Description
Book SynopsisA Sight & Sound Book of the Year "Eye-opening and addictively readable." Total Film Who and what decides if a film gets funded? How do those who control the purse strings also determine a film's content and even its message? Writing as the director of award-winning feature films including
Welcome to Sarajevo,
24 Hour Party People and
The Road to Guantanamo as well as the hugely popular
The Trip series, Michael Winterbottom provides an insider's view of the workings of international film funding and distribution, revealing how the studios that fund film production and control distribution networks also work against a sustainable independent film culture and limit innovation in filmmaking style and content. In addition to reflecting upon his own filmmaking career, featuring critical and commercial successes alongside a 'very long list' of films that didn't get made, Winterbottom also interviews leading contemporary filmmakers including Lynne Ramsay, Mike Leigh, Ken Loach, Asif Kapadia and Joanna Hogg about their filmmaking practice. The book closes with a vision of how the contemporary filmmaking landscape could be reformed for the better with fairer funding and payment practices allowing for a more innovative and sustainable 21st century industry.
Trade ReviewSeeking to understand the obstacles that even notable names face trying to finance a British film these days, Winterbottom uses the first Covid lockdown to interview an enviable list of directors, including Steve McQueen, Lynne Ramsay and Mike Leigh… There’s fascinating candour… Eye-opening and addictively readable. * Total Film *
The interviews’ focus on the business side of film production is relatively unusual and all the more valuable for it. Possibly liberated by the uncertainty of the moment, Winterbottom’s subjects are more frank about the industry than is customary. Their perspectives often converge, but the directors’ reasons for not directing vary as widely as their circumstances. -- Henry K. Miller * Sight & Sound *
A must-read for anyone interested in how films are made, and not made. * The Saturday Paper *
Table of ContentsFOREWORDS Dark Matter The Starting Point More is More INTERVIEWS Pawel Pawlikowski Danny Boyle Joanna Hogg Asif Kapadia James Marsh Andrew Haigh Carol Morley Edgar Wright Steve McQueen Lynne Ramsay Stephen Daldry Ben Wheatley Peter Strickland Mike Leigh Ken Loach AFTER WORDS Production Companies: A Protected Space Some Numbers More Numbers British Cinema and Television A Note on the Author
