*Reader's Discretion - this is a looooooong ass post*
Okay, so I've not done a post in a while... whoops! Life, as always, got in the way. I ended a long-term relationship, moved out of my house, and "stepped down" from the whole movie-making business after my first feature film, "Night is Day" premièred at the Glasgow Film Festival in February to a sold out audience, after spending two years of my life making it.
During the process of making the film I learned a lot - who to work with, how to work with different people, get the best out of them, being creative with no money (in our case our budget was £4,500, which is considered no budget as around £50,000 is labelled "Low Budget") and trying to promote and sell a film. I even went to the American Film Market in LA to meet with distributors and that was a massive eye opener.
(the poster for the film version of Night is Day)
Without access to a Mac (that's a long story) I was unable to make necessary changes to the film, thankfully that's resolved and over the next couple of months I'll be sending copies of the re-edited movie to distributors world wide again, to try and get the film sold - whether it be online, DVD, cinema, TV etc, as well as taking the film on a tour of independent cinemas in Scotland.
"Night is Day", which started as a web series in 2006, centred on Jason Mackenzie (played relentlessly by the talented Chris Summers) a vigilante superhero who was gifted with the power of lightning and foresight by a peace keeping demon, and saw him learn to use his powers to fight the evil Mr. Philips (the legend that is Tam Toye) and a series of demons and monsters. This culminated in the movie in 2010, with mostly a new cast of wonderful actors and a stand-alone story, Serenity style, to wrap up Jason's story once and for all.
(Jason taking care of some gangsters using his powers, in episode 6)
I realise as I write this post, I am not keeping to a linear structure, and what was supposed to be a "Hey guys! I'm making this really cool TV show about a group of people fighting ancient Scottish mythological creatures!" is turning into a retrospective of my six year career, and why I want to run my own TV show one day. I'll understand if you want to bail out at this point, but maybe there's a budding filmmaker, writer, director, geek, or just a really bored person who is remotely interested in my path so far and what I have to say. I'm not going to rant or bitch, even though with the amount of internet "abuse" I've suffered over the years, I could fill an entire blog, I'm instead going to focus on my positive.
Where was I? Oh yes... the difficult second album, erm, movie. After Night is Day was finished, or finished enough, I wanted to move on and make a film called "Get Funded", which is a comedy about three young filmmakers who go through hell to make their first film, even robbing people and getting mixed up with gangsters and exploiting family and friends, just to get their script to the screen. I wanted big stars - David Tennant, Karen Gillan, even the legend that is Michael Caine. Sadly after months of trying the film just wasn't getting anywhere, the script was lacking something, and I decided to put it on the shelf for the time being. Went through my break up and sneaked away from the business of film.
(Episode 1 of Night is Day: The Web Series, shot in 2006)
I then went and crashed on a friend's sofa while recovering and re-booting my life, in a non-Batman Begins, sort of way, and there I happened to dig out my old Night is Day DVD and we started watching series 1. While no means perfect (want proof? click the link above and watch 11 minutes of Scottish superhero action) I really enjoyed watching it again. There were a hundred things I wanted to go back and fix, things I would do differently, but a spark kicked off in my head. The plot bunnies were alive.
A few weeks passed and I started re-watching old Doctor Who episodes (the purists will say that "old" Doctor Who started in 1963, and yes, that's true, but there is a whole generation of people who consider Christopher Eccleston to be the first Doctor, when technically he's the 9th! But still...) and I remembered why I went to college in the first place. Back in 2004 (eek, that was 8 years ago, I'm fast approaching 30... that's a bit scary) I went to study HND Television Operations and Productions, where, with the clue in the title, you learn about how the operations work in Television Productions. Script, crew, cast, the lot. They even let you make your own short films... where I just went rogue, grabbed a camera and made up shorts on the spot, as that's how I roll.
That's where the idea for Night is Day kicked off! I wanted to make a series! A superhero in Scotland. It hadn't been done in TV form before (Before you say "Wrong boyo! What about Supergran?!", well, technically that was an English TV show... shot in England, etc - http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Super_Gran) and with my obsession with Marvel's Spider-Man, the cool, sarcastic, quick witted superhero, I wanted my own superhero in Scotland. 6 years later and it's had 13 episodes online (technically the last episode is in limbo as our sound designer has went MIA, but bare with me, we're fixing that too!) and a feature film.
(I appreciate this is a long post, so here is some David Tennant love for you)
Back when I was in high school, having watched a lot of Old School (circa 1980's) Doctor Who, The 5th Doctor, total legend, as well as Blake's 7, Sapphire and Steel, and a bucket load of Anime/Manga (mostly Guyver and Giant Robo) I started writing a series called "Space Defence", (all right, so I'm not great at titles, okay??) which was set thousands of years in the future, and in Space, and focused on the Defenders of The Realm (a short while later I'd find out that was the name of a Mortal Kombat cartoon series - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1uZwA4Qu4bI) who were three men (or aliens I suppose) who each had special powers - lightning, agility, mind control, mind reading, could create force fields etc - and protected the entire universe.
With this in mind, my love of Doctor Who, and my total falling out of love for filmmaking (only for now, I'm still totally in love with Cinema, thank you Joss Whedon) I started writing out an idea for a three part web series, nothing use, 5 minutes each episode, about a group of people protecting the city. No magic powers, no superheroes, just three people, fighting crime. And it needed a sword fight. I've always, ALWAYS wanted a sword fight! So I got to work and wrote a LOT of notes.
(again, this post is quite long, so here, it's Amy Acker, as Fred, being a super cute vampire)
The story started out quite ambitious (it's the only way I know how to do things), I had some rough ideas of what I wanted to do, the story arc, what plot seeds to plant for later on, you know, try to be clever with it, like Joss Whedon did with Faith, or what Moffat and Gatiss did with Moriarty in Sherlock... except I'm not that clever yet... I'm getting there though.
My good friend Scott, who runs his new production company, Forrest Fire Productions, moved up to Glasgow a year ago and we've been sort of collaborating on projects. I went to Scott with my idea as there were a few things I couldn't figure out, and within moments he knew the solution. It was brilliant. Then the madness of turning my three part, 5 minute web series, grew huge, giant, long legs and the pilot for Bloodline was born.
(Scott, probably coming up with a genius idea for series 5 of Bloodline)
I will dedicate another blog post to Bloodline now, as this post has turned into a definite retrospective and for that I apologise. Kudos if you are still here, I really appreciate it.
Basically, the point of this post was to say that my heart belongs to TV. I loved making Night is Day into a film, really, it was so exciting to be able to make it and experience it. And maybe when I'm a bit more established, and funding is slightly easier to get for a film, I'll make another one. Goodness knows I've got a LOT of ideas, but for now I want to go back to television. I remember saying to someone in college years ago that I can do a lot more with 13 x 45 minute episodes, than a one off two hour film, and I intend to get back to that.
(some of the Bloodline pilot cast and crew)
Like Joss Whedon, Russell T Davis, Steven Moffat, three of my favourite show runners (or Executive Producers), I want to run a show, tell an exciting, dramatic, adventurous, mysterious show with interesting, fleshed out characters, strong people, in extraordinary situations, give an audience 45 minutes of excitement every week, something for them to talk about with their fellow geeks, fans, etc.
6 years later, a turn at the BBC learning the trade, 2 years at college and running my own company with 6 short films, two seasons of a web series, and a feature, I'm back to my first love. Writing and directing TV. Although soon I'd rather just exec produce and write, than direct. But it's my pilot, I need to helm it. Thankfully we've got an amazing cast, a brilliant crew and one hell of a fight team.
Here we go again....
P.S - since you've been lovely, I will reward you with this, as secretly, one day, I want to be in charge of Doctor Who. Not that I think I can do any better than the current runner, the guy is a goddamn genius, but I'd like to carry on the legacy and make brilliant television about the mad man and his blue magical box...
