Review of 2007/08 - EM Media

8
REAL FILMS/RECOGNISABLE PLACES/GENUINE IMPACTS
Back in June 2005 the first draft of a
script for a project called Low Budget
Filmmaking landed on the desk of
regional film producer Luke Dennis
(Anonymous Room Productions). The
writer, Nottingham-based Mark Devenport,
had been cast in a corporate film by
Anonymous Room and was well known
to Luke for his appearances in numerous
short films. It was to be the start of a
long journey for the pair, along with the
film’s co-writer Tony Claassen.
Looking back to this first draft Luke
remembers, “It was witty, dry and laughout-loud
funny, and seemed very
achievable on a low budget.” The team
of three collectively put £3,000 into the
project and pre-production started
immediately.
Luke, Mark and Tony had to call in
favours from their contacts and networks
within the filmmaking community of
Nottingham to bring together a talented
In 2007 EM Media invested in the production of
a low-budget feature film two years after the film
had started to shoot. Here’s how it worked…
crew who all committed to the project
and agreed to defer their fees. Equipment
was loaned free of charge from
numerous organisations including
Creative Collaborations, Broadway
Productions and Wellington Films.
Producer Luke Dennis agrees that the
making of Big Things would have been
totally unachievable without the
generosity of these companies and
organisations.