FeatureLab

FEATURELAB 2010 has now closed for submissions. Watch this space for news on the 2010 projects!

FeatureLab aims to fast forward the filmmaking process for those who are ready to make the leap to a full-length feature film for commercial release. It works with writers and directors with a background in film, TV, theatre, radio, visual arts or journalism, who understand the building blocks of drama and narrative and have something different to say. Feature Lab is produced by B3 Media in partnership with Film4, Binger FilmLab and Skillset.

Check out our advert here, and read our press release here.

You can re-read the FeatureLab 2010 guidelines here.

Applications have now closed.

FeatureLab projects developed in 2009

The Amazing Labours of Arthur Glass

Writer/Director: Robert Samuels
Genre: Action adventure/testing plot

This is the odyssey of black hillbilly, Arthur Glass, who leaves his Manitoba farm in search of the ‘Canadian’ dream.  He arrives in Quebec where he finds a job as a janitor in a nineteenth century apartment block - his job sheets feature tasks so bizarre, that odyssey transforms into Herculean labours.
 
The Amazing Labours of Arthur Glass is the story of a man with a simple dream; it’s about following your dream no matter where it takes you. It’s also a story about tricksters, hustlers and angels – who are out to help, sometimes hinder, but you can never tell in what order.  Just like real life, really.

Robert Samuels is working on his first feature film, The Amazing Labours of Arthur Glass, which has been commissioned by Film4, and developed at the B3 FeatureLab – supported by Film4, Skillset and the Binger Film Lab.  Robert is Creative Director at Red Bee Media, formerly BBC Broadcast, where he has directed several award winning commercials and shorts for the BBC.  His digital short film Zoltan the Great starring Saeed Jaffrey, executive produced by B3 Media and UK Film Council) won Best International Short Film in the HD Fest, Los Angeles and was in competition at several festivals, including Palm Springs.  His film Untitled was nominated for the Budweiser Discovery Award at the Tribeca Film Festival.

The Bruce Lee Bus

Writer/Director: Lab Ky Mo
Genre: Coming of age drama

Dougie, a fat, Belfast-born Chinese 11 year old thinks Bruce Lee is God. When his father,
a Chinese restaurant owning, kung fu champion, dies, Dougie decides to run away to the
Bruce Lee Convention.  On the way he teams up with Benny, a lanky black teenager with a
huge afro - and the two boys learn the truth about friendship – and Bruce Lee.    

Lab Ky Mo graduated from St. Martin’s College of Art with a degree in fine art, before winning the prestigious Carl Foreman Screenwriting Fellowship to California, in conjunction with BAFTA.
 
After shooting award winning films in LA, Hong Kong and the UK, he made his debut feature film, Nine Dead Gay Guys, starring Steven Berkoff, Michael Praed and Vas Blackwood and was hailed by the Observer as ‘the most shocking film at the Cannes Film Festival’ and reviewed by one Sunday Express critic as ‘the most outrageous and original British film of the year’. Having caused such a stir in Cannes, it then went on to win the Audience Award at the Montreal International Comedy Film Festival and has been released in both the UK and US. Lab wrote and directed his play Five Tanks which played at the Hackney Empire in London to critical acclaim.
 
In 2008 Lab produced his charming short film Granny’s Ghost with B3 Media and the UK
Film Council.  He is currently working with B3 on the feature on his new short, My Dad the

Communist and his FeatureLab project, The Bruce Lee Bus.

Breaking Into Houses and Stealing Things

Writer/Director: Ursula Rani Sarma
Genre: Coming of age drama

15-year old orphan, Ravi feels like an outsider.  In an attempt to rid himself of this feeling he breaks into peoples homes to steal ‘perfect’ lives. While snooping, he is trapped in a bedroom when the family return.  He is humiliated to be discovered by Jenny, his classmate, who he has a crush on.  She threatens to expose him, but colludes in his game and they form an unexpected friendship. Ravi fantasises about Jenny reciprocating his love, but discovers that she moves in a world of drugs, self-harm and abuse–and he must face the truth about her–and himself.

Ursula Rani Sarma is an award-winning playwright and director who is developing her first feature, Breaking into Houses and Stealing Things with B3 Media, and has now shot a pilot for the project.  Ursula has written numerous stage plays–including Touched… which have been published, translated and produced in Ireland, UK, Europe and USA. She has written three plays for radio, including  A Tiny Light in the Darkness (BBC). Ursula has received many awards including Irish and British Arts Council Awards, Irish Times ESB
Theatre Award, Edinburgh Fringe Festival Award, Heidelberg Audience Choice Award and the 2006 Bensheimer Theaterpreis.

The Partisan

Writer/Director: Doug Rao
Genre: Action adventure

Civil war and genocide are rife in the oil rich country of Azerbaijan.  Emir, a teenage boy,
embarks on an adrenalin-fuelled journey through the city’s sewers to save his father, Grigor – an ex- secret policeman who Emir has hero worshipped all his life.  When Emir discovers that Grigor is in fact a war criminal, guilty of the most heinous crimes, he must make an impossible choice.    

Doug Rao is an actor, writer and producer.  Trained at the Central School of
Speech and Drama, Doug is best known in the UK for his role as the arrogant Detective Sergeant Stuart Turner in ITV’s popular police drama The Bill.  He has also played leading roles in theatre with the Royal Shakespeare Company.   In 2007 he wrote, produced and directed the short film War Hero which played in a number of worldwide film festivals.  He is now working with B3 Media on his short film Jubilee which will premiere at the London Film Festival 2009.

Double Dipper

Writer/Director: Smita Bhide
Genre: Film noir

An unfaithful wife becomes involved in the murder of a blackmailer.  But when he appears to return from the dead, she realizes that there is a bigger conspiracy afoot.

Smita Bhide’s debut feature, The Blue Tower, set in London’s largest Indian community, Southall, won the top award this year at Raindance Film Festival, Best UK Feature 2008. Smita was born in Bombay and educated in Southall and at Oxford University.  After working for Women’s Activist Group, Southall Black Sisters, and as a Television Researcher (C4 Bandung File / Hindi Picture), she started writing short dramas for BBC TV and Channel 4 (Brief Encounters, My Mum) and has also directed for television (Channel 4 Coming Up / Carlton TV Single Voices).

Smita has written scripts for some of the UK’s most successful directors: for Peter Webber (Girl with the Pearl Earring) she wrote Underground (Oxford Films/Channel 4), for Peter Kosminsky (Britz) she wrote Asylum (BBC1), and for Kevin MacDonald (Last King of Scotland) she wrote Angola (BBC Films).   Smita currently has several features in development, Indian Wedding with Ealing Studios/Harbour Pictures, Queen of Fire with Dan Films and The Tantrik with Warp X (Film Four / UK Film Council / Darklight Scheme).

Spadz

Writer/Director: Rodney Charles
Genre: Melodrama

Set against a stylized and brutal landscape, Spadz is the shocking drama of a black teenager, who wants to become a skinhead and join a neo-Nazi gang.
 
Rodney Charles’ first screenplay won the Greater London Arts advanced film and video award. The resulting film Once Upon a Time, which he also produced, was broadcast by BBC television and Super Channel in Europe. It was screened at Venice, London, San Francisco, Burkina Faso and New York film festivals winning several achievement awards.

In 2008 Rodney completed his debut feature The Disciple as Writer, Director/Producer opening the 2008 BFM Film Festival to a sell-out UK premier at the BFI South Bank. The Disciple also won Best New Director at the Pan African Film Festival in Los Angeles. As a film actor Rodney has collaborated with notable directors such as Wim Wenders, Mike Figgis and Antoine Fuqua.  

Girls’ School

Writer/Director: China Moo-Young
Genre: Thriller

Alice, a British born Chinese teenager is brutally bullied at an elite girls’ school on a remote island off the coast of England. As Alice learns to protect herself, she takes a merciless journey in which she learns the truth about her ruthless family.  She must
face her Triad inheritance - and make a terrible choice: to commit a heinous act in cold blood.  

China Moo-Young is English Chinese-Jamaican and was born and raised in London. She trained at The National Youth Theatre, before going on to study Drama at Bristol University, graduating with a First Class Honours BA in Film, Theatre and Television.
China then became a Director’s Assistant and Creative Researcher working in commercials at top London production companies and advertising agencies, on many award-winning campaigns.  
 
China has since directed a number of short films and commercials. In 2008, China directed Emo, written by Nicole Taylor for Channel 4’s Coming Up New Talent Scheme and she was also named a Star of Tomorrow in Screen International’s review of British film talent. China recently signed to Short Films for UK representation in commercials and Warp Films for music videos.