Thursday 19 July 2007

The challenges of writing...

Filmmaking and writing is a fickle creature that any aspiring writer or filmmaker has to face.

The last project I worked on when I was the writer/director was "Night is Day" and we filmed our last scenes for episodes 5 and 6 on the 14th of April 2007. I then spent the next 2 months sweating over editing the two episodes so it would be ready on time for the big premiere at the Glasgow Film Theatre on the 2nd of June. We needed to show a rough cut of the final film because the animators, sound technician and composer simply didn't have enough time to perfect it - and now that the premiere is over, everybody who threw everything to the back burner to help complete NiD for the 2nd of June has to go back to their other projects for the time being - that's fine, I've finished my editing of episodes 5 and 6 and they'll be completed and put up online in the next month or so and then we can try to sell it on DVD etc. As long as we make our £2,000 back and we can repay everybody their travelling expenss etc then all the better.

Now the last film I was involved in was called "Jazz Hands" and it was written and directed by Iain Thomson who was my camera operator and 1st assistant director on "NiD". Iain is a very talented filmmaker - inspired heavily by foreign film and I'd say subtle filmmaker Jim Jarmusch. Iain wrote a 5 minute short film, a comedy about a young actress who thinks that she's going to get a part in a new film by a controversal filmmaker, but instead becomes a fluffer who needs to relieve the film's main actor, Eddie... We shot it in one day at G-Mac in Glasgow and we had some familiar faces from NiD and we had some new faces. It was a long shoot, but it was fun and creative and everybody had a say. I was the production manager while Stuart, another fantastic filmmaker, was the Assistant Director on it.

me and Iain on the set of "Jazz Hands"

But it just made me crave to make my own short film again! I'm in the process of trying to make a good looking film-noir called "Two and a Half Minutes" but I am being plagued by trying to find a place to audition actors, lack of finances (thanks to the bank over-charging me!) and a general blahness because my personal life is seriously getting in the way of my filmmaking life.

I also want to make my first feature film...eventually. I've started to write "The Journey" again, but I've not wrote more of that since my first post on here. It's kind of stuck. To complicate matters I've started writing a horror/sci-fi/comedy set in the village that I live in. I've wrote a surprisingly 38 pages (that's around half an hour screen time) in two days but now that's hit a road-block too.

Last night at midnight I couldn't sleep and I suddenly got an idea in my head for a short film - a really basic film, about how no matter what happens you'll always love again. It's more of a visual film - I can see the shots in my head - I will make it, probably before "Two and a Half Minutes" because it's a less complicated shoot and I need less people. I need the usual suspects - Iain (on camera) Stuart (on Assistant Directing duties) a sound guy (I know of two who I can ask), an assistant/runner (easily found) a producer (meeting a producer tomorrow all going well so we'll see how that goes) and a cast - there's only 4 cast members and I think I know who I want for the roles. The locations are simple too.

I'll sign off with a note about one of my inspirational directors - Mr. Quentin Tarantino - when making Pulp Fiction he wrote 6 pages of "Kill Bill" and then he shoved it in a drawer and he didn't touch it for around 6 years after that, and Kill Bill was amazing.

Rachel Wisson and Chris Somerville on "Jazz Hands"