Merry Christmas and Happy New Year 2013!

Merry Christmas and Happy New Year 2013!

It's been an incredible year, working on music videos, our pilot for our supernatural TV series, Bloodline, two short films, the 48 hour film challenge, our new podcast to help people get into the TV and film industry AND our networking nights. 

Thank you to all of our supporters. 2013 will see more shorts, our own film festival, our podcast and networking events will continue and we will be pitching Bloodline for television.

And all going well my web series which I started back in 2006, "Night is Day", will have it's very last episode finished and online for all to see! 13 episodes, 2 seasons, lots of demon fighting! Exciting times!

Year in Review: Cameron Stone - A Legendary Actor

(a completely made up film, Mexican, Mexican, Mexican, for the purposes of our short!)

In October this year I took part in the 48 hour film project in Glasgow for the 2nd time running. After working on "Late Nights" with Mr. Mark Harvey, my long-term collaborator (7 years and counting!) we teamed up again to work on the new film project.

The rules? On Friday night you pick your genre, this year it was a case of picking a music single case, opening it up and finding out what genre was yours. Our genre was mockumentary. The character that had to be included was Captain Ray or Ramona Lewis, and the line of dialogue was "It's our little secret". 

Straight away we knew we'd be giving the line to the brilliant Nicola Wellburn who played our character Norma Mackenzie in our first 48 hour film. We also made her Captain Ramona Lewis straight away too. 

The prop that had to be used was a map.

We then had until Sunday at 7pm to hand in our film. Scott Forrest, Mark and myself headed home. Our first idea was a mockumentary about a failed actor. However Mark wasn't keen so instead we decided to make him a legendary actor, and a bit of a fool too.

Mark and I got to the flat and started writing. Half way through Simon Weir (River City, Take the Highroad, Spanking in Paradise) called me to say he had a brilliant idea and wanted to play a Michael Cane rip off. So we added that in. 

With the script finished an hour later we tried to get some sleep. We got up nice and early and headed off to Scott's flat, which was our base for the day. Everybody arrived at 9.30am as we asked them. Hair and makeup by Sharon Clark and Claire Louise Dell started about 30 minutes later and our camera person Julie Dunn was on her way to setting up the shots and the lights. 

Our mockumentary had very few locations, which is ideal when you only have 48 hours. We filmed the football movie scenes "Handball: A True Story" at the football pitch where Third Lanark football club play, and thanks to their coach, and our actor Simon Weir, the entire team agreed to appear in the film. 

We filmed Cameron's "Christian Bale"-style breakdown at the park near the base, and it took around 30 minutes to film. We did it again and again, throwing in more stuff, adlibbing it to see what worked. Mark just got more energetic and angrier and angrier. Matt Robertson and Jamie Forrest who played his fellow cast were amazing at going along with it. Thankfully, the police were not called. 

Filming wrapped, with over 2 hours of footage shot, with an hour of that being totally improvised, as after we started filming each interview I had the fear of not having enough footage. Again, kudos to Jamie for coming up with some brilliant questions with our cast staying totally in character to make it happen. 

Our brilliant editor Anne (who works for STV) worked with us to edit the film down and together we brutally cut things out until we got it down to 7 minutes. Calum, our sound designer on the film, appeared later and worked all through the night until the film was finished.

We got it on to DVD, tested it, and then we headed off to the drop off point. We arrived at 4pm and we were the first to hand our film in. An amazing achievement. 

Sadly we won absolutely heehaw on the night of the awards. To be honest it was a little bit heart breaking, but at the end of the day we got to work with some amazing people and we had a great time doing it, plus we are all so proud of our film. My partner Sara told me that they should be worried if we were ever given a drama to do, as she suspects we'd knock it out of the park. 

Critics from Flicker magazine were on hand to review the films and they were very kind about Cameron Stone:

"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 stiches; 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. 

Alan what were your thoughts on Cameron Stone?

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."

The full article is available to read at http://www.flickermagazine.co.uk/events/48hourfilmglasgow2012.html

In all likely hood I'll take part in the 48 hour film project again. With "Bloodline" being our main priority this year, as well as putting out our advice podcasts, running our networking nights and producing several short films, there is plenty to keep me busy in 2013. 

And hopefully I'll be one step closer to running my own TV show...

Creative Talent Connections Podcast - Episode 1: Kirsty Strain and Greg Hemphill

Here is first episode of our Creative Talent Connections Podcast, featuring Chewin' the Fat and Still Game co-writer and star Greg Hemphill along with Burnistoun and River City actress Kirsty Strain. Our two guests talk about how their career started, offering advice to new actors and writers, as well as anecdotes from the TV and film industry.

The goal of our CTC Podcasts is to invite special guests who are established in the industry to offer their stories and advice to people just starting out, in the hope that we encourage more creative programmes and content in Scotland and the UK.

To co-incide with our podcasts we are continuing our bi-monthly CTC Networking events downstairs in Blackfriars, Merchant City, in Glasgow, where much like the podcasts, we are lining up special guests to talk and answer questions that people might have. We're also launching the CTC Film Challenge in January, inviting teams to sign up and work together to make films to be screened in March and judged by our special guests that month.

Tuesday 22nd of January at 7.30pm is our next networking event and our next podcast will be recorded on the 24th of January for a February release. 

All information will be at https://www.facebook.com/groups/455217211171140/

Please spread the word and come along to our networking nights and help Scotland be creative!

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.