Mise-en-Malta

 Last week we covered  Alex Vella Gera's novel Is-Sriep Reġgħu Saru Velenużi  and its film adaptation, which is hitting the silver screen soon. Sriep  represents just the tip of the iceberg in terms of what Maltese novels are out there to adapt! In this article, we'll cover Marthese Fenech's A Novel of the Knights of Malta  series of books set during The Great Siege of 1565, as well as Lara Calleja and Joe Pace's shortlisted novels for the EU literature prize... so if you've been keeping a keen eye on local material for your next project, or are just interested in what might end up in the pipeline towards moviedom, read on! Marthese Fenech is a Canadian-Maltese author who has had a number of bestselling novels based in Malta. She is based in Canada and apart from being an author, she is also a professional editor and high school teacher. In an interview with Newsbook she explained how she had been wishing for the longest time that her novel series would be adapt...

2021's Luzzu  has made waves in the local (and international!) film scene recently, and while I haven't yet had the chance to watch it myself ( please have a local release soon!), I have had the opportunity to interview Ms. Michela Farrugia, who plays leading man Jesmark's wife in the film. Farrugia gives us her insight on what it means to be within the acting profession on our isles, both in Film & TV as well as on-stage. Source: Twitter (@MichelaFarr) When asked to elaborate on what makes the two mediums most different, Farrugia told us that stage actors usually perform 'larger', as opposed to performances for more camera-centric mediums which allow for more subtlety owing the how the audience is placed in relation to the actors; "being able to whisper was new to me". There's also a difference in how one prepares for go-time. "In stage productions... there's a rehearsal period... in film, however, the actor needs to do a lot of his/her ...

Malta's film history is an underappreciated part of our national heritage. Multiple figures over the last century have tried their hand at filmmaking in a nation that did not attend to, and even censored the medium. In this article we'll look at three of these personages which have contributed to the limited but growing filmic culture of our isles. (Banner  photo sources clockwise: MaltaToday, Filmed in Malta, TVM) Cecil Satariano Cecil Satariano (1930–1996) was a Maltese film-maker, critic, censor and author. He started making films in 1969 using a Super 8mm Canon 518 which he had bought for himself as a Christmas present. Satariano was entirely self-taught but despite this managed to gain the recognition of  UK Film Magazine Movie Maker , who awarded him one of their Ten Best awards for his first film I'm Furious ...Red  (1970).  The following year, Satariano released Giuseppi  (1971) , which won him the first prize award in the same competition. Giuseppi ...

 Alex Vella Gera's much-lauded 2012 novel Is-Sriep Reġgġu Saru Velenużi  will soon find it's story on the silver screen as the 2021 release of its film adaptation has been announced. The film is shot, directed and partially produced by Shadeena Entertainment's Martin Bonnici, with help in the adaptation from the novel by Teodor Reljic. The novel and film can be considered drama and explores both Maltese politics through a fictional assassination attempt on 80s Maltese priminister Dom Mintoff as well as family dynamics through a contemporary story told alongside. The film was shot on a tight €250,000 budget, with partial funding from the National Book Council, through their 2019 NBC Film Adaptation Fund. Funding was also achieved through Shadeena Entertainment themselves as well as Splash Screen Entertainment. If the novel and trailer are any indication for what's in store once one sits down to watch this film, then good things are abound. It will be released locally th...

According to new research by the European Audiovisual Observatory (EAO), the median average budget of a European film production is around €2 million. It's safe to say that this is quite a small budget compared to that of European Films' movie-sibling across the Atlantic, where the average Hollywood production costs closer to the €65 million mark on average. Despite this, there is another class of film budget - one even smaller than small: the microbudget film . Microbudget Films are films produced from tiny budgets spanning from a few hundred-thousand down to single-digit thousands. As an example of this type of film, one can look at Robert Rodriguez's  El Mariachi (1992), a Mexican film which was shot for a measly €7,000. Having a budget under €1.5 million, means your work as a filmmaker could be considered a  'Difficult Audiovisual Work' , according to the Malta Film Commission. Unfortunately for Malta's local film industry, most of the productions on our ...

On April 15th, the Malta Film Commission announced a relaunch of the funding scheme for local filmmakers called  ScreenMalta  for 2021. The scheme has a budget of €600,000, and is aimed at film and TV productions. In the promotional video for the scheme's launch, the sound stages that are currently being built were also mentioned, signalling their progress. The scheme can net creators up to €20,000 without the need of setting up a company, and more than that if they do. Like last year, the upper threshold of support is capped at €200,000. Interested filmmakers should keep in mind that applicants need to be citizens of Malta and should be registered under the 'Opportunity for All' registers by the Film Commission and check a few other boxes. some of the criteria for the Screen Malta scheme If you're interested in applying, the application form can be found at www.screenmalta.com under 'Support Schemes', here's a direct link to the application form . Good lu...

Actresses and actors can't fulfil their roles if they're still wearing their everyday clothes on-screen. Even if a film is set in contemporary times, it's important to remember that the actor is not their character, and would necessarily be wearing different clothing. Who gets to design and decide this? Who manages and coordinates the teams that aid in creating a character's identity in what they wear? Well, of course that's the costume designers and costume coordinators respectively. We spoke to Martina Zammit Maempel, a costume designer and costume supervisor from our own isles, for some more insight into the role.  Maempel has been working in film & TV for about 7 years. She first got into the industry after she returned from London where she had been working in the fashion industry. Upon moving back, since locally there was not much of a fashion industry, she decided to apply for a role in the costume department. "I seemed to be at the right place/right...

Joseph Calleja is perhaps one of the most internationally successful actors ever to come out of the Maltese isles. While his name nowadays might be confused with that of the singer, who has perhaps usurped him locally in being the best-known 'Joseph Calleja', the actor had gained widespread worldwide recognition , taking part in some of the largest Hollywood films of the 30s, 40s and 50s. Read on for a short account of this multi-talented Maltese man's life. Calleja was born in Mdina, Rabat in 1897. In 1914,  at 17, Calleja joined the British merchant shipping fleet and cruised throughout Europe until the ship he served on was torpedoed and he was hospitalized. Following that, Calleja moved to New York in the US where he worked odd jobs and sang to earn a living. He then found his first on-stage speaking role in a Broadway play called The Broken Wing  (1920) which following it's success, moved to London and closed there. Following this, Calleja returned to Malta in orde...

Filmmaker or part of a film crew? The Malta film commission is organizing online meetings with different sections of film crews to learn about their needs and concerns regarding the local industry. Two meetings have already been set up by the MFC, one on the 8th of April at 5:30pm for Make-Up, Hair and Costume Department crew and another on the 9th at 5:30 for the people in the set-construction, props, armoury and art departments. If you're not in one of the above crew departments and are interested in joining in on these meetings, the MFC can be reached by e-mail through: ofa@mfc.com.mt.

Practically the whole of Malta can be seen as a Film and TV studio set. The isles’ historic locations are a no brainer for any director looking for period accuracy, precisely because they’re the real thing! The mixture of architectural cultures also lend the islands a certain flexibility in its representational abilities, being able to stand in for both continental Europe as well as a good portion of the Middle-Eastern world. The generally great weather doesn't hurt either! Dependably not having a rainstorm on the day of a shoot is as important as you might think it is... In this article we’ll take a closer look at three of the more popular and cinematically historical locations for a film or TV series shoot, along with any filmic history associated with them! Valletta and other historic cities The obvious first pick owing to the fact that it’s the nation’s capital, is Valletta. Valletta's mixture of ornate European auberges, such as the grand master's palace and middle-eas...

You're probably aware that you've seen more guns on the silver screen than you have in real life. But have you ever asked yourself where those guns come from? Who chooses which characters get which guns, and who does all the research to make sure historical characters aren't shooting guns which hadn't even been invented yet back in their time? Well, that's the job of the armoury department. We spoke to Stephen Petroni who, apart from being a firearms researcher and gun shop director, works as a film armourer and historical advisor. Along with his son Julian, he has worked in this capacity on most productions involving firearms shot in Malta since 2003. Stephen Petroni is the managing director of a gun shop and film armoury Petroni told us he first started working in the industry when he was contacted to provide arms for Silmido  (2003), a Korean action film directed by Kang Woo-suk. He provided a Browning machine gun which he adapted to fire blanks and loaded for us...

With the recent release of Luzzu (2021) receiving widespread attention and acclaim, viewers’ interest in Maltese film should be piqued once more if it hadn’t been before. Luzzu is part of a new wave of Maltese-made films spanning from the mid-2010s to early 2020s. 2014’s Simshar could be seen as the beginning of this wave, following a relatively release-shy span of years. Including Simshar, we'll be covering 5 acclaimed Maltese films produced since then, and what they're all about. All are definitely worth a watch... or at least keeping an eye on before they're released for viewing! Simshar  (2014) Simshar, inspired by real events, relates to its audience the story of the Maltese crew of the fishing vessel Simshar, who become stranded in the Mediterranean after the boat catches fire. Concurrently, a Maltese medic finds himself stuck on a ship aiding irregular migrants while the ship itself is bureaucratically shirked from both Italian and Maltese shores. Simshar  was di...

Mise-En-Malta  is about all things film-related on the Maltese isles.  Over the coming weeks you'll find a variety of articles about the film industry in Malta, including recent news, interesting tidbits of Maltese film history as well as interviews with local crew within various roles in the production process! Visit regularly for new content published Mondays, Wednesdays and Fridays!