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INTERVIEW: JOHNNIE ODDBALL
If you ever wondered what happened to the Artful Dodger, he grew up and became the New British Film Industry. His name is Johnnie Oddball. John Park met him ...
Johnnie Oddball is stylish. He met the BBC's Will Cantopher in a stretch limo. For Fringe Report, he climbed off a 500-cc bike, casually trailing a crash-helmet. He's handsome in a masculine Steve McQueen way, blond-haired, witty - and irrepressibly optimistic. His 48-Hour London Film-makers Challenge was opened by the Queen.
OK, not that Queen - but someone quite like her. Because Johnnie knows the secret of cinema - it's the art of illusion. Even his name's a blind.
'It's not real, Oddball'. This isn't unexpected, but he makes it feel revelatory - as if unpeeling the secret of The Third Man in a Vienna graveyard. Johnnie's leaning across the table of a louche drinking club in London's Soho (he knows a lot of these). Nom-de-guerre, maybe - but his achievements are rock-solid.
His efforts to create opportunity for his fellow film-makers have won Johnnie Oddball widespread gratitude, recognised in Fringe Report's 2003 Award as Film Person of The Year
In 2003, he's already organised and completed a major London film-making competition. He's doing another nationally in August. As a producer he's making six short films, prizewinners of the Napalm Short Screen-Writers competition he ran in 2002. As a director he's just finished shooting a 90-minute feature film for £7.50.
In January he organised The Sci-Fi-London Trailer Challenge 03. Film-makers had a week to produce a short trailer for a science fiction feature film existing only in their imagination. The results (including Mirror Mirror) were screened at the London Science Fiction Film Festival (31 Jan - 2 Feb 03) at the Curzon Cinema, Soho.
Next on the agenda is the 2003 National 48-Hour Film Challenge. It's rooted in the London event Johnnie organised in 2002, The Digital Guerrilla Filmmakers' Challenge. Simple in concept, it inspired the imagination of some of London's best film-makers to produce electrifying results.
50 crews of 6 people arrived at the Curzon Cinema, Soho to meet two buckets full of slips of paper. A person from each team took a slip from each bucket. One showed a word to be included in the title, the other a word expressing the genre. Each team had 48 hours to write, act, shoot, edit, (and should they wish to, produce original music and costumes for), and deliver, a 10-minute film on digital video.
40 films arrived. They were shown to a team of judges and the public at the Soho Curzon. Ten were selected as winners and given a further public screening at the Curzon. They included Dance All Night, Fung Mu Meets The TV Detective, and Making Juice: The Making Of Juice.
Will Cantopher (Editor, BBC Online London Entertainment) focused on Juice to write a revelatory article (November 02) on the art of low-budget film-making: How We Shot A Movie In Two Days.
This year, the event steps up a notch to cover the UK. The National 48-Hour Film Challenge runs from 16-18 August 2003. The centres for submission are London, Bristol, Manchester and Edinburgh. It's supported by The Film Council, Adobe, and The Curzon Cinema, Soho. Mr Oddball's going to have a busy year.
So what's he like?
Emma Taylor, Artistic Director of London's Canal Café Theatre: 'Johnnie? The first thing that strikes you is his unbounding enthusiasm.' Juice actor Damian Kell rates him as 'infectiously enthusiastic and imaginative. Johnnie's the bloke you'd always pick first to be on your football team in the playground.'
One of the 48-Hour Challenge directors - referring to TVGoHome's appalling film poseur, star of their long-running spoof soap 'Cunt' - describes Johnnie as 'The polar opposite of Nathan Barley'.
Emma Taylor recalls meeting Johnnie initially 'at the Fringe Report Awards. We were both feeling suitably nervous, going up to accept awards. Johnnie sees no obstacles in his way to making films. He makes it all so simple and attainable.' They're now collaborating on a film-making course for people in theatre.
Johnnie Oddball's recommendation to aspiring directors is simple: 'Start with a £400 digital video camera. Go and shoot a film.'
In his version, it's easy all the way. Using digital video (dv) guarantees a high-quality result. The film can be shot in sequence, or edited using home computer software.
How long? 'The shortest feature ever made was 8 seconds. Try for the minimum - 5 minutes is good. Grab attention straight away. Get your point across. Don't prolong it.' Content? 'Comedy always works. Doing something heavy and arty in 5 minutes doesn't work.' Theme? 'Make something very simple (he emphasises these two words) - it works.' Light? 'The camera adjusts to low-level light. Perhaps change some light-bulbs - it's better to over-light the scene and bring the level down in the edit.' Experience? 'The best education in film is to make one.'
You've made a film, what next? 'Put it in as many festivals as possible. Not just London - it's flooded. Shoot in French, submit to French film festivals. Put subtitles on - even if it's holding up a card at the bottom of the screen!'
Oddball's just finished shooting 'Dark Hunter', his 90-minute feature. It's financed at the cost of the tape - £7.50 - which he insists is not low-budget. 'If it was 60 minutes, it would be £5. That's low budget.'
It's a huge task, why's he doing it?
'I want to get people making films. There's no such word as "can't" - it's just an excuse not to try. So I'm showing it can be done. If people love the film, great. If they think it's crap, they've no longer any excuse not to do it themselves.' It's screened in London, summer 03.
Ask him what he's about and he says modestly: 'There's something missing in the industry that needs filling: a new film community with no egos.'
A director who knows him puts it more simply. 'Johnnie's on a mission to kick the British film industry up the arse.'
END
Interview with Johnnie Oddball by John Park
9 May 03
Fringe Report (c) Fringe Report 2002-2008
www.fringereport.com
