Archive for March, 2009
Friday, March 27th, 2009
Complimentary Booze & Boozey Compliments (Part 2)
Oh well, our short film ‘Moth to a Flame’ didn’t make it any further than an honorable mention in the shortlist at last night’s Performance short film awards. But it was still a fantastic night. I was particularly pleased for Sam Donavan’s ‘Hammerhead’ which took third place as I am a big fan of his films and was frankly really impressed with the overall winner ‘Gone Fishing’ which starred Bill Patterson of ‘The Singing Detective’ . It also featured a nice twist, a subtle Matrix reference, some good laughs and nearly made me cry (nearly!) so pretty much delivered, in my opinion.
As always at such occasions, there was a good opportunity for the dreaded ‘networking’. My lovely Heather has written a fantastic blog post about what to do when you’re nervous and talking to potentially useful people. But I was also really pleased to bump into someone I haven’t seen in three years who I used to write for so it was great to catch up and made the whole thing a lot less scary.
So congratulations to the winners and it was nice to still be in the top 12 of over 400 entries. However, with the deadline for the next round of Screen Yorkshire’s Digital Shorts next week, it has given me a lot to think about as I get my two scripts ready to submit. Maybe the next film will be the one 
Wednesday, March 25th, 2009
Performance Short Film Awards (Part 1)
We learned some time ago that my first official script commission ‘Moth to a Flame’ was shortlisted for the Performance Short Film Awards.
Director Kevin Tams, lovely composer (and long suffering other half) Heather and myself are traipsing down to London tonight as smartly as we can muster for the screening at BAFTA in the capital’s fashionable Piccadilly (I may post photos depending on whether we get rained on or not. I may not post ever again if we don’t win anything 
).
What’s great is that I know two of the other films and their film-makers shortlisted too (Sam Donovan’s hilarious ‘Hammerhead’ and Sarah Punshon’s tender ‘This Way Up’) as they were all made under Screen Yorkshire’s Digital Shorts scheme so it’s reassuring to know we are all doing something right up here. I am really looking forward to seeing all of the other shortlisted films but it will be great to have three films to cheer!
I am actually writing applications and re-drafting ideas and scripts for the next round of the Digital Shorts scheme after one or two unsuccessful attempts so this is actually a bit of a boost. As I said, ‘Moth to a Flame’ was my first commission so will always have a really special place for me and is a personal film I am immensely proud of. But I am also now looking forward to the next short film, whatever it may be. I will blog next week about ideas for short films and how to structure them as I have had some brilliant advice over the last few weeks as I try and get my ideas together.
In the meantime, below is a 20 second trailer of what Kevin, Heather and myself will be crossing our fingers for tonight.
Friday, March 13th, 2009
Bit of a To-Do List
Bah. I’ve actually had numerous things to be blogging about but have been busy trying to get on with them when I could have talking about them here. More specifically, I’ve been finding the projects I’ve been working on quite tricky which is something that would also have been useful to talk about but I don’t think I wanted to admit that I was having problems either. Gah!
As such, I’ve decided to post every day for a month, starting in April, as I think it will help me get my routine going. I’ll hopefully have something to say before then, but I have several deadlines, projects, courses and schemes coming up which I am simultaneously excited and nervous about.
In the meantime, here’s a calming photo of myself meditating in St. Aylgulf in the South of France when I spent a brilliant week holed up with the Slung Low Theatre Company and who are letting me contribute to a few of their upcoming projects. But more about those soon.
See you round the blogosphere, grasshopper.
