Can you be successful with a do-it-yourself approach to filmmaking? Or is securing grants, investments, and tax incentives the only way to succeed? Which approach produces the better films and what are the pros and cons of each?
Find out in our new Micro Budget Madness video on Youtube. Check it out and if you haven't already done so, subscribe to our channel to show your support.
Our human rights documentary No Woman is an Island is now available to watch worldwide via Vimeo On Demand.
This powerful 54 minute documentary brings to light many current obstacles and injustices working against women in Malta, including the denial of body autonomy and the current abortion debate, gender based violence and traditional outdated ideas and expectations based around gender roles.
After screening in women's rights festivals and even being part of a protest for change in the EU Parliament, we are proud to finally share No Woman is an Island with you.
Watch No Woman is an Island here.
Read Sarah Jayne's opinion piece about life as a woman in Malta here.
If you're an educator in Europe and keen to utilise No Woman is an Island as part of your curriculum, please get in touch.
Our latest educational class, How To Become an Art Department Dynamo, is finally released. The course is presented by Sarah Jayne, who has fifteen years of experience working in various art department roles in Australia and internationally. You can take the course through Ribbon Experiences, Udemy or Skillshare through our referral link. The latter allows you to watch and sign up to Skillshare for free (for the first 14 days) and not only view our course but watch thousands of others on all sorts of topics.
If you watch on any platform we ask you to please leave a short review and share it with others who will benefit from taking that class. If Art Department is not your thing, you can view our other masterclasses here.
Daughter, our 2016 educational film about violence against women and victim-blaming (starring Katherine Langford), was purchased by ShortsTV, a cable and satellite television channel dedicated to short film. Daughter will be soon screening across television screens in North America and Europe, and we couldn't be happier. So to our friends and readers who live in the States and Europe, look out for it and let us know when you spot it.
New year, new course - or new courses in our case as we have a couple coming out this year.
Here is news of the first course we are so excited to share.
Our biggest achievement and news from the last couple of months is here - we have once again joined forces with Alex Ferrari, author and filmtrepreneur behind Indie Film Hustle to bring our fellow creatives a new masterclass - "The Art of Improv Indie Filmmaking".
The masterclass is presented by Indie Film Hustle Academy, which is Alex's boutique platform for specialised masterclasses with industry and independent professionals. To be selected by Alex to have our masterclass upon this niche platform, which is taking off around the United States, is a real honour.
Suitable for aspiring filmmakers or more experienced artists looking for a new approach to film, this course will inspire you through the creative freedom improvisation fosters, and how putting away the script can lead to new discoveries, making your own work, behind and in front of the camera, fresh and exciting.
This masterclass "The Art of Improv Indie Filmmaking" will go deep into the following areas:
Directing Improvisation - Learn how to direct actors and stage the camera in improvisational scenes.
The Scriptment - Learn how to develop your story idea into an outline scriptment you can shoot from.
Working with Actors - Learn how to build your characters with your actors in a collaborative environment.
You can check out the masterclass "The Art of Improv Indie Filmmaking" right here through this link: https://www.ifhacademy.com/course-Improv-indie-filmmaking
If you have any questions, please get in touch via email.
Our educational film Daughter has been invited to be part of YouthMundus - A New Global Content & Music Festival Initiative for Youth, run and organised by a team of dedicated women who own and operate an international entertainment and media company, Inner Voice Artists (IVA).
Mid September, director Sarah Jayne and producer/ editor Ivan Malekin spoke with the Iva’s Founder & CEO Ina Petersen and Iva’s Head of PR Dijana Stupar, via a video chat in order for the IVA team to understand the background of the film and the final outcome we want for Daughter.
The chat was a success, with our goals for Daughter and IVA’s aligning perfectly - to use film to spread the message of how toxic violence against women and victim blaming is within our communities through the voice of today’s youth.
The first festival edition of YouthMundus runs from 14th to 17th November, 2019 at EX CASERMA GUIDO RENI in Rome, Italy, with Daughter screening in the humanity section of the festival, November 17th from 3.45pm, Short Film Screenings 6.
Tickets on sale now!
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.
This was a lot of fun. For those based in Malta who have not made the trip across to the sister island of Gozo for the festival, we say do it!
On Saturday 24th after a late afternoon swim at Ramla Bay, followed by cave exploring in Nadur and an alfresco seafood dinner on a clifftop, we headed off to the Cittadella, where we enjoyed watching locally produced feature film Limestone Cowboy. It was past midnight when we returned to our AirBnb to rest so that we could wake early to prep for our Sunday morning Improvised Filmmaking Workshop for Teenagers, held at the same venue.
This is our third year in attendance and each year we are very happy that we made the trip down from Malta to watch films and be welcomed by really passionate and enthusiastic people who love film as much as we do.
And to teach improvised filmmaking, the niche style we love so much, to young students intrigued by the 'no script' process we developed was an absolute blessing. We played games, filmed scenes, and went over everything from different improvisation styles to developing ideas to filming without a script and more. A big thank you to Gozo Film Festival, its volunteers, and festival director Federico Chini.
We'll be back next year. But we'll be teaching another improvised workshop very, very soon.
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.
Woop woop...a reason to clang those champagne glasses together... Friends, Foes & Fireworks is now on the Beamafilm library, and we are really thrilled with the news.
Our Australian distributor Bounty Films secured the deal for us and now our first improvised feature film takes a place next to our short educational film, Daughter.
Coming soon to accompany the film on the Beamafilm film resource page will a Q&A with us, the directors which will be used as an extra resource material to help sell the film. More news on that to follow.
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Check out tFriends, Foes & Fireworks, a film about women's health, friendship, and a new years eve reunion that goes a little off the rails on Beamafilm now (Australia only).
Daughter has been selected to screen and take part in Wodonga Council’s annual event 16 Days of Activism, with the film screening at Wodonga library on November 28th along with two other films, Lipstick (Directed by Harriet McKern, 1994) and Footy Chicks (Directed by Rebecca Barry, 2006).
The Facebook event reads, “Join us for a selection of films that explore a range of topics that face women on a day to day basis – from safety on the streets, how they look, what they wear, how this is viewed and judged by society and who they sleep with and why.”
The event is free of charge, suitable for 18+ age range and booking a place is suggested. See further details such as time and address on the official Facebook Event.
Daughter is now educating through ClickView on a Tertiary level. If your school and students need a film that educates on and discusses gendered based violence, victim blaming, criminal justice or gender studies, then this film may just be the educational tool you need. Click here to go directly to the ClickView Daughter site page.
After filming Friends, Foes & Fireworks in a single night on New Years Eve, completely improvised, co-producers/co-directors Sarah Jayne and Ivan Malekin were approached by Alex Ferrari of Indie Film Hustle about the potential he saw in their style of filmmaking.
Alex interviewed Ivan for Indie Film Hustle's podcast earlier this year and then the discussion about how NPG could take their improvised filmmaking process and share their knowledge in an education capacity transpired.
Indie Film Hustle is all about educating and informing indie filmmakers and aspiring filmmakers about the biz. Tthe site Alex has built is an online bible of sorts for filmmakers. Everything from interviews, courses, resources and podcasts plus much more can be found on the Indie Film Hustle website and it is a showcase of Alex's passion as well as a testament to his 20 years in the industry.
NPG teamed up with Alex to produce a video titleed "How to Shoot an Improvised Feature Film in 24 Hours" through online educational site, Udemy. With Alex's assistance and four days of shooting, plus a few months editing and a weekend in sound design the final product is here.
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