“It’s offered a mirror to check how we’re doing,” Caspian Films on Investment Readiness and giving female auteurs a voice
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Pop culture may be full of gritty reboots at the moment but producer Angela Gourley hopes to change the narrative. Having carved out an extensive career in film and TV and worked on several hugely popular shows, she switched gears in 2017 to create Amber Eye Fims. Here, she’s built a small slate of projects for the big and small screen that she describes as the “witty, feel-good and female-led” stories that she’d like to see more of.
Focusing on diverse storytelling and content that makes you think as well as smile, Amber Eye Films currently has various projects in various stages of development that span a range of genres. Movie Safeguard is a Die Hard-style action thriller set in a high-tech department store; Bethlehem Wales is a festive refugee comedy-drama and Don’t Wake Up is a time-loop terror tale. Meanwhile, both oil smuggling dramedy Crude and Lit, a fish-out-of-water tale that sees a time-travelling Emily Bronte forced to navigate the diversities of modern-day Britain are both aimed at the high-end TV marketplace.
“To be honest, they’re just what I find fun to watch,” smiles Gourley, commenting on the array of projects that she’s busy raising finance for. “Back when I started, it was before the #MeToo movement so there was nothing like this. We’re starting to see more female directors and more women on screen, which is great – but essentially, these [projects] are all my taste,” she adds. “It’s what I like to watch – which is female-led projects with comedy, realism and horror.”
In addition to adding diversity on-screen, Gourley is keen to instigate the same rationale off-screen. It’s a goal that’s close to the producer’s heart having returned to the sector after taking time out to raise a family. “Age diversity is important to me. It’s a really young industry and I often think returners like me are forgotten,” she tells us. “You kind of have to start all over again which is hard when you have more responsibilities.” It’s something she hopes to change when her projects enter production: “There’s room for mature women as well because we’re so highly skilled, work hard and know what we’re doing.”
With her goals set, Gourley enrolled on our Creative Enterprise Investment Readiness scheme to equip herself with the skills she needs to make her slate a reality. Having spent so long in the film and TV industry, she’s also eager to learn about new ways to secure production finance that may be outside of her wheelhouse.
“What led me to Investment Readiness is that I realised you can’t just look for money within the industry because everybody is competing for that money. You have to look at private investment and I didn’t really know how to do that,” she admits. Thankfully, her Investment Readiness-assigned industry mentors have helped a great deal with this: “They’re teaching me how to approach investments in a very different way. I’m writing a new kind of business plan and that’s interesting and challenging because I’ve never done it before.”
In addition to solidifying her status as a well-rounded business founder, the programme has also helped her to gain a better understanding of what new investors want and the best ways to deliver it to them. “It’s all about learning how to be a businesswoman and how to pitch and write for investors,” reasons Gourley. “I’ve done my creative bit and created my slate, now I’ve got to put my business head on – and you can’t shy away from that.”
Having bespoke, impartial guidance has also helped to realign her focus which is key when it comes to moving projects forward. “When I first went to my mentor I was feeling a little overwhelmed because I had too many projects. I was doing a little work on everything and not getting anywhere,” reveals Gourley, explaining how her mentor suggested applying a laser-like focus onto just one idea instead of everything at once. “It was like this huge weight had been lifted. Suddenly, I was much more motivated again.”
For Gourley, this type of guidance has been key to helping Amber Eye Films reach its next stage of development. “You really need a mentor when you’re starting out with a new business. It’s so important to get advice because it’s all about strategy and knowing what to do first.” By using this knowledge and absorbing the investor insight afforded by our Creative Enterprie-led scheme, Gourley feels confident about the future of Amber Eye Films. “I hope that by the end of the year I will be filming my first film,” she smiles. “I would like to have made at at least one film each year and at some point, get one of my TV series of the ground too.”
Words and interview by Simon Bland