Month: September 2020

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The cinematographers who influenced me…

The best cinematographers are German, or were Dutch and worked in the new German cinema of the 70s.

As a freelance film director for hire, I think I’ve been influenced by cinematographers almost as much as I have been influenced by directors.

Certainly two cameraman had a very big impact on my visual style – these guys both started their careers in the new German cinema of the 70s and 80s and both guys finished their careers working in or around Hollywood.

Both guys have passed on now, but their work is still celebrated.  They are Robby Muller and Michael Ballhause.

Muller, to me, had a style so cinematic it taught me to see – his German films with Wim Wenders are famous for their imagery. But later in his career, his work with directors like Alex Cox, William Freidkin and Jim Jarmusch showed he could fit into American films, and see America like no other cameraman.

Ballhause started his career with Fassbinder in Germany, working fast, on low budgets with strong visual ideas, but he ended his career in the USA, and added amazing cinematic style and imagery to the worlds of Martin Scorsese – certainly Ballhause’s work on Goodfellas, and The Color of Money showcase some of the most stylistic camerawork from that era in American films.  

When I took on the camera work in my own low budget film debut as director Markham , the work of Ballhause and Muller was always on my mind.

Below are two videos celebrating these maestros…

Matthew Cooper has been a script writer for hire, UK Script editor  and UK script consultant for over 20 years. He’s written for most of the UK soaps, including writing award-winning episodes of Emmerdale, EastEnders, Hollyoaks and Family Affairs and has been BAFTA shortlisted and Royal Television Society nominated as a script writer. His UK script coverage service, Script reading service and script development service are highly sought after.

You can find some of his broadcast credits on the IMDb.

His directorial debut, the rubber reality horror thriller Markham was released in 2020. You can find out more about Matthew’s work as a director here.

You can contact Matthew directly to purchase his ebook The UK Soap Opera Script Writers Handbook.

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Matthew Cooper Director – Deal of the Dead

Matthew Cooper Director

We finished and released our first micro budget feature film last month – Markham which is getting decent DVD sales and on demand screenings on Vimeo.  Almost straight away I’m moving onto my next low budget feature – the slightly more ambitious Sci-Fi/Horror Deal of the Dead.

We’ve learned a hell of a lot of things from the making of Markham, and these lessons are all being ploughed into Deal of the Dead, the biggest lesson being most of Deal of the Dead is being shot in one location, in Leeds (the location is being kept under wraps for now). The location covers just about all the exterior shots we need, and is available for night and day shoots without much hassle.

Markham, in contrast was shot in Staithes, Whitby, Liverpool, Morecambe, Leeds and Kefalonia (and that’s not even the complete list).  So much time was spent moving from one location to another – we’re not doing that again, on a low budget.

While Markham had some gory special effects, Deal of the Dead is hugely effects heavy, from practical make-up effects to stop motion animation, and we’re doing all of this in-house.   This is the bit that alongside working with the actors excites me most as a director.  We’re setting up a kind of old school mini ILM- it’s fun.

As well as directing I’ll also be operating as the main director of photography.

We’re hoping that on Deal of the Dead we’ll be able to secure a slightly wider release and distribution deal once the film is completed – so watch this space.

As well as being a freelance film director for hire, Matthew has also enjoyed a long career as a script writer for hire, and UK script consultant.  He’s written for most of the UK soaps, including writing award winning episodes of Emmerdale, EastEnders, Hollyoaks and Family Affairs and has been BAFTA shortlisted and Royal Television Society nominated as a script writer.

You can find some of his broadcast credits on the IMDb and you can get in touch with Matthew on matcoop23@yahoo.co.uk.

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Matthew Cooper Director looks at Frozen Ground (2013)

As a freelance film director for hire, script consultant and script writer for hire I thought it was interesting that this week the number one movie on Netflix was Frozen Ground which was made in 2013 and went quickly to DVD at the time it was released.   Not a big hit, not really well known, yet it was the number one movie on Netflix and is still high in the charts as I write this.  The question I guess is why?

I actually saw Frozen Ground in 2013, and I remember it.  Based on a true story, it was gritty, had some good location photography and decent low key performances from Nic Cage and John Cusack. This true story of a serial rapist and killer was disturbing and unpleasant – but the film tried to keep things real and have some semblance of taste out of respect for the real victims (or at least I felt it did, and I felt it on the second viewing too – that the film kept a level of distance from some of the killings as these were real people).

Was the film memorable? I remember the cold location photography, and it was unusual to see Cusack playing a really bad guy – an evil man.  Apart from that, it was an okay, very watchable film based on a very unpleasant real case.  The film is well made, but it’s not some sort of undiscovered gem (or is it?).

 So, why did it fly in at number one?  Was it the presence of Cage and Cusack?  Was it the trailer? Was the thumbnail picture on the Netflix glallery? Was it the subject material – let’s face it Netflix loves a serial killer true story?  Was it a mix of all this?  Was it a film that suddenly, out of nowhere suddenly found its audience on a streaming platform in the middle of a pandemic?  I think yes, to all of these, and I think we might see more of these ‘breakout’ older, lesser known films suddenly smash Netflix.

The director of this film Scott Walker has only one feature film credit – this film, and back in 2013 Frozen Ground was due for a wide cinema release after testing well with audiences and receiving pretty decent critical feedback.   But for various reasons the film never had the release (two studios merged) and the film was dumped.  Leaving director Walker kind of stranded, he would have become a footnote if not for Netflix, and now seven years later, director Walker is suddenly a hot property and his phone is ringing off the hook.

It’s estimated that 100 million people have now seen Frozen Ground in the last few weeks. That’s a huge, gigantic audience for a film, an unexpected bonus and manna from heaven for Walker.   But, the key take away here, is that Netflix should take note of this.  Frozen Ground is old content, a good film, not seen by many, and there are a lot of undiscovered films (often made by major studios) that never got the attention they deserved (stuff like Miracle Mile and Sorcerer) these films, presented to new audiences on a platform that didn’t exist when the films were made could become huge hits for Netflix if treated in the correct manner.  Netflix must take note.

As well as being a freelance film director for hire, Matthew has also enjoyed a long career as a script writer for hire he’s written for most of the UK soaps, including writing award winning episodes of Emmerdale, EastEnders, Hollyoaks and Family Affairs and has been BAFTA shortlisted and Royal Television Society nominated as a script writer.

Matthew’s directorial debut, the rubber reality horror thriller Markham was released in 2020

You can find some of his broadcast credits on the IMDb You can find out more about Matthew’s work as a director here.

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Matthew Cooper Director – Markham – buy the DVD

Matthew Cooper Director

My feature film debut as a director Markham  was released last week, sales have being going well – both on DVD (scroll down this page to buy the DVD) and on demand screenings on Vimeo

Now that the film is finished and released, I’m hungry to start work on my next project asap. I’ve already been working on some test SFX shots.

My next project will be another zero budget horror film (part of what I’m lazily referring to as the Covid Trilogy).

Also, in the last week, almost by coincidence I’ve had a few fairly nice jobs come in as a  script writer for hire and script consultant – scriptwriting pays my bills and helps to fund the low budget films I’m working on at the moment.

We haven’t as yet, done much PR for Markham.   But there’s some coverage in the pipeline hopefully, at the moment we’re testing the sales and fulfilment of the DVD, we’re literally learning about indie distribution as we go along. 

Hopefully, these lessons might pay dividends with the next film.

Keep checking back on this website, as we move into production on the next film I’m going to start a regular blog that actually follows the production, so people can see the process, the problems and some of the fun we have with making a low budget movie.

As well as being a freelance film director for hire, Matthew has also enjoyed a long career as a script writer for hire, and UK script consultant.  He’s written for most of the UK soaps, including writing award winning episodes of Emmerdale, EastEnders, Hollyoaks and Family Affairs and has been BAFTA shortlisted and Royal Television Society nominated as a script writer.

You can find some of his broadcast credits on the IMDb and you can get in touch with Matthew on matcoop23@yahoo.co.uk.