Scott Graham: The Director's Lab at Edinburgh International Film Festival 2008
Add a Comment July 1, 2008 | 0 comments
I didn't know what to expect from the Director's Lab. I knew that there would be six of us living in a flat in Edinburgh during one week of the Edinburgh Film Festival and that it would be 'fairly intensive'. So then, Director's Boot camp? Director's Big Brother? My experience of working as a writer-director so far has been months of writing on my own followed by brief but intense collaboration with producers, cast and crew while we made our film, before returning again to months of writing on my own. I know of other directors but I'm definitely not friends with any of them. I'm happy to say I am now.
My fellow 'lab rats' were Charlie Belleville, Hope Dickson Leach, Amy Neil, Rene Mohandas and Jane Linfoot. Watching our films it was clear we were all very different, but as film-makers trying to develop our voices and connect with the industry we had a great deal in common.
We began by meeting our lab patron and mentor Stephen Woolley in our flat over-looking the castle. Stephen has a wealth of experience as a film distributor, producer of films like The Crying Game and Mona Lisa, and as a director. Stephen is an incredibly intelligent and generous man who encouraged us to talk about our work and influences and then took us up on the roof so he could take our picture. I think this was when we knew we were onto a good thing: when Stephen Woolley wanted to talk about the films, our films, he had clearly watched, liked, and thought about.
The next day we met with Peter Carlton from FilmFour, Lenny Crooks from the UK Film Council, and Hannah McGill, artistic director of EIFF who welcomed us and talked openly about what they were looking for from British film. To really get the most from the lab we needed to be open about our work and ourselves and we could tell immediately we were in an environment where we could do this thanks to the people behind the lab from Lifesize Pictures, FilmFour and the UK Film Council.
During the days we had industry professionals come to speak to us in sessions that were open to festival delegates as well as in closed sessions for the six of us. David Nicholls, the writer of Starter for Ten, gave us his perspective as a screenwriter working in film and television, Kahleen Crawford came to talk to us about working with actors, Kate Leys gave an inspiring open session on script development, the writer of Festen Mogens Rukov spoke about the Natural Story, and Emma Davie came in to talk about documentary storytelling. Emma showed us a clip from a Norwegian Documentary called House of Angels that has clearly influenced almost all of the Scandinavian filmmakers I love. It was like a Strokes fan discovering The Ramones. It felt good to hear Kate Leys say 'there's no such thing as "development hell" when your script is actually in development!' and role-play sessions as distributors vs. buyers were also a lot of fun and got us thinking about how we were going to market our films.
In the evenings we had 'fireside chats' with Isabel Coixet, Paul Andrew Williams, Seamus McGarvey, and Olly Blackburn who all spoke openly about how they began their careers, their work now, and in turn encouraged us to do the same. These chats were some of the most rewarding experiences I have had as a film-maker.
Just to get the blood going we had to rush to 'lunch with the agents' and rush to 'lunch with the producers' where we confused the waitresses by swapping seats so we could spend sometime talking with each of the people there about our work. A bit like speed-dating. But these were off-set with some chill-out time with Peter Speyer who gave us exercises which helped us to listen and to talk openly about all kinds of things that I don't have time to go into here. But if some of the other sessions were food for the mind then Peter's were about food for the soul.
One of the reasons I applied to the lab was that it's hard to develop as a director outside of production. More than that it's hard to form relationships with fellow film-makers and by that I mean everyone in the industry when we're all so busy trying to get our films onto the page and then onto the screen. But it's relationships with people that will help us to do that and the best thing about the lab has been the relationships we've formed. Giving others a sense of who you are and getting a sense of who they are is so important. It's also a big fat relief when you discover they like Bon Jovi too.
So what's next? Pretty much just back to work, but I'm going to keep in touch with my fellow lab directors and there's already been talk of a reunion where we can get together and talk about our projects as friends. I now have two feature projects in development including one based on my last short Shell, so it's an exciting time. I feel very fortunate to have been selected for the first Director's Lab. If you get the chance to go on it next year - go!
Scott Graham
