Inside the Avalon Film Festival: Ben Welsh’s Diary of Chaos, Creativity, and Cinema #2
Renowned creative leader, author, and former DDB Australia CCO Ben Welsh (pictured) takes us behind the scenes of the Avalon Film Festival in a candid and entertaining diary series exclusive to Campaign Brief. From navigating the chaos of last-minute preparations to celebrating cinematic gems that capture the soul of the Northern Beaches, Welsh documents the thrills, spills, and sausage-making realities of pulling together a film festival. His first entry, penned just days before the festival kicks off, sets the stage for a week of memorable films and community spirit.
DAY MINUS 3: DCP vs MG
Palpitations kicked in last night and haven’t stopped.
It’s not uncommon, a blend of genetics and miss-spent youth, but I’m sure the film festival is partly responsible. Actually, I’ll point the finger at various levels of government, from local to state. At the local level I found someone else was using our sign location which we had paid for. I would have taken it down, but it was part of a domestic violence awareness campaign, and I don’t think that would have been a good look. I emailed. No response. I called and we got to the bottom of it – there is room for two signs – interesting metaphor there.
What was more disappointing is the news, or lack thereof, of our grant application to Screen NSW. We were hoping to get $3k for the opening night, and had expected to hear the good, or bad news last Friday. Nothing. Nothing on Monday either. When I made enquiries, I found the decision was delayed – till after our event.
Better sell some more tickets.
Back to the subject line. Congratulations to all those who know their DCP from their MG. I didn’t. I do now. A DCP is the format you need to run a movie in a cinema (no film anymore, it’s all hard drives). Getting a DCP costs money, usually about $300, but we have secured most of them at $150.
But, before you can get a DCP you need to agree an MG, which stands for minimum guarantee. Films take 30% of the takings or whatever the MG is. The more tickets we sell, the better for the film distributor. But if we fail to sell any tickets we are still up for the MG fee of $350 (usually). My mistake was thinking they were the same thing.
Better sell some more tickets.
Speaking of tickets, I can recommend Margaret Pomeranz and Neil Arfield in conversation about the challenges of adapting books to screen, using Candy as an example (I’ve always been intrigued by how books change for the screen). Local film maker/actor Brendan described Margaret as cinema royalty, and I think he hit the hail on the head. She is indeed a legend. And Neil is pretty impressive too. His film Candy stars the late Heath Ledger, alongside Abbie Cornish. I have never been into heroin, but my first girlfriend was called Candy.
After ‘Candy’ you can see another cinematic story about destruction of a different kind in ‘Beneath Hill 60’, a first world war drama directed by Jeremy Simms and starring Brendan Cowell, produced by Bilgola’s Bill Leimbach. Unlikely heroes who went under rather than over the trenches and achieved significant results.
Earlier in the day you’ll have to make some difficult choices: ‘Penguin Bloom’ is a truly moving story about a local family overcoming adversity thanks to an injured magpie. It was directed by Glendyn Ivan who has brought great sensitivity to so many ads. We’ve put a very different film in on the other screen – ‘Kamchatka’ is a stunning tale of surfing the freezing waters off Siberia, by local film maker Spencer Frost I’d like to see both.
Then there’s ‘Rachel’s Farm’, ‘Girl’s Can’t Surf’, ‘Grease’ and ‘Excalibur’. For a full list of films and times best check out the website
