Crude Diaries

Nov 28: From volunteer to movie star

sylvia — Sat, 01 Dec 2007 13:13:19 +0000

I can't ever imagine anyone writing a sufficient job description for a Production Assistant. In the 9 months I've been with Spanner Films, I've been a volunteer, an office manager, an accounts assistant, a cook, a courier, a cocktail waitress, a make up artist, but today was officially the strangest working day (to date) of my time at Spanner.

Nov 11: Kamikaze PR strategy

sylvia — Wed, 14 Nov 2007 18:30:40 +0000

We've brought Crude to the Sheffield Documentary Festival for a "work-in-progress" screening. Seemed like a good idea six weeks ago: thinking we'd kickstart the Crude hype machine as well as getting feedback from other filmmakers. But lots of people who know about such things are saying we're mad to show such an unfinished film in such a dragon's den.

David made a good suggestion: why not show just the first 45 minutes and (hopefully) leave them wanting more.

Oct 24: May as well scream

sylvia — Wed, 14 Nov 2007 17:50:29 +0000

Franny's old pal George Marshall has been investigating the psychology of climate change denial for a few years, so we came to Oxford to pick his brains on the character of our old man in the future. We've been thinking perhaps he should be a do-gooder now: someone who recycles fastidiously but then flies five times a year on holiday.

Oct 16: Most powerful people ever?

sylvia — Wed, 14 Nov 2007 17:48:52 +0000

George Monbiot came up with our new favourite thought on climate change today, during the many-times-postponed interview for the film. To paraphrase: you think you're powerless and anything you do is irrelevant? The opposite is true - we are the generation who will decide the future of our species. Every single thing each one of us does or doesn't do is crucial to whether we survive or not. Making us the most powerful individuals ever.

He was also absolutely crystal clear on the Love Miles flying question:

Sept 21: Any animators out there?

sylvia — Wed, 14 Nov 2007 17:15:52 +0000

My current role in life is meeting animators and attempting to persuade them to work on our film. There's plenty of them and they all love the sound of the project, think it's very worthwhile, would love to get their work onto the big screen and creatively it's very exciting but then as soon as I mention our meager survival wages, they start mumbling about how they're booked on a slimfast / catfood / plastic crap commercial and will have to get back to me.