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Lawrence Gray
Director
, Producer
, Screenwriter
, Author
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Screenwriters' Newsletter 25 June 2009
CONTENTS:
THE FIRST SCREENWRITERS’ WORKSHOP
I SHOT HONG KONG
REGISTERING SCREENPLAYS
THE HONG KONG FILM FUND
SEEKING ACTORS FOR SHORT FILM
SEEKING CAUCASIAN/EURASIAN ACTORS + ACTRESSES
If you wish to tell us about your Hong Kong film projects,
please send your information to lwgray@netvigator.com
About our publications
The HKWC has published four critically acclaimed anthologies of short stories - Haunting Tales,
Sweat & the City, Hong Kong Whodunnits and Love & Lust - which are available at selected
Dymocks bookstores and from our website. Read more at:
http://www.hkwriterscircle.com/Publications/Publications.html
The first meeting of the Writers’ Circle’s Screenwriters Workshop took place the other week.
Lots of people attended and mostly they wanted to work in two areas, Feature scripts and
Internet Shorts.
The Internet Shorts are perhaps the most interesting areas to look at nowadays because of their
newness as a form and because of the extremely low budget that is required to make them. A five
minute sketch needs little more than a half a day to shoot and a couple of actors willing to give it a
go and work with you, the writer, director, producer and even performer! It is an area where one can
learn a lot about the whole production process very quickly with little pain and sometimes a lot of
glory. Which can help your credibility if you want to move into TV and/or Film.
The Feature Writers face an uphill struggle here in Hong Kong where there is simply no film industry
to speak of. However, we do have a burgeoning independent movement, fuelled by access to
relatively low cost high-end cameras. And I hope to encourage our writers to see themselves as
filmmakers and to bite the bullet and just go make their own damned movies. Writing to low budgets
is an art and some might say it spoils your chances of competing with those who can handle big
budget concepts. But I don’t think we have much of a choice here in Hong Kong.
Also, one might offer up a reality check here. The local market is Chinese speaking and so writing
scripts in Chinese is a better way of gaining a reasonably sized local market than writing in English.
However, if you write in Chinese, it’s also beneficial to write the script in English as well! The
international nature of even the lowest of low budget projects in Hong Kong means that having a
Chinese and English version of the script enhances the project.
Our next meetings will look at the projects that the current members are bringing in for people to
review and we will push rapidly forward to actually producing some of the web ideas.
All members of the Workshop must sign a Non-Disclosure Agreement so that we can talk freely
among ourselves about our projects and they must be members of the Writers Circle.
Those of you wishing to join, contact me and I shall send you the forms.
Lawrence Gray
Hong Kong (Screen)Writers' Circle
The “I Shot Hong Kong Film Festival” is on 6pm Wednesday July 1st and Thursday July 2nd, at The
Grand Cinema, Elements, followed by a party at the W Hotel. It will be HK$250 per person. You can
also go on the 2nd July.
“The quality of this year’s films is outstanding,” says Craig Leeson, the festival organizer, “It was
really tough to select finalists because all of the submissions were so good.”
And quoting Time Out’s article:
“The short film and music video categories have early audiences particularly excited. ‘Where do we
go’, a funny music video about the challenges of finding a decent flat in Hong Kong, directed by
Simon Tin for local multimedia collective: CB Fresh, is expected to be an audience favourite. And
another film generating early buzz is LAWRENCE GRAY’s Chinese language film, ‘Gong Neui’, about a
young starlet who has a surprise encounter with her biggest cyber fan.”
You can find a trailer at: http://vimeo.com/5302282
So I hope you will all pop along and of course vote for me!!! Go-Go-Go-Gong Neui!
And by the way, don’t forget to go to the party as well because all the cool people will be there.
I am often asked about copyright and whether one can “copyright” a screenplay and/or idea for a
screenplay.
The answer to this is yes and no. Ideas are not copyrightable. However, a Non-Disclosure Agreement
can be made overtly or even inferred from a confidential discussion, which may or may not give you
some moral leverage in the face of someone lifting your idea and running with it, if nothing else.
However, if you stand in front of an audience and proclaim your idea, or perhaps just paste it into
your Facebook site, then the idea is up for grabs and you have relatively little to complain about.
The only way to assure your idea is legally considered yours is to work on it! A substantial amount of
research, of paperwork, of story outlines, of scripts etc etc, all protect you from having your idea
stolen. And to help you prove the timing of the gestation of your idea, you can register your script or
treatment for a small fee with the Writers Guild of America. Just go to
www.wga.org and hit that link that says “REGISTER YOUR SCRIPT”.
Easy eh?
That said, after thirty years of hearing this, it does tend to be those with the worst scripts who are
particularly obsessed with others “stealing” their ideas. All I can say is that it is probably because
they know they don’t do enough work to make an idea really their own.
Other countries have government run film funds that are regarded as the first port of call for a
producer to find funding to develop the screenplay and then go putting the package together. Also
they run First Film funds and other concepts designed to support beginners and move them into the
professional arena. It is considered a cultural and political necessity to support local productions and
maintain a region’s international profile.
Although the Trade Development Council does a very good job in Hong Kong promoting what we
have, the film fund however is essentially for those who already have the first fifty per cent of their
investment in place and has nothing to offer first time producers or directors.
Go here to check out the requirements:
www.fdc.gov.hk/en/services/services2.htm
Here’s what you will find.
Your project needs to be commercially viable, as demonstrated by already having 50% of the budget.
It must have an experienced producer or director, as demonstrated by their having produced two
features that have been distributed locally in the past ten years. 50% of the crew and actors must
be permanent residents and the maximum budget must be HK$12m. It must also be capable of
passing the censors.
Very few people have applied for this money largely one suspects because of the restrictions on first
time producers and directors. Another problem with this is that in commercial terms HK$12m is a
very low budget movie and not really enough to pull in bankable stars. And ultimately, if you already
have fifty per cent of the budget, it is not that difficult to do a deal with any number of other sources
of finance to match that. Matching funds are easy. The first fifty per cent is where the hard work is.
In short, it’s the last place rather than the first place you go to. Which does make it a very odd sort
of government support for an indigenous film industry.
獨立短片招募演員--用作參加年尾的ifva短片比賽
內容主要是講述兩位遊手好閒，不務正業的年青人透過攝影達到個人目的既故事
短片會以喜劇形式表達，片長大約30分鐘。
現招募： 18~22歲少男二位
另招募一位男演員反串飾演少女數場(飾演這個角色的演員會有專業化妝師化妝及服裝設計)
飾演以上角色的演員無需經驗，最重要是有責任心。
大約7月初~中開拍，預計拍攝2~3天
會係南生圍及灣仔拍攝
因為budget有限，只能提供少量車馬費及當日的膳食
如有興趣飾演請email:
Freelance Caucasian/Eurasian actors/actresses are needed for a Hong Kong movie.
Age Range: 25 to 35.
Interested parties please email their photos and contact information to
Stanley Lo
E-mail: stanleycasting@yahoo.com.hk
Adeline Kay is looking for people to interview and take part in her documentary about “Selfish
Behaviour” in Hong Kong.
Shooting period: mid-July to August 2009 (flexible)
“I am looking for some people who accept to be filmed to talk about their unique experience and
point of view of "selfish behaviours". As long as you live in Hong Kong, ALL AGES and ALL
NATIONALITIES are welcome. This documentary will be done in a relaxed tone (even funny at some
moments). I am not putting any judgment onto those behaviours. I simply need your point of view
and your personal experience. “
If you are interested, contact Edwin at adelineckayee@gmail.com
JOIN THE HONG KONG WRITERS' CIRCLE
HK$490 per annum.
If you wish to join, download the membership form at http://www.hkwriterscircle.com/form.html
I write and direct movies.
