Tour review

In August, we launched the regional theatrical tour of the Spike Milligan film and live show down the east coast of Australia. It was an ambitious experiment in alternative distribution and a promotional tour for our newly released DVD. The original plan was a five week tour playing in venues such as Bowling Clubs, RSL and Leagues Clubs and art house cinemas. The tour group consisted of performers Laura Milligan and Glenn Cardier, producer Jeff Canin and technician and road manager Mathew Gulliford and a life size doll of Spike. The show was undoubtedly a winner and audiences who saw it loved it and often stayed back to talk to Laura and Glenn for up to an hour after the show. The Spike shop was popular, especially the T-shirts and shopping bags, and many people placed advance orders for the DVD.

The tour schedule was punishing with a new town and a different venue every night. Advance publicity was hard to get as people didn't really understand until we were on the road, exactly what we were doing. Nor did we really!! The first week was exciting as we trialled the show and got the first lot of feedback. Audiences loved it. But by the end of that week, we realised we had a problem. Audience numbers were lower than we'd hoped for, and a key member of the tour became ill with exhaustion and stress, so half way through the tour, we came to the conclusion that we had to cancel the live show component. Some venues, which have digital projection facilities, decided to go ahead with film screenings only. Others accepted the cancellation with understanding and good will. Some venues, such as Canberra's Electric Shadows Cinema, Portland Star Cinema and Murwillumbah's Regent Cinema decided to run a season of the film. We also received new requests for screenings in Mount Tamborine, Mackay, Noosa Heads and Darwin. The reasons for the less than brilliant turn-out of audiences are complex and we are still trying to understand it. All the venues we'd booked said that audience attendance generally is down between 15 to 30%, even for big name, well promoted acts. People just don't want to go out at night these days, and the cost of petrol is becoming an issue. Promotion was also a problem. We didn't have much of a publicity budget and you can never get enough publicity. Some of the venues were not suited to this show, such as Leagues Clubs and RSLs. The most successful shows in relation to audience numbers and audience appreciation were at the art house cinemas as well as Yamba Bowling Club and Ettalong War Memorial Club. Audience figures are not all in yet, but to date at least 500 people have seen the show and many of these have let us know what they thought of the show. They either wrote in Spike's autograph book at the venue, sent us an email, went to our website and added their comments or voted in the IF awards (at least 50 people have sent us an email to tell us they've voted).

We feel as if we've been caught up in a gigantic wave which we decided to ride (even though we've only surfed once) and for a while there it was exhilarating and then we got dumped and now we've emerged, spitting out sand and fish and clutching a broken surf board and wondering if it was worth it - but glad we gave it a try. There were times over the past couple of months when we were having the most fun we've had in years, but also times when we thought we are quite mad and were scared out of our wits. Now, two weeks after returning home from the tour, and still trying to get the sand out of our pants, we have begun to assess the benefits of the whole experiment. I am writing up the results which we will publish on our website early next year. It was a very ambitious experiment and we won't really know if it was all worthwhile until after the ABC broadcast and when the first results of DVD sales are known - probably sometime after Christmas.

At that stage we'll know whether we ever want to try surfing again.

Cathy Henkel.

Innovative answer to declining film distribution options

The recent closing of three iconic independent cinemas - the Valhalla and Chauvel in Sydney and the Lumiere in Melbourne - is sad news for independent filmmakers, but we are not prepared to give up the fight for the hearts and minds of Australian audiences.

I TOLD YOU I WAS ILL: THE LIFE AND LEGACY OF SPIKE MILLIGAN will commence a 5 week tour along Australia’s east coast, from Wednesday 24 August, showing at unorthodox venues including RSL, Rugby Clubs, Services and Bowling Clubs.

The film and video production industry is currently worth $435 million to the Australian economy, and over 80% of these businesses employ 4 people or less. We are one of these micro-companies, and to survive, we have to be innovative and rake risks to ensure that our work reaches the widest possible audience.

I TOLD YOU I WAS ILL sold out at the Adelaide, Melbourne and Brisbane Film Festivals, and our website is generating huge traffic. We began getting requests from Spike fans around the country to bring the film to their town. We realised we needed to come up with a creative solution to reach audiences beyond the festivals and beyond the city venues. So we came up with this bold concept to take the film to the fans and try something completely new.

Led by a life-size doll of Spike, the tour will bring back memories and shed new light on this extraordinary man, voted 'the funniest person of the millennium' by a BBC poll. The project includes radio broadcasts, a live show featuring Spike’s eldest daughter Laura telling stories and reading some of his letters and music by Glenn Cardier who toured with Spike in the 80s. This is followed by a screening of the documentary.

The show will move from classic country cinemas such as the Regent in Murwillumbah and the Star in Portland to the Aussie heartland of Coffs Ex Services, Rooty Hill RSL, Bathurst Golf Club and Shepparton RSL.

Laura's blogging during the tour. Visit her blog at www.spikemilliganlegacy.com/tourblog/

I TOLD YOU I WAS ILL to screen at three Australian festivals

I TOLD YOU I WAS ILL: THE LIFE AND LEGACY OF SPIKE MILLIGAN will screen in Sydney as part of a wonderful fringe event during the Sydney Film Festival along with three other 'must-see' Australian documentaries. There will be three screenings of Spike: Saturday 18 June at 6.30pm along with Sunday 19 June at 11.30am & 2.30pm.

The Inaugural Salon Des Refuses Film Festival 2005 will host a selection of exceptionally outstanding, life affirming Australian documentary films not screening for one reason or another, at this year's Sydney Film Festival.

The Salon des Refuses will be held on Saturday 18 June and Sunday 19 June at a function room on the 8th floor of the Swissotel, 68 Market Street, Sydney, which is conveniently located just across the road from the Sydney Film Festival's main venue. Entry is by donation.

A prize will be awarded on the last night by popular vote, the Silver Yabby - a yabby being a hardy creature used to surviving in murky waters and in drought. The organisers felt this to be an apt metaphor relating to independent Australian film makers.

I TOLD YOU I WAS ILL has also been selected for the 54th Melbourne International Film Festival (20 July to 7 August 2005) and the Brisbane International Film Festival (27 July to 8th August).

We will also be presenting a session at this year’s Byron Bay Writers' Festival, called 'Writing for Multi-platform Delivery – the Spike Model', on Friday 5 August. The screening of the new Director's Cut is on the following Monday, 8 August, at the Byron Bay Community Centre.

East Coast premiere sells out

The film, I TOLD YOU I WAS ILL, has played to packed houses during its limited theatrical release. Its world premiere at the Adelaide Film Festival on 22 February 2005 sold out, as did its East Coast premiere in Byron Bay on 8 April 2005. The Byron Bay screening was the first of three sessions held in the Northern Rivers to determine the potential for a regional theatrical tour called ‘Spike Milligan is Back!!’. The first part of the show features Spike’s eldest daughter Laura reading a selection of his hysterical poems and eccentric letters. Then Glen Cardier, who toured with Spike in the 1980s, performed a live acoustic gig including songs featured in the film. The trial tour grossed almost $7000 at only three small theatres in Lismore, Ballina and Byron Bay.

Following the success of this trial, Hatchling Productions now plans to stage a theatrical tour of regional towns and centres in eastern Australia in late 2005. It is our intention to sell the enhanced DVD on the tour, as well as online and in ABC Shops.

Using this opportunity to promote a cause about which Spike would have been passionate will be a key feature of the tour. Spike was a dedicated activist who took a stand on many, many issues and was a prolific letter writer about causes in which he believed. Therefore we propose to call this tour ‘Spike Milligan is Back!! Pick up a Pen’, encouraging audiences all around Australia to play a more active role in democracy –Spike would have been proud if he knew his legacy encouraged people to engage with the political process, to question the decision makers and to be passionate, not apathetic.

East Coast Australian Premiere in Byron Bay on 8 April

The East Coast Premiere of I TOLD YOU I WAS ILL: THE LIFE AND LEGACY OF SPIKE MILLIGAN takes place at the Byron Bay Community Centre on Friday 8 April as part of the 2005 OZeCulture Conference.

The East Coast Premiere is followed by two further screenings in the Northern Rivers, titled 'Spike Milligan is back!!'. Prior to the screenings of the feature length documentary, Spike's eldest daughter Laura will read some of his eccentric letters and hilarious poems and there will be a musical performance by Glenn Cardier, who toured with Spike.

EAST COAST PREMIERE - Friday 8 April at 8pm
BYRON BAY COMMUNITY CENTRE
Jonson Street, Byron Bay
Bookings through Byron Bay Community Centre or telephone 02 6685 6807

Also screening at:
Ballina RSL Club
Sunday 10 April at 2pm
Tickets from Caddies, Ballina
or telephone 02 6681 5452

and

Star Court Theatre, Lismore
Wednesday 13 April at 8pm
Tickets from Caddies, Lismore or telephone 02 6621 7709
Or for further enquiries, phone Hatchling Productions on +61 2 6629 1449.
TICKETS: $20 and $15 concession. All three screenings are fundraising events for Northern Rivers Screenworks.

The world premiere, Adelaide, 22 Feb 2005

The world premiere of the film "I told you I was ill: The life and legacy of Spike Milligan" took place on February 22nd at the Adelaide Film Festival. The film was the first documentary to receive funding from the Adelaide Film Festival Investment Fund, and as such it was given red-carpet treatment by the festival. My partner and co-producer Jeff Canin and I flew to Adelaide for the festivals' opening night, and we were joined by the Milligans on the weekend. The buzz about the film's upcoming premiere started building, and the following five days were a roller coaster ride of exhileration and emotion.

What is the best thing you can hope for at the world premiere of your film that has taken so much of your energy, commitment, time, money, love and passion? You hope that lots of people will hear about it, will want to come and even that it will be sold out. This happened. The pre-launch publicity was brilliant. We had a full page story in The Australian, and our Spike T-shirts and promotional material were everywhere. Spike's brother Desmond, his eldest daughter Laura and Spike's only granddaughter Georga joined us for a great press launch on the morning before the screening. We managed to find four minis and drove the family and crew in a mini convey to the cinema for photos and interviews, and some Spike fans even turned up for this suitably mad event. This resulted in a full page article in the Adelaide Advertiser. Word spread quickly that opening night was sold out and this made more people want to see it and our second screening started filling up. The opening speech by the premier of South Australia, Hon Mike Rann was generous and funny and the Milligans won over the audience with their natural humour and charm. Then the film started.

Despite a disaster with the cinema's sound system, which meant our beautiful surround sound audio track was seriously distorted, the audience seemed to be very engaged and responded well to the film. They laughed a lot and appeared to enjoy the roller coaster ride it took them on. The questions afterwards revealed that the story of what happened in the Milligan family after Spike died shocked and upset a lot of people and we had many offers of legal and personal help from people wanting to know what they could do to help protect Spike's legacy.

The second screening of the film on Thursday 24th February was also packed and this time the sound was perfect. There was a long Q & A session after the screening and some people even followed us down the street wanting to talk about it and asking what they could do to help the Milligan family. We are working on several ideas now, one of which is to create a space on the web site for audience comments and responses and a place to track the story of the legacy. More about this soon. On Friday The Age newspaper ran a full page story on the film, and over 500 people visited the Spike website. Copies of the press coverage can be found on the news page.

The web site launch

Kerry Sunderland, who produced and wrote the Spike Milligan Legacy web site, gave Edward Borland at RUCC (the company that hosts the site) the green light to 'go live' over a mobile phone in the back of Nina Angelo's car at 11.15pm on Sunday 20 February 2005, while Spike's eldest daughter Laura joined Nina and her friend Trish (who worked as a sound recordist on the Woy Woy shoot) in celebrating. It was a suitably 'virtual' and madcap moment all at once because, while Kerry was on the phone, there was some confusion about which way to turn and the Milligan clan got themselves lost. One hour later, Nina pulled into a petrol station and discovered the group was about 70kms north of where they wanted to end up. Dressed uniformly in Spike Milligan Legacy t-shirts, the petrol station attendant enquired whether we were members of a religious group. The Cult of Latter-Day Milligans was officially born.

The launch of the web site, despite a few early morning hiccups, was a success. In its first week, it attracted almost one thousand unique visitors.

Special thanks must go to Murray Debus, who created the wonderful animations, and the team at Katalyst Web Design (Jason Sidoryn, Chris Joyner, Kipp Brady, Malte Wiegand and Oli) who provided art direction, created the special applications like the quiz and News of the Galaxy and undertook all Flash programming.