Marcus Markou visit

On Friday 8th November 2013, my media class was lucky enough to receive a talk from the director and writer of the successful independent film, 'Papadopoulos & Sons'

The Top 5 things I learnt from the lesson:

1. It is a line producer's job to work out the budgeting for films or television programmes. They do this by working out how much everything will cost and fitting it to the available budget, telling the director what they are unable to film. Marcus Markou hired a line director from successful television programmes as his only producer.
2. The two most flexible costs in the filming process are hiring actors and the renting of locations.
3. It is extremely likely that many films will not be given the opportunity to be shown in a cinema immediately. Instead, many films need to be successful in film festivals before they are given a contract in a cinema.
4. There are many different types of rights for a film, including the right to broadcast a film on free television.
5. When making a film there is the possibility to obtain money from companies who are willing to donate in order to avoid large taxes. However, Marcus did not use this. Instead, he relied on the money he was generating from his own business to make the film.

Papadopoulos & Sons

"Papadopoulos & Sons" is an independent comedy drama written by Marcus Markou about a Greek-Cypriot millionaire, Harry Papadopoulos, who reluctantly returns to working in the abandoned fish and chip shop which he owned with his brother, Spiros.

Writer/Director: Marcus Markou
Producer: Sara Butler
Executive Producer: Andrew Markou
Director of Photography: James Friend
Editor: Sebastian Morrison
Casting Director: Anji Carroll
Production Designer: Julian Fullalove
Composer: Stephen Warbeck

"Papadopoulos & Sons" was mainly self-promoted and was self-distributed by Marcus Markou in the UK through Cineworld.

The film was set in London and so the crew found a street with two empty shops to use at the chip shop and the kebab shop in the film in South London in Morden and took the lease on them. The office scenes were filmed in Central London, the mansion was in Croyden and the Papadopoulos factory was sat in a Greek food factory in East London.

On June 27 2013, the film was released in 70 cinemas in Germany, titled "Papadopoulos & Söhne", and it had a tally of 23 850 admissions in the first week of screening.

Much of the marketing for "Papadopoulos & Sons" was achieved using social networking websites including youtube, facebook and twitter. The trailer for the film was released at the end of April 2012 and in under 48 hours of the release (on 25th April 2012), the trailer had received 1,000 views.

Festivals
"Papadopoulos & Sons" has been in various film festivals:

• The Dinard British FIlm Festival (France)
• The Palm Springs International Film Festival (USA)
• The Seattle Film Festival (USA)
• The Thessaloniki Film Festival (Greece)

It has received the Michael Cacoyannis Audience Award int he Thessaloniki Film Festival and had been screened at the European Parliament in November 2012