Newport film director Julian Richards is hoping to use his experience in film sales to give independent directors a chance to reach new audiences. He spoke to THOMAS MOODY about working for Steven Spielberg on his first film, the challenges of working in the independent film industry, and entering the world of sales and distribution.

JULIAN Richards has recently returned from America where his latest film, Reborn, was released.

“I would say that we had an interesting experience on Reborn,” he said. “It was shot in Hollywood and features an actor who was down on her luck, but got a chance to audition for the biggest role of her life, but she is not mentally in the right frame of mind for it.

“She is played by Hollywood royalty Barbara Crampton, who has had an interesting career as she worked a lot in the 80s and 90s, but then it dried up.

“She took time off and raised her family and now she has come back and had a bit of a career revival.

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“Being a survivor is part of being in this industry. You get rejected and it’s about not letting that stop you.

"You can’t give up when it doesn’t go your way. Now she is back in vogue she is grabbing the bull by the horns. I would say she’s been one of the best people I’ve worked with.

"When we shot the film, we started out with a different actress.

“We got closed down for a few weeks after the LA fires, which gave me some time to think.

“I thought it wasn’t working out so I contacted Barbara and she asked to see the script. I sent it over, and she said yes.

“It did mean she had to drive down from San Francisco and essentially started shooting the next day, so she had very little preparation time.”

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Julian Richards on the set of Reborn. Picture: Julian Richards

Mr Richards was introduced into the world of filmmaking through his family, as his dad would film family holidays, and his uncle, Wales international rugby player turned Hollywood star Rex Richards.

“I grew up in Newport and my family used to go on annual holidays,” he said. “My father had a super eight camera and used to film the holidays on that. He would then send them off and would then edit them together.

“At the same time, I had become a fan of films from watching them on TV, especially horror and fantastic films.

“I made my first short film when I was 13. We went out to Beechwood to film it. It was about 30 minutes long, which is long for a short film.

“Once I had gone through making that, I was bitten by the bug.

“My uncle Rex earned the nickname of Tarzan when he was playing.

“He heard they were auditioning for a Tarzan film in the US. He got through to the last five, but didn’t get the part.

“But he did get cast in The Wild Women of Wongo (1958) as King Wongo.

“I was aware of this growing up, and when Rex came home he came home with stories of working in Hollywood.

“What seemed a dream career wasn’t so much of a dream. That gave me confidence to go for it.”

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Julian Richards

Straight out of film school, Mr Richards travelled to America with some of his short films he had been working on, and a treatment for his first feature-length film.

“I had a treatment of a novel a friend of mine had written,” he said. “I got a meeting with Steven Spielberg’s company, Amblin Entertainment, who really liked the idea.

“Unfortunately, this was a time when a number of executives were leaving the company, and new executives were coming in.

“Often when this happens the new executives don’t want anything to do with any of the projects being developed by the old regime.

“Although it ended up not being made, it was a great experience for me to be working in LA and for Steven Spielberg himself.”

Mr Richards returned to the UK, and directed 12 episodes of the Channel 4 TV series Brookside while writing his next film.

“I had been writing my first feature-length script for about four years,” he said. “I came back to the UK and directed a few episodes of Brookside while I was searching for funding.

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Steven Spielberg

“It was around this time the National Lottery was awarding funding for Welsh language films, and for the first time funding was made available for English language films.”

Mr Richard’s film Darklands received critical success, and won several awards at film festivals around the globe. However, the director said it was difficult to see the film as a complete success as it did not receive a theatre release in the US.

“It’s always difficult for independent films to achieve success, especially as its not a Hollywood film,” he said. “I met with (film director) Roger Corman and he, along with Steven Spielberg, was one of the influences on me as a young filmmaker.

“He wanted to release Darklands in the US. Unfortunately a deal couldn’t be worked out so it wasn’t released in the US.

“The film ended up in a legal black hole with no-one knowing who owned the rights. I eventually managed to get the rights back to me, and got it released on DVD in the US in 2012, but of course by then it was an old film.

“After doing Darklands, I did a UK feature film, Silent Cry, which was quite successful. With the money that I made from that, I made The Last Horror Movie, a low-budget found footage horror movie in the style of Blair Witch.

“That did really well and got theatrical releases in the UK and US. I put my own money into the film, after my previous bad experiences with distributing my films.

“I set up a sales company called Jinga Films as we were so successful with The Last Horror Movie.

“Over the past 12 years we have represented more than 100 films all over the world, including films from America, the UK, Australia and even Germany or Israel.

“We attend all film festivals like Cannes and Berlin to screen these films. Instead of making one film every four years as you would as a director, we were representing several films a year. We are learning about the industry on a day-to-day basis, and have now become a recognisable name in the industry.

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Julian Richards, pictured in 2004

“I think when we entered the world of sales and distribution we were a different type of personality. We were filmmakers, not suits, so I think that led to other filmmakers felt more comfortable with us. It’s about damage limitation.

"You can’t prevent film makers from being taken advantage of, that’s just the industry we are in, but we try to diminish the impact of that.

“It’s exhausting, you are dealing with the whole world. You are dealing with Japan when you wake up, and then America when you go to bed. It’s non-stop. I found the time I would have spent on new ideas or new scripts I no longer had time as I was working on other people’s films.

“But now the company has been built up, I have been able to start developing my own ideas again. In the last four years, I have done three feature films. The first was Daddy’s Girl, about a young woman held captive by her stepfather who becomes the focus of a female vigilante. I then did a supernatural horror Reborn.

“It took a while to get there. From the point I started Jinga it took 12 years to get back to that point. It’s a challenge but I’m glad to get back in the director’s saddle.

“I have also been working on Deathcember, which is a collection of films that take a look at the dark side of the festive season, based around the idea of an advent calendar. The idea is every window you open up is another short horror film by a different director.”

Although new technology has made it easier for aspiring filmmakers to make films, Mr Richards said there are still plenty of challenges to overcome – especially for smaller, independent filmmakers.

“In some ways it has become easier to make films with the digital developments,” he said. “It is easier to make films, but you have to make sure the film is worth making.

“The emphasis is that the end product will only be as good as a good script.

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“I did that with The Last Horror Movie. It was shot on a camera you could go out and buy from the high street and was blown up for the big screen.

“It was a well-thought-out idea with a good script and a good cast, that’s the most important thing, not what it is shot on.

“The big challenge now making a film is only about half the process. After you have made the film, you have to get it distributed and find an audience for it.

“It’s becoming increasingly difficult for smaller films to attract an audience. DVDs are dying out and cinemas are mainly interested in showing big Hollywood films, while streaming services’ algorithms favour those films, and they would rather make their own content than looking at independent filmmakers.

“It is looking like the only way you can get in to the industry is through working for these studios or streaming services.

“It’s up to the public to keep independent films alive. I’m hoping to set up a film festival in Newport for independent horror films next year at The Neon, which was the first cinema I ever saw a film in.

“Part of the challenge is building up and creating that audience. At the moment your films have to be part of popular culture. If it’s not there’s no hope for you. A lot of film distribution is about marketing, which Hollywood is able to do a lot of, while independent film makers can’t.

“Hopefully this festival can give people a taste of what alternatives there are out there. As filmmakers, it’s our responsibility to do that.”