Given the subject matter of this blog, it's not surprising that I love the idea of Irish/Scottish co-productions, hence my excited rambling about OUTCAST the other day. So it's surprising perhaps that I've just realised that I don't think I've written anything about Advance Party II yet. If you don't know what the hell that is, read on. If you do know, well, I'd like you to read on as well. It's why I write this stuff after all.
You may remember Advance Party was the initiative of a bunch of filmmakers to make a trilogy of films following certain rules (it's the latest follow-on from that Dogme nonsense), the first of which was the excellent RED ROAD.
Now I'm no fan of this rules-based filmmaking (especially not the Dogme stuff) but admit that perhaps it gets more publicity for some films that might otherwise not have had it. So despite my misgivings about it, I'm still delighted to hear that the latest scheme, Advance Party II, involves a collaboration between Denmark, Scotland and Ireland. Of course Scotland has already made a number of collaborations with the lands of northern Europe, but the fact that this time we're getting a partnership between Scotland and Ireland excites me the most.
I couldn't give a toss about the set of rules that have been established so go and search the web if you want to find out what they are (or see this article at Filmbase) but I thought I'd mention some of the filmmakers involved.
The ones I'm familiar with are Ciaran Foy (I saw his excellent short THE FAERIES OF BLACKHEATH WOODS) and Steph Green (the Oscar-nominated NEW BOY) but the list shows a number of filmmakers with decent credentials and every reason for people like me to get excited.
Then the cynicism kicks in. Looking back at the original Advance Party trilogy, to date we have still only seen RED ROAD. ROUNDING UP DONKEYS, the second film, is still listed as being "in production" with the IMDb quoting a release date of simply "2009". God knows if we'll ever see the other entry in the series. I don't even know much about the second film, but that's not surprising - go and read this impassioned rant at the Sigma Films blog and it'll save me saying any more on the matter.
So I have to wonder why, given how difficult it appears to be to get three or even two of these things out there, they think they can pull off the task of having eight filmmakers involved in the latest exercise. I personally feel that the scheduling of the original series was hamstrung by its rule about using the same cast members, so hopefully we might not have so long to wait between films under the APII initiative.
Good luck to all involved and I hope to be writing about the APII films before too long - and maybe even about the rest of the original AP scheme too, which would be nice. I'm as desperate as anyone out there to see these films but I hope that the ambition doesn't outstrip the means, and that the need for "rules" doesn't end up crushing the series rather than liberating it.
If anyone finds any coverage of these films, whenever they may start, please let me know.
You may remember Advance Party was the initiative of a bunch of filmmakers to make a trilogy of films following certain rules (it's the latest follow-on from that Dogme nonsense), the first of which was the excellent RED ROAD.
Now I'm no fan of this rules-based filmmaking (especially not the Dogme stuff) but admit that perhaps it gets more publicity for some films that might otherwise not have had it. So despite my misgivings about it, I'm still delighted to hear that the latest scheme, Advance Party II, involves a collaboration between Denmark, Scotland and Ireland. Of course Scotland has already made a number of collaborations with the lands of northern Europe, but the fact that this time we're getting a partnership between Scotland and Ireland excites me the most.
I couldn't give a toss about the set of rules that have been established so go and search the web if you want to find out what they are (or see this article at Filmbase) but I thought I'd mention some of the filmmakers involved.
The ones I'm familiar with are Ciaran Foy (I saw his excellent short THE FAERIES OF BLACKHEATH WOODS) and Steph Green (the Oscar-nominated NEW BOY) but the list shows a number of filmmakers with decent credentials and every reason for people like me to get excited.
Then the cynicism kicks in. Looking back at the original Advance Party trilogy, to date we have still only seen RED ROAD. ROUNDING UP DONKEYS, the second film, is still listed as being "in production" with the IMDb quoting a release date of simply "2009". God knows if we'll ever see the other entry in the series. I don't even know much about the second film, but that's not surprising - go and read this impassioned rant at the Sigma Films blog and it'll save me saying any more on the matter.
So I have to wonder why, given how difficult it appears to be to get three or even two of these things out there, they think they can pull off the task of having eight filmmakers involved in the latest exercise. I personally feel that the scheduling of the original series was hamstrung by its rule about using the same cast members, so hopefully we might not have so long to wait between films under the APII initiative.
Good luck to all involved and I hope to be writing about the APII films before too long - and maybe even about the rest of the original AP scheme too, which would be nice. I'm as desperate as anyone out there to see these films but I hope that the ambition doesn't outstrip the means, and that the need for "rules" doesn't end up crushing the series rather than liberating it.
If anyone finds any coverage of these films, whenever they may start, please let me know.
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Hi there!
ReplyDeleteFirst thanks for stopping by and the link to my blog. Sorry I get so emotional, tis very frustrating as some one who believes and supports these often lesser known but quality films and then poof-well enough on that!
Great blog you have here, fantastic info on some good films, will be reading often from now on!
Cheers!
Sue
You're welcome, always nice to see some more coverage of Scottish films, and I'm glued to your blog at the moment for any news of OUTCAST. It's kind of ironic that you've managed such good coverage from where you are given that I work a few miles away from where they've been filming and knew nothing about it!
ReplyDeleteThanks again!
Alan