Sony Studios, Culver City, LA, the weekend of June 6th / 7th, hosted the very first Producers Guild Of America ‘Produced By Conference’, with 100 plus keynote guest speakers including James Cameron, Clint Eastwood and an army of other top industry experts and producers.
The event culminated in the very first PGA Producers Challenge on Sunday evening. With the finalists drawn from over 600 entrants from around the world, ‘Gone Fishing’ competed against four other films and won the coveted Best Film award. British Producer / Director Chris Jones was present to accept the award from Gale Anne Hurd, producer of films such as ‘Aliens’, ‘Terminator’ and most recently, ‘The Incredible Hulk’.
‘The judges were unanimous in selecting Gone Fishing as the winner and we all felt it was a wonderful film’ said one member of the jury. The prizes included a mentoring lunch with one of Hollywood’s top producers.
‘Gone Fishing’ has already won over 25 international accolades and was Oscar shortlisted in 2009.
Winning this award, from The Producers Guild Of America, is extraordinary!’ comments Producer / Director Chris Jones.
What makes the film unusual is the way in which it was financed and made. Chris Jones is the author of the hugely successful Guerilla Film Makers Handbook series (over 100,000 copies sold) and ‘Gone Fishing’ gave him the chance to reach out to that community of emerging film makers surrounding the books.
Says Jones, ‘I could not fund the film myself, so I chose to ask everyone I ever met for £50, including the film makers who had bought the book in the past. In return I promised I would do my best to make a world class movie, throw a great premiere and give them a credit on the movie… so we have 200 producers! I guess we were pioneers in the now accepted term of ‘crowd sourcing’ as a way of funding a film.’
‘We also promised to take everyone on our journey, and documented the whole process via a blog, including many hours of behind the scenes video. The blog has become its own entity now, attracting thousands of film makers every week.’ (www.chrisjonesblog.com)
Jones has already decided he will be back next year, ‘the conference was an amazing insight and I can’t afford to miss attending next year, it’s that essential’.
Chris Jones works out of the historic Ealing Film Studios in West London.
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www.chrisjonesblog.com
