Making a movie in Scotland is much like hanging from a ledge. You keep holding on, hoping something will happen and save you, and then you realise it's not going to happen. Regardless, failure is not an option as this is a path I have chosen to go down.
I've worked as a cashier in Ikea, a sales representative in GAME, a junior administrator in an office and a BETA tester for computer games. Oh, and I worked as a web content developer for an SEO company.
But NOTHING compares to filmmaking.
You get to do something different everyday, meet a lot of like minded people who become your family, and there is something so amazing about seeing your words being acted out on the screen, and in front of you when you are actually filming it.
Scotland has a LOT of talent. I know, I've seen it. A lot of my friends are filmmakers, writers, actors, directors, editors, camera operators, special effect geniuses, composers, makeup artists, costume designers, producers, the lot, and they are all amazing.
All they want to do is make films and TV - Monday to Friday, from 9am til 5pm... but of course that can be 7am til 12am, depending on the shoot :p
It's just a shame that there doesn't seem to be too much support for filmmakers at the level we're at. Nobody seems to want to take a risk on our level of filmmaking where people are making romantic comedies, gangland dramas, superhero movies just to name a few.
Instead the money goes back to those who have already made their big movies, made their money, and would have no problem getting backing elsewhere to help them.
Congratulations to Shed Media, whose web series, "Being Victor", was picked up by STV and is now being shown on a Thursday night. If there are any STV people reading my blog I've got a web series too - 13 episodes to be exact, two seasons, with the 2nd season having 7 episodes running for 25 minutes each and you can find out more at www.nightisday.co.uk.
I've now edited 61 minutes of Night is Day - The Movie! 7 more minutes and it becomes a feature film officially (for a film to be classed as a "feature" it must be 70 minutes or more - "Jonah Hex" starring Josh Brolin, made it, just and no more with a run time of, yep, you've guessed it, 70 minutes!) and there's a LOT more editing to do.
Without giving too much away I'm at a scene where Mr. Philips (played by the brilliant Tam Toye who channels a little bit of William Shatner) is discussing the world of demons to his demon-racist assassin and I suppose closest friend, Frank Stone (Mark Harvey, who can flawlessly impersonate Johnny Depp, Eddie Izzard and Mr. Mackay from South Park - trust me - we've got it on film!) when The Caillech (the wonderful Catriona Joss) appears and asks Mr. Philips to assist her in her earth-shattering scheme.
The Caillech however only speaks Gaelic. So that'll be fun for me to edit :p
Once the film is edited I'll send it to my lovely and talented producers, Lindsay and Gavin for them to go through it and suggest changes and then it's off to Philip Martin who will start to work on the score with live musicians, Jack Ashley will start to look at the sound and what needs fixing with Gillian, and Mathew Crisp will start the hard work of special effects, making it a superhero movie with special effects.
All going well we can take the movie on tour of Scotland - Glasgow, Aberdeen, Stirling, Edinburgh, Inverness, Dundee, Greenock - for all the fans, movie buffs and sci-fi fans to come and watch it - before taking it to the film markets and trying to sell it so it can be released in cinemas and on DVD world wide.
While this is going on I'm writing my next feature which has a budget of around £50,000, so I may pay my cast and crew. Now, to find the budget...
I hope the filmmaking industry in Scotland gets better.
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