The Intro Blog

 

(cast and crew of the pilot episode of Bloodline)

With more people following me on Twitter these days I figured it would be best to have a quick intro blog about myself.

I'm Fraser, and at the time of writing this I am 28 (and next year I'll be 29, surprisingly enough!). My goal in life is to become a TV producer (or a showrunner as they are known by in America and beyond!) just like Russell T Davis, Steven Moffat and Joss Whedon. I am shockingly geeky and my inspirations come from Doctor Who, Angel, MisFits, Being Human, Chuck etc. 

My career started later than most I suppose, when I was 21 having found myself on the E-Force training programme at the BBC in Glasgow, where I came up with the idea for a Scottish superhero, as to my knowledge we hadn't had our own superhero on the small or big screen. After the training programme I went to James Watt College to study HND Television Operations and Productions for two years. Upon leaving I started up my own corporate company Silly Wee Films. I've been running that ever since - producing music videos, corporate promos, actors showreels etc, all to keep myself financially afloat to work on my creative projects.

The Scottish superhero idea turned into "Night is Day"originally as a short film, and then 13 episodes, split over 2 seasons. 12 episodes are available to watch at the link above and the final episode, which was a mammoth project with more visual effects than any sensible person would put into a show that had an actual budget (we didn't!) will eventually be completed as we are genuinely just waiting on the final sound mix.

In between the web series I wrote and directed several short films included "Bottle", "I Heart You", "Hush", "Two and a Half Minutes" and "No Distractions". You can see them all at this page here.

I entered into the 48 hour film project last year with Mark Harvey and Simon Weir, as well as other talented actors and a great production team. You can see our effort below:

I've also directed a feature film, "Night is Day" based on the web series, with some returning cast and a whole new crew and brilliant producers. The film stars Scottish legends Simon Weir, Colin McCredie, Elaine C Smith and Tiger Tim Stevens MBE in cameo roles. We premiered at the Glasgow Film Festival in February 2012 and the film is close to being picked up for distribution by an American production company so hopefully the film will be released world wide within the year.

Having wrote the pilot episode for a new supernatural TV series, "Bloodline", I'm now working on finishing the pilot so I can pitch it to TV executives with the producers, Claire Mcguire and Scott Forrest, so we can make a full series.

I have several other projects in the pipe-line. I'll keep going, learning, improving and hopefully one day I'll be a TV show runner/producer.

Thanks for reading my blog.

Time for a change...

(Emily, Jamie and Mhairi on the Bloodline Pilot set)

Time for a brief, yet important update.

Since teaming up with Scott Forrest, of Forrestfire Productions, I've been involved in a lot more projects, and it looks to be continuing. We worked with Claire Mcguire on her short film "Chaos and Curlers" as well as the pilot episode of "Bloodline" and we've successfully put on several TV/film/theatre networking nights in Glasgow.

In December time we should be working together on another short for Mark Harvey which is all very exciting and I'm looking forward to getting stuck in. We're also finishing the Bloodline pilot in order to pitch it to TV execs. in the hope we'll get a full series commission (after all, we've wrote out the plan for 7 more episodes, and if I do say so myself, they are freakin' awesome and a little bit geeky too!).

We're also branching out into two more areas - Scott and I have been keen to join the podcast race and so we are developing that project at the moment. The idea behind is that we'll review TV shows, new film releases and DVD releases while interviewing industry professionals in film and TV to give their advice to budding directors, producers, actors, and other crew, hopefully in a fun, light hearted informative way. I'll post updates as we go but progress is being made. 

Our film/tv/theatre networking events will also be going under a slight transformation with the hope of showing some short films and bringing in special guests to do a talk, again, hopefully to give advice to those who want it and inspire people to keep going.

It's so crucial to gain experience in the industry, meet people, talk to them, help them, work with them, work as a community, rather than a rival. We're all in it together, trying to make a living and advance in our careers so let's help one another.

And with that in mind, I'm off to get excited about tomorrow night's episode of Doctor Who...

Keep on Going

(Me on set begging Jamie not to shoot anybody...)

So... this is a tough industry. A really tough industry. Just like most of them really. For about 6 years now I've been trying to learn from what I do, get better, improve my skills and find out what works for me and what doesn't. I've never had any proper funding to do so, therefore I rely on the kindess of other filmmakers, crew, actors, etc, to give up their time and skills to support me. For this I am always thankful and do my best to get projects finished on time, get them up on the internet for showcasing purposes, and where appropriate, try to sell the projects - the web series I created, sadly it never happened, the feature film we did is now close to distribution, which is fantastic, and my current project, Bloodline, is having a pilot episode edited so we can pitch a full 6-8 part series to TV executives (i.e. BBC, STV, Channel 4 and indie networks) in the hope we can get picked up and contribute to the creative output Scotland has to offer. Failing that, I'll move to Canada or the States, at least there I might get a tan.

I don't think my approach and tactics are too different from anyone else at this level trying to get their work out there, their name out there, to have what talents they have recognised. Hopefully somewhere along the way people start to benefit from working on these projects. A casting director might like the look of an actor, or the camera skills might get the DOP a job on another shoot, etc. 

Working on these projects allow you to meet other filmmakers, actors, crew, network, learn from other people and hopefully improve your skills, trade, etc. At least, this is the hope. 6 years on and I'm not rich and famous, I'm not even well off. I'm barely comfortable. But that's not important. I am working in the industry I want to work with. I am self-employed and my bills are paid by working on corporate videos, music videos, and even converting videos to DVD. Anything I can do to survive, and allow me to continue working on my creative projects so that one day, if I work hard enough, I'll sell a series and be able to step up another rung on the ladder, closer to being established in the industry of TV and film.

What's the point of this post I hear you ask (if you're still here)? Well, basically it's to remind you that if you are wanting to get into TV and/or film, or you're already in it but having a tough time, it's just to encourage you, to let you know that you're not alone and it's part of the business. Some people will like you and what you do, support you as much as you can, and you have to appreciate these people, make sure they know they are thanked, thank them as much as you can. If you find more opportunities for them, let them know. However, and I cannot stress this enough, you will not be able to please everybody and you'll pick up a few not-so-positive people along the way. It'll get you down, make you want to quit and stay in bed under the covers and hide. That's okay too.

Just remember you got into this industry for a reason in the first place and the best thing you can do is keep your head high, learn from your mistakes, bite your tongue, be a pleasant pest, and work your ass off and cross your fingers your hard work will pay off.

And on that note, here are some videos that I've done recently...