We absolutely understand that choosing to work with micro-budgets you have to be mad on some level - hence we named our educational YouTube channel Micro-Budget Madness! Don't get us wrong, being a micro-budget filmmaker is not a bad thing, it just means that you have to approach filmmaking with a DIY mentality.
Though this channel we break down how to produce, shoot and distribute micro-budget films with examples from our own micro-budget films, as well as mainstream films with a micro-budget element. We share all our experiences, from festival tips, career advice, distribution, smart business practices and everything else in between!
Want to know how we shoot our improvised micro budget feature and short films with limited crew, budget and resources?
Then you must check out the channel, subscribe and don’t forget to hit the notification bell to get a heads up when we post a new video.
Just before the end of 2020, Clara Francesca was again taking part in press interviews to discuss her role as an actor and producer on In Corpore, our sex-positive film that looks at the grey areas of relationships.
This time around Clara spoke with The Fan Carpet's Marc Jason Ali EXCLUSIVELY and the video is now up on YouTube. You can watch it here, or find it on our MEDIA section. with all the other In Corpore media bites.
Our first improvised feature, Friends, Foes and Fireworks, which was filmed in a single night on New Year's Eve, has just been released on TubiTV. Could the timing be any better? Tubi is one of the most popular ad-supported streaming platforms in the world where you can watch free movies and TV shows online in HD on any device. With many of our American friends still in lockdown, you can safely stay in this New Year's Eve with Friends, Foes & Fireworks. Watch here (US only). For worldwide options, click here.
Watch worldwide now, including TubiTV.
With In Corpore being released worldwide this week, on Boxing Day no less (yay, happy holidays!) our New York based producer Clara Francesca has been snowed under with an influx of reviews, both written and through Zoom.
Back in Malta, it has been a task in itself for us to create a list of all the interviews Clara has and will take on leading up to Christmas and well into 2021 in order to market them all through all the social media sites for the relationship drama film.
It’s a super way to celebrate the film, which is about looking inwards towards one’s goals, desires of the body and soul and personal aspirations. This makes it very much a film for the holidays as we reflect back on a hard year and the fresh one ahead, while also trying to cultivate self-love and also keeping communications in a relationship open when we are doing so during a pandemic.
We thank our PR company October Coast for the hard work in spreading the word and Clara for taking this task on like a true creative champion.
All the reviews and press interviews will be posted on our Media section so check back regularly.
Happy holidays
Press for one of Clara’s Interviews in the US. on the 30th of December 2020
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.
In Corpore is the second ambitious feature film to be co-produced and co-directed by Ivan Malekin and Sarah Jayne Portelli and will be available throughout Australia on the Lido At Home streaming service from November 26th, with pre-sales opening on November 19th.
Entirely improvised, sensual, contemporary, and anchored by powerful performances by new talent from Berlin, Malta, Australia and New York In Corpore tells the stories of four separate relationships, each varied in their labels, each unfolding in different parts of the world.
In Melbourne the polyamorous Julia strays from her monogamous marriage; in Malta Anna hides a secret from her husband Manny; in Berlin sugar baby Milana alienates her real life lover Rosalie, and in New York Julia faces the consequences of her affair.
The film explores the nature of commitment and the idea of sacrificing personal desires at the altar of love – is it selfish to follow the desires of the body and the soul or is this the only path to fulfilment?
Even if it means hurting the one you love?
View the trailer for In Corpore go to the films official page.
If you would like to review the film, or to interview the cast and crew, contact Ivan Malekin and Sarah Jayne directly though this website.
It was a pleasure to have been invited to talk and present our documentary feature film Cats of Malta on Animal Diaries. The lifestyle show, hosted by Moira Delia airs live every Saturday night on the Maltese National Television Station (TVM Malta) and aims to “raise community awareness of the vulnerability of animals and the importance of conserving Maltese species and other endangered species through educational experiences”.
A short clip edited together by the film’s editor and cinematographer Ivan Malekin was played at the beginning of the interview, giving audiences a small sneak peek into this feature-length documentary and this was followed up by a chat with director Sarah Jayne.
The episode, aired October 24th, is now online and you can watch the full interview with Sarah Jayne below.
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.
Unbeknown to us we scored some media attention for the third time this year from Guide Me Malta, the film they focused on was our local cat lovers documentary Cats of Malta.
While we were conversing with talented Maltese street artist Matthew Pandolfino we were being watched, and so was the art. Matthew’s feline sculpture is famous on Instagram, well known by the locals and is hard to miss when driving along Sliema’s promenade. She sits proudly on a toilet block, looking out above Independence Garden (also known as Cat Park).
Some say that the sculpture is a cat god, looking out for the cats in the garden, but whatever powerful being she is, we were lucky enough to contact Matthew about talking to us on camera just as he was giving her a fresh coat of paint.
We visited Matthew on three separate occasions while the sculpture went from a coloured abstract design to the new luna theme. We can’t wait to put the edit for this section of the doco together and tell the story!
Check out both articles relating to Cats of Malta and Matthew’s cat overhaul in these articles from May 9th and May 17th.
It’s a crazy time, I don’t have to tell you that, we are all living through this COVID-19 pandemic hell and some of us are having a hard time more than others due to factors in our lives which existed before this hit. Some of us now are feeling the hardship suddenly wash over us as we loose our jobs, our income, our physical connection to others and our sanity.
To keep us going in lockdown and self quarantine we have been writing screenplays, developing ideas and shooting films. These films are short films which fit under our Life Improvised micro film banner and shot mostly in one location, with Sarah Jayne as the lead and Ivan Malekin as DOP.
The first one is called Hiding and is about a woman becoming more and more paranoid about the rise of COVID-19. She puts herself in self-quarantine as she battles her fear.
The second micro-short is called Hoping, and is a reflective look at our ‘new normal’ with hope for the days ahead.
Subscribe to our newsletter to receive these micro-shorts as soon as they are ready for release.
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.
It was very fitting that To Hold the Moon, a film about two Aussie women who travel to Malta for two very different reasons should end up being the feature for an article on Guide Me Malta. Not only that, the local news and travel site also shared a link to the exclusive teaser trailer of the European Improvised lesbian feature film, along with the poster. Click here to read the article.
Happy New Year! We hope you had a safe and memorable NYE and are ready to tackle 2020.
We are pleased to announce that our improvised micro budget feature film Friends, Foes & Fireworks is now available worldwide on Blu-ray via Amazon. Grab your own collector’s copy and watch with your friends, champagne in hand.
Featuring behind the scenes as well as deleted scenes, all in glorious HD, Friends, Foes & Fireworks is the ultimate New Year’s Eve film, filmed completely in a single night on New Year’s Eve without a script. How many films can say that?
Purchase your copy here now!
Through our newsletters, particularly in reference to our feature In Corpore, we have harped on about the importance of finding a niche for your film and building an audience from the early stages of pre-production. We have been working on doing just this and learning 'how-to' for most of 2019.
By having In Corpore connecting with and following suitable accounts on Instagram, we piqued the interest of one account – LesFlicks. And now In Corpore is listed on LesFlicks film database.
LesFlicks is Europe's first dedicated lesbian film platform that supports and lists short and features films about lesbian and bisexual couples on their website, and they also use their online platform to distribute these films.
We have not signed In Corpore up for distribution, as we are still in the early stages of plotting our distribution map for the film, but having it listed on LesFlicks definitely puts our film in front of the right audience.
Check out LesFlicks here.
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.
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!
Here it is, a first look at the second character poster for the feature film To Hold The Moon we are currently developing.
This is the character poster for Summer Alba, played by Australian actor Asleen Mauthoor, who is now based in London.
In the film, aspiring actor and playwright Summer is struggling in her career, with her one-woman theatre show failing to find an audience in London. So in an attempt to retreat into the arms of her lover, take her mind off work, and find herself again Summer spontaneously flies to Malta to join her partner Lucinda, an up-and-coming movie actor who is deep in pre-production for a cult-hit zombie film.
Summer, naive to the bad timing, clings to Lucinda and wants to know the future of their relationship, reaching for a way to rekindle the spark the pair once shared. Summer needs to deal with personal feelings of failure, lack of life direction, and faltering communication with Lucinda. But Summer's efforts to mend the cracked relationship prove more complicated than anticipated, and a heated new friendship in Malta confuses Summer further, leading her to new passions and heartaches, and, ultimately, new perspectives.
To learn more about To Hold the Moon visit the website here and sign up to the official film newsletter to stay updated with the behind the scenes news.
The poster was designed by Kathy Kennedy with photography by Kristian Pirotta and make-up by Mirjana Laferlita. We love it and hope you do too. If you do, share it around.
We just returned home from a three hour full technical rehearsal at MADC for our play Hush Little Baby, which is one of six plays taking part in this annual event. This years festival is set to be a beauty, kicking off on Thursday 5th until Sunday 8th September at the MADC Clubrooms in Santa Venera, Malta.
Get your tickets now!
Director Ivan Malekin leads the way in Valletta. Off to our technical rehearsal after collecting our prop balloons early Sunday morning.
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.
The latest interview is up and this time we chatted to Ben and Keith from The Two Gay Geeks on their webcast about Friends, Foes & Fireworks and how we shot this film in one night, totally improvised. This is one of our more fun and laid back interviews and we thank Ben and Keith for chatting with us and ChicPR for making this happen.
Listen here now and find the link on our PRESS section.
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.
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.