Papa & Sons Case Study - Part 2

Question and Answer Session with Marcus Markou.

As a class we were fortunate enough to have the director of Papa & Sons - Marcus Markou - come into our lesson to hold a Q+A session with us which helped us learn a lot about the independent film industry and self-distribution in particular.

Here are some of the main things that I learnt from this session:

1. Before this lesson I wasn't aware of what a line producer was or what their role on set is and how they differ from a producer. Marcus explained how the line producer - Sarah Butler had a major role in pre-production, figuring out all of the expenses for the film , going through the script line by line and coming up with the final budget. 
2. I also learnt about how a set works and how vital the co-operation of the cast and crew is to making the production run smoothly. By eliminating a hierarchy on set and setting himself as a prime example Marcus created a family-based and friendly working atmosphere which worked in his favor. It meant that cast and crew were much more willing to put more effort and time in to helping make the film whereas before they might not have.
3. I learned from this that it is possible to create a good advertising and marketing scheme on a low budget. Although using posters on the sides of buses and on billboards is a really effective way of reaching a mass market however there is still no better way of advertising than by word of mouth. By deciding his target audience of Greeks in London - he spoke to Greek churches and gave out flyers to spread the word throughout the Greek community and made appearances on Greek radio stations. Although having not spent very much on distribution, the film was very successful in it's first week in cinema. 
4. To get the actors he wanted for the film he had to use methods of persuasion and use his connections in the business to get his script out to the actors he most wanted to play the characters he created. Lots of agents would try to stop an independent film director from giving their script to an actor as it would not likely create a great income and therefore the agent will not earn much money from it either. Marcus Markou wanted to cast Stephen Dillane as the main role in the film - Harry Papadopoulos. At first he liked the script and wanted to play the role of Harry but due to filming clashes with Game Of Thrones he was unable to take the time to be in Papa And Sons. On hearing that Stephen's son was also an actor, Marcus asked his son to audition for the role of James Papadopoulous who was eventually given the part. After Stephen Dillane heard that his son was going to be in the film he called up the producers of Game Of Thrones and persuaded them to change the dates of filming so that he was able to be in Papa And Sons with his own son Frank. Their father and son roles in the film came across so well on screen because of their real relationship in life off-screen.
5. To create such a natural look for the film he got the actors to be more free with the way they went about acting out the scene. It was a much more fresh and creative approach to filming as the actors performed the scene in the way which they would usually act. Working alongside the Director of Photography he would then decide afterwards if there were any extra set-ups that they would like to add to the scene.