Balkan Film Roniti First Festival Selection

We’re thrilled to announce that our 15 min Croatian language film, Roniti has been selected for the 21st IN THE PALACE International Short Film Festival.

Part of NPG’s Life Improvised Series, the performances by the small cast were improvised, working off a concept written by Ivan Malekin. The story for Roniti was inspired by summers watching divers at Kolovare beach in Zadar and explores the tension filled relationship between a mother and her teenage daughter while away on a weekend trip.

IN THE PALACE IFF is an Academy Award qualifying film festival that has been running for 22 years and takes place at the Palace of Culture, in the town of Pernik, Bulgaria from June 29th to July 6th, 2024.

At this stage we are not sure when Roniti will screen, but we are planning to be in attendance.

Roniti trailer

NPG's 24 Hour Feature Film Friends, Foes & Fireworks Lands on Pay TV Platform Pickx

We're happy to announce you will soon be able to stream Friends, Foes & Fireworks in Belgium, as the ink has just dried on a deal to bring our 2018 mumblecore drama to Pay TV platform Pickx.

For us it highlights the long shelf life of a film with FF&F now six years old but still attracting new platforms and ways to watch.    

IN CORPORE & APPLETV

Our sensual, sex-positive, female led film, which delves deep into the grey areas of relationships is now streaming on AppleTV.

This news comes just a couple of weeks after the film landing on VUDU and we can’t be any more happy with this great news. Since its 2021 release, In Corpore has become available on a number of other platforms. Check them out here.

Life Improvised: Applause

While visiting New York during late October we got together with NPG team member and favourite hard-working collaborator Clara Francesca, as well as our DOP from In Corpore, George M. Ivanoff, to shoot our eleventh Life Improvised short film called Applause.

The story was inspired by a mash up of real encounters and conversations with an "actor" we knew many moons ago. 

Applause is an exploration of what it looks like when the line of professionalism and friendship becomes blurred due to one friend using the other selfishly for her own career gain. 

The shoot took place in the picturesque Central Park. What was great about shooting Applause (besides the therapy factor!), was that it served as a reunion with Clara and George, plus the chance to work with new talent, Sharni Bekt – an established NY based dancer and actor. 

Check out Applause below and be sure to let us know what you think by liking and leaving a comment on the video.

Life Improvised Micro Short Shot in Lisbon Coming Soon

We shot this Life Improvised film titled Encentro on our last weekend in Lisbon in early May, we can’t wait to bring this story about two friends who are keeping a certain matter from each other in order to save their relationship. It was a pleasure to work with Lisbon locals on this one, which will be released in a weeks time through our newsletter. Join our Creatively Connected monthly Newsletter to see Encontro first or subscribe to our YouTube channel for a notification.

“After a pandemic, lockdown lifts and life goes somewhat back to normal. Ines seizes the moment and invites her friend Joanna to catch up on life as they walk through Lisbon, but there’s something troubling Ines.”

Sex-Positive , Contemporary Relationship Feature Film Lands Female Focused Platform

It’s exciting to learn that the demand to stream our latest release In Corpore online has been so steady since we released the film on Boxing Day during a pandemic. We are always on the look out for new platforms and distribution options for the sex-positive relationship drama, even though initially we were unsure about what the response would be when we released this feature film, which deals with unconventional women and their equally unconventional choices for work, partner and lifestyles.

In Corpore is shown through a female gaze and is lead by three female protagonists, so it’s fitting that now the sensual look into modern coupledom has been picked up by Reel Women’s Network - an online streaming service for content made by women.

As a bonus, director Sarah Jayne is also featured on the Reel Woman’s Network filmmakers page for all to see.

Sensual, Sex-Positive, Contemporary Relationship Drama on Pre-Sale !

The time has come - the In Corpore World Premiere screening through Lido at Home is now open for pre-sale. The release date is next week - the 26th of November.

For now this is an Australia wide premiere, but we are working hard on securing a worldwide release before the end of the year. As you can imagine, it has been difficult to release a feature film in 2020 due to the current world situation, but we are not giving up!

Take advantage of the pre-sale window now, and purchase your tickets for the world premiere through LIDO AT HOME to see a film that does not shy away from presenting sex-positivity, while exploring relationships around the world and delving into the grey areas of relationships.

Check out the In Corpore IMDB, where you can leave a review and some shiny stars from the 26th of November.

Psychological Drama Wraps after Second Week of Production

If week one of filming Machination was a whirlwind, then week two was a hurricane with over 2kgs of worms, blood, moody neon lights, night shoots, early mornings finales and some wicked acting. But damn straight we had the best sleep deprived time of our lives in the process and came out the other end with a treasured film experience to add to our already unforgettable 2020.

Machination took four months of our lives to get from the outline writing to the wrap and we did it all with a minimal crew of no more than six on larger days and just a key cast of four people and had Maltese actor Steffi Thake featuring in 99% of the full-length feature. For those interested in our filmmaking process read how Ivan’s article From Writing to Wrap: Making a Feature in Four Months here.

After 10 days of filming Machination, we wrapped at Selmun Bay around 7am! Picture: Creative Creep Brand

Steffi may have had most of the screen time since the film is about her character Maria and her downward spiral as she deals with mental illness and her past demons during a global pandemic, but Steffi handled it like a champion. The lead actors performance was moving and sad to watch, at times her situation and reaction to what was happening around her was relatable, other times the absurdity of the situation bordered on dark humour.

So now Machination is now in the ‘to edit’ bucket, a task that Ivan Malekin will start taking on in the coming week, while also editing our documentary Cats of Malta simultaneously.

If you want to know more about Machination go to the films official page here and join our Creatively Connected Newsletter for news about the film exclusively here.

Australian Teaser Trailer exclusive for Polyamory and Relationship Drama Feature →

Thanks to CInema Australia for once again supporting our work, this time by sharing the teaser trailer for our improvised feature film In Corpore, and matching it with an informative article.

In Corpore, an improvised feature film exploring polyamory and relationship dramas will be released this year, with a cinema screening happening in New York mid-July.

Read the full article here, with a link to the teaser, or just watch the trailer on our Vimeo account here.

We would love to share more news with you about this film, so subscribe to our NPG newsletter for updates here. 

CBI Workshop in Basel

On Wednesday we will be jetting off to Basel, Switzerland to fill two director places as part of Robert Marchand's Character Based Improvisation Workshops, which take place all over the globe.

Lucky for us we were funded by the Arts Council Malta though the Professional Development Grant, which is covering a majority of the costs associated with this trip, thus allowing us to learn more improvised techniques for working with actors and developing scenes. We know this is going to be beneficial for us as the way Robert teaches is based on director Mike Leigh's method, which differ from our own process, so we excited about the possibly of utilising parts of what we learn when we direct To Hold the Moon.

Originally we were meant to be attending the workshop early this month in Berlin, but the German section of the tour never went ahead. Thus the offer to attend the Basel workshop from October 31st until November 5th was put on the table. As much as we were looking forward to returning to hip Berlin for a second time this year, we are looking even more forward to discovering a new country and meeting a new group of actors and directors committed to improvisation, plus learning from one of the top teachers of improv in the world, Robert Marchand.

You can find out more about the CBI workshops and Robert as a teacher through his website.

The teaching run continues

We are still riding high on confidence after a successful improvised filmmaking workshop for teens at Gozo Film Festival over the weekend. So it’s a great time to share that we have been approached by the Malta Film Foundation, who run the yearly Malta Film Weekend, to teach an improvised filmmaking workshop.

Our course will be for adults this time around and take place The Valletta University Campus, Sunday 15th September 10am - noon. For more details, go directly to the Malta Film Foundation website.

The whole weekend festival is a must for any filmmaker, with both short and feature films screening, plus workshops and discussions from local filmmakers happening over the weekend of 14-15th of September.

FUNDED TO TAKE ON IMPROV IN BERLIN

Contract signed! Grant application successful!

Thanks to the Professional Development Grant from Arts Council Malta we will be going back to Berlin in October for five days to take part in an intensive workshop on Character Based Improvisation with Robert Marchand.

We are thrilled to have been chosen for funding and that the workshop generously held two spots for us as we awaited the results.

This year has been full of wonderful blessings and we now look forward to returning to Berlin to further refine our skills and love for improv in film.

Director guest blogs on Filmmaker Freedom

This month writer/director/editor Ivan Malekin was featured as the Filmmaker Freedom guest blogger and his article about our improvised filmmaking technique, links back to our Udemy course and how we shot Friends, Foes & Fireworks in a single night, without a script.

Read the informative blog via the link here, which also includes a free chapter and a direct link to the course. Big thanks to Rob Hardy for letting NPG utilise the Filmmaker Freedom blog. Be sure to sign up the the Filmmaker Freedom newsletters, as we believe they are one of the best our there for indie filmmakers to learn the craft and get informed.

FIRST IMPRESSIONS MICRO SHORT

Late October saw NPG dive into a second Life Improvised shoot, this one titled First Impressions. The story for this improvised micro short shows an out of touch man who is doing through a divorce attend a first date with a younger arts student. Both he and his date make a lasting first impression on each-other, but not in a positive way.

Like all of NPG’s micro shorts under the Life Improvised banner, the film explores relationships, everyday interactions between humans, awkward moments and times of disappointment.

Just like it’s predecessor Our Lady, First Impressions was set in Malta. The Lower Barrakka Gardens (Il-Barrakka t'Isfel) in Valletta, with its eye catching views of the Grand Harbour sets the backdrop for this story and stars local talent.

Expect to see this film up on NPG’s YouTube Channel in January.