Yellow Fever Independent Film Festival

Director George Clarke on setting up Belfast's latest film festival.

In the beginning...

I initially thought of throwing my own film festival way back when we began filming the award winning Battle Of The Bone.
At that time we thought we could take on the world (and, well, I guess
we still do). So when myself and project manager Graeme Livingstone
took Battle Of The Bone to the Freak Show Film Festival in
Orlando in October 2008, it inspired us to create our very own Yellow
Fever Independent Film Festival (YFIFF) here in Belfast.

I'd
have to say it was possibly one of the most incredible times of my
life. To have your very first film screened at such an event is enough
to make you smile, but to have it become the talk of the festival, and
then walk away with the Audience Choice Award, you can only think of
greater things for the future.

One of those things was the
YFIFF - a gateway to allow other first time/independent filmmakers like
ourselves get the exposure and recognition they deserve.

Robert
Massetti, the Freak Show creator, put together one hell of a show and
we became good friends during the festival. We realised that we were
all in the same boat with regards to helping other indie filmmakers get
their work noticed, and his inspiration and dedication was what sealed
our plans for going ahead with our own festival

Taking
the Freak Show Film Festival as a blue print and condensing it to work
for us on a smaller level, we began putting pen to paper and planning
things for what we hoped would be the first annual YFIFF in August 2009.

Initially
we faced a Catch 22 situation. We needed to advertise the festival but
didn't have a location because we didn't have the finance and so on.

Thankfully, CultureNorthernIreland were first to put their name forward
to help us. This came in handy when we began searching for our
location.

Thinking back to what Robert had done, we
aspired to the same set-up. He very cleverly organised his festival at
one of Orlando's largest and grandest resorts, meaning that all his
filmmakers and star guests were on site for the whole event - it worked
a treat. From the Friday morning until the Sunday night, the whole
place was buzzing. It was amazing.

As an old employee of the
Stormont Hotel in east Belfast, I had a connection with the place and
its staff. The hotel itself has just undergone a make-over, and with
the glorious Stormont Park just steps away I figured it would be the
perfect place to have international guests stay. And then it hit me -
the Stormont Hotel boasts one of the greatest conference centres in
Belfast, which could also double as the perfect setting for the
festival itself...

The Stormont Hotel accepted the
challenge of hosting the festival, and not only that, they donated most
of the conference centre and reduced room rates for festival guests.
Within hours I had flyers and posters about the festival going into
print, and very soon we had another donation from Video Monkeys, a
company who is helping us with our main prize for the winner of Best
Film. This involves a distribution deal on the Yellow Fever label, amongst other things.

So what next? We had the location, now we needed films and guests. Laptops at the ready, a host of the
Yellow Fever staff started dropping lines to every filmmaker they knew,
every film site, magazine and festival directory to get the word out.
Trying to organise an international film festival with no money is
pretty tough going, and the lack of funding for independent projects
like this in Northern Ireland doesn't help, so there is only so much we
can do to advertise. But we kept going.

Suprisingly, our
hard work paid off, and very soon we were getting talked about in
America, Canada, and Hong Kong on websites like Critical Film (who have
since sponsored us in advertising space), Impact, GoreZone and more.
Last month we took out a full page ad for the Battle Of The Bone DVD and YFIFF in GoreZone which looked amazing, and the always helpful Impact Movie Magazine
covered us in their last issue. Representatives from both global
publications will be attending the festival, which is fantastic.

With one week to go...

Slowly
but surely, submissions started to come in. We soon had enough to
choose from, with a small number not being chosen to open the first
annual YFIFF. Yellow Fever Productions has always been about keeping it
local, and for the first few months didn't see anything (half decent)
submitted from a Northern Irish film maker. Most of the selected films
were coming in from Hong Kong, America and Ireland, with a few from the
mainland UK. Thankfully we started to get a trickle of local indies
coming through - and some great ones that have made the selection.

The
line-up includes a mix of drama, action, horror, comedy, martial arts,
and even a musical. Selected films include the award-winning Shadowland (which played alongside Battle Of The Bone in Orlando in 2008), the fantastic Isle Of The Damned (strictly adults only), Hong Kong/UK action flicks Underground and Bodyguard: A New Beginning, the Irish comedy Situations Vacant, the Irish drama 8.5 Hours which screened at the Cannes Festival this year; the Hong Kong/Ireland romantic action comedy Somebody To Love, musical films One Last Love Song and local black comedy Death In D-Minor, Scottish horror The Dead Outside and documentary The Northern Lights.

On top of the selected entries I decided to run one of my own documentaries, Unlimited Parkour Belfast, to give the guest something to watch over dinner and to take up that slot so an entry wouldn't be missed while people eat.

I
also decided to open and close each YFIFF with memorable screenings, to
start some sort of tradition. To open each YFIFF, I came up with the
'Screening Of Recognition'. This is the screening of a short film from
a local film maker who we believe deserves to be recognised as a future
talent of NI. So to open the very first YFIFF, Aidan Gault (15) will
have his short film Injected screened to the audience.

After
all the selected entries have been screened, we will have an awards
ceremony to acknowledge the talent in certain categories of film
making. Awards for an Achievement In Independence shall be given for
the likes of Best Film, Best Director and Best International Film,
along with an Audience Choice Award to get the audience involved. After
this, my idea to close our festival was to screen the première of our
very own new feature film.

I gave myself and my team the
glorious task of making a full feature film in just 5 weeks, from my
head to completion, with a budget of only £100. My plan was to write a
story that involved a small cast but plenty of exciting moments to
entertain. I came up with the film Splash Area. But we soon
realised the film was bigger than I first expected, and was quickly put
aside (until September), leaving me back at the drawing board.

In
just one day I came up with a new feature that we began filming almost
instantly in a bid to get things finished in time for the festival, not
to mention the deadline for the Freak Show Film Festival in Orlando.
So, produced in 5 weeks with only £100 to spend, our new feature film The Knackery shall be premièring and closing the festival.

As
well as keeping things local the festival keeps things independent, so
we started leaning towards the NI arts world as well as the film side
of it all. Soon I arranged for an additional arts market to run
alongside the films and we quickly got a great range of local talent in
to sell and exhibit their paintings, sculptures, crafts and work to
help promote even more of NI's creative talent.

If I was
to go that far, why not extend the arts value of it all and bring in
the extreme side of the art world with some tattooists! Luckily, the
White Dragon Tattoo team were up for such an event, so if you feel like
something a little more permanent at this years YFIFF get in touch with
Chris from White Dragon via our website to book a sitting.

A
lot of people keep asking me what famous actors I'm getting in for the
festival. Which big name am I using to attract an audience? Well, none.
As an independent film maker I believe that the people behind the
scenes make the magic happen in films. I have found a special guest
that I am proud to have help open the first annual Yellow Fever
Independent Film Festival; Mike Leeder.

I first met Mike through Impact magazine when he covered Battle Of The Bone and
got my name as a film maker out to a worldwide audience. He has since
been a great help and supporter of myself and our productions, and now
a great friend as he has given up his time to come from Hong Kong to
carry workshops and Q&As for local film makers and fans. Mike also
produced two of the movies screening at the YFIFF, and has worked for
years as a producer and casting director alongside such names as my
hero Jackie Chan and Jet Li on films like Rush Hour 3, The Mummy 3, Fearless, Blood The Last Vampire and many more epic films.

I'll
not say putting together an international film festival is easy - I
like a challenge - and regardless of what happens this year, Yellow
Fever Productions will do it all again in 2010. I've always said 'Live
The Dream'. We're doing it, and we want more people to experience that.

George Clarke