Film

Ealing, United Kingdom

FUNDED

Mâché Man

‘Mâché Man’ is the enchanting tale of 8-year-old Cleo, a girl trapped by the closed-minded lethargy of her parents. Unable to venture outside and play with the other children, lonely Cleo builds herself a life-sized papier-mâché man. But as she feeds her new friend with undying devotion, he begins to breathe and come to life, unleashing a world outside her parents restrictions.

With its themes of youth, creation and freedom, writer/director Sophie Boyce is passionate about bringing the charm back to live-action family films. The story draws off references such as ‘E.T’ and ‘the Snowman’ and is led by a vibrant young cast, quirky humour and heart-warming storytelling. Combined with a unique soundtrack sung by children, this is set to be a unique and enchanting new short.

The film will be shot in London in September, ready for release in October. We will be using the Red Epic camera to shoot on, giving our film a high production value and cinematic image. We have together a full crew of talented, dedicated and hard-working filmmakers who collectively have experience in feature films, commercials, shorts, music videos and television.

Writer/Director: Sophie Boyce

Sophie Boyce is an award-winning writer and director, who is currently graduating from a degree in Practical Filmmaking at the prestigious Met Film School, based at Ealing Film Studios. In 2011 Sophie won the Channel 4 Skins Screenwriting Competition, earning a place in the Series 6 writers room, and was subsequently hired to write for the online series. As well as this, Sophie has been commissioned to develop and write projects including feature films with Christine Cheung (Producer at the multi-award winning Tread Softly Productions) and online series with development funding from BBC3. On top of writing credits, Sophie has also directed short films such as 'The Boy in the Water' (2011), which was shortlisted in the Tivo Top Ten in the Virgin Media Shorts competition and 'Party in Cuckoo Land' (2009) which won the 'Short Film' prize for the prestigious Filmaka competition.

Producer: Gemma Purkiss

Gemma Purkiss is an establishing producer and writer with a degree in theatre. For many years she has organised and collaborated with different artists, creating installation and theatrical pieces in Coventry, Kent and London landing her at the distinguished Met Film School, based at Ealing Studios. Since her arrival there Gemma has produced a feature film ‘Goldfish’ and a web TV-series, as well as improving her writing with shorts, commercials and TV shows.

Camera Operator: Sam Irwin

Sam Irwin is an experienced and dedicated focus puller and camera operator whose work includes the camera department of BBC’s ‘Red Dwarf’ and focus-pulling on professional feature films. His other experience ranges from shorts to music videos to cooperate videos for Nokia. Sam’s operating has received critical acclaim in various competitions, most recently receiving the attention of Gavin Finney (President of the British Society of Cinematographers from 2006-2008) with his work on short film, ‘The Shot’. Sam has built up a hefty catalogue of professional contacts and experience that he’s eager to pull together to create a unique and high-value look for this short.

Director of Photography: Edward St Paul

Edward St. Paul is a highly skilled and talented digital Director of Photography, currently graduating from the Met Film School. Edward has lit and shot a range of different shorts, music videos and promos starting at the age of 15, and has recently added the feature film ‘Shark’ to his list of achievements. Edward has experienced critical success most recently with ‘The Shot’ by George Fox that took 3rd place for the prestigious Jessop’s Film Competition, judged by acclaimed Hollywood director Paul Anderson. Edward is eager to get this project on the road and fully believes in this project and its ability to enter the festival circuit.

The intention of ‘Mâché Man’ is to create something unique and inspiring to fill a gap in the family film market. The biggest percentage of film audiences are aged 7-21, and yet live-action family films are few and far between. With the exposure of this project, we hope to build a name for ourselves in that market.

With the funding, we also plan to record an original soundtrack using young singers for three original compositions. We hope that by having this unique and hauntingly beautiful soundtrack, it will up this films production value and originality.

We so far have plans to send the film to prestigious festivals including:
London Film Festival
Cannes Short Film Corner
Raindance Film Festival
Edinburgh Film Festival
Soho Shorts
London Student Film Festival
WorldKids International Film Festival
Women’s Independent Film Festival
Kidz Filmz Festival
KIDS FIRST! Film Festival 2012

This is the graduation film of Sophie Boyce for her course at the Met Film School, based at Ealing Film Studios. As a graduation film, it will gain great exposure at the screenings arranged by the school, and shown before agents and producers.

The funding rewards are named after the children's characters in the film: Winston Cook, Crash O' Connor, Peter Pelvie, Marla Beasley, the twins Hannah & Mary Twist, Cleo McCarley and the Mâché Man.

FUNDING BREAK DOWN

£120 - Sound Hire - A film’s quality often falls down on sound, we hope to pay for the best equipment and talent to give The Mâché Man the highest production value it’s capable of.

£250 - Pays for the recording of the original soundtrack.

£400 - Van hire for the entire shooting period. This will save us from traveling with props and expensive equipment on the Underground or wasting money on taxis.

£500 - Pays for 23 cast and crew to be fed for 1 shooting week. This includes the chaperones that will be accompanying the children to set.

£1000 – Payment for the actors. The role of Cleo in particular is a demanding role for a young child, so we’d like to be fair to all involved and give them what they’re due.

£1000 - Camera Hire - We’ll be filming on a Red Epic, a top of the range camera that provides us with a beautiful cinematic picture, along with this we can hire lens that’ll give the film it’s unique magical look.

£1000 - Production Design - working with a strong production team we’ll be creating props that are one of a kind and are available in the rewards section.

£1500 - Mâché Man is a professionally made puppet, created lovingly by our imaginative puppeteer. This involves a lot of planning, time and materials, which all add up to create a visual masterpiece.

"Alive and inspiring", "Tragic and beautiful", "Moving and thought-provoking", "Absurdly good. Honestly one of the best shorts I've seen."

Virgin Media Shorts Reviews, on 'The Boy in the Water

***
"Fantastic. The film that Nowhere Boy should have been."

Official Beatles FanSite Review, on 'Dear Friend'

***
"Fresh, emotional and bewitching."

David Hall, gaycelluloid.com on 'Dear Friend'

***
"An engaging and mature piece that perfectly captures the relationship between a teenage girl and her mother's boyfriend in the 1960s."

Neil Duncan & Toby Welch, producers of E4's 'Skins', on the screenplay 'The Girl Who Ate the Crocodile'

Funding Website:
www.sponsume.com/project/mache-man

Mâché Man Official Website:
esbifilms.wix.com/macheman

Sophie Boyce’s Website:
www.sophieboyce.com

Gemma Purkiss Website:
www.barnburnerfilms.tumblr.com

‘Mâché Man’ Twitter Page:
twitter.com/MacheManFilm

Mâché Man Email:
Sophie Boyce Email:
Gemma Purkiss Email:

Gemma Purkiss Contact Number: 07837 064528
Sophie Boyce Contact Number: 07971 061751

The owner of this project has not made any updates yet.

Comments

2 yearss ago

I think it would be very valuable for more and more of us to start rellay having this discussion about:* Why is art important, if it is? Specifically.* What else is important to us in life? How can or can't art relate to those causes? Specifically.* What is more important than art? When? Why? Specifically.* How should art be funded that is most in keeping with our deepest values? Are old models working? Are new models needed? Specifically.We could add a lot more questions to this. I've felt these questions in myself and I see/hear them rise up in other people, but mostly I think we are afraid to rellay, specifically discuss them. We're afraid for a few reasons. I think one is that we suspect art is not important and another is that we know art is not valued by many, many people. We don't want to fuel that fire by maybe, possibly, accidentally suggesting they're right and art rellay isn't important. We are trying to support ourselves financially with art and fear we can't and fear this discussion will make it even more impossible. These hesitations (and more) prevent us from truly diving into this conversation with honesty, vulnerability, and the willingness to question. That means this conversation rarely, if ever, seems to actually happen. Someone might bring it up and someone else will say Hey, art is is important and we have to support each other! and that's the end.There's so much more to investigate here.

eagle2012 2 yearss ago

I hear what you are saying, but I have never considered art as unimportant. People in the past such as Beethoven forced his will on the public, even more than Mozart. He demanded respect for his craft. Too often, some don't respect their own work. If one cannot respect their own work, no one else will. Demand to heard. Demand to be seen. Take no back seat to anyone. Your (our) work is just as important as that of anyone else and deserves the same consideration. One time in my life, I was a piano tuner. And, as such, I was the private tuner to the late and former first lady of the US, Mamie Eisenhower. One time one of my customers who, at the time, thought I was too young to be charging the prices I was charging and so was running around make sneid comments about me. One day, this affluent women made a off-handed comment at a party that she "sure wish she could find a piano tuner who was good". She did not know about Mamie, and so my mother piped up and said, without mentioning my name (though the woman knew my mother) that "I know of a piano tuner good enough to tune Mamie Eisenhower's piano". That shut up the woman. What I am getting at is there are plenty of horses asses to go around. Often they are wealthy people with no sense of culture. Others are simply poor and don't know better. It is our job to constantly educate the masses and raise the overall appreciate of what we do. But, we should never never never, accept a back seat in the world of life. We are the artists. Let's be proud of it and what we do. A world without art, all art, would be a massively BORING place to live. We have the obligation to assure that the miscreants do not win this battle and that art will always survive.

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Mâché Man