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Paris Film Challenge 04
We've got fabulous French film-makers waiting to shoot. We've got a 48-Hour Film Challenge to organise(writes Johnnie Oddball). I've got £150 (less £70 for the hotel) - I don’t have enough to pay for a cinema. Welcome to Paris, as the Entente Cordiale celebrates its centenary...
Dark Hunter producer Johnnie Oddball's Film Challenge took place in Paris 30-31 October 04 with screenings of the Top Ten films at Le Cinema Des Cineastes.
It’s going to be hard to run an event in France, what with the The Hundred Years' War (and football). And not being able to speak French. And not knowing anyone in France.
Except Claire Espagno - who I’d met at Johnny Depp’s villa in Cannes. She’s an animation artist who works for a TV company in Paris.
‘So, Claire. How would you like to run the first ever Film Challenge in Paris with me?’ There’s a long pause.
‘What do I have to do?’
‘It’s really easy.’
To be honest, it’s not.
We decide to make it as French as possible – which means asking Claire to run the whole event. I’ve developed a blue-print from all the previous Film Challenges – we go through it. Paris should be simple. Ish.
I love Paris. It’s the first time I’ve been in 15 years.
We have to find a cinema and a function room for the after-party. This isn’t easy in Paris – there’s a love-affair with forms, and it can take forever to get things done. And nothing is free – not even a cinema.
I’m missing Saint Rob Kenny at the Curzon, bless him, and his constant kindness to London film-makers.
Who is going to take part in an English event in France? Would you take part in a French event in London? And if you put a tripod on the floor in Paris without a permit, you can get fined 20,000 euro. This is maybe why not many French film-makers film in Paris.
With the cost of going to Paris every weekend to sort the event out with Claire, I’m wondering if it’s going to be worth the effort. Yes! Because film-making is not about the country. It’s about the process of making film – which is the same everywhere in the world.
Paris - Saturday 2 October 04
Gare du Nord. All I can think of is my absolute favourite film Le Fabuleux Destin d'Amélie Poulain
(2001). I’ve seen it 7 times. It’s wonderful. It makes you feel great.
Claire’s at the station and we go to meet the people at Le Cinema des Cineastes, 7, Avenue de Clichy. It’s an art-house cinema like the Curzon Pathé multiplex cinema opposite - which is nice, but not very guerrilla.
I don’t have enough to pay for a cinema. Cinema des Cineastes is perfect, but will cost 600 euros. A sponsor is needed urgently, so I call my friends at AMD. They’re really up for helping out. We might get the event off the ground after all.
There’s an invite to a party given by a girl who’s leaving France to join a medical team in Sudan. The room’s full of people. Even though I can’t speak any French, they take time to come over and talk to me in English – they’re very kind. They’re some of the real guerrilla film-makers in Paris who just love making films - whatever it takes.
Some work in TV in Paris, others for the Cannes. Some are in animation, some work in the film industry as producers and directors. They all love the idea of a Film Challenge in Paris and sign up there and then. That’s when I know Paris is going to work.
I leave France to sort out funding.
Friday 29 October 04
Back in Paris to launch the event.
There’s great news. Richard Curtis
- writer of Four Weddings And A Funeral, Notting Hill, Bridget Jones - gives long-standing Film Challenge contestants the Blaine Brothers and their team funding to come to Paris and take part. So at least one British team is taking part. Good timing for the centenary of the Entente Cordiale (1904-2004).
AMD kindly arrange a dinner. Claire, and Emily Stone from the Blaine team attend. I arrive in Paris very late and miss Claire, who I really want to talk to about logistics. AMD and I arrange to be at the venue at 0900 am so AMD can set up their computers. The teams will be there on time at 1000am.
I’m invited to an all-night bar where I drink vodka till 0400 am. Back to the hotel for a sleep. Get up again 3 hours later.
Saturday 30 October 04
Get on the Metro, head for Le Cinema Des Cineastes. Arrive 0900 am.
The room’s empty, except for an empty table. There’s no cinema screen or trailer. There’s no AMD. Claire arrives. No news about a cinema or trailer. Claire’s done a great job. She’s done website, posters, flyers, PR, press advertising.
The teams turn up and wait. Still no AMD, and no computers. I leave to get a coffee over the street.
1000 am. AMD have arrived, but with boxes of computers and stuff. The film-makers are outside the door waiting to start. AMD set all the computers up in 20 minutes. The empty room plus table transforms into something like an edit suite. It looks great.
We register the film-makers. Each team is given a title word and a theme. It’s Halloween weekend, so the general theme is horror, but there are variations, eg comedy horror, thriller horror, action horror.
Claire speaks to them in French. When it’s my turn I say ‘Enough talking. Let’s get out there and make films.’ All hell breaks loose. It’s great. In 10 minutes they’re all out shooting.
Le Weekend - Saturday 30 – Sunday 31 October 04
Down and Out in Paris. I only brought £150. The room is £70 (OK, for four nights). I am not flush. My mobile battery is running out. I’ve forgotten the charger.
Then I think, why not find the locations for Le Fabuleux Destin d'Amélie Poulain
? Some really helpful people show me the way to the Two Windmills Café. I walk in and – apart from the fags counter and the glass Amélie writes on - it’s exactly as it is in the movie. I go to a whole lot of the other locations but not all. (Sorry to break this to you, but a whole lot of it was shot in studios in Germany).
Claire’s at a wedding and I don’t see her. I meet one of the teams shooting outside the famous hilltop La Basilique du Sacré Coeur de Montmartre, but don’t want to disturb them.
There’s an Irish bar round the back of the church (where else?), and some great Irish visitors who are nuts about movies.
I take my VX2000 camera and film Paris.
Monday 1 November 04
I can’t wait to leave Paris. It’s really sad because I love Paris and the French film-makers. But nowhere is good with no money. And no language - now I know how it feels to be French in London.
Screening and Prize Giving
At this point, I really didn't want to go back to Paris. The cost of the event is getting to me. I’ve run out of funds.
But I think of how much Claire has put in. What the hell. It’s about the event – I’ll just have to drink coffee for a week. I book the cheapest Eurostar.
The times are shit. Saturday leave Waterloo 1415 pm, arrive 1730 pm Paris – just as the clocks go forward. Coming back, leave Paris Sunday 0800 am, into London for 1000 am.
I know by now that forward planning is important and allow 2 hours for a 30 minute journey from my house to Waterloo. I get to the local station and there’s a 35 minute wait. All trains are diverted to Cannon Street because of engineering works. I get a tube to Waterloo, run, and make Eurostar with 3 minutes to spare.
Suddenly it's Paris - and all the clouds lift. I feel as if I’m coming home. I really love Paris.
There are loads of people waiting to get into Le Cinema des Cineastes. Now I am really excited about the event. It’s packed. We have people sitting in the aisles and standing to see the films. It’s wonderful.
The Top Ten films are funny, with dark humour. Claire’s here. AMD’s here, and AMD France – which is great. The films finish and the place goes nuts. We announce the winners and runners-up. The cinema’s filled with applause.
There are prizes – including a laptop with Adobe software. We go to the reception – the cinema’s like the Soho Curzon but larger. The Paris film-makers are coming up and saying how much they love the event. And I’m saying – thanks for making it great.
There are too many people to thank, who have helped out behind the scenes of these events over the last 3 years. They always need to be thanked, because without them the events would never have been so good. It's all about team-work.
I must give a big thank-you to Beth White for bailing me out at the last minute with a free ticket on Eurostar so I could be in Paris for the launch of the event, for helping me track down the Amélie locations around Paris while we were looking for film-makers taking part in the event, and for her great support.
Special thanks go to Claire Espagno. Without her time and effort the Paris event would never have happened.
I hope we’ll do it again in Paris in 2005 – for the wonderful movie-makers of Paris.
By which time, I’ll be speaking fluent French.
(c) Johnnie Oddball 23 December 2004
Details of events organised by Johnnie Oddball are at - Oddball Challenge, Paris Site - marathon-court-metrage.com, and Digital Guerrilla FilmMakers. And see Johnnie's article on his Berlin Film Challenge 2004
Fringe Report (c) Fringe Report 2002-2008
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