The Times (UK) & New Zealand Herald coverage

The New Zealand Herald covered The Hunt For Gollum today in their article March of the fifth Gollum
They appear to be the first to ask Peter Jackson's camp if he's seen THFG, with the following answer, I quote "a spokesman for Jackson said they have chosen not to comment about the film". Of course Jackson himself is likely far too busy to watch a film like this, so I'm certainly not expecting any feedback from him. That would only generate more publicity, and we've had more than our fair share of press already. Even so I can't help but wonder what his reaction would be. I hope he would understand where we're coming from, and that this was simply a labour of love, and a chance to learn about film-making.

Also, The Times did a nice article last week: Gollum spearheads the Hollywood fan-film revolution pointing out that the film has had 3.5 million views - figures beating most big budget feature film releases.

Free screening in Cardiff

The Hunt for Gollum returns to Wales this Saturday (24th October) at the Chapter Cinema, Cardiff. I'll be attending the free screening, along with actor Arin Alldridge (Arithir) and some of the crew.

FAN-TASIA: The Hunt For Gollum + Blair Thumb (ctba)
Saturday, 24 October 2009 18:15 Cinema 2

I'm delighted to see that they're also showing Blair Thumb, a fan movie by Steve Oedekerk, writer of Bruce Almighty. I enjoyed his hilarious Thumb Wars in my student days. Should be a lot of fun.

Tickets are free (of course) and you can reserve them at the box office, although the cinema is quite small so call them to reserve.

I'm looking forward to getting back to Wales for the first time since we filmed some of the mountain scenes there. In other news, I recently got back from Canada, from the FNC in Montreal. Soph & I were very kindly received and enjoyed a panel with some other participative film-makers. In particular www.touscoprod.com seem to have a novel approach to film funding.

Also, I should tell you there's a festival screening in Geneva at the Festival Tous Ecrans on November 5th. More on that soon,

Chris

Visiting FNC in Montreal

Hey folks, it's been a while since I updated - I've been making the most of my newly found free time. :) Anyway I'm just about to head off to Canada with Soph for the Festival du Nouveau Cinema in Montreal, Canada for a screening of THFG, at something called the FNC Lab - Participative Film-making! Something a little different. Here's the blurb on the event:

Since the arrival of platforms for sharing content online, the cyberspace slogan has been: We need you! Video, text, sound, image… Anyone can produce their own content and then broadcast and promote it in just a few clicks. Home movies are everywhere, all claiming to be a hit. Needs are expanding and things are becoming more ambitious. Whether looking for additional funding or a volunteer editor, it’s becoming easier and easier to use the Net to make films collaboratively. Is this the next film revolution'

With :
Chris Bouchard (UK) | director | www.thehuntforgollum.com
Barbara Tonelli (FR) | co-founder | www.touscoprod.com
Thierry Vogler (CA) | producer/writer/director | www.5000kmdejerome.com

This panel will be followed by the screening of the film The Hunt for Gollum, directed as a participatory film by Chris Bouchard in tribute to the Lord of the Rings trilogy.

Saturday 10th October, 5pm, Agora Hydro-québec (La Tanière) Montreal is the time and date, should any of your want to come, please do come and say hi.

This should be quite an interesting one, especially to get insights from other participative films - I suppose that's what this was - our buzz word was more 'collaborative'. But hey - same difference.

Meanwhile, totting up the views it seems THFG's now had around 3.5 million views. So glad it's still finding a fresh audience. And so, I've been slowly but surely prepping the next project, exploring various options - Residue, being only one of several possibilities for the next IOC feature. Whatever it is, it's likely to be ridiculously ambitious - I can gaurantee that.

Secondly I must big up some more upcoming free screenings - at the Chapter Cinema Cardiff - 24th, Oct 2009. Also it's showing down at the massive ICON film festival in Isreal on 6th & 8th October.

au revoir!