This month we’ve been chatting to brothers, Ben and Chris Blaine – two self-taught filmmakers who have learnt their craft by mistakes, flukes and a lot of hard work. They own the production company Charlie Productions and their impressive portfolio of films include the BAFTA shortlisted Russell Square and award-winning Hallo Panda. The pair is also heavily involved in Shooting People – the international networking organisation dedicated to the support and promotion of independent filmmaking. Here’s an insight into their story:
So how did it all begin?
Chris: “We first got into filmmaking when we in our late teens at school. We bought a mini-DV camera and created an animation about a parody of the bible. We made a little bit of money from it by putting it onto VHS and selling it to our classmates – something that got us into a lot of trouble with our teachers but made us think that filmmaking was really fun and easy.”
Ben: “We then started to make short films together, we had no film education so learnt through trial and error. We set up Charlie Productions and submitted our most successful work to film festivals – our first break being at Edinburgh Film Festival in 1997, which screened our short film Crowd Scene For Existentialists. We were really pleased with the reception it received and it gave us the confidence to continue working in the field. We then bought a Canon XL1 and G4, and made Russell Square about an adventure on London’s Underground. It was shortlisted at the BAFTAs in 2000 under Best Short Film which was very exciting.”
How have you developed your filmmaking since then?
Chris: “We realised that our strengths lied with story telling and humour but that our films needed to appear more professional. We decided to take our time on each project, start using high definition, and work with more people – a producer and crew. One of our first films working to this ethic was Free Speech; working with the wonderful DoP, Oliver Russell and actors, Danny Dyer and Jacqueline Oceane.”
Ben: “Since it was launched in the late 1990s, we’ve also been heavily involved in Shooting People which is a fantastic networking/information sharing tool for filmmakers. It wasn’t set up as merely as a means for filmmakers to showcase their films. Instead the primary aim was to enable filmmakers to talk to one another and it has been so useful for people like me and Chris to connect with industry people we wouldn’t otherwise have been able to have access to. For example, through it we met producer Barrington Paul Robinson who we started working with on Free Speech.”
Ben you attended ECU earlier this year – what did you think of the festival?
Ben: “I wasn’t too familiar with ECU before so I wasn’t too sure what to expect, but it really surprised me, it was a great festival. There was some fantastic talent there – I saw some top quality films and met filmmakers who I’m still in touch with now. G-Technology as platinum sponsors of ECU also surprised me. I wanted to be cynical but when the team started talking about the hard drives, I took a genuine interest. They spoke with such honesty – ‘yes, they are fundamentally just hard drives but look at how ours’ can really enhance your work’. They are so passionate about the products and supporting the filmmaking industry.”
Are you noticing any other new developments in the tools filmmakers are using?
Chris: “Some affordable, really effective tools that we love to use in our work include Mpeg Streamclip, which is a powerful free video converter for Mac and Windows. We also use Scrivener to write and develop our feature films – it’s very flexible and extraordinarily powerful for a program that only costs 25 quid.”
How do you work together so successfully as a duo?
Ben: “We write and direct together. To make that work, we have to do a ton of preparation. Because having properly shared and explored an idea between the pair of us, it is much easier to share it again with our cast and crew – and then with the audience. On set, we work in a loose, free, creative and enjoyable way, so that both cast and crew transfer the joy they experience each day onto the screen. Everyone owns these films, including the fans. Our films are films you share, not just watch.”
Click here to read Ben’s brilliant blog on Shooting People.
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