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Johnny V: Hello everybody and welcome to Festforged. I am Johnny Vivash and this is
Brendan Cleaves: I'm Brendan Cleves.
Johnny V: And today we have the fantastic Ian Rathry from Frightfest, a man that needs no introduction at all. thank you so much for joining us today on the podcast. First off, let's get the ball rolling. Let's do a little bit about you, how you got to this place, and how you arrived at where you are today.
Three Foot: So how long have you got? I got my interest in film through my father who was a projectionist and he used to take me along with him to get me out of underneath my mother's feet for a couple of hours and I got fascinated by the whole process and as a wee boy I could actually show films by the I was 10 years old. That then led on to me much against my dad's better judgement actually opening my own cinema called The Moving Picture Show, which was a mobile cinema. Nothing new with the mobile cinema, but what I did was I used 35 millimeter prints when everybody else was using 16 mil. Plus I could run the whole film without stopping to change reels, which made it a little bit more professional. And thank you to Police Academy 3. I'm now here, Police Academy 3. Scottish school holidays start three weeks before England. And back in the day, there was main cinemas in the big town and second run cinemas. So for these three weeks of the year, they had spare prints for all the second run cinemas, which I was at the time, got a print of a brand new film. I took a lot of money. And after that, every second week at the Boyer Garvey Town Hall. whatever was opening in the West End in London was in the Boyer Gary Town Hall. And
Johnny V: Amazing, wow.
Three Foot: then that... It was the same time the cinema Paradiso was in the cinema and everybody thought
Johnny V: right, yeah.
Three Foot: what I was doing was dead romantic.
Johnny V: Mm-hmm.
Three Foot: It put me in hospital with ulcers, know, five years of curries and fish and chips and all the rest of it. And fortunately, somebody saw me on TV, headhunted me. I ended up down in London to open a cinema in Richmond. And here I am, 20... over 30 years later.
Johnny V: Brilliant. And how did you find yourself in involv your involvement with Frightfest?
Three Foot: That was down to Paul, who thought my name was John, by the way, for the first year.
Johnny V: He does last.
Three Foot: I met him on one of my trips to Cannes, and him and his mate, Errol, used to go down to blag as many freebies as they could get to sell in their shops. And I could remember him coming around the corner with a suitcase full of press kits, t-shirts, hats. And then we run into each other back in London. At that time I was programming the Prince Charles and Paul had the idea of Fright Fest and then he put me, Alan and himself together and then that was it. Fright Fest is still here.
Johnny V: The four horsemen became a thing, and a and very much a
Three Foot: Hmm
Brendan Cleaves: So when that was when Frightfest when you had that initial spark, that idea, it w was there a big gap then for this kind of horror festival in the UK? I mean, twenty five years ago it's just roughly about two thousand one. I mean i was there like right, there's a gap that we need to fill with this festival, is was that the kind of gravity?
Three Foot: Yes, there was something in London called Shock Around the Clock which had folded but elsewhere in, there was maybe Mayhem in Nottingham and I'm not sure if Celluloid Screams in Sheffield was running by then but once we got on the road all these other places have sprung up since.
Johnny V: Brilliant stuff. So you know, it's it Fright Fest has often been described as a film festival that's run by horror fans, four horror horror fans. So you know, of the additions that you've you've had and been part of, what makes something feel like a genuine Frightfest film then?
Three Foot: it's something, it's a surprise. Like I always tell people that the best films that we show are in the Discovery screens. They're the ones you probably never heard of. And they're the ones that surprise you. And that's why you should take a chance and get off your backside in the big screen and go and explore the Discovery screens. That's, I think, the joy. Other than the actual people themselves. to me is the joy of flight fest.
Johnny V: And i in in in terms of what we're covering on the fr on the pod today, we're quite interested in your involvement with the first blood strand and it's now eleven years old now. And just following on from what you're saying in terms of the idea of surprise and finding films in the discovery screens that you will probably not come across me never get distribution back into the UK again. What Why why did that become a n necessity? Or what was the need for that gap to be filled within the the Frightfest film festival?
Three Foot: to be very frank, internal politics in Frightfest. Me, the film professional who'd been programming films for probably 15 years by that stage, was told by my two fellow directors, I know nothing about horror films or films in principle. And... The idea came because, I'm a much more old person and I'm always going to give in to them. The idea came from, you know, Mike Hewitt who runs our quiz,
Johnny V: Yes.
Three Foot: which is on the 26th, by the way, this year in the Phoenix Arts Club. I look forward to seeing you both there.
Johnny V: I sh we shall be there for sure.
Three Foot: I run into Liam. I remember his second name, but his film was Banjo,
Johnny V: yes, yes, yeah.
Brendan Cleaves: Mm.
Three Foot: at a screening in Cannes. the way these things is Cannes, John, as you probably know, very few people stay to watch the whole film to come in and out. And at the end of the film, which was two hours, 10 minutes long at that stage, for a trauma-esque film, it was just bum numbing. There was only Mike and me left. and we were hoping to kind of slide away but Liam was waiting at the door and
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they asked us what we thought of it and well I said Tom it's too long bring it back at under 90 minutes and I'll put it in Fright Fest in August.
Johnny V: I'm sure that put a smile on Mr. Regan's face.
Three Foot: And Good For Him, he brought it back at 86 minutes.
Brendan Cleaves: Did better.
Johnny V: Ha ha ha.
Three Foot: And it went into the program. First film to sell out, we could have sold it out three times over. And that's what woke me up to, being a bit arrogant maybe, we wouldn't look at films like that. We thought we were above the small low budget, bit rough around the edge film. And it kind of woke me up to think, there's something here. So getting back to the internal politics, it kind of gave me an idea to muscle my way back in again. And it's a huge success.
Brendan Cleaves: So would you say like
Johnny V: Absolutely.
Brendan Cleaves: just going on with that, your y your tastes have totally changed over the the since you've been running Frightfest? Like as as a like a programmer and like a someone that runs a festival, how how have they changed? How have they adapted to kind of fit in with the current like strand of of horror?
Three Foot: Well, I come at films from probably different way that Alan and Paul came at comedy. You you can ask Alan and he can remember who was in a film 35 years ago. I don't care. You can ask Paul that, you know, what genre it is and you'll stand there and talk to you all night. Again, I don't care. I go at these things. I go at these things because I care about the film. There's something in it I see. As I say, it goes from the whole high end, you know, to our opening films, to our closing films. I come at them that way as opposed to who directed. Okay, now if you get a good scream cream and somebody, well-known actor, it's in it. Yes, of course that will influence your decision. But generally, that's how I kind of look at the films. know, Alan, well, they used to say I don't like horror films. I don't like horror films. I like all films,
Johnny V: Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm.
Three Foot: from the fanciest art film to the scummiest little horror film made for throppins. That's how I come at it. And it's a completely different mindset from Alan and Paul. So I could see why they decided that I wasn't getting the program anymore. I'll get it there.
Johnny V: First Blood is very close to my heart and I think it's such an important strand within Frightfest because it it offers potentially people who have come from the shorts block section of the festival that next step into making their first long format film. So just digging a little bit more into what you were saying there about, you know, is it w what appeals to you over over the eleven years, is it the technical polish of something? Is it the raw ambition? Is it the story? Is it the pure emotion? Or is it a mix of everything? You know, concept or you know or you know if it's a flawed film but it's there was something there. So
Three Foot: Yeah, flawed Johnny's actually not a problem. Ambition is a good thing. A lot of people have a lot of ambition, but they can't pull it off either for the lack of money, know, poor cast, anything like that. But I try to look beyond that to see there's a bit of heart in it. I got to say the bit of ambition, some innovation. So, you know, and as I keep saying, rough around the edges is absolutely fine. There's a real rough round the edge film. I'm not going to say which one in this year's first blood, but then there's a really polished one, which you would not believe is the first film. I came out of it thinking I was an expert in quantum physics. It's so, so informative.
Brendan Cleaves: Yeah.
Johnny V: so w with that, on over over the eleven years do you think the standards have increased in terms of the the the storytelling or how people make their first steps in long format or? Mm-hmm.
Three Foot: It goes in cycles. We've been lucky the last three or four years. There's always been one standout. A couple of years ago, there was the Moor.
Johnny V: Right now, V.
Three Foot: There was various other ones. there's the one this year. There was Stuart's film from the very first year, shot on a camera the size of my wallet. But you could see, yeah.
Johnny V: Yes, and it yeah. The creature below. Yeah, yeah, yeah.
Three Foot: you could see, you know, and we've played all four of his films up to now. And of course he's now in the main screen.
Johnny V: Yes indeed, he's he's taken that step, which is another thing that we'll we'll probably g get into a little bit later in in the pod in terms of t making that step from First Blood onto the big screen in the in Odeon One. I'm reluctant to say in the big house because I think I I tend to agree with you that the more interesting films that I tend to purchase tickets for are always gonna be in Discovery. Because you'll you know, you had a Hungarian film about three or four years ago that was set just after the First World War and it was about photographers taking those very spooky and disturbing photographs of people who were dead in f family units and it was an up it was a possession one and that was incredible. But you'd never come across that unless you happened to be at a film festival in Europe. So I think the the nuggets and the gold are are are definitely to be found there. That's not to say the main house will attract the big names and the big stars and a lot of people want their pass for that and there's nothing wrong with that at all.
Three Foot: and you know, you can kind of think the main screens, the films that are doing the rounds, the one that people expect us to play. Yeah, so that's how it kind of works.
Johnny V: Yeah, yeah, yeah.
Brendan Cleaves: And then and so with the feature films, we when we talked to James a few weeks back and obviously all the shorts come through film freeway. That's that's the main thing and he said very rarely does it does it happen any other way. Obviously the features are very
different to that. And how do how do features come into you? I mean obviously o film freeway is probably a a chunk of that, but is it through sales agents, distributors, through you know, talking to other programmers? How does that kind of work?
Three Foot: The features, shorts definitely almost 100 % through Film Freeway. We got 260 features through Film Freeway this year and we've picked a record amount. There's over I think 36, 37 being chosen from Film Freeway. The rest come from, as you said, sales agents, personal contacts, recommendations, distributors. We've got a couple of studio films this year, so they come direct from distributors. Contract, know, people who have played in the festival before who offer us the new film. I hate the word alumni, but people like that.
Johnny V: when you're when films are being decided, let's say between an anything that's happening on Discovery, even with First Blood, is there do you have a a screeners or do you watch it all yourself, Ian, or how do you delegate the watching of those particular films?
Three Foot: First blood doesn't get delegated, that's my little feastum. Won't betide anybody
Johnny V: That is your Well Wow. That
Three Foot: else watches one of them.
Brendan Cleaves: So so you watch them all
Johnny V: Or or decides to go, No, it's not allowed in.
Three Foot: I must confess that's the way I prefer to watch a film in the cinema. Screener's fine, you I've got a 75 inch TV, so it looks okay. But it's not the same as being with an audience and in an auditorium.
Brendan Cleaves: Mm.
Three Foot: No, it was how I found Train to Busan, which is one of my best closing film we ever had. streets ahead of anything else. And there's quite a story about actually going to see it. It was the first film I watched that year and had it in 70 seats. The film was to go on to be on to a mega international hit in 70 seats.
Johnny V: Whoa.
Three Foot: And I wandered in
Brendan Cleaves: Wow.
Three Foot: and the lady says to me, hi Paul, how you doing? I've kept a seat for you. And I just said, yeah, that's fine.
Johnny V: That's it that closure was amazing. I remember that.
Three Foot: Mm.
Johnny V: It was it was sensational and an amazing film to end the festival with. It just w w wowsers and seventy seats. That's incredible. Yeah.
Brendan Cleaves: Mm-hmm.
Three Foot: But even then it came over, know, and there's a rumor, allegedly a rumor that a tear might have been shed at the end of it, but, you know, I can never confirm that.
Johnny V: Yes. We'll have to get witnesses on that one, you know,
Brendan Cleaves: Mm.
Johnny V: to come forward on a podcast later on. Brilliant stuff. so yeah, it's so how do you you know, with a festival this size, how do you balance then the loyalty to filmmakers that have maybe come through that system to and and grown up through the Frightfest? route let's say to what you need A to push forward new voices and B to make the the people who are coming year in, year out want to return
again and again. How do you keep them that balance between yeah we support new voices and we need to get our very loyal fan base back to come and watch our films.
Three Foot: I know the answer to that, that might make me sound a bit wonky, but... There's two reasons why people come back every year is the films and the community that's built up around the festival. There's a hardcore of a couple of hundred people would come and we've been and don't even look at what we're showing. They get they book the same seats beside the same people every year. For the normal people, it's the films mainly because then they come along, discover. yeah, this is actually quite good. It's got an atmosphere about it, then they'll come back the next year. So word of mouth helps, but big names help. know, the year we had Freddie Krueger, know, Robert Engeland, we'd never seen so many people in the Empire. But
Johnny V: Mm.
Three Foot: they've become very problematic over the years because they now know their worth and
Brendan Cleaves: Yeah.
Three Foot: they now charge. They're quite happy to come along. But they asked for a fee in first class flights in a five star hotel. And because we don't get any money from any public body, which in a way kind of means our hands aren't tied to do certain things and stuff like that and filling endless bloody forms. We're a commercial thing, a commercial company. We don't run it for make a profit. Some years we might make a few hundred quid, some years we lost a few hundred pounds, but it balances out. So we can't afford people like that anymore. So we have to go down a different road. And since the RFF discovered horror, the studios tend to put their big titles there.
Johnny V: Mm-hmm.
Three Foot: But you know, people who don't understand horror, like the Edinburgh Film Festival, and to a degree the... the London Film Festival. it's horror films, gotta be at midnight. Yeah, which
Johnny V: Yeah, yeah, yeah.
Three Foot: is completely wrong. I didn't answer your
Johnny V: Mm-hmm.
Three Foot: question, by the way, I think.
Johnny V: Come on, Brian.
Brendan Cleaves: But yeah. no, I said I think you you kinda did to a certain degree. going back to like film selection, and I think it's great to hear that you watch all the films, you know what I mean, especially coming from, you know, an indie filmmaker background, you know, it it's you and it's you only, you know exactly what the right fit fit for your festival is. is there any sort of like common like reasons why y a film wouldn't make the program? You know, is there anything that you'd say
Three Foot: and
Brendan Cleaves: avoid or I mean we go into this a bit later when you start talking about sort of like trends, but like is there any reason where you'd just like go at no kind of thing. Is that is there anything like that you can spring us to mind?
Three Foot: S U It's got to have a decent story. It's very difficult to come up with new girls these days. They've been done and done and
done and done. So a little bit of originality. Anybody can make a film these days. you know, the democratisation of being able to do it now because good quality equipment is now so cheap. I'm actually waffling and getting off the point here. The point is, can you remind me?
Brendan Cleaves: No, it's just like is there anything that's like r waves a red flag to you, you know, when you when you watch a film or you just like obviously it's it's a lot i easier because you're the sole curator here. So it is probably quite it's a lot easier than you battling other other programmers. But is there anything that in your mind that's just like
Three Foot: Well, I'm not the only programmer. Alan and James help. Alan does the bulk of the programming and I do the British stuff and other stuff that
Brendan Cleaves: Yeah. Yeah.
Three Foot: I like. So we all have different tastes. Alan's more arty, although he does like a good commercial film. James is just learning his trade at the moment. And there's always the thing behind everything is, this sells seats. And, you know, we get it wrong. Film we all love to death sells three seats. A film, Buddy, this year, my fuck up. I put it in the wrong screen. It sold out in 10 minutes. The Korean biggest horror film ever in the wrong screen sold out in five minutes. So we don't always get it right.
Johnny V: Mm, mm. That's interesting to to when you're trying to put a schedule together and make sure that the film will accommodate not only a bigger audience but a revenue stream that reflects, right, okay, this is we feel this is gonna do well and sometimes it's a trip up along the way.
Three Foot: You know, our budget would run a small country for a couple of weeks to pay for everything, The sentiments are six-figure sum. Our hotel bills. probably my salary for six or seven years. So,
Brendan Cleaves: Mm-hmm.
Three Foot: you know, it's not a cheap thing. And, you know, talking about the wrong screens, there's at least three films in the main screen that should not be there this year because we thought they would sell a of tickets. There's one, it's only sold one. And, you know, if you could figure out what audiences want to watch 100 % I wouldn't be doing this. be in my deck chair on my desert island with my cocktail.
Johnny V: Yes. I suppose it is a very, very difficult thing and especially when you're dealing with a an an ever growing film festival that has multiple screens and multiple tastes.
Three Foot: 86 films and events this year. Remember back in the day when we did 25?
Johnny V: Yeah, very simpler times, as somebody would say.
Three Foot: Yeah, you'll be getting us to do some introductions next year, Johnny, because you're in with the furniture, as James says about you.
Johnny V: Yes, indeed.
Brendan Cleaves: Mm-hmm.
Johnny V: Happy to do so, but I'd be only too delighted to to intro films for sure. But I think it's I'm just gonna circle back to the idea of as a film festival and being not y not having your hands
tied behind your back with with public money or money from the council. Because of the nature of the film festival, there is a certain remiss that must go through local council in terms of what has been screened. and so how does that work in terms of being allowed to screen certain films?
Three Foot: Well, we've only ever been refused one film and that was a Serbian movie. You know what? Having seen it, never want to see it again. it wasn't a bad film, badly made film. The production standards were great. Just goodness, you what it was about. Anyway,
Brendan Cleaves: Yeah.
Three Foot: that aside, what a lot of people don't actually understand, the power to censor films actually lies with the local council, not with the BBFC. And what local councils do is delegate it to BBFC because they can't be arsed to do it.
Johnny V: Okay. Alright.
Three Foot: And because there's only one film, two films this year have actually been passed the BBFC, we've had to send them all to the local council. And then they charged to watch them. And yeah, I just paid,
Johnny V: What? dear
Brendan Cleaves: Wow.
Three Foot: on behalf of the festival, I just paid the bill yesterday. ouch, And
Johnny V: ouch.
Three Foot: so yes, do they watch them? I don't think so. I think they look at the, because we have to send them a trailer and a feature. I suspect they watch the trailer. Unless in the case of a Serbian film it comes with a reputation. And then I think they watch that one all through. would I say it's a formality? Obviously it isn't because we got turned down once, but it is a process we have to go through.
Brendan Cleaves: Yeah. Is there is there any talking about the Serbian film, I actually did meet Alex the Ryder at Grossman this year actually and had a very brief he's his film was screening out there at the time. But has there been anything since that? I Serbian film was I think it's like two thousand eleven or was it somewhere around there? I is is there been anything that's like hor in the horror world? 'Cause obviously there was a lot of like sort of like you was talking about, yeah, the reputation came up the Serbian film like Recently I dunno, apart from like maybe the Terrify films, but I don't think they're in a a a a a category, like a Serbian film, or maybe something like I don't know, like Citizen Vigilantia I know I wouldn't class classify that as a horror, but that's obviously been banned in a few places. Has has there been anything since then where where you guys have gone, we've got to stay away from that?
Three Foot: Not really, but we did have a bit of an issue with, I think it was his film in Glasgow. It had been playing festivals and got a bit of a reputation. Glasgow never interfered with what we show, but they actually asked to see it because of its reputation. And once seen it, I don't know how it got the reputation. It was a perfectly well-made film. about, know, the subject matter. be a bit difficult for some people. And nowadays, from what
we used to show back in 2000 and what we show now, we have to take on board how the world has changed.
Brendan Cleaves: Hm.
Three Foot: Because there was a Sunday back in the Empire, you'll maybe remember it, we
Johnny V: t yes, yes, yes.
Three Foot: mistakenly put three very heavy rape films back to back. And I can remember Kim Newman coming out of the screen halfway through the third one raging, absolutely raging and poor Paul got it in the neck.
Johnny V: dear.
Three Foot: So, know, like stuff like that, A, we wouldn't do it anymore. And that is quite a red, not a red, red belt. It's a problem. we knew I was trying to think the expression, but it's
Brendan Cleaves: Yeah.
Three Foot: something you have to keep an eye on these days. you know, it's I even get into trouble these days when I I put a bit in the program last year about telling people, know, you can live without your mobile phone for an hour and a half. And I was I
Brendan Cleaves: Mm-hmm.
Three Foot: was told that's bullying and and. When I go on stage I always used to get people, know, the newbies to stand up and people would applaud them. Can't do that anymore. That's bullying. So, you know, things have changed, you know,
Johnny V: Yes. We we yeah.
Three Foot: so you have to take on board. I tell you what I was described
Johnny V: Yeah.
Three Foot: as in an email once, but I don't talk to that person anymore.
Brendan Cleaves: I mean it is kind of sad in a way, you know, that it it's heading that way or maybe it'll come back around, maybe. I know we're in a time when, you know, there's a lot of people screaming and shouting about stuff, but it is kind of, you know, a film you should be able to do what you want. I mean if it's it's a bit like a Serbian film. I think that's a great example, a film that's like it isn't just some kind of silly shock value film, there's a deeper beeper themes running in there.
Three Foot: Hmm.
Brendan Cleaves: And I think that if anyone wanted to do something like now they they would be really like, is this gonna like ruin my career? I mean I recently watched a Serbian documentary which is fascinating. I don't know if you've seen that and I thought that was a that was a really good documentary. But it is a bit sad, you know, that people are saying like you know I mean obviously I'm not gonna talk about my film, but it is my my films are short and it's it's got some edgy bits in it, you know, like And I was a bit like should I make this film because maybe it not no is a bit too on the edge. I mean again it's a comedy so I think maybe you get a little bit more but I don't know, th i it does feel like I'd hope it goes full circle at least or i or or the curve is corrected somehow with that. But yeah, I mean what what are your thoughts on that? And I mean obviously you just said it's that we we're in difficult different times, but d do you kind of l wish would maybe swerve the other way, or are you quite happy the way it is?
Three Foot: Look, I'm an elderly
gentleman. I can remember back in the 60s and 70s, you'd get up to stuff you'd never even think about now. I do not think it's going to go back. know, the fact that somebody did something 30 years ago you could end up in prison for. OK, it was terrible thing, but. You I don't think it's ever going to go back to the way it was and I don't think it should frankly.
Johnny V: I th yeah, it's a definite brand new John and new directions and
Three Foot: You know, a lot of it's a lot of nonsense, you know. I'm the grumpy one between the four, the three of us these days and. I've spent 27 years perfecting that persona, so pleasure to give it up now.
Johnny V: But in it's a much loved grumpy one you are. I'm gonna swing it back into w just in terms of y say you've come through, you're you've done your short, you're done quite well, and two years later you're back at Frightfest. What do you see coming in feature film wise from First Blood that you see c like reasons that a promising debut as a first horror feature will get turned down. Is there like recurring pitfalls? What is overdone? W what feels fresh? What feels undercooked or what feels this is too familiar or these are t too familiar subject matters?
Brendan Cleaves: Or even if there's s like some some films that are coming in where there's way too many of them. 'Cause I find that sometimes if people chase kind of what's happened in society, it can kind of swerve you to one way or another, you know. Suddenly, I think we interviewed Ben Highland. yesterday and day before yesterday, and he just mentioned like doing films like about short films about dementia now. Films a bit done and there's like every time you go to a festival there's there's three or four films about dementia. I mean, is there anything you see on the on the f features side of things that that is the same kind of trend?
Three Foot: Well, we had good. Just counting, four films about, based on American afternoon kids television this year.
Brendan Cleaves: Interesting.
Three Foot: Buddy being the one we chose in the end. That doesn't answer your question. I wish I should answer your question. Well,
Johnny V: Mm-hmm.
Three Foot: back in the 60s, this is an analogy, I'm not sure it'll work. Back in the 60s, when the Love Affair had a big hit with Everlasting Love, they came out with Happy Valley, I think it was called. It was the same song.
Johnny V: Yeah, yeah.
Three Foot: Making a repeat, I think it's the better of the two, but making a repeat like Stuart's film, it was more ambitious, but it was almost... not quite the same film, but the same film, but it was better made, better acted. And that was why it was selected. He'd improved. You know, there's people who go... certain gentleman from America, it begins with T, makes the same films over and over and over again. I don't think that
Johnny V: Hm.
Three Foot: that is his brand, but they don't get any better. We've showed one or two, but we're not gonna
Johnny V: Mm-hmm.
Three Foot: show any more. So I'm looking for improvement. In First Blood, I'm not talking about the rest of the program. In First Blood, I'm looking for improvement. How you've rehashed the same thing. but done it better.
Johnny V: Mm-hmm. I suppose stories are universal and we all know that, but it's the way you it's in the telling of them and how clever you might be able to tell
Three Foot: Yeah, well.
Johnny V: that those seven stories. I know there's there's more than seven stories, but
Three Foot: Well...
Johnny V: it's what you can do with it to make it dynamic and interesting.
Three Foot: In the lineup this year, there's the brook. Now, it's what it is, and it's very ambitious, because he's trying to do an American coming-of-age film, but set in Durham. But the reason it was chosen was I could see the ambition of it. And there was a couple of good actors and a very appealing leading lady who was very good and very charismatic. and she carried the film. And it'll be interesting to see what he comes back with the second time if he comes back. Because remember, 92 % of filmmakers don't make a second film.
Johnny V: The hardest thing in the world, for sure.
Three Foot: Yeah, you know, it's the famous second album theory, you know, but so
Johnny V: Yeah.
Brendan Cleaves: Yeah.
Three Foot: I'll be interesting in his case, what he comes back with. There's another one is. It's about paranormal investigation. That's the final one. It's playing on hereditary paranormal, which is playing on on last film and in the the midnight slot. Again, a lot of ambition, a lot of it doesn't work. Some of it does. It came in at two hours. It's now an hour and a half. Better film.
Johnny V: Mm-hmm.
Brendan Cleaves: Yeah.
Three Foot: Is it the best film? No, it's not the best film to line up, but it's because of its ambition. It's why it's there. when they come back, hopefully next year or the year after, I'll hopefully be looking to see if they're moved on from that or they're just rehashing and redoing the same thing over again.
Brendan Cleaves: So if someone applies and gets rejected, I mean, is there any chance of them reapplying with the same film the following year and potentially getting selected? No.
Three Foot: happened once and actually there's one film playing this year, actually there's two films playing this year that were selected and didn't play because of various things. One wasn't ready, actually both weren't quite ready, so they were carried over to this year. So yeah, we'll do that, but if you submit a film and it's rejected outright, and that sounds a bit harsh, but if it's not chosen.
Brendan Cleaves: Mm.
Three Foot: We get asked, you know, I've re-edited it. I've done this to it. I've done the next thing to it. No.
Brendan Cleaves: Yeah.
Johnny V: And following on from that, in when you get work like that that you're d that's coming in and it might get not chosen that year, some people will send in work and go, Look, we're just waiting on a bit more
budget to come in to put in the effects. But we're gonna show you the whole thing, but the the monsters will be here in this scene and what do you prefer? Do you prefer the finished product? Say show it to us then. Don't show us anything else. We'd like to see the whole thing. Are you happy to embrace That because of budgetary constraints.
Three Foot: Well, we will watch works in progress. But what I say to filmmakers, because we get this, I've now got a stock email almost to reply to them, which I personalise and change it, is that you should not submit a film you are not happy with just to make a deadline. There'll always be another festival or another deadline, but do not submit just to make the deadline.
Brendan Cleaves: Yeah. And what about premiere status though? 'Cause obviously going from the shorts there obviously some sort of premiere status is definitely preferred. in the features, how does that work?
Three Foot: It has to be a UK premiere. We will repeat stuff it shows in Edinburgh. And we do have one that played in Manchester this year, which the guy sneaked past me and I had it programmed before I found out.
Johnny V: Yeah.
Three Foot: But and that's one of the ones that was held over from last year. So wasn't really his fault. You he's sitting on a film. It's made in Manchester. Why shouldn't he show it in Manchester? I don't really care. Some people care more about prem. premier status and I do, others do, I really don't care. But I kind of have to go along with the party line, which is minimum of UK premier.
Johnny V: so with the first blood strand, every year it tends to be in and around let's say between four and six films. Is that a a strategic thing? Would you like to have more or would you i it's sometimes you have to have less depending on programming or what's available to fill the other discovery screens?
Three Foot: Well, no, the big discovery screen on the Saturdays I can put six films in. I can put two films in. It's really down to what was selected. You know, right up to about three weeks before the deadline, I only had two films. And three good ones came in in the last week or so. So there's five this year. I think there was four last year. six the year before, it's down to the quality of the films.
Brendan Cleaves: if you're submitting a feature to Frightfirst, I mean a lot of other festivals have really specific things, like you need so many like BTS images or you need XYZ, what what is the package that you'd recommend submitting with your film to Frightfirst?
Three Foot: Poster, synopsis, trailer, and a selection of good quality images. Images these days, I really don't know. You should have a photographer on set regardless to take pictures. Screenshots, yeah,
Brendan Cleaves: Mm. So BTS, behind the scenes stuff, yeah.
Three Foot: screenshots are fine, but what a filmmaker thinks shows his film off and... what really they should submit to show the film off bears no reality. They should get somebody else to do it.
Johnny V: I think it's it's certainly something that young filmmakers that I've worked with before, they'll just go, I'll do some screen grabs and it's w you're kinda settling yourself short here. If you can possibly get a friend who's getting a an outside eye, who's good, who wants to stage stuff within scenes and not be too invasive during a shooting day, it will set up an a a a much better set of photographs that you can put into your package than just relying on screen grabs. And an awful lot of festivals do not want screen grabs as well.
Three Foot: No, but know, a lot of times I don't have a choice, you know, some films come in, this is perfect. You know, the way I like to do things, I like big images on the website, I've got big images and I'll lay text over it and stuff like that. I like dark corners, I can put light text over it. But, and these days with Photoshop, you can add bits onto the picture that wasn't even there. So, but... You've got to be very careful if you do that with pictures because filmmakers get a little bit upset. if you take a poster from the Internet and that's not the official one. Whoa, you get shouted at. If you spell somebody's name wrong,
Brendan Cleaves: Yeah.
Three Foot: you get shouted at.
Brendan Cleaves: Yeah, tell I know about that, all right. The amount of times I put put an E in Johnny's name on our poster, I mean
Three Foot: Hahaha
Brendan Cleaves: I I just Yeah
Three Foot: And you know...
Johnny V: it wa it will blow a gasket with me.
Three Foot: We could only add three or four names to the description on the cast list of a film. And we got an email a couple of weeks ago from one of the smaller films saying that, why am I not there? And sent me a list of four other people they wanted added in who were background actors. But anyway,
Brendan Cleaves: Yeah.
Three Foot: what I do is fabulous. I wouldn't change it for the world. OK, you could bitch and moan about it, it's, it's, you know, I've been lucky. 35 years of effectively getting paid to watch films. What's wrong with that? You know, and now I'm supposedly retired. I've managed to keep it going a little bit.
Johnny V: it's brilliant. It's fantastic. we probab
Brendan Cleaves: If you could s reach out to just screaming out to some filmmakers out there, I mean obviously people I'm almost the belief just make the film you want to make, but if you could say to filmmakers like like this is what I'd really love to see, like this is this is something that I would love to see come in. We don't get enough of these, or we don't get enough of like this kind of style or something. What what would that be for you as just like just as a more of a an audience member than a sort of a programmer? Like what would you love to see?
Three Foot: I'm not going to go down that road because I'm not creative that way. I can watch a film and understand it and build one end of it from another, but I could never make one. But what I will say is remember, just because it's a horror film, everybody doesn't have to be nasty. It applies to anything. Reading a book, reading a newspaper, there has to be somebody, something you care about. It could be the last girl, it could be the first girl, but there has to be something in there you care about it for it to work from the audience's point of view. It's really quite simple, but so many people just don't get it. That's what I would say to them. I'm not going to tell them what to make. That's not my job. And that would be arrogant of me. I can do that at the best of terms without telling them what to do.
Johnny V: Ian,
Brendan Cleaves: Yeah.
Johnny V: we are we tend to ask this coming towards the end of the pod. survival guides to Fright Fest. What what would you what information or what truth will you impart about surviving the five days of Fright Fest to people who are A, either going to be screen leader or either just coming to watch the films as well?
Three Foot: Remember to wash. And you'll remember that one
Johnny V: Ha ha.
Three Foot: year I put my foot in it with somebody who was really smelly and was not one of my finer moments in front of 800 people. I've never walked out of an auditorium to complete silence, but anyway, that's by the by. Don't drink too much. Try and get some sleep. Take some breaks. You you don't have to watch every film. You can only watch 25 and you shouldn't really try and watch 25. Take some breaks. Go for a walk, miss the first film, miss the last film. If you don't fancy it, go do something else. That's real, you just relax, talk to people. That's probably one of the biggest things. You'll sit beside this person for five days, get their name, talk to them, ask them questions. You'll be surprised, you'll be surprised.
Johnny V: Brilliant stuff. Thanks for that. Brandon, have you any more? I think that was a great one to end on.
Brendan Cleaves: No, that's a great one to end on. Yeah. And so we'll this will go out after the festival. The festival is the end of August. when do you open actually for s someone's listening to this, they're like, I wanna get my film into twenty twenty seven. Do you know off top of your head when it opens?
Three Foot: middle of September.
Brendan Cleaves: horror film, you want to something to fright fest, now you know hopefully how to have your best chance of getting in.
Three Foot: Now, we eventually managed to make this work, so I enjoyed doing it. So
Johnny V: We did.
Three Foot: thank you very much.
Johnny V: Brilliant. Ian, thank you so much for coming on the pod. It's been brilliant. thanks for answering our questions. It's been an absolute pleasure. And looking forward to seeing you at Fryfest and sharing a beer or two.
Three Foot: Yes, I look forward to it. Nice to talk to you, Bye bye. Bye.
Johnny V: Okay, take care. Bye.
Brendan Cleaves: cheers, bike. Right, bye.