Creative Talent Connections - The Podcast Years!

* Note * - As I write this blog I am listening to Thomas Newman's score to "Skyfall", as I've not listened to it before and the writers of "Skyfall" were talking on the brilliant Empire Magazine's Podcast, so now I'm in a very James Bond style mood... apologies. End of Note.

Creative Talent Connections is officially off and running! Thanks to Scott Middleton, visual effects guru who worked on the "Bloodline" pilot for us, was kind enough to create our CTC logo which you can see above. 

So what is Creative Talent Connections? Well, not unlike The Avengers, when Nick Fury had an idea to bring together earth's mightiest heroes to form a team to stop bad ass aliens, world threatening destruction and other crazy stuff, Scott Forrest, Claire Maguire and myself decided that the Scottish TV and film industry, certainly at our level, where are not quite at a broadcast setting (we're working on changing that...), was becoming a bit muddled, too many people were holding their contacts, equipment, etc, to themselves, when really we should be helping each other out and encouraging each other to create more content in Scotland, using primarily a Scottish cast and crew. 

After our meeting at BBC Scotland Directs networking evening in February, the three of us decided to keep the networking going in order to find other like minded individuals so we can help each other out, whether it be just to talk about the industry or ideas for projects, to work on each other's projects, lend equipment and generally produce more content. The theory being that if we make enough noise, someone will hear us and hopefully a conversation between people at our level and those who have more experience, who have access to money, or to contacts, can start talking and mentor creative talent in Scotland.

There is a wealth of talent in this country for TV, radio, theatre and film, and if we start making more content either for broadcast on TV, or on the internet, radio, on the stage, and on the proposed Scottish digital channel, then there will be more opportunities for those who want to work in the creative industry. Or we'll need to look outside of Scotland in order to make a living in our chosen career, which isn't an ideal situation (okay, so it's really cold here 9 months out of 12, but we're tough! We can handle it!)

Primarily CTC is a group who will be developing ideas for new TV programmes, dramas, comedies, horror, fantasy, game shows, documentaries, you name it, so we can take them to production companies and get more content produced. We have several projects on going, with most of our attention on our supernatural drama series, "Bloodline", which, thanks to CTC, we got all of our crew, cast and resources and shot a 45 minute pilot for less than £2,000. 

Acting legends Tam Toye and Simon Weir with Claire, myself and Scott

Our first official CTC Networking night took place on the 25th of November at Blackfriars in Merchant City. Special guests Tam Toye and Simon Weir were our special guests and did an hour long talk about their experiences in the industry, explaining how they got started, how the industry worked and their advice to the fellow actors in the room. It was a brilliant night and we're now booking guests, hopefully established directors and producers, for our CTC night in January, where we will also be launching our CTC Film Festival, a short, one night festival where 6 teams can enter and make a film to be shown in March, judged by our special guests on that evening.

All of the details for our networking nights are available on Facebook at this page.

We hope some of you will come along to our nights and learn valuable lessons about working in the creative industry.

Kirsty Strain and Greg Hemphill are our special guests in our first ever podcast!

To compliment our networking events we've also launched our CTC Podcasts, where we will invite special guests - actors, writers, directors, producers, etc - to come in and talk to us openly and honestly about their experiences in the industry. Again, the hope is that everybody will learn something new and be able to advance in their careers in the industry.

We were very grateful that comedy legend Greg Hemphill, best known for writing and starring in Chewin' The Fat and Still Game, and Kirsty Strain who is best known for her work in River City and Burnistoun, as well as Scottish BAFTA best film, "Up There", agreed to be our first guests. 

Recorded at the Cue and Review Studios in Bishopbriggs (thanks Chris and the team!) we had a blast talking to the guys about their careers and their thoughts on the industry. Now we have the fun of cutting our 3 hour interview down to an hour, which is a nightmare as they were just so damn funny. 

The podcast will be available to listen to online, on iTunes and will be broadcast on East Dunbartonshire Radio in the near future. We're working on securing future guests for the podcasts so stay tuned. 

2012 is nearly over and our 48 hour film Glasgow entry, "Cameron Stone: A Legendary Actor" has been chosen to be shown at the Raptor Filmz Festival on the 2nd of December from 6pm at the Grosvenor Cinema in Ashton Lane from 6pm. It's a great way to get our work showcased and we're very grateful to be chosen.

And 2013 is shaping up already, with several short films in development for film festivals, Bloodline being prepared for pitching to production companies and our networking events and podcasts taking shape, it's going to be a busy year for CTC! 

"Bloodline" - Everything you need to know!

The Three - charged with protecting humanity against ancient mythological creatures!

In February, myself, Claire Mcguire and Scott Forrest met at the BBC Scotland Directs networking event. At the time, after making my feature film "Night is Day" and taking a small break, I had came up with an outline for a 3 part mini-web series featuring one thing I had always wanted to direct - sword fights! Of course this is Scotland, where there isn't an awful lot of money going around for genre TV and film projects, but after putting together several short films and a feature film for not a lot of money, a hell of a lot of good will from very talented people, I figured I'd give it a shot.

I turned to my friend Scott while waiting in the lobby at the BBC in Pacific Quay and said to him "I've got this idea for a fantasy web series but I'm not sure of the middle..." and Scott then turned around and gave me a solution. He's good like that. So we started writing notes and while networking at the BBC we met Claire, a researcher with some producing experience, and we decided to keep the networking nights going, and from there Bloodline was born. With the working title "Forbidden Sun" we decided to write a pilot episode, an outline for 6 episodes (we've went up to 8!) and pitch it to producers and networks in the hope that there was room for our supernatural TV action series along with Doctor Who, Being Human, Merlin and MisFits! 

Our ideas quickly grew and snowballed and before we knew it we had a cast, crew, money raised from brilliant supporters on Indiegogo and Sponsume, and we shot a pilot for the TV series! On the 8th of November we'll be showing the episode to the cast and crew and once the score is completed, we'll begin the process of trying to pitch it to the right people to get it on TV! 

So what's basic premise for "Bloodline"? Ever since the Glencoe Massacre there has been a trio of supernaturally enhanced warriors charged with protecting humankind from ancient mythological creatures, funded by mysterious benefactors. There can only ever be three, and when a member is killed, the next chosen warrior in the bloodline will be called upon to join the fight. In 2012 we meet Markus, Kate and Adam - the bad ass team protecting us from "beasties" (according to Adam!) - embroiled in a case of a rouge shapeshifter, Tam Lin, a mysterious university student called Emily, and Charles, an MMA wrestler mourning the loss of his wife Amy. 

Here are our teasers, trailers, pitch videos, behind the scenes and fight training footage from Hybrid Martial Arts - the team behind "Batman Begins" and "Mission: Impossible III".

Creative Talent Connections - A Film/TV/Radio Networking Event

The "Bloodline" Pilot Cast and Crew!

"Bloodline" producers Claire Mcguire and Scott Forrest, as well as myself, have been putting on a few networking nights at Blackfriars in Merchant City, Glasgow, for people who are wanting to start out in either the TV, film, radio or theatre industry or for those already involved, to meet new people, help each other out and hopefully progress with the help of others.

We've now re-launched the night under the title "Creative Talent Connections" and our next night will be Sunday 25th of November at 7.30pm, downstairs in Blackfriars, Merchant City, Glasgow. Entry is free and everybody is welcome.

All the details are below if you'd like to come along.

Creative Talent Connection is a networking event aimed at anyone involved in or looking to get involved in the Scottish film/television industry.
On the night you can expect lots of informal chatting, drinking and hopefully contact making.
So far we have held three successful events and we plan to continue doing so every other month from now on.
Our next event will feature special guest, actor Simon Weir with more guests TBC.


Date: Sunday 25th of November at 7.30pm
Venue: Blackriars, Merchant City

Please send me an email if you'd like to come along:
clairemcguire1@hotmail.co.uk

Hope to see you all there!

In addition to our bi-monthly nights, we are also putting together the Creative Talent Connection Podcast, interviewing industry professionals to get their insight and advice for those wanting to start out or just need a little help and guidance. Our first episode will be recorded on the 27th of November thanks to Cue and Review in Bishopbriggs. The free podcast will be available to download online from this blog, Facebook and Twitter.

Mexican, Mexican, Mexican - the 48 hour film project 2012!

Well it was that time of year again! The 48 Hour Film Project took place in Glasgow from the 5th to the 7th of October. I assembled the cast and crew from Bloodline, as well as Simon Weir, Mark Harvey and Nicola Wellburn who took part in my project from last year, "Late Nights"and we came up with the film above!

This year our genre was mockumentary, which I felt suited our style quite nicely. Mark and I wrote the script in a couple of hours and sent it out to the crew on the Friday and we arrived at Scott's, our 1st AD, flat at 9am on Saturday and filmed until around 6.30pm, while our editor Anne (who also stars in the film!) cut together the short. We then handed it in by 4.30pm on the Sunday, being the first team to hand in the movie.

It was yet another amazing experience, with the entire cast and crew getting on well, working together brilliantly and having a good laugh too. 

Flicker Magazine wrote a really good write up of the two screening nights held to showcase the films, and here is what they had to say about "Cameron Stone: A Legendary Actor" - 

"Overall, I really expected the two of us to have different tastes and see a really distinct differential in choices. Even our film education is different and we often differ on opinions of mainstream features, so to see such correlation between us really shows us that there were clear stand outs. Linda and I also agreed on what we thought was the best all-around short. We both chose a film that made us laugh a lot. Cleverly put together, keeping it simple and safe. From Group A it was 'Cameron Stone: A Legendary Actor'. So Linda I'll let you take the lead for our winner."

"'Cameron Stone: A Legendary Actor' by Silly Wee Films, had me laughing from start to finish. I think its use of genre was excellent, the narration was first class and the acting was very versatile.  It managed to build up the characters quickly and was consistently funny throughout. I loved the use of parody with characters like Michael Bane, Pear Stone and Captain Ramona Lewis with her contradictory line "It's our little secret" and then selling her story in a book deal.  All the characters fit in well with the theme of Hollywood mockery.  The dialogue seemed genuinely improvised and this blended well with the genre.  The Q&A at the end had me in stitches  it was a true 'Hollywood Insider' moment. It was disappointing at the awards. I expected a few awards to come by the way of this excellent short movie. It is well worth a watch and a share on Facebook or Twitter. "

"For me this was such a simple idea for a Mockumentary. Really well executed, the narration builds the characters very quickly and I think most of us can relate to thinking upon actors like Cameron Stone. This was edited well, the line and character were used effectively and a few good bits of acting. On the night of the showing we even got an excellent little improvisation with the gentleman who played Stone and the host, which was also very funny. This definitely gets the Flicker Magazine stamp of approval so congrats to the team at Silly Wee Films on putting a good effort together. A great shame it didn't take the overall award."

Thank you to Flicker for the great write up, it's much appreciated!

With the dust settled we are now moving on with wrapping up the pilot for our supernatural TV series, "Bloodline", which we hope to start pitching to producers, TV networks, etc, in the hope to get picked up for a full series. We also have two more short films in the works with Scott Forrest's "MacDuff", an action-packed spoof and Mark Harvey's "He Who Is Not There", a dark drama comedy. We hope to film them both in January/February and enter them into film festivals along with Cameron Stone.

This can be a rather tough and gruelling industry with very little pay off and recognition for your hard work, but with the right team of people around you, it's the most rewarding career you could have. 

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...