Richard Janes started in the film industry at the age of 14 working as a child actor for Children’s BBC Dramas. During film school he worked at commercial company @Radical where he got to soak in cinematic masters including Tarsem and Terry Gilliam as they worked on spots for global brands. His graduation film received a Royal Television Society nomination and shortly after he shot his first feature film “FAKERS” which received a US theatrical release in ‘07.
After meeting his wife in Los Angeles Richard relocated to the states where he won a Los Angeles Area Emmy for his pilot “Behind the Lyrics”. He has high hopes for returning to the UK and is currently developing both US and UK projects including a bio pic on legendary leading man Errol Flynn which will go before the lens in spring ’09.
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November 17, 2008
A bit of good news for the industry at large is that the cinema remains the first choice for U.K. consumers to watch movies, according to research published today. A survey conducted by legal eagles Olswang in conjunction with research giant YouGov finds that the theater is the primary place to watch movies. The popularity of watching movies on the big screen continues because it offers a unique “experience” in a society where choice and control are becoming increasingly important. DVD came in second with 53% spending at least an hour a week watching movies from DVD’s and 41% watching TV shows from DVD for at least an hour a week.
This is all great! But, what we have been failing to do is to get our home audience interested in home grown movies. With such a great market (historically the UK has been one of the best markets for a growing cinema audience when other territories like the US see a decline) we really NEED to get people seeing British movies.
So for my next few blogs I’m going to look at how the British film Industry can become the GREAT BRITISH FILM INDUSTRY… I really believe it can be done - we’ve got BRILLIANT stories to tell, perhaps the best crews in the world, a huge amount of talented ‘Star’ actors who mean something to financiers AND an audience who loves movies and spend money going to the movie theater - and yet the British Film Industry is a part time beast that fails more than it succeeds.
And my fix isn’t bringing back the days of HUGE tax incentives that Prime Minister Blair and Brown cut down with out any notice - my fixes are long term. One day, if it hasn’t been sorted out before I can get to the level I need to be, I’ll rejuvinate the British Film Industry… Then it’ll be Sir Richard Janes…
Toodle Pip for now.
P.S. - Sorry for the two week break. I’ve been working hard on the Disney screenplay and we’ve also been working on a new advertising format for the blog site. As you can see from above my page is the test page and we haven’t got it right just yet. Oh… and we’ve just launched a new blog community in England. You can see it here: www.FoodBloggers.co.uk - next month we’ll be launching a community for music, gardening and the fashion industry. It certainly is ALL happening 
October 25, 2008
For Filmmakers there is some hope in the economic turmoil that we are experiencing. Yesterday the UK announced a drop in Gross domestic product of 0.5 percent from the second quarter, the first contraction in 16 years. Why is this a good thing? Well in many ways is it not. However, if you a British and have a film to sell internationally, you’ll have a big smile.My first movie, Fakers, cost a total, all in, of just under a million pounds. After the Sale and Lease back of the movie, which accounted for 20% of my budget, and the investors utilizing a tax deferment credit called the Enterprise Investment Scheme which yielded them around 40% of their original investment; this leaves a break even point for the film of around £480,000. But what does that have to do with GDP????
All films are sold in dollars! Yep, that is right. So for the past few years in order to break even I’ve had to recoup $960,000 on sales. But with the announcement that the UK will be the first to officially hit a recession, the exchange rate has shifted dramatically. So now I only have to sell the film for $748,800. And our expected sales doesn’t change. I’m currently waiting on around $150,000 of income on the movie and I am very very pleased I wasn’t paid it two months ago.
So, if you’ve got a film and (at least this week) you are British, the down turn is great! But what about other filmmakers? I believe you are in luck too! What do people do when they can’t afford expensive sports tickets, holidays, nice meals out? They go to the movies! So, hopefully we’ll be seeing an increase in global ticket sales. England is one of the only countries that has seen an increase in movie theatre attendance in recent years. Every other territory outside of the Asian markets are falling - so this could be a real boost for filmmakers. We just have to hope that the studios, who are now owned by huge conglomerates who are really struggling, will not hold the studios back from meeting the demand.
Always look for the silver lining.
October 18, 2008
I have just come back from five weeks living in Michigan. Clean air, cheap cheap property (a four bedroom home fifty meters from the lake front was $300,000), fresh fish with low mercury content and wonderful wonderful small villages where people don’t honk their horns, drive at a good pace, and nearly always smile and wave as they see you walking. So do you really need to live in Los Angeles?
After my first trip to La La Land in 2003 and finding representation with CAA I commuted back and forth between London and LA on a fairly regularly basis. When ever my agent felt it would be good for me to go pitch in a room I would jump on the plane and fly over for a week. Often that week would then stretch to three. It was expensive, but thanks to friends and friends of friends I had places to stay and lots of things to do in the little downtime I had. I love LA but I also love London and had never seen myself living full time over here. That was until I met my wife, whose job meant she could only be based here. So I made the move. Two children later and my wife now directing documentaries which means she doesn’t need to be based in LA I find myself asking the question, ‘Do I (we) need to live in Los Angeles?’
So I’ve experienced both sides of the ‘Do I need to Live in Los Angeles’ question. The main problem with living in London is that there just aren’t that many movies made. I’ll go into that whole UK situation in another blog. But needless to say my own personal thinking is that the UK has an amazing talent and infrastructure, it just needs to work out what voices make it unique and create a viable distribution outlet so that it isn’t relying on US companies or competing with US product. If I had stayed in England and never made it out to the US I would probably be making TV right now.
So for me coming out to Hollywood was a must. But I never thought I would live here and, to be honest, I think, more often than not, that its better (career wise) that I don’t. And here is why:
1.) As I was only here for a week it created a ‘we’ve got to see him’ mentality. When you restrict someone’s access to something they feel they need it more.
2.) I was different. A real British director. Therefore I think there was an element where executives felt I could be discovered!
3.) When I lived in London and flew to LA for a week I’d be seen as a person you can not reschedule.
But I do live in Los Angeles. Right slap bang in the middle. Three blocks east and two blocks south of Beverly Hills. Don’t get me wrong the past three years living here I have achieved things that I would never have been able to back in the UK and I would 100% suggest that, if possible, other directors come out here to live. But why then would I suggest they come out here:
1.) Rather than just meeting the executives you meet and begin to socialize with the assistants and junior creative execs. People who will be making the decisions in the future. People you can grow with.
2.) There is so so so much work out here. Admittedly, you can spend a lot of time, as I have, in the development process (or development hell) but you get to learn a lot about developing all types of projects. A skill that only a hand full of people in the UK have.
3.) You get to spend time with other writers, directors, actors. People whom you can bounce ideas off of and, again, grow with. It’s like being back at film school again where you all have a common goal… But this time it is a city!
4.) It can make you more valuable back in the UK. You know and have contacts with most companies developing, funding, distributing movies in the US. (Although one British agent once said I shouldn’t be in LA just sitting by a pool waiting for my career to happen - hummmmmmm, a nice insight into some of the established old school in Britain.)
5.) And, if you are really really really lucky you can find yourself and AMAZING life partner as I have.
So, has my time living in Los Angeles come to an end???? Hang on… that’s the phone… Disney want me to write a movie for them… What, I’ve got to be in Los Angeles for the next four to six months… Right then… I guess I’m going to put off thinking about any move until March. I’ll keep you posted with how the script is going.
As always feel free to post comments, suggestions or questions…
P.S. - Sorry for the lack of blogging over the last 5 weeks. Whilst the house we stayed in in Michigan was amazing the internet connection was not. After loosing two blogs I thought I’d hold off until I got back to LA!
August 31, 2008
Over the last few years it has become more and more common place to have a fully fleshed out directors treatment when pitching to direct movies. This will include lots of photographs and a breakdown of how you see the locations looking, framing, lenses, colors, set decoration etc. It’s a way for executives and financiers to really understand how you are going to bring the story to the screen. Some executives love it. Some push it off to the side and just want to talk story. But, for me, it is something that really helps get deep within the story and show executives that I have a unique voice.
So, my job today, once I’ve finished writing this blog is to put together my preliminary board for the Errol Flynn movie. Corey Large, the lead producer, has already given me the job as he loves FAKERS, but we need something extra to give the financiers to ensure they sign on the dotted line.
For me this is the start of a larger book that will go to all HoD’s (Heads of Department) once we begin pre-production. It’s something that all creative’s can come back to in order to get a grounding in how we are telling this story together.
I first got to see directors pitches when I was working at @Radical. One of the worlds leading commercial companies. Most directors, or someone at the company, would prepare a look book for the advertising agency to show why ‘x’ director should get the job. They looked AMAZING and went into a lot of detail - which of course when you are only dealing with 30-60 seconds is really important. It was here that I also got to see my first mood video. We put this together for Terry Gilliam for a Nike commercial. Terry didn’t really understand how the game of football worked so needed something to get him into the whole mood of the sport. Here is the finished spot:
In more recent years I’ve heard of more and more directors putting together mood videos for feature films. One such director recently hired an extremely talented and visual director friend of mine to help him work on it. This friend of mine worked alongside the big director and two professional editors to cut a trailer of the movie using pre-existing movie clips. Now, this is a very expensive thing to do. All those salaries AND the edit suites!!! I’m guessing that it must have run to at least $10,000. But when you are asking for a studio to trust you with $130,000,000 they need to feel really confident in what you are proposing.
The only thing with using footage and photographs from existing movies is that you can look at if you are trying to rip off older movies and some may question if you are bringing anything original to the table. It’s a tough one! Anyway I’m procrastinating enough. I should get on with my own directors treatment. Next week, providing the producers agree, I’ll post a link to what we sent out to our financiers.
Until then, feel free to ask questions and make comments below. And please, give me a dig using the ‘Dig’ icon at the top of the blog
Have a great week.
August 24, 2008
I’ve been living in Hollywood for three years now. Some of that time I spent being represented at CAA (Creative Artists Agency - one of the big firms who look after the likes of Tom Cruise, Steven Spielberg and Christopher Nolan) management firm The Gotham Group and leading UK agency Casarotto. I’ll go into more details about working with agents and managers another time, but my focus today is on scripts that I’ve been sent by them.
I’m in the midst of packing up my apartment and moving the family some 3,000 miles to shoot a top secret movie for five weeks. We’re then back in Los Angeles for four weeks (and a very quick first cut) before we hopefully fly out to begin prep on my Eroll Flynn movie which will take us away for five months. So… I’m trying to get rid of as much as I can to cut down on storage costs while we are away. Sitting to the right of my desk is a pile of screenplays that are AMAZING but will never get made. There’s about ten of them. On the floor to my left is an enormous pile of scripts ranging from the unfunny comedy, the complete rip off and the ‘what the hell were they thinking putting this shit into development’. More on these scripts, which the studios have all paid good money for another time too!
But back to these ten scripts that I’ll be keeping in the hopes that one day one of their studio owners say “what do you want to direct next?” Last weeks blog I talked about great scripts that won’t get made because they can’t, for what ever reason, get suitable cast attached, but then there are also scripts that will never get made BECAUSE cast have attached themselves to a project. In my experience the majority of these scripts have leading ladies attached to them. One script on my right has Sandra Bullock attached and one has Reese Witherspoon. Both scripts need a little work but not a huge amount and it’s a crying shame that these ladies are not getting these scripts made - especially in the case of Sandra as the script she has could be a really wonderful heart wrenching story that could put her in the running for an Oscar!!!
Actors can only make a certain number of movies a year. Both in terms of physically and without the audience getting sick of them. But, with a good script being such a commodity there are many cases where an actor will attached themselves to a project to ensure they have a good group to choose from in the event that a bad patch of scripts comes through the door. Problem with this is that after two years they see themselves as playing different roles so a good script, that they once thought was perfect for them, moves to the back shelf. The studio has already spent good money on buying the script and they’ve then spent good money getting writers to punch the script up making it more suitable for the actor. So, by the time the script is put on the back shelf it can have $500,000 - $1,000,000 against it. At this price it makes it very difficult to give the project to someone else to make, as the script costs have become so expensive that it can only really be a studio that makes the movie. Very very frustrating - and sad for both writers AND the cinema going audience!
The other set of scripts on my pile are ones that I have no idea why they have not been made, but for one reason or another they just don’t move forward. The best one in my opinion is DREAM HOUSE written by David Loucka. A great great screenplay that was ready to shoot when I read it. It should have no problem attaching a really really strong leading man and getting financial backing at the $12M mark. But it’s been two and a half years since I was sent the script. With this one I didn’t even get a chance to go in and pitch. They attached a director the day I read it, although it seems like it might be a free assignment again. If it is, and anyone knows the Producers Daniel Bobker or Ehren Kruger do let them know of a fantastic British Director who could knock this one out of the ballpark!!! (Did I sound American just then?????)
So there you have it! Just one of the ways in which Hollywood sucks! Yes, Hollywood has a dearth of good scripts but the first problem that needs to be addressed in Hollywood is not how do we find better scripts but how do we free up the good ones so that they can be made - either independently or using other vehicles. If someone can crack that then their can be a lot of great great GREAT movies coming to our screens over the next few years.
Back to cleaning out my scripts closet… Ice Princess anyone????
