Audiovisual Talent Week is an opportunity for emerging talent in the screen industries to connect with professionals from throughout the sector. We’re delighted that not one but three graduates from LFS, from the MA International Film Business course have been accepted and will be going along. Taking place in Barcelona in late November, the event is organised by the Audiovisual Cluster of Catalonia, and consists of workshops, conferences and networking sessions and a key central event where participants pitch their projects to industry experts.
We had the chance to catch up with Matthew Sive, Luis Kelly and Camila Basora-Oliveira to talk to them about the projects they will be pitching as part of the Talent Week and their experiences of LFS
Congratulations of being accepted to Audiovisual Talent Week, what do you hope to get out of the event?
Matthew Sive: After having to prepare many mock pitches for my MAIFB assignments, this will be my first time pitching a film project in a “real life” situation. The main aim of the event is to garner the interest of experienced producers, who could help guide me in unlocking development funds for my project Jew Boy. I’m also going to gain as much experience in pitching and networking in the film industry as possible. Even if I don’t manage to secure development funds or the interest of a producer, as long as I can leave Barcelona with a gained amount of industry knowledge and a better sense of where I need to take my project, I will still consider the event a success.
Luis Kelly: I hope to win! But If I don't, the experience will be rewarding on its own. Even If I don't win, I would walk away with the experience in pitching in front of a large audience and industry leaders, obtain invaluable feedback that will help me enhance my pitching and future formats, and most importantly, meet new people and build relationships that will help be boast my career and create partnerships for future projects.
Camila Basora-Oliveira: I hope to get some traction with Dance with the Devil among investors and other industry professionals. It would be great to have a successful pitch and leave the Talent Week with some solid developments to move the project forward. On a bigger picture, I just hope to strengthen my pitching skills, meet new people in the Spanish film industry (a market I plan to collaborate with in the future), and just get a tangible understanding of how the industry works. This will be my first professional film experience beyond simply attending film festival screenings and events – my first professional pitch as well. Simply being there in the middle of it all, experiencing the Talent Week first-hand will be such a great learning experience that I am very excited to have.
Tell us about the projects you are taking to Audiovisual and how you came to work on them?
MS: When I began studying film production and screenwriting at the University of Cape Town, I always knew that I would want to someday write a story that explored my own heritage and the lives of my predecessors. Studying for an MAIFB at London Film School gave me the opportunity to continue exploring this idea. I therefore decided to create Jew Boy as my dissertation project that had to be completed in the last semester of our degree.
It is an original feature film that follows the life of a 16 year old Jewish teenager Rodney Katz, who has to face anti-Semitism on a daily basis at his conservative and Christian high-school. The idea essentially began with anecdotes from my father's childhood as one of three Jews (the two others being his brothers) at a Christian All-Boys School in the conservative and majority Afrikaans city of Pretoria. Growing up Jewish and liberal in a democratic South Africa myself, meant stories of my father's own experiences as a Jew during Apartheid South Africa were always fascinating to me.
I have also always been interested in the idea of using one's own stereotypes to fight back against discrimination (a flip the narrative kind of technique). My father's stories, as well as this idea, were the building blocks behind Jew Boy.
LK: Ready Set StartUP is a reality game show where we bring early-stage entrepreneurs with exciting business ideas to develop them and compete in a series of different challenges that test business their ability to run a business and the viability of their business for a cash investment into their business.
I’m passionate that everything I do has a social aspect. While my background and experience is around finance, trade, SMEs, I always wanted to get into the film/tv industry but didn't know how. At one point in my life, I was working in a consultancy group helping struggling SMEs. In this role I became active on Instagram and started sharing the things we did to help other businesses and we began to get high level of online traction, people from across the world praising our work, asking us for advice, telling us their business problems, and inviting us into their business for help. At the peak we reached over 40k organic impressions daily. This is when it hit me to create a televised version of what we were doing. I noticed that many start-ups failed not because of the idea, but because of the execution. In focusing on this we created a programme that shows the steps someone needs to take to create a viable business. Now in a post-pandemic world where more and more people are keen to start a business, Ready Set StartUP will help people make better decisions and increase their chances of creating a successful start-up.
CBO: Dance with the Devil is a comedy mockumentary. A documentary crew follows two London-based Catholic exorcists – Father Marcus and his apprentice Pete. When the Devil decides to take a sabbatical on Earth, they task themselves with banishing him back to Hell.
I believe it was around February when my course mate Tim Khvan first approached me with the idea for this film and to have me produce it. Tim and I became pretty good friends over the course of the MAIFB programme, and we bonded over our very similar sense of humour and taste in comedy series. Knowing that I would love the absolute absurdity of the film’s premise, Tim felt I would be a good fit as its producer. He mentioned that he wanted it to be his dissertation project but that he wanted to actually shoot a short film version to work as a proof of concept since his long-term goal with the project was to make it into a feature.
It was very quick turnover between transitioning from development to pre-production to principal photography just because we had to get the film done before the dissertation deadline, but it made for an adrenaline-filled and exciting experience. Working on Dance with the Devil has been one of my favourite producing experiences to date. I absolutely love the project, and I am really grateful to Tim for trusting me to be so heavily involved in its creative process as well. This is the type of work I hope to continue creating throughout my career.
What’s the most important thing you learned at LFS?
LK: My biggest take away from LFS was getting a deeper understanding of the different moving parts in the industry's value chain. I had so many "eureka" moments whilst at LFS. I got many of the answers I was looking for years on how things worked.
CBO: My biggest takeaway from my time at LFS has been learning how to be a better judge of character and of projects to then be able to say no when I am approached to produce. I know this sounds very cynical, but it’s a very important and valid skill for producers to have. Just in my brief experience producing over the past year, I have had several fantastic experiences, but I have also had a few difficult experiences that, in hindsight, I should have not gotten involved with from the outset. It’s a skill I definitely haven’t perfected yet, but with each producing experience, I gain more perception.
What advice would you give to someone who’s been accepted to LFS, to help them make the most of their time here?
MS: The old saying, “something is what you make of it”, really rings true when it comes to studying a degree in film. Be as active of a participant as possible during your degree and grasp every opportunity it may throw at you with open arms. Be open to meeting new people, creating connections and getting involved in your lectures. Use your time at LFS as an opportunity to create as strong a foundation for yourself as possible for when you enter the film industry. This is only possible if you make as much out of your course as possible.
LK: Make the best out of the experience, don't be afraid of asking questions and building relationships with the teachers, its industry guests and fellow classmates There is so much to learn from them and space for collaboration.
CBO: My advice is particular to the MAIFB course since that course is what I personally have experience with – Be proactive to get the opportunities and experiences you want beyond the classroom. If you are interested in producing, meet and work with the MA Fimmaking and MA Screenwriting students. If you are interested in distribution and sales, find an internship during the film market trip or during the summer dissertation term when you don’t have classes. If you are interested in festivals, volunteer or work at one. While you can still learn a lot by simply attending class and completing the course, these opportunities won’t come to you unless you go out of your way to seek them. The top highlights of my year at LFS consist of the experiences I had collaborating with the MAF and MAS students to produce their short films. What you get out of your time in LFS is whatever you put in. Take advantage of the resources LFS has to offer to make the most out of your time there.
What’s next for you and what are hoping will be the next steps for your projects?
MS: After graduating, my aim is to work in the film industry in the UK on a permanent basis. I however, hope to keep my own creative projects (such as Jew Boy) running on the side. The next step for Jew Boy specifically is to further develop its screenplay. In order to do so, I aim to enter it into various development labs across the world with the help of an experienced producer. Hopefully the upcoming pitching competition will be the first step in the film’s journey to the screen.
LK: Complete post-production for the UK version, license the formats in other territories to create their localised versions, and get the UK version out there for everyone to watch.
CBO: Next for me is hopefully a full-time job at a production studio! I plan to stay in the UK permanently, so I am looking for a permanent job opportunity at a company where I can grow. Aside from Dance with the Devil, I am developing another feature, which was the focus of my dissertation project, but that film will be in the slow cooker for several years. I’ve already signed on to produce a few short films over the next year. One is written and will be directed by a recent MAS graduate, and the other two will be MAF grad films. I’m close friends with the MAF students currently in Term 3, and a couple of them have already asked me to produce their grad films when the time comes.
For Dance with the Devil, Tim and I are in the process of developing the feature plot. The proof of concept short is currently in post finishing up with audio/sound design, and it should be ready to show the world by next month! We are planning to submit the film to festivals, and hopefully throughout the festival circuit, it can get some traction and interest from people who can push the feature forward.
Check out PICTURES IN MOTION for more info about Ready Set StartUP
Pictured, from top:
Still from Dance With The Devil
Image from Jew Boy
Image from the poster of Ready Set Start Up
Still from Dance With The Devil
Luis Kelly
Poster for Dance With The Devil