MICROWAVE/CASH FOR FEATURES

If you haven’t the £90 million to make a Batman film, you must think smaller. Do that, come up with an idea costing, say, £100,000, and, presto, you can start shooting because Film London wants to give you money.

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The agency, which promotes London as a location for filmmakers, is looking for ten projects to compete for funding, as part of its innovative Microwave scheme.

The entry deadline is Friday, September 26th, and the key elements are a tightly focused script and short production schedule.

These demands are familiar to every short filmmakers, making Microwave ideally suited to teams who have already shot a short and want to move up to a proper feature, albeit it one without many car crashes or outlandish stunts.

Microwave can offer up to £75,000 maximum per project in exceptional circumstances, though typically awards are in the region of £50,000.

The scheme is now in its third year and stands out because it offers much more than financial support, beginning with mentoring from industry pros.

It works this way: Film London chooses ten projects to take part in a Microschool’, a four day event where the film-makers will receive practical advice from experts about the process of getting projects from page to screen.

Then all ten will take part in a competitive pitch where up to five of the projects will be greenlit for production.

Two films have already been completed under Microwave - Eran Creevy’s story of a Muslim crack cocaine dealer, Shifty, and Steven Sheil’s contemporary horror, Mum & Dad (a hit at this year’s Edinburgh International Film Festival) – and should be released in the next few months.

Three further films are in pre-production: dark psychological thriller, Analogue, to be directed by Suki Singh; Jes Benstock’s Alternative Miss World documentary, The British Guide to Showing Off ; and Freestyle, a teen romance based around the world of freestyle basketball, to be directed by Kolton Lee.

Maggie Ellis, Head of Production at Film London, says. With a shortlist of only ten projects, the new applicants need to demonstrate not only that they have a good script idea with commercial legs, but also that they have the talent, commitment and determination to make it go all the way to the screen. So we are looking forward to being impressed!

Application forms for the competition are online at www.filmlondon.org.uk/microbudget.

Film London has also launched a new website www.filmlondon.org.uk/microwave which gives practical advice on all aspects of micro-budget film-making and provides an online forum for the film-makers.

Posted July 21, 2006.