Shoot First Productions » Alan Brash

Learn screenwriting from Alan Brash in Auckland

Alan Brash — Thu, 15 Jul 2010 08:29:04 +0000

At Auckland Uni’s Centre for Continuing Education

If you’re interested in getting an introduction to screenwriting from a working writer and lecturer – i.e: me (I teach in Unitec’s Bachelor of Performing and Screen Arts) – then enrol for this two day intensive workshop on September 25 & 26 (10.00am – 5.00pm).

The good people at Auckland University’s Centre for Continuing Education are running it, and I promise it’ll be as entertaining as it is educational! It’ll take place in Auckland central (Short Street, near Anzac Ave).

All the details are here.

It’s coming off the back of a very successful 2 evening screenwriting workshop that I ran earlier this week for Unitec as part of our ongoing sponsorship of the V48 Hours Furious Film-making competition. I’m looking forward to running another course where I’ll have more time to go deeper into both the machinations of the NZ film & TV industry (and beyond), and how the screenwriter fits into it – as well as delving deeper into the “secrets” of writing great scripts.

It’s limited to 16 people, so get in quick!

If you have any questions, either email me here: info@shootfirst-production.com

Or contact Auckland Uni CCE directly. Their details are:

Phone
0800 UNICONTED (0800 864 266)
+64 9 373 7599 ext 87831/87832 for telephone receptionists, or
+64 9 373 7599 and the appropriate extension

Email
conted@auckland.ac.nz

Premiere Screening a Great Night Out

Alan Brash — Thu, 01 Jul 2010 02:17:12 +0000

Alan Brash at premiere screening of Be Careful...

Nearly 100 crew, colleagues, friends, family, film students and industry-ites braved a miserable mid-winter night in Auckland to be the first in the world to see my short film up on the big screen.

Four lucky members of the audience also scored bottles of 26000 vodka from McCashin’s Brewery, and Cable Bay Vineyards Chardonnay and Rose in a draw on the night.

The staff at The Academy did a great job and I thought the film looked (and sounded) awesome. The crowd enjoyed a drink beforehand, and many stayed on for a drink and chat afterwards.

Personally, I wasn’t drinking – mainly because I’d spent much of the previous night throwing up due to a stomach bug… (But, hey, “the show went on!”)

….

…

The Auckland audience who braved a cold, wet night to see Be Careful...

…

Here are some comments about the film from people who’ve seen it:

…

“A treat of subtlety, layers of innuendo upon layers of expose…”

“Really enjoyed your short – it was slick!”

“Excellent!”

“[My wife] and I loved your film, the ride home we kept on picking up on little allusions that you have made throughout the story. Very nice… Congratulations on a superb effort.”

“I really enjoyed your film last night. Hopefully it’s the first of many.”

“[My wife] and I very much enjoyed the premier of your first film. It was a thoroughly professional movie and was an excellent script with interesting twists in the presentation. Many thanks for allowing us to be part of the evening.”

“Very well done. You have every reason to be really pleased with yourself.”

“I liked the film immediately… the actors were great. Good direction and editing. Good job.”

“Well done, it’s cool! I really liked it!”

“The look of the film was great, but the story really stood out – loved the twist! What I admired the most is you had a script that wasn’t overly written, pretty minimal dialogue-wise, didn’t feel the need to waffle on and explain everything, good sh*t.”

“I was delighted with the way the film hung together on the big screen. As well as the quality of the sound and images.”

“A strong film… intriguing. The storyline concise and mysterious. The cinematography, acting, sound design were all very good.”

“Loved the twist in the story.”

“Big congrats… You must be thrilled with it. If I was more expert I could offer specific comments – but I just know it looked bloody good!”

“Congratulations on a great accomplishment! I really liked the film – everything was top notch: the writing, directing, acting, cinematography. It looks really good. It seems to me that it would be a great calling card for future work.”

“It’s everything a short film should be, and more. Well crafted, superbly acted, tightly scripted, and just the right length. Technical elements and casting are top-notch.”

“Thanks for the absolute pleasure of your film. Your story was unique, surprising, different. Your look and sets suited the story well. The pace and performances were very good. And there was a wonderfully bizarre and ironic and smart humor to the piece.”

“I loved your film. It looks fantastic.”

"One ticket to Be Careful... please"

…

Now we just have to get that response from some film festivals… and the judges of the New Zealand Qantas Film & Television Awards!

Premiere Friends, Cast, Crew, Industry Screening of my Short Film

Alan Brash — Wed, 23 Jun 2010 23:09:34 +0000

“BE CAREFUL…” IS FINALLY COMPLETE

If you’re in Auckland, come check it out on the big screen:

Date: Monday, June 28, 2010
Time: 8:00pm – 9:00pm
Location: The Academy Cinema
Street: Auckland Central Library Bldg, 44 Lorne Street
City: Auckland

…

Description:

An independently-funded short film, ‘Be Careful…’ is my directing debut. It’s a cautionary modern fable starring Craig Hall and Lisa Chappell, Lynette Forday and Narelle Ahrens. (Cameos from Mike Edward, Michael Saccente, Elizabeth Hawthorne & Milton Justice.)

8pm drinks; 8.30 screening. 13 minutes long. Stay for another drink after.

For cast, crew, friends, family, & industry. Get there early to ensure a seat!

A koha/donation (gold coin or orange bank note…) to cover costs would be hugely appreciated. “Ticket holders” will go into draw for wine from Cable Bay, vodka from 26000 and other goodies.

If you can’t make it but are interested, here’s the URL for the relevant website page. There’s a link at the bottom of the page to the shooting script in pdf:
http://shootfirst-productions.com/projects/be-careful-short-film/
And here are some stills:
http://shootfirst-productions.com/2009/03/23/2-days-down-2-to-go/
and
http://shootfirst-productions.com/2009/04/09/photos-from-the-2nd-weekend/

Come support an exciting new play being staged in Auckland

Alan Brash — Wed, 23 Jun 2010 22:17:42 +0000

Check out the following message from Wade Jackson:

I’m writing to let you know about a play I’ve co-written called Eulogy that opens at the end of this month on the 30th June at the Maidment Theatre mainstage (400 seats) and runs till 16 July. Eulogy is a dark comedy that shows the rise and fall of a religious leader told through the eyes of his son who may or may not be the reincarnation of Christ. We’ve got Scott Wills, one of the country’s top actors starring in it. Scott was in the TV2 show The Cult and has twice won Best Actor for his roles in the films Stickmen and Aprons Strings.

The play received absolutely no funding from local or national government but it’s been truly humbling the amount of people who’ve come on board to help make the show work;

Half a dozen mac operators and a video editor are inserting our lead actor into famous moments in history
The Orange Group are providing all props and set at no cost
Image Centre are covering our printing expenses
Kurt from Cut Collective has created some phenomenal art direction
Ruban from the Mint Chicks has produced a haunting soundscape
Misery is creating animation for the audio-visual material

Because we have zero dollars for traditional marketing we’re having to do it more guerilla style. This is where you come in! We’re asking people we know to send this information out to their work & personal databases/networks with a special offer. What we can offer in return for your support is a cheaper ticket price for the people in your networks. All they have to do when they book a ticket is say Network Ticket and they can get tickets for $23 instead of $28. They’ll see a great show and you get to be a hero by giving them the bargain! And yes, you yourself can also take advantage of this offer.

Of course if you don’t feel comfortable doing this then no worries. But please know, your support is truly appreciated. And if you know someone who has $5k / $10k or $15k burning a hole in their pocket and wants to be a patron and/or sponsor of an exciting play, please let me know – we have a great sponsorship package.

“As the Director of a performance venue that hosts more than 30 theatrical productions each year, Eulogy is a breath of fresh air. The work is contemporary, cleverly conceived, without apology and has the potential to leave audiences gasping. Eulogy is certainly not easy middle of the road material. It is mercilessly satirical; of our time and could well take Auckland by storm. I believe that it will be one of the more significant productions of 2010 in Auckland.”

Paul Minifie, the Director of the Maidment Theatre

I trust all is well and hope to see you at the show!

Best,

Wade
http://www.sacredprophet.org

Alan Brash helps bring comedy guru Steve Kaplan to New Zealand

Alan Brash — Thu, 03 Jun 2010 09:51:29 +0000

OK, so a bit of a boast here

I wanted to do one of Steve Kaplan‘s acclaimed courses on writing comedy as I’m working on a couple of rom-com screenplays, but all his courses seemed to be in the US (or maybe London) – most often in LA.

So I emailed him and asked if he’d like to come to New Zealand. Turns out he was going to be in Australia around the middle of 2010 and had always been keen to come to Kiwi land.

Next, I contacted the good people at Script-to-Screen whose raison d’etre is pretty much all about bringing international screenwriting experts to NZ, and before you know it, he was on his way.

If you live Downunder, here are the dates and if you’re in NZ, check out the relevant Script-to-Screen page.

I look forward to seeing you there!

Check out our page on IMDb.com

Alan Brash — Tue, 04 May 2010 18:56:05 +0000

Here’s our entry, updated in the last few days – check it out!

It’s in the Can!

Alan Brash — Sun, 02 May 2010 03:19:28 +0000

Sigh… the road to hell is paved with good intentions about keeping this blog up-to-date… c’est la vie.

In news since December (date of my last post)

1. Eddie and I parted ways and the music was brilliantly done by Rhombus. They brought real creativity to the job and also an incredibly diligent, reliable and professional work ethic – thanks guys!

2. Lisa Chappell came in and post-synched some dialogue and recorded the vocals of our Paul Kelly song, Be careful what you pray for. Despite being knackered from a full-on theatre show (The Importance of Being Earnest) in which she played a leading role.

3. Matt Aickin, working out of Ant Nevison’s sound studio, did a truly awesome job of the sound design and sound mix. The whole project has been given a huge lift with the addition of music and sound FX, including foley, room background noise, etc, etc.

4. The titles and opening credits were finalised. Big ups to Brenton Cumberpatch for his work. Simple, but very effective titles!

5. The colour grade was done, tweaked, and tweaked again. Thanks to the invaulable input from Dan Wagner, DP, and of course to Paul Lear, the fantastic colourist working out of Images. Again, the often subtle work he did with colour, contrast, light, etc all added up. Taken together it really adds to the emotional impact of the film.

6. Having submitted ‘Be Careful…’ as a work-in-progress, I’ve officially missed out on being selected by the film festivals in Cannes, Edinburgh and London. (Including the Director’s Fortnight and the Critics Week in Cannes.) But I’ve been keeping busy stuffing envelopes and courier packs. I’m waiting to hear back from:

- Melbourne

- Dances with Films

- Palm Springs Short Film Fest

- DC Shorts

- The New Zealand International Film Fest (including the ‘Homegrown’ selections)

- Sidewalk Moving Picture Fest (Birmingham, Alabama)

- Hawaii International Film Fest

- Hollywood Film Fest

- St Louis International Film Fest

And will submit to more when I’ve run-off more of the locked-off copies of the film. Keeping fingers and toes crossed!

Next step is to lock down a date and venue for the cast, crew & friends screening!

Another overdue update

Alan Brash — Sat, 05 Dec 2009 22:47:28 +0000

Guess it’s ‘cuz of the busy time of year, but I’ve been spectacularly remiss with these updates.

In a nutshell:

1. Got the pick-up shot re-shot that I needed. It’s the opneing shot of a child (or is it…?) drawing a picture while the lead character speaks in V/O. Nic, the editor, felt it didn’t quite work as shot, and given it’s the very first image we see, we thought we’d have anoter crack at it. Big ups to Daryl Habraken and Peter Simpson who shot it and provided the RED camera respectively. Thanks, too, to Auckland University (whose camera it was, and whose studio and lights we used).

2. Got the drive back to the editor to do the final off-line pass with the new shot.

3. Eddie’s now got a music-free version of the cut so he can start putting some music on it – including some composed by our female lead, Lisa Chappell. Can’t wait to hear how it sounds!

4. Have locked-in our on-line edit facility: Images & Sound where we’ll be doing our grade, credits, etc. I’m really hoping to get in there before Xmas, but failing that, it’ll be first thing in the New Year.

Oh, and who knew credits took so long to finalise!

Long overdue short film update

Alan Brash — Tue, 27 Oct 2009 08:16:37 +0000

BREAKING INTO HOLLYWOOD WITH A SELF-FUNDED SHORT FILM? IMPOSSIBLE!!

The blog has been shamefully quiet for weeks (nay, months), so here’s an update:

1. The off-line edit is looking better and better with each pass. Nicola (Nic) Smith is doing a superb job – fitting it in between actual professional, paying gigs – including a telemovie directed by Simon Bennett, produced by renowned NZ film & TV production company, South Pacific Pictures, who made Whale Rider, amongst many others.

2. I’m in talks with various postproduction houses to do the on-line edit. Details TBC.

3. I continue talking with Kahra Scott-James from Entirely Sound about the sound mix, and also using her recording studio.

4. Musician, Eddie Gaiger, has come on board as composer/arranger.

5. Last week we recorded additional dialogue from our two leads (Craig Hall and Lisa Chappell) and our 1st AD (Tony Forster) who recorded the lines of the judge.

Hope to update more thoroughly when I’m over this damn cold! (Grrr… sniff, sniff…)

Writers Break into Hollywood from Australia or New Zealand

Alan Brash — Sun, 06 Sep 2009 23:01:11 +0000

In case you missed the info about this great opportunity, here it is again!

If you live in:

AUCKLAND

BRISBANE

MELBOURNE

then you can come to some great talks and workshops in October.

They’re run by veteran screenwriter, PAUL MARGOLIS, and they’ll give you the tools to break into Hollywood as a writer from 10,000kms away.

I’ve had the pleasure of attending Paul’s courses and I learnt heaps. They’re as inspiring as they are enlightening. Unlike many self-professed script-writing gurus, Paul’s talking from the first-hand experience he gained in the trenches as a produced Hollywood film & TV writer.

Here’s a link to his site.

Check it out and contact Paul or me if you have any questions. I hope to see you there!