Night is Day - First Official VFX Shot

"Night is Day" is coming together nicely with the ADR almost finished, the special effects are coming in and the music is on the way. Scottish bands "A Band Called Quinn" and "Echofela" are joining the film's soundtrack with more artistes to be announced between now and October.

Please support the film by telling your friends and visiting the website.

Elaine C Smith stars as Katherine Munro, Inspector Rebecca Munro's mother, in Night is Day the movie.

Another blog entry but with something different...

Everybody and their mum's dogs have blogs these days, and it takes something special to stand out from the rest and I probably won't achieve such blog greatness, but blogging is a great method to release stress, tension, or just to get things off your mind.

Alas, I digress.

My blog is for my filmmaking journey, hopefully highlighting the road from my sleepy hometown of Langbank in Scotland to the twinkling lights of Hollywood within the next 5 to 10 years when I'm sitting late and night in my production office writing the script for "Night is Day 3 - This Time Jason Might Not Save The Day"...

However, I spend a lot of this blog complaining about the state of Scottish filmmaking (I'll save you the hassle of finding it, but basically I complain that there's too many films focussed on one or two genres, mostly depressing drama or zombies). So after seeing "Fast Romance" (click above, watch the trailer, be impressed) last night at it's Cineworld premiere (and Twitterer http://twitter.com/#!/Cnuneen telling me to do so) I decided to write a small review of this film.

So "Fast Romance", here we go. Starring Jo Freer, William Ruane and Lesley Hart. Directed by Carter Ferguson and written by Debbie May and James McCreadie. 93 minutes with the certificate TBC - I'd go with a 12A.

First things first, this is a low budget movie, shot on a microbudget (yet more of a budget than Night is Day) but that doesn't matter. This isn't a film concerned about over-the-top robot fighting destruction, or green aliens with decoder rings that can take on anything you think of (i.e. a toy car ramp or a machine gun), this is a film about love in Glasgow and how a group of friends try to find romance.

Big budget is not required to tell this story. So, that's out of the way.

Gordon (or "Gordo" to his friends), played by William Ruane, is a gamer who likes to play online with his friends and his brothers (nice little scene here to introduce his game-loving obsession btw) and works at the post office. Despite being constantly late, his boss, Kenny Cairns (a touching performance from Derek Munn) looks out for him and protects him from the main boss, Mr Braithwaite (played by Dave Anderson of "City Lights" fame).

Gordo is in love with Nadine (an energetic Jo Freer) who works at her family's Italian restaurant in the city and is looking for love, both for herself and to silence her overbearing mother who reminds Nadine on a daily basis that her sisters have found love no problem and that people are starting to talk about her.

Meanwhile Lorna (a flawless Lesley Hart) is having doubts about her upcoming marriage to her fiance, Terrence, and "copy girl" Fiona (Lynne McKelvey) is struggling to get the words out in our place of work thanks to man-eater Susan (Sarah McCardie) who is definitely the office bitch, and she plays it brilliantly.

While delivering the post, and avoiding spooky neighbour Mrs. Livingston (a nice cameo from Barbara Rafferty), Gordo finds a pen from Nadine with the words "Fast Romance" on it and discovers it's a speed dating club. Figuring Nadine will be there, Gordo sets out to go and find the courage to ask out Nadine once and for all.

Nadine convinces her friends Lorna and Fiona to keep her company on the speed-dating disaster.

I won't go into any more of the story from there as it'll spoil it, but everything changes from the speed-dating night. There are some great cameos in there and characters you won't forget. Our heroes lives are thrown upside down and events twist and turn before reaching a satisfying conclusion.

Additional props go to Simon Weir who plays Nadine's disastrous date at the start of the film, and James McCredie as Carlo, Nadine's confidante.

"Fast Romance" moves along nicely for it's 93 minute duration. It's got nice music from bands such as A Band Called Quinn and an original score by Nigel Dunn and Stephen Wright, which suits the movie's tone perfectly.

It's fun to spot places you actually know from living or have visited Glasgow but it doesn't detract from the film itself.

Yes there are a few problems with the movie, some of the sound is out of sync here and there, it's a bit too dark in places and some might say the story is wrapped up too quickly, but it's still a really good, enjoyable movie.

It's funny, it's heartwarming, sometimes genuinely sad and most importantly it's Scottish. Thankfully there are no neds in the film, for which I'd like to thank the filmmakers for, as Scotland isn't all about neds, zombies and ancient Scottish warriors fighting for freedom.

Hopefully this film will pave the way for a new generation of comedies, romances and maybe an action film too.

9/10.

Night is Day Series 2

Here's the first episode of series 2 - shot in 2009, we've made 7 episodes, 25 minutes each. We'll be releasing an episode every month.

Enjoy!

Night is Day and The Sizzle Reel

"Night is Day - The Movie" is steam rolling ahead with post-production in full swing. We've got ADR to do, special effects and music. It's all very exciting and we hope the movie is ready for September where we've been invited to participate in two film festivals in Glasgow.

Our main goal is still to the take the film to the American Film Market in November and we recently held a fundraiser at The Ark Bar on the 29th of March where Reggae band "Man at the Window" and "Echofela" performed along with comedian Stevie Pollack. We raised a lot of money and we're getting closer to taking the movie to the States to meet Sales Agents and distributors.

We also showed the 10 minute sizzle reel we've made to help promote the film, with 5 scenes from the film for you to see. We're keeping it online until Monday so check it out and let me know what you think.

Thanks to Fizzylight design we've got a brand new poster -



This is our main promotional poster at this time so we hope it creates a lot of interest.

Finally, David Fergusson is working on a web comic called "Lexi" which delves into the backstory of our vampire Lexi, who features both in the web series and in the movie. Here's a peek at the front cover:



And finally, finally please do donate whatever you can to the movie at http://www.nightisday.net/donate.php - you'll be credited on the website and on our film's end titles. All donations are appreciated!

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.

Night is Day and the Glasgow Film Festival

Tomorrow I'm showing a preview of Night is Day (the movie...) at Comic Camp, which is part of the Glasgow Film Festival. It's being held at the CCA from 11am until 1.30pm where some of the biggest names of the comic book industry will be in attendance.

I'm really happy with the preview, as the post-production team have put together amazing special effects, sound design, music and grading and colouring the shots - so I hope everybody likes what they see and want to see more!

After the preview I'll be giving a Q and A with my producer Gavin, so I'm feeling good about that, but still pretty nervous.

Fingers crossed, yeah?