, I often purchase on DVD anyway (Drive, Dragon Tattoo and Super 8 to name a few). The ones that I enjoyed, but don't want to purchase (Another Earth), I'd happily pay £3 - £4 for. Unfortunately downloading illegally doesn't offer that option and that's when I start to feel guilty.

However, I was delighted to read a fascinating article on nofilmschool about the new developments of technology company BitTorrent. It is launching the 'BitTorent Bundle' designed to empower those in the content creation business. I am not going to say anymore except that if you really want to get ahead of the game, as a viewer and as a filmmaker, you should read this article. Have we finally found a way to watch and distribute films online, legally, fairly and efficiently!

Final Design for Henry Bramble poster by Richard Davies

I'm very excited to reveal the latest and final poster design for The Infectious Imagination Of Henry Bramble, created by the amazing Richard Davies (TurksWorks).

20 years since the making of Drakkon

We are now well into 2013 and in a few months it will have been a whopping 20 years since I made my first 16mm film on location at West Burton Falls in North Yorkshire. Drakkon was an incredibly ambitious first film filled with stunts, explosions and special effects puppetry.

The final results may not have been up to Hollywood standards, but they were certainly no worse than Peter Jackson's Bad Taste. For a crew that were mostly made up of national diploma media graduates from Harrogate College, who had never made a film before, it was an impressive feat in 1993.

On the surface the short is now construed as a rather embarrassing and somewhat amateur attempt of filmmaking, but for myself and many of the filmmakers involved, it holds a much deeper sentiment.

Peasant (played by Derek Boyes) being confronted by Drakkon (notice the Alien 3 homage).

We were very inexperienced at the time, attempting something far more ambitious than most other beginner filmmakers. To our Media Production course leader, we were seen as egotistical mavericks who were heading for failure, yet through naivety, passion and sheer stubbornness we proved him wrong.

The experience bonded many of us at a pivotal moment in our young adult lives. It symbolised our hopes and dreams for the future. It was a time of innocence and optimism, when anything seemed possible. I look back on the whole experience with great fondness and despite all its faults, I am still very proud of the short film we made.

Twenty years later, it seems Drakkon has made a lasting impression on our middle-aged lives, so much so that on Saturday August 10th 2013, nine (maybe eleven) out of seventeen original cast a crew members, will be heading back to the enchanting waterfall in West Burton for a 20th anniversary reunion - can't wait!