Nice To Meet You from Distilled Films on Vimeo.
It occurred to me the other day that many of you haven’t seen the short film that really got the ball rolling and was the inaugural film for Distilled.
Well here it be!
Writer, Director, Co-Producer: Will Garthwaite
Co-producer: Will Misselbrook
Editor: Saska Simpson
DOP: Stein Stie
The Woman: Trudie Styler
The Girl: Mickey Sumner
The Young Man: Jamie Dornan
No self-respecting festival carries on without their own set of laurels to adorn posters and dvds around the world and these are the brand spanking new ‘silver fern’ laurels from the Takes Short Film Festival that we were lucky enough to screen at a few weeks ago. The night was a great success, we were the last film to show and quite a show it was. Very rarely do you see such high quality films one after the other.
Thank you Takes
After a few months grazing roofs and bouncing off treetops March sees Nice To Meet You flying high once again and back on the radar.
Takes is a monthly short film screening taking place in Kilburn and will be only the 2nd time the film has screened in London..
Look forward to it!
Now to unquestionably the most important short film festival in the UK, Encounters, in Bristol. The stormy weather made it easy to head indoors and I managed to squeeze in about 40 shorts most of which were fantastic and hear some great talks given by people like Andrea Arnold, Jeremy Brock, Gary Shaw, and Eran Creevy.
Encounters turned out to be a great place to meet or at least see some of the cogs and cogettes that make up the UK film funding and creative machine. I also met some inspiring young film makers and many a wise old head with plenty of good advice on the next steps etc…
So thank you to organisers like Rich Warren, Mark Cosgrove, and Sheryl Newell for putting on a great show and giving our first film such an elevated platform on which to be seen! x
In the world of exceeded expectations rarely will you come across such a shining example. Savannah Film Festival was absolutely fantastic. As film makers with a big “F” on our pass we were treated like royalty, we were introduced to anyone and everyone and made to feel so welcome and become so familiar that we really didn’t want to leave…
Nice To Meet You screened twice last week, with Mickey Sumner representing us in the Q and A on the Tuesday and me (Will Garthwaite) taking the questions on the Friday. I’m guessing it’s not too often that you have 900 people at a short film screening so it was an extra special opportunity to see how a big screen and a big crowd would respond to the drama as it unfolded. We were not disappointed, there were oohs and aahs, whelp and whoops, and cries and chuckles in all the right places and for me it was so good to see the more subtle moments being amplified and appreciated in equal measure.
Each night we were treated to a special screening, we saw George Clooney’s Up In The Air, recent English film An Education, the fantastic new Michael Cera film Youth in Revolt, and Lee Daniels future classic Precious. In between times we saw many of the films and documentaries in competition, and I look forward to getting hold of all the ones I missed in the weeks to come.
As a first time film maker its difficult to imagine a better introduction to ‘the festival’, I spoke to one major producer in the lobby of the hotel on the final morning who said that frankly this is ‘as good as it gets’ in terms of a festival of film, another said it felt like Sundance did in the early days!
All I can say is that it was hot and sunny in November, the town is beautiful, the students who volunteered are too, and I will do everything I can to make sure I am back there next year!
Y’all are welcome!
While we we there Will Misselbrook and I met many talented and amazing people, here are but a few with links to their own projects where possible: Bobby Zarem, Myra Scheer, Sheila Lynne Bolda, Michael Chaney, Lisa Kaminsky, Bill Augustin, Drew Brown, Nick Moran, Lara Everly + Annika Marks, Gina Atwater, Jill Yoe, Colin Marshall, Sebastian Davis, Bradford Schmidt, Trevor Jenkins, Robin Carus, Tomer Gendler, Susan Morgan Cooper, Suzi Yoonessi, Lucas Martell, Tom Fontana, Yotam Dor, Tony Mark + Susan Fiore, and Lee Daniels
We were delighted to have a fantastic 90 guests at the London screening of Nice To Meet You. Westbourne Studios proved to be an ideal venue especially with the promise of a free Alibi cocktail! It was great to see so many of the people that made the film possible and thank them once again for their time and generosity. Thank you all for coming!
Almost exactly a year after we shot the thing we’re very excited to be teaming up with the bright young things at Alibi to present the film for the first time to family, friends, Distillery members and industry folk. We’re expecting much of the cast and crew to join us at the fantastic Westbourne Studios so it should be a jolly old evening!
I am very excited because in October I’ll be flying over to the States for 2 weeks starting in New York from where we’ll all head for a weekend in Savannah, Georgia where our film will show at the Savannah Film Festival. If the name Savannnah rings a bell that’s because it is the setting for the book ‘Midnight in the Garden of Good and Evil’.
After that we head to Bristol and the illustrious Encounters Short Film Festival where NTMY is showing as part of their online curation, this is very exciting as Encounters are a big deal in the rarefied world of Short Films. Hurrah!
The people at Norwich Film Festival were good enough to show our film in this their inaugural year. Thank you guys. I drove up with the mother and the grandmother (almost a local from just down the road in Fakenham) to see the film amongst strangers for the first time.
By the end of the film I had become completely attuned to the oohs and aahs of the audience around me and lived the film through their experience which was both refreshing and exhausting at the same time. Can’t imagine what it would be like to sit through your own feature in the same environment! We got a round of applause at the end though… which was nice x
The film was finished up in early May and are delighted with it. Thank you to everyone who gave us such fantastic support
Copies are now being sent to festivals all around the world and to the wonderful Distillery members who helped make this happen.
x Distilled