Cinema Verite / Dogme 95 / Please Help :)

Here is the official Dogme 95 website-

http://www.dogme95.dk/

1. Filming must be done on location. Props and sets must not be brought in (if a particular prop is necessary for the story, a location must be chosen where this prop is to be found).
2. The sound must never be produced apart from the images or vice versa. (Music must not be used unless it occurs where the scene is being filmed).
3. The camera must be a hand-held camera. Any movement or immobility attainable in the hand is permitted. (The film must not take place where the camera is standing; filming must take place where the action takes place.)
4. The film must be in colour. Special lighting is not acceptable. (If there is too little light for exposure the scene must be cut or a single lamp be attached to the camera).
5. Optical work and filters are forbidden.
6. The film must not contain superficial action. (Murders, weapons, etc. must not occur.)
7. Temporal and geographical alienation are forbidden. (That is to say that the film takes place here and now.)
8. Genre movies are not acceptable.
9. The final picture must be transferred to the Academy 35mm film, with an aspect ratio of 4:3, that is, not widescreen. (Originally, the requirement was that the film had to be filmed on Academy 35mm film, but the rule was relaxed to allow low-budget productions.)
10. The director must not be credited.

Seems to me that if you want to do a true Dogme movie, at the very basic level, all you really need to do is borrow a video camera and convice people to help you by volunteering as cast and crew

Out of pocket expense for you could be tape stock and food (if you decide to feed your people).

On the Dogme website, there is a contact linke for two companies:

Zentropa Entertainment

&

Nimbus Films

Write to them and start a dialohue about your project. If you get a friendly contact, see if they can share past or current screenplays.

Also, see if you can find contact info for the filmmakers you admire and write them.

Well, if your script is good enough I don't think it matters where you are from. Zentropa has made lot's of film in English and they film a lot of their stuff in Sweden so they're kind of international.

By the way: Zentropa and Nimbus are almost the same company - they residense in the same study complex and all.

But good luck with it - they have almost abandoned the dogme project - at least the directors who started it.

And yes - your story sounds like it's hard to sell in America. Is it for an American market? Isn't there any Polish production companies which could be interested?

Have you seen Kontroll? It's out of Hungary and about an imagined subterranean society. Big part of the movie has a hip-hop frenzy to it which made the movie popular.

If you're dropping names like the Dardennes and Ming-Liang, you are way, way, way ahead of the game. Don't even bother with the Dogma/von Trier/Danish subsidy route. I've been to their offices, and they are swamped with two thousand screenplays A WEEK from desperate film students who cannot get any encouragement from Lalaland. Any dialogue with them will be a 100% waste of your time and energy.

Why would you be interested in Dogma after "La Promesse" or Ming-Liang? Have you seen "Last Life in the Universe"? Dogma was a neat phenomenon in 1996, but completely irrelevant now.

The other tremendous thing you have going for you is the market. I'm trying to et things done in Slovakia (2.4 million people), Romania, and the Iranian diaspora (2 million max), and you're sitting on what, 40 million?

Can't you make your movie or a short version of it for a few thousand dollars, cash? Can't you cast some DJs as the bad guys, and some skateboarders or athletes in side roles? What about older people? Personalities from TV?

You're sittiing on gold, man. Hip hop culture and Copernicus? We get nothing over here except KK and all he wanted to do the last two decades of his career was turn his back on the Poles who helped him up. The more cryptic and strange the dialogue, the better. I'd be VERY interested in checking out your idea, and I could definitely help you get the language sorted out, whether by hiring a poet or finding you a producer/businessman. Do you have any friends in LA or NY? Get a businessman from Katowice who's making a bundle on a disco on Sunset Boulevard and he'll throw in ten grand if he gets to go to Poland and claim he's the producer.

You can check out my links below or in the profile, and write me with your situation. Unless there are other hip-hop Polish suburban movies in production right now, you're a slam dunk. Make your movie for $50. Evryone will notice. You're the last person I've seen on these boards who needs government-subsidised Danes telling you how to make movies. Check out "The Inheritance" and see where the split in Dogma is heppening, and how quickly music and light are suddenly the in thing in Denmark.

Your movie needs no model! Make the original all by yourself. I'd be honored to help, if your story is as good as your first impression here.

Good luck!