BAFTA Lectures – Peter Morgan

I’ve just found out this amazing lecture with Peter Morgan where he talks about his career, politics and his screenplays. Peter Morgan is already working with Brazilian director Fernando Meirelles in their project “360″. (Filming soon, with locations including London).

CLICK HERE to watch.

AT THE BRAZILIAN FILM FESTIVAL IN LONDON with FERNANDO MEIRELLES and SIR BEN KINGSLEY, SEPTEMBER 2010

Fernando Meirelles and Daniel Bertorelli at BAFTA - September 2010

At a panel discussion led by Isabel Davis (UK Film Council), with Producer Gail Egan (Potboiler Productions) and Christine Langan (Creative Director, BBC Films), Director Fernando Meirelles (City of God, The Faithful Gardener, Blindness) talked about his early career. Smiling and upbeat, he was humble enough to say that his movies had international appeal often by “sheer luck.” Meirelles, who has become almost a household name after the critical and public acclaim for films like City of God directs O2 Filmes and has directed and produced more than 700 commercial films. He explained that his previous work on commercials and advertisements has taught him to be fast paced in an environment where you have to “tell a story in three seconds.” His movies are full of layers and very visual but even so, he considers himself a lover of dialogue.

Meirelles future project as a director is to be called “360″ from a script by Peter Morgan (Frost/Nixon,The Last King of Scotland). The plot is based on the Arthur Schnitzer play La Ronde (circa 1900) which examines sexual morality and class ideology through a series of sexual encounters of couples from different social classes. At one point the story goes full circle, thus the interesting title 360(degrees).

Last June Meirelles posted in his “O2 Filmes” blog a set of directions concerning the excess of digital material that is being created due to the fact that digital is cheaper than film, but he thinks that it backfires with the additional editing and storage costs.

What was supposed to be a set of directions for use for his own O2 Filmes “has become a big deal” in his own–again humble–words about digital material: “We are reinventing how to make movies.”

Sir Ben Kingsley speaks up

I (Daniel Bertorelli) asked him if “The Method” had already had an impact artistically. (I made it clear I was not talking about “Stanislavski.”) I explained myself by saying that it is my opinion that with fewer takes, the actors must be more focused and maybe show a “fresher” work, instead of having dozens of takes that may lead to much more editing and work for editors but poor performances. Meirelles again emphasized the absurd amount of raw footage created by too many takes. Sitting by my side was SIR BEN KINGSLEY who added to Meirelles answer with his own actor’s perspective.

Sir Ben Kingsley

Sir Ben Kingsley said he prefers to work with one camera only and with “an eye line.” Kingsley (an Oscar, BAFTA, Golden Globe, and Screen Actor’s Guild winner) explained how important it is for an actor to have something or somebody to look at while acting and to know where the camera is (something hard to do when there are a lot of cameras rolling at the same time). Meirelles agreed and said no one there was better able to answer my question!

Sir Ben Kingsley

BAFTA – The British Academy of Film and Television Arts and the 2nd Brazilian Film Festival of London

Alberto Flaksman (Head of International Relations - ANCINE) at BAFTA

As a Brazilian actor and writer married to a German citizen living in London involved in film making on a variety of levels in Brazil and the USA, these are my impressions about the event.

Especially relevant, I thought, were the presentations on the MARKETPLACE: Exploring Co-Production and Collaboration between Brazil and the UK. Producer Nik Powell (Deputy Chair, BAFTA Film Committee, the Director of the National Film and Television School) welcomed the audience and was followed by an ANCINE (Brazilian National Cinema Agency) presentation on opportunities for financial partnership and support, led by their Head of International Relations, Alberto Flaksman. More technical information about this matter that can be found HERE.

BAFTA - Discussion Panel

Then Brazilian producers Lucy Barreto, Paula Barreto and Mariza Leao along with Samantha Horley (The Salt Company) and Chris Pickard (Critical Divide, consultant for Rio Film Commission, and former editor of Moving Pictures) debated the Brazilian production system, partnership incentives and shooting in Brazil. Isabel Davis (UK Film Council) chaired the session.

As a writer, I would underscore the “real life” Brazilian producers have to face and how scripts have to be adapted to meet the financial reality of the production, depending on how much money they can raise from the market. Two thumbs up also to Samantha Horley’s comments on the international potential of Brazilian movies, the “hows” and “whys” they are chosen (or not!) by international distributors. It was said during the panel that some Brazilian movies often feature a very self-centered focus on Brazilian culture. However as the only Portuguese speaking country in the middle of a Spanish speaking continent can be a determining factor of having a product that sometimes can be exported and reach foreign audiences or not. The “universality factor” mentioned reminded me of my early studies of Joseph Campbell’s work on this topic. But movies are “motion pictures”, right? Of course “an image says more than a thousand words” but another peculiar thing about Brazilian movies is the fact that there is a lot of dialogue that eventually would have to be captioned or dubbed when/if the movie is to be exported, and it can limit its box office potential internationally.
Then there was a discussion panel with Director Fernando Meirelles (O2 Filmes – City of God, The Faithful Gardener, Blindness), Producer Gail Egan (Potboiler Productions) and Christine Langan (Creative Director, BBC Films). More on the NEXT POST.