Women Deliver

Our biggest news of the month comes in the form of a film festival selection for Daughter, our award winning educational short film starring Katherine Langford, which explores gendered violence and victim blaming. It is only fitting that Daughter is heading to Vancouver Canada to be part of the Women Deliver film festival, within the Women Deliver 2019 Conference as the event is the largest conference on gender equality and the health, rights and wellbeing of girls and women. The festival runs for three days from June 3rd - 6th.

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Director and writer Sarah Jayne will not be in attendance, but instead she will work behind the scenes while in Berlin for another Daughter screening during May. In the hope of securing further screenings and opportunities, Sarah Jayne will promote the film's selection, reach out to organisations via email and social media to spread the word on the screening and the films overall educational importance.

Daughter is a short film just keeps on going. We are very grateful for the opportunities it's generated for Nexus Production Group, but more importantly we are always thrilled when it gets recognised, as the message needs to keep spreading in order for change to happen. For more about Women Deliver click here.

London Lifestyle

We were blown away when we were informed that London based high fashion and lifestyle publication The Bite Magazine not only reviewed two of our films - Friends, Foes & Fireworks and Daughter, but they also spotlighted the company. The article also discusses our move from narrative screenplays to improvised ones.

Check out our feature under the magazines The Film Review Directors Spotlight on page 128 of Issue 24 2019.

Mediterranean Love

Our director Sarah Jayne, who is of Maltese heritage made it into the Maltese press yet again, it was not the national TV station that broadcast us this year, but local online pop-culture news site Lovin’ Malta.

The press comes as the lead up to Friends, Foes & Fireworks screening at Spazju Kreattiv edges closer, and we are thrilled that our work got a mention, highlighting SJ’s roles within Nexus Production Group.

With the imminent release of In Corpore, which was partly shot on the Maltese islands, we are excited to show our work to a part Maltese audience in the hope to gauge their interest in Nexus Production Group’s work overall. Obviously being based in Malta, we would love a local fan-base who anticipate our films and that truly shows in the numbers.

Nexus Production Group look forward to the May 9th event at their favorite Art House cinema. There will be a talk on improvised filmmaking run by the directors, with an open to audience Q&A session, where the mystery of how to shoot a feature in one night will be answered, and much more. If you are in Malta, come join us by booking your tickets now!

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European cinema screening

Huge news for Friends, Foes & Fireworks in Malta! The film will have a special singular event screening at Spazju Kreattiv, the premiere cultural space in Valletta, Malta, on May 9th. The screening will be followed by a discussion and Q&A with directors Sarah Jayne and Ivan Malekin.

Tickets are now on sale through the cinemas website, at regular cinema prices. Catch this award-winning, completely improvised drama exploring relationships, love, friendship, and the truths we try but fail to keep to ourselves on the big screen. Book your tickets today.

First Impressions Released

Our latest micro-short First Impressions has just been released.

Mike West stars as Adrian, a man trying to move on with love and life after a messy divorce. He has a first date with Gabriela, a free spirited student played by Natalia Krekhtiak, but what type of impression will they make on each other? 

This is our second film as part of the Life Improvised series telling small human stories, entirely improvised, capturing the moments that make up relationships, the awkwardness, the joy, love, despair and more.

Check out a small 30 second teaser for First Impressions below and watch the whole film on the Life Improvised page here.

We filmed this in the beautiful Lower Barrakka Gardens in Valletta and are very grateful to all the cast and crew who helped get this made. We are happy with the result and are enjoying filming these small stories, working with new people, exploring the moments that make up life.

Enjoy First Impressions. And stay tuned for the next micro-short in the Life Improvised series.

Source: www,nexusproductiongroup.com

Double Distribution Deal

We are strong believers in financially supporting filmmakers and artists, enabling them to generate a living from their art and continue producing work that matters. So when we heard about IndieFlix through an interview with founder Scilla Andreen on the Indie Film Hustle Podcast, we were excited to learn just how and why this US platform gives back to indie filmmakers and keen to join ourselves. 

Now, we are thrilled and proud to say both Daughter and Friends, Foes & Fireworks have just been released on IndieFlix.

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IndieFlix is run by filmmakers, so they get it – unlike Amazon, IndieFlix pay filmmakers for every minute their movie is watched so it is a win-win model that increases the filmmaker’s payout as the company expands.

Learn more about the IndieFlix model and browse the wide selection of film genres on their website.

BERLIN CALLING

NPG are happy to announce that writer / director Sarah Jayne is one of three artists selected to take part in GRRL HAUS CINEMA's 2 week intensive "Screen Your Film" seminar in Berlin with her short film Daughter.

GRRL HAUS is a space for underrepresented female voices in the arts today, with an emphasis on low budget and DIY artists, and their cinema program is celebration of women artists, showcasing works through ongoing programs, made up of short films and video art, created by women.

For GRRL HAUS’s monthly events a mix of local, national, and international artists present work from a variety of disciplines: narrative, documentary, experimental, and conceptual. And it is pretty much the same concept for the inaugural 2 week intensive "Screen Your Film" seminar in Berlin.

MONTHLY GRRL HAUS CINEMA SCREENING IN BERLIN - IMAGE GRRL HAUS CINEMA WEBSITE

MONTHLY GRRL HAUS CINEMA SCREENING IN BERLIN - IMAGE GRRL HAUS CINEMA WEBSITE

Sarah Jayne will be attending in May from the 13th onwards, and during the two weeks, she has the chance to network at events set up by GRRL HAUS during the evening, explore Berlin and immerse herself in the city’s culture by day, shoot her own Life Improvised micro short and meet new people.

Two events Daughter and Sarah Jayne will be a featured part of are the main screenings - the first her own individually curated film screening (at a yet to be announced art space) where she has the chance to speak directly to the audience after the screening about the film. The second event is the main, GRRL HAUS CINEMA event, held at Il- Kino Cinema during the second week of the seminar, where all the artists take part in a Q&A after a screening of the films.

This experience is Sarah Jayne’s first major push of her work as am individual director, her first seminar and film networking event outside of Australia and an experience she, as well as NPG are looking forward to for many reasons.

Sarah Jayne hopes to document as much of her experience as possible, to create a small visual diary of sorts of her experiences. Of course, she will post regularly on her Instagram account. Let’s see if she can fit all this into her busy two week schedule.

Watch this space.

GONE WEST

One of our favourite short films, El Western, is finally available to watch completely for FREE thanks to the all Australian streaming platform Ozflix.

Screening at multiple festivals around the world and winning Best Western Short at the Genre Celebration Film Festival as well as Bronze at Worldfest Houston, El Western is a silly send-up of spaghetti westerns from yesteryear featuring mismatched love, outrageous characters, guns, quips, whips, and, naturally, a high noon showdown.

CLICK HERE TO WATCH. …And while you are browsing the growing OzFlix library, take a look what is still selling on the main page - our improvised, single night feature Friends, Foes & Fireworks.

Sign up to www.Ozflix.tv today and enjoy a great range of Australian film.

Life Improvised Round 3

One last shoot before we left Australia was a given!

We booked a night at one of Melbourne’s premiere five star hotels just for the Melbourne skyline views and got some of our favorite crew members together to shoot improvised micro-short XChange, as part of our Life Improvised series.

The third in this ongoing series of YouTube exclusive shoots stars resident sex-columnist at Maxim Magazine and award winning actor Vanessa de Largie as Yvette, an over worked marketing manager in need of a release, who orders a male escort, played by up and coming TV actor Frank Fazio.

Everything on the night ran smoothly and we have the latest micro-short in the can. Stay tuned for it on our YouTube Channel and also on our Vimeo on Demand platform.

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New Year, New Project

New Year, new film in development.

That’s right, while on a break to visit family in Australia we spent most of our lead up to Christmas plotting and planning a double shoot day for our new improvised, experimental relationship drama titled To Hold the Moon.

To Hold the Moon is an indirect sequel to Friends, Foes & Fireworks with Whitney Harris and Asleen Mauthoor reprising their roles as Lucinda and Summer, as we follow the relationship two years on.

What we needed to capture while in Australia was several images for a proposed poster and some footage for a teaser video as we prep for pitching the project to potential investors in Malta and apply for funding.

The double shoot kicked off at Lightdrop Studios Kensington, where our photographer Kristian Pirotta and hair and makeup artist Mirjana Laferlita helped us to create the concept art director Sarah Jayne proposed around the theme “the relationship between the Sun and the Moon”. Our team, including our acting duo perfectly pulled off all the concept variations and we all walked out of the shoot content .

We finished off the day shooting way past sunset with commercial DOP Daomay Keo and our talent on Half Moon Bay Beach. The theme for this shoot was more of a dream like sequence made up of quick shots, as if dreamt up by the character of Summer showing her ideal oasis with her lover, Lucinda. A short but sweet and dreamlike sequence to introduce our characters and tease about the storyline.

For now we work on completing both of these two creative materials for the film, plus the written documents and then we must move on to applying for funding through the Malta Film Commission, which opens in February.

In the meantime, give our To Hold the Moon Facebook page a like to support the film and also you you can join us on this exciting journey of bringing the film to life.

TRIPLE THREAT

After a headline screening on night six of the Oz International Film Festival, our improvised feature film Friends, Foes & Fireworks was awarded for Best Drama Film, Best Supporting Actress Jess Riley, plus Best New Talent Lara Deam. We were thrilled to have had the film screen in St Kilda and the awards were a bonus.

Actress Lara Deam was at the festival on the night representing film and collecting the certificates and she was supported by fellow indie filmmakers, Donald Percy (pictured below) and Naomi Lisner.

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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.

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Daughter screening at annual activism event

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.

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FF&F Festival Selection

NPG received news recently that Friends, Foes & Fireworks has been selected to screen in competition at Oz International Film Festival. This is yet another step forward for the film, which continues to prove that the set formula of filmmaking and indie film producing can sometimes be turned on it’s head and totally surprising.

For those in Melbourne, Australia who want to see the film, but missed the cinema run, don’t miss your chance of seeing it on a big screen at St Kilda’s Alex Theatre on the 28th of November 2018, where the film headlines night 6 of the festival. Further details and ticket sales here.

After cinema screenings, an international DVD sale, various online VOD platform offers, finally comes a film screening at a festival. The filmmaking world works in mysterious ways, but hey, why question it!

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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.

Daughter Educates through ClickView

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.

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Daughter Festival Selection


Our educational film Daughter, starring Katherine Langford is an Official Coronet Selection of the Queen Palm International Film Festival, October 2018 Edition.

Daughter explores what women deal with on a day-to-day basis, as shown through the eyes of three women who lead different lifestyles. The women’s lives become entwined over the course of the night and each affected by an act of violence.

We are thrilled that this film keeps on moving forward and this is not the only news we will have for the film this year. Stay tuned for further announcements in the coming months.

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GOING FOR GOLD - NEW FF&F POSTER

We are pleased to share this exclusive first look at the new poster for Friends, Foes & Fireworks. The change came about when we signed to Ignite Pictures in May this year, and our producer's rep Adam Horner made some suggestions based on his marketing experiences. What do you this about this new look?  Comment below to let us know.

Poster design and graphics by Scott Edwards Photo by An La shot at DCF Studios Melbounre Fashion by Pereeia Art Direction Sarah Jayne for NPG

Poster design and graphics by Scott Edwards
Photo by An La shot at DCF Studios Melbounre
Fashion by Pereeia
Art Direction Sarah Jayne for NPG

Director SJ's Television Appearance this Sunday

This week on Maltese DownUnder Marlene and Mark catch up again with filmmaker Sarah Jayne, who featured in season 2. This time round Mark and Sarah will be chatting about NPG’s latest films, Friends, Foes & Fireworks and In Corpore.

The interview just happened to come about when SJ and Ivan were visiting Melbourne in March due to the Friends, Foes & Fireworks cinema run at the Classic Cinema. Both Mark and Marlene from the show and SJ and Ivan happened to be in Caroline Springs, messaging each other on FB, so they decided to meet up a couple of hours after and do a follow up interview on the spot!

WATCH what transpired that day, this Sunday 23rd of September on C31 Melbourne and Geelong (channel 44) @ 4pm with a repeat on Tuesday @2.30pm AND Friday @12.30pm! Viewers outside of Melbourne can watch the episode on Monday demand via the Maltese DownUnder YouTube Channel.

NPG thanks Marlene, Mark and the Maltese community in Melbourne and Malta for the support.

Image is the property of Mark Avellino

Image is the property of Mark Avellino

Interview on Articles of Antiquity with the Directors

Check out the interview with co-directors Ivan Malekin and Sarah Jayne as they answer some life, film and improvisation questions relating to Friends, Foes & Fireworks and their film experiences. You can read the interview with magazine founder and editor-in-chief, Jennifer Sparkman, on the official Articles of Antiquity site here. 

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