Inside the mind of a prolific film producer and Short Stories film competition judge

The film industry is a vastly changed beast to the Hollywood-dominated entity it was 15 or so years ago. The rise in cheap filming and editing technology has brought through a whole new generation of talented filmmakers, who otherwise might not have flourished, and made cinema a more egalitarian platform altogether. While this is undoubtedly a step in the right direction, an artefact of this democratic playing field is the deluge of hopeful filmmakers now populating the industry. Filters are still needed, as are platforms to help promote and encourage the most talented of the crop – and that’s where Short Stories, fuelled by Relentless Energy Drink, comes in.

A judge with authority

Now in its second year, the short film competition aimed at up-and-coming directors is gaining some serious traction and media attention, and it’s this current interest that takes us down to London’s Soho Hotel for an afternoon of Short Stories. Sat in the corner of the bar is one Allan Niblo, panel judge for this year’s contest and producer and co-founder of Vertigo Films – hirsute of face, thick of spectacles and deeply Scottish of accent. He’s a highly revered pillar of the UK film industry, having graduated from The National Film and Television School in his youth and working his way up the chain in the years that followed.

“There were a few around, but not many actually,” he says when we ask him whether there were many platforms such as Short Stories when he was trying to break into the industry. “Now there’s a lot more. Back when I went to film school, there were only about 10 film schools in the whole country and now there’s a lot more, and digital technology has meant that more people have an interest in moving image. You can edit on your laptop, create effects and write music; so the accessibility is there. From that has come out more festivals, more short films, competitions… you now have somewhere you can show your films – the world wide web. You can put them on YouTube and get them out there.”

From Pete Tong to Charles Bronson

His first film as a producer was the British cult classic Human Traffic; a seminal, widely loved film that encapsulated the highs and lows of a clubber’s life like no film before or since has managed. That alone would have earned him a place in UK film history, but since co-founding Vertigo in 2002, he has co-produced 18 other films, including The Football Factory, The Business, Bronson, It’s All Gone Pete Tong and the Oscar-nominated Ajami. He’s a man who has come up through the old school of cinema, but has been quick to embrace its more recent changes.

Niblo is largely sanguine about these shifts towards a more level playing field, recalling the laborious and frustrating process that used to be pretty much the only route to success. “It was a bit more arduous – so if you were a short filmmaker, you really had to make a film that stands out from the crowd and that won several international film festivals in the shorts sections. [You had to have] an agent that managed to get you the right producer at the right moment who would say, ‘Yes, I can make you a film’ and were able to raise the money for. A lot of convincing [was needed] and even beyond that is – how do you get it in the cinema? Which is even harder.”

Two passions collide

Niblo’s place on the Short Stories judging panel wasn’t only decided on his prowess as a producer. Unbeknownst to most, he was once a passionate and successful skateboarder – meaning that he has a real empathy with the action sports protagonists in the films. “Back in the day, skateboarding was my passion – from 12 years old. I was part of the Scottish team and was Scottish champion. I lived in California for a year and lived the dream. Seeing the short films is very nostalgic. I can completely relate to what these younger people are saying through the films; about living your dream, following your passion, seizing the moment.”

He cites “finding a voice that’s different to anybody else” as the key to getting noticed as an aspiring filmmaker rather than the stylistic, aesthetic detail. An attitude; an ethos – these are what count as far as he’s concerned. “Things like [Short Stories entry] Dagdraumer, it’s got a voice… I’ve never seen that before, so it’s finding something to say and saying it in a unique way. Then the technical skills come after it.” His advice should come as a huge encouragement to anyone who has the passion and the ideas but perhaps hasn’t fully mastered the technical side of the game yet.

Looking ahead

When he’s not judging film competitions, Niblo is always on the look out for new talent, working with and helping to nurture bright young things – who have experienced some incredibly meteoric rises under his and his colleagues’ guidance. “We worked with a guy called Gareth Edwards in the last couple of years who did a short film… we then did his first feature film and now he’s directing Godzilla for Warner Brothers,” says Niblo. “There’s also Rupert Wyatt – we did his first film The Escapist. His second film was Rise Of The Planet Of The Apes; a huge hit recently. So it’s very possible that you go from your short film to your first feature to Hollywood in the space of a couple of years. You can achieve that.”

His current projects include the big-screen adaptation of classic 70s Brit police TV drama series The Sweeney – starring Ray Winstone and Plan B – right through to lower budget independent films. It’s reassuring to see that despite his global successes he hasn’t forgotten his roots, nor the importance of cinema’s relative ‘underground’. We couldn’t hope for a more fitting judge.