Alan Niblo on Faintheart

Alan Niblo of Vertigo Films talks to Film4 about the forthcoming Faintheart and how to survive in the increasingly tough British film market.

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Where did the idea to make a user-generated film come from?

It came from our Head of Marketing Wahida Begum after a meeting with James Fabricant from MySpace. She pointed out that Hollywood is spending literally millions of dollars publicising their films through MySpace. She suggested that if we could involve the MySpace community in actually making a film, we could generate the same amount of publicity for free.

If you look at films like Borat or Knocked Up, they stoked up huge anticipation months before their release. Once we had made the decision, the main challenge was to ensure that the online community was involved in a real way and they very much have been; MySpacers chose the director and some of the cast, they've written jokes, contributed to the ending and they're going to be involved with the poster, trailer and release plans.

Why do you think the UK has been slow to catch on to the internet?

I think the whole film business in the UK is steeped in tradition and it takes time to embrace new processes. Our production offices are outside Soho and we strive to think differently out of financial necessity. When we made Outlaw, we knew Nick Love had a very large fan base that we could tap into. So we built a website and asked if fans wanted to invest in the film, be in it, buy a T-shirt and so on. In this way we raised a significant portion of the budget.

For you, what were the highlights of the shoot?

I love supporting new directors and helping them to live out their dreams. Vito Rocco, the director, has been living with this script for years, he knows every single line and every character back to front.

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