Production Companies & Filmmakers in Cornwall & Plymouth - War-rag

War-rag

email War-rag

War-rag ('Ahead' in the Cornish language) is a non-profit distributing initiative to help create the context in which Cornish filmmaking can thrive, through facilitating a new ambitious cooperative film production project for Cornwall. Application to participate is open to all those involved in the current Cornish film, video, television and media industry, and we will also encourage young people in Cornwall who wish to increase their involvement.

As well as celebrating and showcasing Cornish filmmaking, War-rag aims to contribute to the development of the infrastructure necessary to build a sustainable local film industry.

The thinking behind War-rag

In the past some television programmes have been commissioned from Cornish production bodies, and even feature films of much originality and innovation have been made. But the step-change into a fully-functioning industry has yet to occur. It is still hard to envisage any indigenous production body adequately funding even a ‘low-budget’ feature through any conventional model.

But ours is not a conventional industry. It has grown up through individual creativity, drive, co-operation and pooling of skills and resources. In this way over a decade we have built an industry from an all but standing start.

War-rag exists to create a next stage – using those qualities to inspire, with the minimum of straightforward financial resources, an ambitious feature film production project that would be far beyond us as individuals and small groups.

We also believe that in the future Cornish productions might best be financed through sales, with finance achieved through o­ne sale providing start-up money for further productions, and so o­n. This is also the way to wider audiences, for most of us a paramount consideration. So our aim is to engage with distributors and sales agents right at the start of the formulation of War-rag’s commercial product. This will not purely be in terms of immediately attaining outlets, but as a means to incorporate insights to where the Cornish industry, as currently composed and enabled, can best direct its endeavours. At the same time, relationships created this way could be invaluable in the future.

“Subject to your approval!” - how War-rag will work

Informed by this, through workshops, seminars and training opportunities, we will work together in development teams to formulate and produce new feature length drama film – possibly working within a genre suggested by our discussions with distributors.

War-rag will liaise, and work to establish a production base and facilitate the production and the production teams, moving through production and post-production to screenings regionally, nationally and at major international film festivals.

Co-operative Involvement

We believe it is important to spread the load – we aim, with future members of War-rag, to devise innovative ways of team working to handle strands of production, which we broadly break down (subject to members’ agreement!) into:

• script development;
• project development and liaison;
• production;
• marketing.

Much of this will not be strange to us in the Cornish context, though the writing strand in particular will need to develop new, co-operative ways of working. The development of new techniques and models will both codify distinctive ways of working we have already and develop the abilities and the distinctiveness of the Cornish industry.

Up to this point War-rag has been put together by a steering group, which we see as a small-scale model of the way War-rag will work o­nce it has incorporated the wider- Cornish film and television community. We have drawn the scheme in big fat crayon rather than fine detail, so there is enough structure that seed money might be sought, but also so that those joining us will be able to play a full part in the formulation of the production and where we all go together.

Stages we envisage for the process include:

• Undertaking of short film pilot
• Inauguration of wider relationships – in Cornwall and beyond, with distributors etc.
• Engagement with potential members
• Consultation phase. Discussions of genre.
• Detailed formulation of production methods
• Funding applications
• Formation of strand work teams
• Attainment of production base
• Development of script
• Casting
• Preproduction
• Workshops, seminars and training
• Production phase
• Post production
• Future development formulation
• Consultation and feedback
• Marketing