To kick off our series of interviews UK
Distribution companies I got in touch with the Managing Director of Soda
Pictures to talk a bit about the company and where it fits into the British
Film Industry. Edward Fletcher has
founded the company in 2002 and currently works in Blossom Street in London.
Thanks
for answering a few questions. Could you
start by telling me a bit about yourself in your own words?
EF:
OK well, I worked in a
cinema as a duty manager in Croydon and then from there went to manage a cinema in Cambridge for a few years. From there I did an MA in Film and then
worked at the ICA (Institue of Contemporary Arts), which has a small distribution-trading
arm called ICA Projects. Its remit
was essentially to find films from new directors, and films that push the
form.
It was through that work that I found
out about distribution in a miniature form, so I got together with a contact
that I knew (Eve Gabereau) from a very different part of the industry from a
marketing background and together we formed Soda Pictures in 2002.
Did
you have some kind of a ‘mission statement’?
EF:
Well that has to be
seen in a historical context. If you
look at that period around 2002/2003 there were a lot of positive factors in
the industry: there was the birth of a
whole range of new film magazines, like Empire, Hot Dog and Total Film. UGC Cinemas took over the Virgin chain, and
as a French owned chain brought a rather more European approach to programming
giving new opportunities to play commercial foreign language films in selected
mutiplexes, this was echoed in the acquisition choices of their own
distribution company.
Also the emergence of companies like Optimum Releasing who released Amores Perros, which was one of the first foreign
language films to be ‘conventionally’ marketed to play in multiplexes. It was very much based on the idea that the
studios had a good model that attracted audiences so the direction for Art House
or Independent cinema should be to not market into a ghetto.
So
when you were at Cambridge in charge of exhibition, what films were you pushing
there?
EF:
It was basically a very
traditional rep house cinema. On my
first night on a Monday in the middle of Novemeber we played Pasolini’s Oedipus Rex and got about 150 people
there. So it was a very special place
with a special audience and it gave me an opportunity to learn about cinema and
get an education.
OK,
another thing I wanted to ask you about is the New British Cinema Quarerly. What’s that all about??
EF:
Well, put simply, it
was born out of a bit of a frustration around how to attract audiences to British
indie films; there seemed to be a disconnect between the quantity and interest
from those people involved in film making, short films etc and the interest in
watching British independent films.
It was strange, like if you were in a
band, the idea that you would said “I’m not interested in live music” just
wouldn’t happen. So it was born out of that:
How to create an environment to encourage people who are interested in
filmmaking to go to the cinema more and broaden their own ideas.
We also noticed at screenings just
before social media was coming in that there was a burgeoning interest in
Q&As and wanting to speak to directors etc.
Often the talent we were working was mostly first time filmmakers that
were full of enthusiasm but low on experience so the opportunity to partner with
a set of venues gave filmmakers the opportunity to almost ‘go out on the road’
like they were in a band and do a three week tour with the film.
Okay,
so how did you find these people? And also what kind of cinemas did you tour
round – what do you mean by tour? It’s
an interesting idea but how did it work?
EF:
We generally toured
round flagship independent cinemas like The Watershed in Bristol, or The Broadway
in Nottingham. The kind of cinemas that
would have a short film weekend and get 200 people interested in short films –
it suits a particular type of venue and you get a grassroots and try to grow it
from there.
In terms of finding the films, generally
we were trying to keep the quality quite high, so mainly films that had played
at Edinburgh or the London Film Festival.
There are plenty of films there that do not have distribution, because
of the small audiences for that type of film.
And
how often do you do this?
EF:
We are just kicking off
our fifth year, and we’ve done about 4 films a year. Our last film was For Those In Peril from a new director called Paul Wright,
which was selected for Cannes and won a
couple of Scottish BAFTAs.
For Those In Peril |
I
haven’t seen it yet but it looks amazing…
EF:
It’s the perfect kind
of film as it’s slightly unconventional and pushing the form and trying to do
something different whilst still being engaging with good actors. It’s a really good example of the kind of
film that we are trying to champion.
Funnily
enough I was just looking through your back catalogue and you have distributed
two of my favourite, underrated films of the last few years. Howl,
which I think is absolutely brilliant; and Mary and Max.
Anyway…
One last question about another part of the company is Soda Pictures
International?
EF:
That’s just kind of an
offshoot of NBCQ as a lot of British producers don’t have an international
sales agent for their films, and increasingly trying to get your film out there
globally is hard so SPI is a brand to assist in that process. We help find distributors like ourselves in
other key territories, which increasingly in this day and age could simply mean
providing opportunities for British film to play on iTunes in the US. It’s something for the globalized VOD world
and recognizing that it is better to be in it [online] in some form than not at
all.
Just
to get it clear in your own words, how would you say that you are different to
the other major British distibutors?
EF: Well, we’re fully independent – I think the largest independent. It means that all decisions about what we do and how we do it can be made here and not be influenced by being part of an exhibitor chain or by being part of a US or European company.
EF: Well, we’re fully independent – I think the largest independent. It means that all decisions about what we do and how we do it can be made here and not be influenced by being part of an exhibitor chain or by being part of a US or European company.
And
you have a staff of 9 is that right?
EF:
It’s actually 10 now.
For
such a small crew it’s impressive the size of your influence.
EF:
But what we have is a
whole network. We work a lot with some key partners in which exhibitors are one
part, and there are a lot of dedicated people up and down the country in
cinemas who love films and are prepared to put that little bit more work into
those kinds of films at grassroots level.
We rely on working and developing close relationships
with the exhibitors and building up a following of people who are interested in
what we are doing. One of the key things
is that you can see that our social media is outreaching to people who are as
interested as we are in what we are talking about, which is good films.
Only Lovers Left Alive |
Final
question then - obviously your big film at the moment is Only
Lovers Left Alive, which looks amazing. Is there anything else coming up that you can
tell me about?
I
wrote about that film for the Bath Film Festival…
EF:
It’s currently on a
massive festival trawl after winning the Golden Camera at Cannes last year and
it picked up an award at the London Festival as well [the Sutherland Trophy].
We’ve just been letting that one breathe and pick up awards! And then we’re
releasing that on May 2nd.
We also have a film called Omar, which
was the Palestinian foreign language film [at the Academy Awards].
On the horizon we also have Nightmoves.
With Dakota Fanning, Jesse Eisenberg and Peter Sasrgaard.
Ok
well thanks for this – I’ll keep an eye out for them all.
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