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“Dreams of a Life”Directed by Carol Morley
Dreams of a life• Contemporary newspaper report
Carol Morley• An artist filmmaker she has received a number of Arts Council awards and made films that
challenge, in different ways, how stories are told and which often cross the boundaries between fact and fiction.
• Her work has been shown at major international festivals, at galleries, cinemas, on Channel 4, Film4 and has received many international broadcasts, including The Sundance Channel.
• She has been the recipient of the Arts Foundation Fellowship for documentary film.
Carol Morley•Morley’s first narrative feature film “Edge” - made on
a micro budget - was premiered at The London Film Festival in 2010 and is due for a 2012 release. “Dreams of a Life” is her first documentary feature film.
Interview with director Carol Morley and producer
• http://www.watershed.co.uk/dshed/filmmaker-focus-carol-morley-cairo-cannon •
Cross media Convergence• The film’s world has been expanded by a website,
(www.dreamsofyourlife.com), and now a new mobile game Would Anyone Miss You?, both created by digital agency Hide & Seek.
Dreams of a Life director,
• What’s your connection to the British Council?
• Over the years the British Council have done a great site dedicated to international film festivals and I’ve always used that to find out about festivals and when to apply.
Carol Morley• On the lucky occasions my films have been accepted I’ve applied for
British Council travel grants for flights to attend them - and they’ve always been memorable experiences. Attending festivals abroad, meeting international filmmakers and connecting to a global filmmaking community is a highlight at the end of making a film and the British Council has been instrumental in sending me to these festivals.
Dogwoof Pictures
• Dogwoof was founded in 2004 by Andy Whittaker and Anna Godas, and originally concentrated on foreign films, including such titles as Don’t Move, Fateless, El Lobo, and Esma’s Secret.[1] They recently began to distribute documentaries such as Black Gold, Crude Awakening, and The Devil Came On Horseback.[1]
Dogwood Pictures• In July 2005, the company experimented by distributing James
Erskine's EMR simultaneously in Cinemas, on the internet through Tiscali ISP, and on DVD through its Home Entertainment division.
Dogwood Pictures• The move was notable since most films are released through different
distribution channels on a staggered schedule, giving each channel an exclusive release window. Exhibitors were especially fearful, as many feared that they would eventually lose their exclusive release windows for more mainstream films.
Dogwood pictures• In 2010 Dogwoof announced a deal with technology company Cisco
to build social media websites using the Cisco Eos platform for each film release. Dogwoof was the first European customer for Cisco Eos. The first website launched was Good with Film.• Dogwoof also distribures social-issues documentaries such as Dirty
Oil, Food, Inc. and Burma VJ.[6]
Box office• Box Office• Opening Weekend: $3,085 (USA) (3 August 2012)• Gross: $6,595 (USA) (10 August 2012)• Company Credits• Production Co: Cannon and Morley Productions, Irish Film Board,
Soho Moon Pictures See more »• Show detailed company contact information on IMDbPro »
Cross Media Convergence• The website featured a narrative and questions from award-winning
writer AL Kennedy alongside photography by Lottie Davies.
• Dreams of a Life’s plans were created by Film 4 senior commission editor Katherine Butler and multiplatform commissioner Hilary Perkins as Film 4’s first cross-platform commission before Film4.0 launched but should offer an idea of the types of plans that Higgs will work on going forward. (The BFI and the British Council backed the SXSW initiatives.)
Website – cross media convergence• “The feature documentary is a project in and of itself, and the digital
properties work with the themes of the film but exist in and of themselves as well. It’s about telling stories in parallel places,” Higgs says.
“Dreams of a Life”
• “What’s been wonderful from the stats of [Dreams of Your Life] so far is that we can demonstrably show that we brought a new audience to the feature documentary,” adds Higgs, who took the post of head of the new Film 4.0 in September 2011. “Tens of thousands of new audience members came across the film, but that’s because it was a quality creative experience in its own right.”
“Dreams of a Life”• The website was an intense 25-30 minute experience for each visitor
so having more than 16,500 users “is a really big win,” Higgs adds. • The website and streetgame can be used anywhere the film is being
launched. “You’ve got this brilliant toolkit when you’re selling the film. It’s a wider-world toolkit that any distributor can plug in and use in their territory.”
Dreams of a life• Dreams of a Life (2011)• Director – Carol Morley • A low-budget British film• This was a difficult film to market being an unusual combination of documentary and actors
recreating or approximating the real events surrounding the life and death of Joyce Vincent
Dreams of a life• This is the description of the film from the website:
Would anyone miss you? Nobody noticed when Joyce Vincent died in her bedsit above a shopping mall in North London in 2003. Her body wasn’t discovered for three years, surrounded by Christmas presents she had been wrapping, and with the TV still on. Newspaper reports offered few details of her life– not even a photograph. Interweaving interviews with imagined scenes from Joyce’s life, Dreams of a Life is an imaginative, powerful, multilayered quest, and is not only a portrait of Joyce but a portrait of London in the eighties—the City, music, and race. It is a film about urban lives, contemporary life, and how, like Joyce, we are all different things to different people. It is about how little we may ever know each other, but nevertheless, how much we can love.
Dreams of a life• Official website
Dreams of a life• This was a difficult film to market being an unusual combination of
documentary and actors recreating or approximating the real events surrounding the life and death of Joyce Vincent
• The website operates like a game to try to appeal to a wider audience other than just the ‘art-house’ audience who would be the usual audience for such a film
• By having the game format the website was designed to also appeal to the ‘geeks’, gamers or web-designers. This is an audience that art-house films usually find difficult to reach
• This audience found the website and it was reviewed by the gaming community many of whom then saw the film.
• The film was therefore able to reach an alternative, difficult to reach, audience that wouldn’t normally see such a film
Dreams of a life• Example screen
Dreams of a life• The film premiered in the USA at the South by SW
Festival – which specialises in unusual and independent films and is considered to be a ‘cool’ place to show a film.• At the festival the marketing team played a ‘street game’
taking pictures of people sending messages. These were then uploaded to the ‘wouldanyonemissyou’ website. The use of iPads to show the pictures caused some interest and helped the increase in ticket sales.• In the USA it was marketed using the website• www.wouldanyonemissyou.com
Dreams of a life
Dreams of a life• Summary – Problems in marketing• Difficult to market film• Hard to reach audience• Low budget – can’t afford large advertising campaign (posters, TV slots etc)
Dreams of a life• Effective Marketing Strategies:• Different marketing for UK and USA• Conventional website• Innovative website – the ‘game’• Appeals to hard to reach audience• Use of iPads• US website made use of publicity from South by SW
festival• Effective audience interaction – enabled audience to
personally relate to the themes of the film
Carol Morley• Carol Morley came to prominence with her documentary
The Alcohol Years, a BAFTA nominated, Grierson Awarded, festival winning film that was later released on DVD to critical acclaim.
• The film masqueraded as an autobiography but became as much about the people in it as Morley herself - and was seen to define an era (the 80’s) and a place (Manchester).
