Master Bruce

'I wish I’d lied more. Everybody else does'.

A movie-making tip from the otherwise scrupulously honest Bruce Windwood, producer of the very entertaining and award-winning feature 12 in a Box. In what I hope will be the first of many this-is-how-you-do-it conversations with different independent movie makers, today Jake and I went to Oxford to pick his brains, although I’m aware that this phrase could easily be misunderstood in a zombie-related posting.

The man is a gentleman. Simple as that. Generous with his time, highly engaging, and with the water-wisdom of someone who’s taught himself to swim by jumping straight into the deep end. Bruce is very much of the get-on-and-do-it-yourself school of film-making – he also took on the Line Producing and 1^st AD-ing of 12 in a Box ('there’s nobody that’s going to care as much about your movie as you do'). We first met him last year at Southampton Film Week, where he was doing a seminar on feature production, and we owe him at least a plug for his next training course. 

The chat sensibly focused around our next steps, key amongst which is getting the money together. There’s a whole bunch of juicy goodness that needs to go into an investor pack (catchy synopses, statements of the director’s vision, and whatever else it needs to make the presentation look lovely), but ultimately it’s all about the money. How much is it going to cost, how much do you expect to sell it for, what are my tax write-offs and what are the risks?

So basically, it’s just the Dragon’s Den.

Ah - but with one key bonus element. Making a film is extraordinarily sexy, and apparently doubly so to middle-aged dentists. Visit a real film set! Meet someone you might recognise from The Bill! Dress up for a film premiere! See your name on the big screen!

And the Resurrection investor piece-de-resistance… come dress in zombie make-up and prosthetics and choose from a gory buffet of on-screen take-downs.

Now, thanks to Bruce, we have a copy of the 12 in a Box investment pack for 'analysis and reference'. Or, since we’re in an honest mood, for 'direct and un-credited plagiarism'.

Mr Windwood, sir – our enormous gratitude, again. And for anybody that comes to work on the Resurrection set and wonders why so much money and effort has been spent on getting the catering right, you will have Bruce to thank for that too. Stuffed.