I have only ever shot one-camera documentaries. Planning your shooting and shots help needing people to do anything a second time - but if you need to do something again do it.. Just don't fake things for faking sake - or not being truthful.

Hi!

I'll answer your questions underneath them if that is OK :)

Has shooting an Oscar-winning documentary considerably impacted your career?

Definitely impacted in a good way - it is always a nice thing to be able to say. I made a personal choice to stay in France with my wife and daughter rather then to move to LA straight afterwards to fully take advantage of it - but I remain happy with that decision :)

What should be the approach to making an independent movie versus a major production?

Do it your way - 'cause when you shoot an indie film you don't have to answer to a studio head / loads of people whom don't share your vision.

What’s an element of a movie that can make you love a movie despite its flaws?

STORY. STORY. STORY

How does your festival distinguish itself from other film festivals?

Great staff. Soul. We are indie filmmakers ourselves so we relate well with the filmmakers who have honoured us by sending us their films.

What kind of crowds does your festival attract?

Large, mainly international audiences who LOVE stories..

There's no doubt that some of us who went off to cover wars have had some mental health issues further down the track. It would be impossible not to - just the sheer emotional pressure of being away from home and doing all that sort of stuff is tricky enough but facing extreme personal danger at every single minute of the day, obviously does some crazy things inside your head.
But everybody copes differently. And of course, it gets worse as you get older and your brain seems to want to reflect on those things that you'd pushed away - and now wish that you hadn't seen some of things you've seen. At the time it you could block it out easier.

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The companies that send people to wars seem to be more aware of it now and there are discussions - but the breed of people who do this are a certain kind and they will go no matter what..

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And watching war films - or reading about it.. Yeah.. Been there done that, let's leave it at that..

We didn't really prepare ourselves to go to these wars, reporting stuff. Mental health wasn't talked about much in those days, although more than it was even less talked about during World War Two and stuff like that, of course.

But we were young and silly and living in the Middle East, working for an amazing company called Newsforce who supplied war cameramen to television broadcasters. We were young and silly, adventurous, sometimes very brave, most times very stupid. But there was no where we wouldn't go to ply our craft - which was to film and edit news stories for some of the biggest and best news broadcasters from around the war zones in world.
It was very, very exciting and interesting. I remember I was 21 years of age in Baghdad during Gulf War one looking around going my goodness gracious me. What's a kid from way outback Australia doing here working for the BBC?
We did it for I guess excitement, adventure. Ego. But that changed for me and I kept going because I really believed that I was doing something righteous and good. Filming starving kids in Africa. Spending three years going into Bosnia. Trying hard to bring the World's attention to all this stuff that was happening that, to be honest, not many people cared about. So no real mental preparation just young and stupid and wanting to do things that nobody else could or wanted to do. I will point out though, that the bravest cameramen that I ever worked with, were two girls from CNN.

They were braver, cleverer, more intelligent than all of us and it gave me an amazing appreciation that you didn't have to be a man to be the best war cameraman. You could be a fabulously talented camera woman.

Misconceptions about war reporting? A million. But the worst one that I keep hearing to this day, is that, oh people don't shoot at you if you're The Press. That's a load of horse waddle. We were as shot at, shelled and bombed as much as any one else. Sure. We weren't ALL killed, but there were a lot that were killed. My girlfriend at the time of Somalia, an Italian reporter called Ilaria ALPI was gunned down on purpose. So the misconception that we're safe going into a war zone is just 1,000% Wrong.

I'm afraid my diet is pretty much focused on Indie films that might not have had / or will have great exposure BUT two short films that came through ÉCU (as award-winners) are THUNDER ROAD and SKIN - both went onto be made into feature films and were great.

Hi!

Here is a cut and paste from the Academy's website. The doc that I shot (TWIN TOWERS) did a seven day theatrical release in LA.

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To be eligible for 91st Academy Awards consideration, a documentary feature must complete both a seven-day theatrical release in Los Angeles County and a seven-day theatrical release in the City of New York during the eligibility period.
OR
2. The film must have won a qualifying award at a competitive film festival, as specified in the Documentary Feature Qualifying Festival List, regardless of any prior public exhibition or distribution by nontheatrical means. Proof of the award must be submitted with the entry. The Documentary Feature Qualifying Festival List is available at www.oscars.org or may be obtained from the Academy.

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Hope that helps!

Our ethos is very simple. Tell us a good story and tell it well.

I have competed in a lot of film festivals, and been to many others as well. Full stop. I never appreciated the ones where the festival director said oh, we have a specific genre this year, be it films with only red cars full, or only horror films this year or only this or that genre.

We pride ourselves on discovering, projecting and promoting the World's best indie films. Full stop. And that's what we have been doing for the last 18 editions. There is no set-in-stone criteria at all. We think our audiences deserves the best of the best from the World of indie filmmaking - and from the widest possible geographical sweep possible.

We're open to anything and everything. Just make it great cinema. We will be announcing ÉCU 2023's Official Selection on the 2nd of March on www.ecufilmfestival.com if you are interested.

I think my tips for any aspiring screenwriter is first of all, make sure you read a lot of books. And make sure you read a lot of scripts. There are a lot of them online at the moment for free, full stop. You won't be able to write a great script unless you read a lot of great scripts. I actually keep the Steve Jobs screenplay on my desktop. And every now and again when I want to read a bit of clean, concise great writing. I open it and read a few pages.. And then like any form of creativity - even though we may be naturally gifted and all out geniuses - it is really the hard work that matters. And if you do not have a routine, I repeat, if you do not have a routine, you will find it very, very difficult to finish a screenplay or shoot a film or direct a film, if you don't work on it every day. It is all about putting in the hard work! The creativity will eventually flow from your fingers. Not on the first day. Maybe not on the hundredth day, but it will happen - you just have to keep grinding away.

Here at ÉCU - The European Independent Film Festival we pride ourselves on playing a slate of the World's best indie films every year. The stories are wide and varied, from many dozens of countries on the planet - but the ones that we play are all films that evoke a form of emotion. That to be is what cinema is about.

No doubt my first thing would be just pick up a camera and go shoot a story.. The edit it. Learn from it. Rinse and repeat :)

You know what I think the most best advice that I could give for young filmmakers is just to get out and start making films.

These days it's so easy to do so everybody's got an iPhone - please just make sure that you film horizontally and not in portrait :) But just going out and shooting ANYTHING that has motion and is of some interest and then editing films is the most important thing.

Editing is one of the most amazing processes in filmmaking and is crucial, crucial, crucial to anyone wanting to be a filmmaker, So go out, shoot something, come back in, edit it together. Make sure there's wide shots, cutaways reaction shots, etc.

Once you watch your edit (start on I-Movie if you have to!) you go back and you shoot something again. So it all comes down to get out and shoot something. Edit it, show your friends and post it. It won't be perfect the first 100 times - but you build experience and get better.

I held myself back for years waiting for the right moment - I wish someone had just told me "just get a story and go shoot it!"