The Sizzle for "Two Kids" the Movie

What the focaccia is a Sizzle Reel? How can it be used to reboot a feature film project? How much should you spend to make one? How do you make a good one? How do you capture the spirit of a feature you haven't made yet in just three to four minutes of film? It's an absurd idea.

Are there any examples of this actually working? Anywhere? Sorry, how much is this going to cost again? How much? And why does it have to have such a stupid name? No one is going to take that seriously. Sizzle? Sounds like something that requires age verification or a VPN. (*Coughs)

These were all the questions I started asking myself only after I agreed to make one. It wasn't my idea. It was Declan's idea. Declan was going to be the Production Designer on "Two Kids" - a feature film I was shooting this Summer which fell through whilst we were in the middle of casting the movie and counting down the clock to Pre Prep.

During a Zoom with all the Heads of Department, Declan said, "Hey Marcus. Why don't you make a Sizzle Reel?" And without thinking (or even knowing what it was) I intuitively felt this was a good idea. I said, "How much will it cost?" And Declan replied, without knowing any budget details either, pulled a figure out of thin air.. "£30k?" And I said... "Okay, lets do it."

And then later Chris, the DoP, said, "That's what I love about you Marcus... you just jump in." And that made me question whether I could love myself in the same way. Because if my father was reading this (he's an accountant), or any person of sound financial mind, they would say this was a reckless way of living.

Note: Please do not read this out to my father (he is blind). I'd rather he never knew - especially the final budget spend of just over £40k. Not only is this a good chunk of my savings. (Please don't tell my wife. She's just had a second mastectomy. I could have taken her to a tropical island. One word. Sizzle). Not only is this a chunk of my savings, it's part of a bigger sum of cash that I was using to anchor the Feature Film. (Please don't tell the other indie filmmakers... I can hear them scream they could have made a trilogy with that cash). I now have less money to anchor the budget of this feature film. This is called gambling - with £40k. (Again, please do not read this out to my father or my wife or indie filmmakers or even film critics who might not take me seriously because serious filmmakers get given 10s of millions and don't have to use their own money).

There is something going on here. This particular project has collapsed more times than a Middle East Ceasefire. I was going to say "Israeli Ceasefire..." but... (*Coughs)

It's about a school bully and a Syrian refugee who become friends in a cauldron of cultural conflict. I've been working on it since 2018. It was contemporary back then and now it's considered a period movie. I have let it go at least three or four times - I've lost count actually. The way it has collapsed defies belief. The way it springs back defies belief. It's had so many wonderful actors attached to it who, for reasons beyond my control, became detached - sometimes instantly. I did question at one point whether this was because I was not a card carrying member of the Illuminati or maybe because there was simply no money in it and the agents wanted to kill it (which I would totally understand - truly).

However, I found a state of surrender and acceptance that this would never get made. Maybe I was dodging a bullet. I remember pitching it to a wonderful distributor in Germany - who distributed Papadopoulos and Sons in cinemas there and he actually said to me that he would distribute anything I pitched at him - because he liked me. But the moment you mention the R word - "Refugees" - an icy chill fills the room. So I go... "Okay, let's... let this go!" But no, it keeps coming back.

Come on! Make your mind up! I scream at this project. Do you want to be seen? And it screams back... "Yes, but not yet!" Hurry up, I say. I'm literally growing old. And I mean "literally" in the context of its correct usage not in its incorrect form as hyperbole - it's literally the correct usage. And that, ladies, gentlemen and persons, is an insight into the relationship an independent filmmaker has with his or her project.

Some details. It's set in 2016, peak Brexit - with big echoes of now. It doesn't seek to judge. It really doesn't. It's about... two kids. It's a sweet story. I love it really. And I adore the two actors we found to play the "kids". The themes are based on my short film "Two Strangers Who Meet Five Times" - which has nearly 4m views and over 12,000 positive comments and a Reddit thread with lots of negative comments - which I only dared to read for the first time a couple of weeks ago. It was fine. I practice detachment from a concept of self and I actually laughed at someone pointing out how smug I was. And then I asked myself, "But who is doing the laughing Marcus?" (Just a little in-joke for the Zen Buddhists).

But to distill a feature film screenplay into a Sizzle Reel screenplay was a huge challenge. But, once I accepted that this was not the movie I was making but an impression that captured the spirit and tone, then I was free to put in scenes that didn't exist in the movie. I researched "Sizzle Reels" a great deal and found very little. There is some film expert on Youtube who simply states... "Don't do them" and this is because the few Sizzle Reels you can find out there are very low budget and cannot sell anything. In fact, they do more harm than good - which is what this Youtube guy was suggesting. So they demand you to go big or go home.

The reason this project cost £40k is because I was engaging a feature film crew - on location, in this case a large well established private school in North Yorkshire, that could accommodate a small circus and had its own lake - which is a prominent feature of the story. Because we had previously scouted this location (in fact a number of times over the past two years) I was able to write a four page screenplay with over 10 story locations - that were within walking distance from each other. We shot on the best lenses I have ever seen the world through - Hawk X Class lenses. We shot on a Sony Venice 2.

We had many of the crew who were going to shoot the feature. We were still saving 10s of 1000s. People were still giving us good rates. We were able to get lots of goodwill. But it still cost £40k. I suspect if this was a shoot for a TV Ad or commercial, you'd have the same crew and gear but it would cost £100k. Easily. So, in many ways, I felt I was doing something I'd not seen done before.

https://video.wixstatic.com/video/f06e39_ef60332ac808495c8b88d0c2d805e718/1080p/mp4/file.mp4

I cannot imagine Netflix or Paramount or the BBC giving a filmmaker £40k to create a concept reel that would promote the making of a feature film. It just doesn't happen. I can't even imagine an Indie Producer doing this - to get a project going. I could be wrong. You see more of this in TV but for feature films or low budget indies - I just don't see any evidence of this happening.

And this is what is very exciting. Because right now, the only way I could get this feature film made was to surround the two actors who are playing the "Two Kids" with star names. But the problem with star names is that we have very little money to offer and for very small parts. Who on earth wants that? With a filmmaker they've never heard of. This is what is genuinely exciting me. I feel I am doing something different. I know its a gamble. But the only way I could get anyone to read this screenplay before was to say that "a name" was attached to it. Going forwards, I just need people to watch a three and half minute film.

This thing we have made. It's the entire spirit of the story and tone and actors and locations and creative team - all neatly wrapped into a three and half minute film. It's the film.

I was also exploring how this could be Co-Directed and enlisted the brilliant Abbie Lucas. So Abbie focussed more on production design and camera and I focussed on story and performance. And along with Chris, the DoP, this threesome worked very well - as Chris loves to operate.

I am always looking to free up the process - to make it faster, smoother and more creative. But these moves carry risks. The Sizzle was a perfect place to try it out. It was also a test of the locations - and just shooting there for two days we discovered so many more potential ideas that will impact rewrites. It was also an opportunity for the actors who will be in the feature film to explore their own chemistry, not just the two young men who will play the "two kids".

We also had a lot of fun and because so many of us were staying there - in one of the boarding houses - we would have dinner together in the pub and I got to hear about "Crow man" - a legendary crew member who wasn't with us but is someone that I feel we must have involved due to the hilarity of this man's life.

My aim is to share this piece of work on Youtube because I want to also engage audiences early on. There is no guarantee this will get made. None at all. But life is really the experience of living - not the results. And this was a wonderful experience. Everyone had a great time. We were living. We were filmmaking.