One Year Later - 10 days to go!

ONE YEAR LATER - TEN DAYS TO GO!

Since writing the initial plot idea for this little supernatural rom-com on the 7th of November 2012 (161 days ago according to my iPhone notes) we've found a fantastic cast (April, Mark, Rhys, Simon, Tam and Paul) and an amazing crew (deep breath.... Claire M, Julie, Scott, Drew, Sarah, Megan, Sharon, Claire D, John, Sean, Samantha, Anne, Dougie, Katy and Rachael), as well as stunning locations - The Tall Ship, The Sk:n Clinic, The Libertine and two more to be confirmed over the next day or so...

We've also been SO lucky and crowd-funded over £2000 so we can pay our cast and crew from all of the lovely people out there on Twitter, Facebook and beyond who so kindly donated what they could in return for perks from the movie. I am forever grateful. We literally could not make the film without you guys.

So here we go, the final countdown! 10 days left until we're at the Sk:n clinic filming a hospital scene with Simon Weir and Rhys Teare-Williams. I'm feeling nervous and excited. I've made shorts before, and a web series and even a feature film, but the excitement and terror never goes away. We'll be filming our little film about David, a normal geeky guy with the perfect girl, Katy, his perfect match, and he decides to pop the question with the perfect proposal. Thankfully he's got his older brother, wise-cracking, slightly mad, Steven, played with such brilliance by Mark Wood (see him shake his booty over here!) who has always been there for him, to lend his support. The only drawback is that Steven is dead, and he's either a ghost or just a figment of David's imagination. 

And we need YOU! We're filming a restaurant scene in Glasgow in the late afternoon/early evening of Sunday 28th of April and we require 2 guys and 2 girls, aged 18+, preferably with *some* experience in TV, film or theatre, to be in our scene to help bring it to life. Unfortunately it's an unpaid position but you'll be fed and watered, and you'll be invited to our wrap party and our cast and crew screening too, as well as a copy of the final film. So if you're interested email your headshot and CV to contact@sillyweefilms.com - thank you!

When it's wrapped we'll be editing the film, adding in the special effects, having the sound work added, the music composed and once we're happy it'll be sent off to film festivals around the world in the hope that it'll be shown and our hard work will be showcased for all to see. 

We will also be holding a screening in Glasgow not long after it, a private screening that we'll be inviting members of the public to come along to, to support our film and the film industry in Scotland too. More details on that as it follows.

Wish us luck!

Cameron Stone - a Movie Scramble Review

CAMERON STONE - A MOVIE SCRAMBLE REVIEW

In October 2012 I took part in the Glasgow 48 hour film project and we made a short mockumentary based on a big-headed actor (write what you know kids!), Cameron Stone. We had brilliant performances from our cast and it's a film that will (haunt) stay with me forever.

The lovely people at Movie Scramble were kind enough to review the film and you can read it here - http://www.moviescramble.co.uk/index.php/2013/04/12/cameron-stone-legendary-actor-2012/

One Year Later - Brotherly Bonding

ONE YEAR LATER - BROTHERLY BONDING

Mark Wood and Rhys Teare-Williams do a script readthrough 

On Saturday night we held a production meeting with some of the crew of the movie to discuss costume, hair, makeup, locations and equipment. It was great to sit down with everybody and sort out how we were going to approach the movie. This is the third project on which I've had the great honour of collaborating with them and without sounding like an "Oh yah darling", I love this team and I miss it when we're not working together. This is why I really want "One Year Later" to do well. We've raised just enough money to pay our cast and crew SOMETHING for giving up their time on the gig, and I always want to pay people. It's not that I've deliberately avoided paying people in the past, the simple matter of fact is that if I waited to get funding there would have been no other projects. Not only that but only now, years later, having worked on these projects, do I know how to go about it and thanks to crowd-funding filmmakers are in a more likely position to raise the funds to make their movies - but we're still a long way away from that, and I'm getting off point. The reason I want OYL to do well is that hopefully someone, somewhere, might see potential in the film and help us make more projects and I can bring in the same cast and crew. That's the goal anyway.

But yes, back to the readthrough...

On Sunday I went along into town to meet Rhys, who is playing David, the younger brother who is trying to propose to Katy, played by the great April Pearson, who has appeared in Skins, Casualty, Tormented and has been filming a lot of projects recently, and Mark, who plays the wise-cracking, yet supportive older brother Steven. Joined by Scott Forrest, our assistant director on the project.

We met at the Libertine in the Merchant City end of town, one of our filming locations, and we went through the script, how I'd like the actors to play certain scenes and lines, asking them for their opinions and suggestions. I filmed a few of them on my iPad and I'm really happy with how it's coming about.

The day ended with us going around George Square taking photos of the actors, as they are supposed to be super close brothers, I needed photos of them being brotherly, to put around our flat location, and for a scene at the end of the movie.

A great day for definite and tomorrow I'm off to look out for a restaurant location for our 2nd biggest scene in the short film. 

A MASSIVE thank you to my cast and my crew and my exceptional producer Claire Mcguire and assistant producer Sarah Mooney for working so tirelessly to get our locations.

And here are some more photos of the boys...

 

Creative Talent Connections - All the updates!

("Bloodline" pilot stars Tam Toye, Matt Robertson and Catriona Evans on set)

ALL THE UPDATES

Lots and lots going on with both Creative Talent Connections and my own corporate video work including editing weddings, shooting music videos and working on corporate promotional videos.

Our Creative Talent Connections Podcast, which, features interviews with TV and film industry professionals discussing their careers and offering advice to fellow freelancers, can now be downloaded from iTunes! You can find them by clicking here. Our guests so far have included Greg Hemphill (Still Game), Kirsty Strain (Burnistoun), Anne Nicholson (freelance editor), David West (actor) and Simon Weir (River City, Highroad).

(Taggart and River City actor Colin McCredie)

Scott Forrest and I have recorded a mini-podcast featuring news from the Glasgow Film Festival and interviews from writers Tom Macrae (Doctor Who, Threesome) and James Moran (Doctor Who, Cockneys Vs Zombies) discussing their careers. Our next podcast will be recorded on the 20th of April and we'll be speaking to producer/director Michael Hines (Still Game, River City) and Colin McCredie (Taggart and River City)

Our supernatural drama series "Bloodline", which, follows the adventures of Kate, Adam and Charles, the chosen Three who are charged with supernatural abilities to protect humankind against ancient Scottish mythological creatures who are being harvested by the mysterious Victoria Campbell, managed to crowd-fund enough money to pay for the 6 day shoot for our pilot episode. We've now completed the pilot episode and wrote out an 8-part series arc and pitching it to production companies, so fingers crossed!

AND as part of our Creative Talent Connections group we successfully crowd-funded over £2000 so we can shoot our new supernatural rom-com short film, "One Year Later", where David (Rhys Teare-Williams) is planning to pull off the perfect proposal to his perfect woman, Katy (April Pearson) with the help of his wise-cracking, self-confessed playboy older brother, Steven (Mark Wood), who just happens to be dead and is either a figment of David's imagination or is a real ghost. Simon Weir guest stars as Doctor Evans. We've locked down locations including Skin in Glasgow City Centre and the Tall Ship at the Riverside Museum. Our shoot takes place on the 27th and 28th of April and we'll be submitting it to major film festivals to promote our talented cast and crew and Scotland as a filming location. 

Mark Wood, Rhys Teare-Williams and Skins star April Pearson will star in "One Year Later" this year.

I cannot wait to get back on the set again of a short film and work with the brilliant team who joined me on Bloodline and Cameron Stone. It's another step closer to my dream of writing and producing my own TV show one day... 

I leave you with my most recent work, Cameron Stone, a mockumentary we shot in 48 hours for the Glasgow 48 hour film challenge 2012, which I hope to be taking part in again this year! The rules were it had to have the line "It is our little secret" with the prop of a map and the character Ray or Ramona Lewis who had to be a captain. Enjoy!

Creative Talent Connections - April 2013

APRIL 2013

Scott Forrest and Claire Mcguire interviewing our guests Gabriel Robertson, Rebecca Thompson, Paul Donnelly and Ashe Hussain

We had a brilliant networking event last night in Blackfriars. We had producers (Rebecca), writers and directors (Gabriel), actors (Paul) and an organiser from The Network (Ashe) who were all on hand to discuss their careers and offer advice to our attendees on how to get into the industry and how to network.

Before hand we showed several short films from our CTC team - My Father's Son by Claire Mcguire, Behind the Screens by Julie D Dunn and Late Nights by myself. 

Again lots of valuable tips and information were on hand by the professionals and we hope to build on these nights and hopefully everybody who attended benefited from the night and we hope that more people will join us at our next event in June.

Information will be posted here and on Creative Talent Connections facebook page.

Next up for CTC is our first short film, "One Year Later"with a stellar cast and a brilliant crew. We start filming on the 27th of April in Glasgow and we're in the process of locking down locations and costumes.

One Year Later - The Remaining Perks

(Mark and Rhys from the auditions, photo by Dougie Coull)

ONE YEAR LATER - THE REMAINING PERKS

With our crowd-funding campaign coming to an end yesterday, and our target reached, we still have some remaining perks left if anybody would like to donate money to "One Year Later" in return for them.

"But you've hit your target! Why do you need more money?"

Good question! The money we raised on Bloom was in order to pay our cast and crew for the two day shoot. Now we've hit that target we can make sure everybody involved gets paid for their work. However we still need to pay for production costs such as: props, costumes and catering. A fed crew is a happy crew. A hungry crew... will eat the director. It's happened once before. It's not pretty.

We would also like to take our film to as many festivals as possible this year, and possibly next. Not all of the film festivals we are aiming for are free to enter films into, so the more money we raise, the more festivals we can go to. The end result being more people get to see our film, including industry professionals, who may in fact offer us more work, or see that there is potential in the indie filmmaking industry and open a few more doors for those of us who are working in it. The very worst case scenario is that it just means more people will see our film, and that's not a bad thing in our books.

"Okay, so what's left then?"

Listed below are the perks that are available, how many are left, and how much each perk is, as they were on our Bloom crowd-funding campaign. You can of course donate more money for more perks.

Simply send your donation through PayPal to frasercoull@gmail.com - but PLEASE state what perk or perks you are claiming. Thank you.

The Website and End Credit Thank You - 90 Left - £1

For a £1 we'll credit you on the website and on the end credits of the movie.

The Movie Poster - 94 Left - £2

The poster from the short film, signed by me. 

Updates on the Film - 98 Left - £3

You'll be added to a mailing list and emailed with progress on the film.

The Postcards - 45 Left - £5

A set of postcards including the poster and set photos, signed by cast and crew.

The Soundtrack - 9 Left - £5

We'll have music from upcoming Scottish artists including Emerald Sunday, Del and music from our composer. We'll make up a CD of the songs and send them to you!

The Vanilla DVD - 28 Left - £10

A signed copy of the film on DVD

The Movie on Blu-Ray - 13 left - £15

As above, but on blu-ray! 

The Premiere of the Movie - 6 Left - £15

We'll be holding a cast and crew screening of the movie in Glasgow once the film is complete and you can come along and see the film before anybody else and meet our cast and crew. We'll all be dressed up and you can be too! There might even be a red carpet. We cannot pay for travel or accommodation for this perk.

The Special Features DVD - 36 Left - £20

Throughout filming we'll interview cast and crew, shoot a behind the scenes look and add a production gallery slide-show to the DVD including the movie.

Production Scrap Book - 15 Left - £20

Our stills photographer Dougie Coull will be on hand documenting our shoot and we'll put the best photos into a scrapbook for you to keep. We'll even sign it for you.

The Set Visit - 8 Left - £30

We're filming in Glasgow on the 27th and 28th of April and you can come along one day to see how the film is made, meet the cast and crew and watch the magic of cinema happen. We cannot pay for travel or accommodation for this perk.

The Signed Script - 4 Left - £30

Cast and crew will sign their scripts and you can have them as a momento of the project!

Be in The Movie - 6 Left - £50

There are two scenes in the movie on the 28th of April where we will need people in the background and it could be YOU! The shoot is in Glasgow and we cannot pay travel or accommodation.

The Hollywood Make Over - 9 Left - £50

Our professional TV and film makeup artists will arrange a day with you to provide you with a Hollywood makeover, including 1 free photo.

The Executive Producer Perk - 8 Left - £200

You are entitled to every single perk and you will be credited as one of our Executive Producers on our film.

Thank you for your continued support.

One Year Later - Funded!

ONE YEAR LATER - FUNDED!

Thank you to everybody who backed our project! We reached 103% of our target, ensuring we can pay our cast and crew for their involvement, as well as securing locations, props and costumes.

Filmmaking isn't a cheap profession and we are using our experience and skills to shoot our short film over 2 days in April. Once it's completed we will edit the film and take it to as many film festivals as possible, hopefully gaining exposure for our cast and our crew, with the intention of opening more doors and opportunities for us all to further our careers. 

It also proves that, if done right, crowdfunding can help you make your project. While the £2060 we raised might not seem like much for a film, it is a lot to us, and means we can pay our team SOMETHING for their time over the weekend.

This is the first time I've been in a position where I can do this properly and I hope it's not the last.

I am very excited about making the short, it's my most personal script so far and I hope I can do it justice. We've got such a brilliant cast and superb crew and I know we will do our best to make it special.

You can follow the film's progress on Twitter by following us at https://twitter.com/OneYearLater1

News of our appearances at film festivals will be made here and on Twitter.

Now we move on to locking down our last few locations after confirming The Libertine, The Tall Ship and Skin in Glasgow for our first meeting scene, the proposal and the hospital waiting room. Props are also being secured for the short and costumes are next! 

We will be filming a behind the scenes look at how we make the film and it will be available on a special features DVD to all of our backers who purchased it.

Wish us luck!