Scottish Screenwriters and the quest to get to America continues

Last night I went along to the Scottish Screenwriters Group as I was invited by John McShane, one of the organisers, to show our Night is Day sizzle reel and hold a Q & A after. I went along with one of our producers, Gavin Orr, and Kenny Boyle who plays PC Douglas in the film.


Everybody laughed at the right bits and seemed genuinely interested in the 10 minute piece, so we hope they enjoyed it. We had a lot of questions after about funding, equipment, who are target audience is (geeks really - people who like comics, superheroes and sci-fi - aged 15 and older!)


There was a lot of positivity from the group which is always encouraging. We shot the film for three months during the Summer last year, then locked away in a room editing it and reviewing, editing, reviewing, editing and reviewing before sending it off to the post-production team - so thankfully our 10 minute sizzle reel gives us an indication of what people think about the movie.


So far so good.


I suggest anybody with an interest in screenwriting should have a look at the group as they are very encouraging and after their first part of the night everybody splits into groups and you can workshop your scripts, which is very useful to a lot of people.


We met up with the organisers of Glasgow's Comic Con which is being held in June, so hopefully we'll get the chance to do another workshop there and discuss the film.


One thing I did pick up on last night is the general feeling towards our funding body, Creative Scotland, formally Scottish Screen. Nobody likes them and they feel like they are a waste of time. I mostly agree. In the last few years there have been so little Scottish films produced and released in the cinema - such as Hallam Foe (2007) a drama set in Edinburgh - flopped at the cinema. Red Road (2006), a drama/thriller set in Glasgow only made around $866,000 back of it's £1 million + budget.


Valhalla Rising (2009) a historical film set in Scotland had a budget of £4 million and didn't even get a cinema release over here and it flopped in America, despite having Casino Royale's Mads Mikkelsen in the lead role.


"Donkeys" (2010) a rough follow up to Red Road but more a dark comedy, came and went without
doing much business at any box office.


And then there's "Neds" (2011) a depressing drama set in the 70's - which had two weeks in the cinema 
then vanished.


I haven't seen any one of those films that I've mentioned - and I am not attempting to review or place any
blame on them, I just find it curious that the big money is going to the same genre of film, or worse,
the same people AGAIN and AGAIN, and we're getting flops.


A true independent film, "Fast Romance", had a very small budget of less than £100,000, no support from
Creative Scotland or Bafta Scotland (the filmmakers were snubbed and told there was no money for them)
and yet this romantic comedy has secured a cinema release in Cineworld Cinemas this Summer for two weeks
at all cineworlds throughout the UK.


Early reviews from the WORLD (France, Canada etc) are very positive and people are wanting to snap it up.


This year will also see the release of "The Decoy Bride" which stars David Tennant - Doctor Who himself.
It's a romantic comedy and I can promise you it's going to do very well.


Comic-book comedy film "Electric Man" shot in Edinburgh for around £35,000, is also getting some very good
vibes and previews and it isn't even finished yet!


So I'm glad that so far Creative Scotland have snubbed all of my emails, letters and phone calls asking them
for support with "Night is Day", as I have made a superhero film, with elements of humour, lots of fight scenes,
special effects, drama, death and some good ole fashioned violence, and I plan to sell it anyway I can.


From there I will have a track record of writing and directing a film that's been released and I can start plans
to find funding for a second feature and hopefully my career will step up a little.


The same goes for the Fast Romance guys and the Electric Man guys - we're doing it without the "big boys" and
we're doing just fine. Creating films that don't stick to one genre which so far as proven to fail in the box office.


Hopefully we're the first of many filmmakers who decide to go it alone and make the films WE want to see.


And just before I get off my soap box, here's what Creative Scotland claim to do according to their website:


"Creative Scotland is the new national leader for Scotland’s arts, screen and creative industries. It’s our job to help Scotland’s creativity shine at home and abroad.

We invest in talented people and exciting ideas. We develop the creative industries and champion everything that’s good about Scottish creativity.

Scotland boasts an incredible range of talent, from award-winning directors and writers to widely recognised actors and internationally renowned visual artists, architects and digital companies. As a result of the wealth of indigenous talent, Scotland produces a huge volume of home-grown productions and products each year.

We think Scotland’s arts, screen and creative industries are worth shouting about. We’ll lead the shouting."

Hmm, sure.

Edging towards the middle of post-production...

(The Caillech, portrayed by Catriona Joss - Night is Day, Feature Film)

The 5th edit of "Night is Day" has been approved by the two producers, Lindsay and Gavin, and as such has been sent off to Jack Ashley and Gillian Glencross to work on tidying up the sound, adding in sound effects and re-recording any dialogue which needs done to ensure we have the highest quality sound.

Meanwhile Mathew Crisp along with Tinko Dimov and Ewan Smith are in charge of the special effects which will be seen throughout the movie - including Jason's lightning powers, demons being blown up, factory's being supercharged with electricity, floating creatures etc. 

We shot the film on digital HD on a Sony EX3 - which is pretty high quality, but shooting on digital is obvious to the human eye so once the film has all the effects completed we will need to grade each scene, giving each scene it's own tone and making it look like a film. Examples of this can be seen in the trailer, and our ten minute sizzle reel.

The final piece of the jigsaw is Philip Martin - our film's composer - Philip scored series 2 of the web series on which the film is loosely based on - he will be working on the themes to the characters and the overall score, as well as introducing solo artists to record live instrument sessions to make the score more professional and cinematic. 

Our goal is to take the film to the American Film Market in November so we're frantically trying to raise £3000 so we can pay for flights, passes and accommodation. There we can meet with hundreds of distributors and show them the movie in hope they will want to buy it off us and put it in cinemas in America and maybe in the UK too.

And then? Hopefully what everybody wants - funding! Proper funding, real money to buy props, locations, kit AND pay the cast and crew a wage to work on my next project!

...which is one of two films, but we'll get to that later.