Neil Thompson: Executive Producer

So it is funny how things turn out. Last week I was asking just what are producers good for? This week I find myself attending a film screening where I was an “Executive Producer” in the smallest and loosest possible sense.

Anomalisa was funded via the Kickstarter crowd funding platform and I liked the sound of it. The writer, Charlie Kaufman, had written a couple of other films that I had enjoyed (Eternal Sunshine Of The Spotless Mind and Being John Malkovich) and so I thought it was worth a punt but not much of one. I backed the project to the princely sum of $20 for which I would get in return a downloadable copy of the film. That was three and a half years ago. Why so long you ask? Because Anomalisa is a stop motion animation film where the animators are targeted to complete only two seconds of action a day. But this was no Wallace & Gromit.

So I thought no further of it until an email arrived this week telling me that there was to be a special screening of the film in London with a Q&A session with Kaufman and the other producers and as a Kickstarter backer I could go for free. So I did, taking with me my eldest son. I mention my son because there is little more awkward than watching a sex scene on a film with your children. No I lie. There is one thing and that is an intimate sex scene between two puppets and this was very intimate.

The film itself, we both agreed, was interesting and thought provoking but ended just as it was really getting started and left me feeling strangely unsatisfied looking for a proper explanation and an ending. I’m not going to say much more than that other than it is funny, beautifully done and if you like art house cinema it may be for you.

So I am an Executive Producer of Anomalisa – zero creative input and next to zero financial input! Fun through to know that I helped make it happen.