What's New Pussycat

I'm feeling quite hopeful about the short. The edit is going well and I reckon it's just about there apart from one scene which is still a bit bitty. Have been with the sound designer today who has been putting bits of sound on, the natural sounds and also a bit of atmos, which still needs some thought. I'm aiming for an inner sound for the boy and having difficulty articulating myself (what's new). But I'm sure we can find it, we just need to play about and try things out. When I say we, I mean the clever cloggle sound designer. I just say "yes," "no," "can we try this?" or "can I use your loo."

It's 24 minutes which is very long for a fifteen minute short... but I can't really see where we could trim, except maybe a minute from the end scene. But then it might feel like it's ended abruptly? We show it to the execs on Friday, and so I expect we'll have lots of feedback, and maybe get suggestions on where to cut. Then we'll go and do more work and then have a test screen next week on a big cinema screen, so we can see if there is anything nasty lurking in the background of shots etc, and also listen to the sound. Quite nervous about that and have to be prepared to take criticism (hopefully I will be graceful and not super defensive). I think we are going to invite a couple of people who haven't read the script, so they can tell us if they understand it etc. yikers.

Will be pleased when it's all done, so I can take some time out to do some writing. Feels like ages since I wrote anything and I'm really missing it. Am fantasising about three months away in a remote place with no internet access and no mobile signal. Need to get cracking on two feature scripts. And if I can find the right tone, I would like to have a go at a novel.

Changing the subject, I read through the whole of Janice Okoh's blog from start to finish the other day and really enjoyed it. She had a play on Radio 4 today, which I didn't get chance to listen to, but I want to catch it on listen again.

Going to bed now. I love sleeping, me.

NPA post production process 9 point panel

Hiya,

I went to this post production chair thing run by the npa the other day. It was mostly about editing and music and the role of the post production supervisor.

chair: paul hills
panel: joe hastings, composer
andrew hulme, editor
richard lloyd, post production supervisor.

Here are some notes I made. Mostly I wrote down what Andrew said, cos the room wasn't good to hear the others and he was closest.

Good to get an editor on board as soon as poss. Pref even before pre-production so can talk about shots needed etc.

AH was asked on what made him take a job on. He said he first decides if he likes it or not. If it's got potential then he'll have a meeting. If it hasn't then he won't. What he's looking for when he is given a script is a really good story. It's got to be something he'd want to go and see himself. He's also looking at dialogue. If the dialogue is crap it's going to be really hard to cut. If your actors are up against bad dialogue then it's going to be a difficult job.

He also said he wanted to hear that directors have a vision. Andrew cut Anton Corbin's Control, and from knowing his photography he knew it was going to be an exciting job.

when you start getting rushes you can get inspired and start cutting and then show the director, which can inform the rest of the shoot.

An assemble is every scene shot which is an overall impression of the film.

An editor starts getting the rushes at the end of the first shooting day, so he can see really early on if an actor isn't working or if they are not getting enough coverage etc.

An editor is there to act as a sounding board and to have an objective look on the film.

If a director is telling an editor where to cut then they might as well hire an assistant and tell them what to do.

RL Preparation is key. cheapest is almost always the wrong decision and the film ends up paying for it.

JH A composer needs to be involved really early on so he can be getting rough cuts together, preferably to be used in conjunction with the edit.

AH directors should learn as much about editing as possible. there is usually one shot in each scene that is really crucial. this is what you are aiming for. everything else is irrelevant if you haven't got it.

Don't get your film editor involved in your trailer. It's a different discipline.

AH. make sure your script is working before you shoot. sometimes a scene doesn't quite know its purpose. sometimes it doesn't have a purpose. if it doesn't you should scrap it. work out what your scene is about and then you should know what you need to cover.

Casting is essential. But even the best actor can't deliver bad dialogue very well.

If you cut some dialogue leaving the audience to work some things out for themselves it can be an enjoyable struggle for the audience to catch up.

Even if you know you aren't going to need a shot of each actor in a scene it is important for the ego's of the actors to get them.

traits compulsory for an editor:

patience
degree of technical understanding
must understand story
read a lot and watch a lot of films
therapist
diplomacy
opinionated.

you bring your own background into an edit.

JH. You can't save a bad film with music.

Assemble

We are really behind with this dv short. Tomorrow the others are going to have their cast and crew screening while we have only just got our first assemble.

The first editor stepped off before starting because he wanted to cut in Avid, but because we used the Red camera to shoot on, we really needed to use Final Cut Pro. This set us back a few weeks.

But our new editor is glorious. So positive and although she is working on a feature full time and cutting our short in the evenings and weekends, she still sends a daily diary on what she's done, even if it's just technical stuff that I don't understand or need to know.

I love what she's done with the assembly already. We showed it to one of the producers and an exec the other night. The main note was that we need to " tell the story as strongly and creatively as possible. Don't rely on an idea of what's happening, make the film an experience of what's happening! Connect the audience to how the boy feels at every moment. Contrast, rhythm, and pace. Tension. And release of tension. Love. And hate."

Easy!

At twenty five minutes, it's coming in rather long! And some shots necessary to tell the story still need to be worked in. I'm hoping we can get it down to at least seventeen mins, and it would be great to get it to fifteen. Not sure that is going to happen. I think it will find its own length.

North London Film Fund

For those of you that live (or know someone who lives) in the London boroughs of Camden, Enfield, Haringey and Islington, there is a new development providing development and funding for your short film.

There are awards available of up to £3,000 to make a short film, for both new and emerging filmmakers. Successful applicants will receive professional mentoring, script surgery and locations support. To find out more, go to the Information session on Wednesday 27th August 6-9pm at The Karamel Club, Chocolate Factory 2, 4 Coburg Road, Wood Green, London N22 6UJ. The deadline for applications is 19th September 2008.

For more information and to apply please visit www.camden.gov.uk/filmfund or contact Zoe Prosser on 020 8379 1467 or artsandevents@enfield.gov.uk

Is this wishful thinking?

It was in about 1996 that I got the urge to write for film. I was round my mates in Derby. There was this film on the telly, about a working class Liverpudlian woman who was fighting the social services to keep her kids. I sat gagging at the screen - this was the sort of stuff I wanted to write!

About a year later I was living in Coventry and I watched a drama on Channel 4. It was written by a group of dock workers and Jimmy McGovern, and the writing-of documentary was shown before the drama. You could buy the screenplay so I ordered it. I’ve never done this before or since.

A few years later I had written a script that I thought was really good. (It wasn't). I got a copy of The Writers Handbook to look for production companies to send it to. In it I spotted the name of the producer of the dockers drama, so I sent my idea to her (and about twenty other production companies). A couple of months later I got two pages of encouraging notes back from her script reader.

Two years later I was in the cinema when I the same producer’s name on the credits of a film that had had me glued to my seat. I dug out the letter and wrote to the script reader asking how I could get into script reading. I thought this might be a way in. I never got a reply.

Two more years and my friend was working for a youth charity and said she had met a film producer and asked me if I'd heard of her. I said I had. It was the same producer.

Months later the same friend had two tickets to a film premier and asked if I'd like to go. I had no connections to the film industry and had never been to a film premier before! I went along and we ended up sitting next to the aforementioned producer. I was so nervous I could barely speak. My friend introduced us and because I had couldn't think of anything to say I told her I had once sent in a script and got some really good notes back off her script reader. She told me her reader had just moved on. I heard myself volunteering my services. She told me to get in touch and we'd take it from there.

I managed to pluck the courage up to get in touch, even though I was terrified. I was asked to write three pages of development notes on a script already in development, and a rejection letter of an unsolicited script. A few days later I went to their office in London. Apparently my letter was shit but I had done well with the notes and I could be their script reader. Yess!

A week later I was invited to dinner with both my now-boss and the writer of the script I'd done the notes on. During the meal I went to the loo and when I got back they asked me if I would like to be the script editor on the script. I was gobbed! I was so pleased (and scared) I couldn't sleep for about four nights.

Since then I've been lucky enough to be the company's regular script editor and I've learnt a lot. My boss has this enormous brain and an amazing knack of problem solving.

For a while I got a bit distracted with script editing but I soon got back into my writing. My boss took an interest (even though she hadn't read anything I'd written), and after meetings we'd hang out and she'd sometimes ask me what I was working on. She'd give me advice or suggest why something might not be working etc.

When I got shortlisted for dv shorts 18 months ago she kindly offered to read my script and gave me some feedback.

Then one day she called me up and said there was an article in The Guardian that was close to an idea that I'd mentioned to her some time ago and that she thought I might be onto something. She told me to write my idea up and she'd have a look at it.

This didn't happen for a while cos I was shooting my short, etc. And to be honest I was struggling with an angle and the tone. But when we'd meet, usually at her house, we'd talk about how the story could go. Eventually we settled on what the story might be.

I wrote about five to seven crude story beats showing where I thought the story was headed and emailed them over. My boss agreed them and I went off and wrote a treatment, which she read and offered a few suggestions. A couple of weeks ago I signed my contract. Whee!

The strange thing is, the film I watched at my mate's house in Derby about the working class Liverpudlian woman fighting social services to keep her kids, was also produced by my now boss/producer.

Just thought I'd share that. I reckon there could be a little sniff of destiny here, but I could be reading too much into it.

How I plan/write a new project Meme

Yo!

Got memmed (is that what you say?) this morning by AndrewT.

The meme is how you plan and write a project. Do you start off with paper etc.

I think I have an idea, usually an image or a snippet of a story I've heard, read etc. I probably write a sentence or a few words so I don't forget it. Then over a period of time as the story is hopefully perculating in my subconscious, I jot down a few words here and there, or ideas of how it could go, in my notebook, which I usually keep in my bag.

Once I feel that I've got enough of an idea on who my character is, what the ending is, and the climax, etc, I then write about a paragraph of where I think the story is going. Either a paragraph or bullet points of the main events.

Then I probably leave it so I can come back and see if there is anything there. After that I write a full treatment. Usually this is a word document that is always open on my laptop. (I never turn my laptop off, only close the lid). I write a few sentences and when I get stuck I go and do some ironing or something domestic. Then while I am doing that hopefully the next couple of sentences come along and I nip back to the cubby hole and write them down. I carry on this process until somehow it magically gets written. If it's a feature idea it ends up around 14-17 pages, and for a short probably around 4 pages. I find that a deadline for my writers group, or from a producer, spurs me to get it written. Once I have something down, then I have something to play around, rewrite and edit.

After that I do a step outline - write all the sluglines, then a description of what will happen in each scene. I put it away and then come back to it at a later date, so I can see the holes and patchy areas. (are you still awake?)

Then I write it. I never write a single line of dialogue until I know the story. But I do jot down lines of it in my notebook. I think dialogue is my favourite bit cos it's the easiest.

Please can you nominate yourselves as I'm off to York for the weekend, like.

have a good one. X

pre meeting ugly nervousness

Got another meeting today. Same as the other day but with a different project. Same pot of money too so I'm foolishly competing against myself and you can only have one helping. Not that i'm expecting to get anything. I'm definitely not. But it's a step in the right direction to get these meetings. And god knows I need the practice.

Have read my treatment and half page summary and half page vision statement. But have lost the copy of my application. I was in pre-production with the short when I applied and my head was fried. Which is a shame because one of the questions they asked me the other day referred to something I'd written on my application form and they might do again.

Anyway, what will be will be. I can only try my hardest.

To distract myself from worrying, I've been messing around on facebook. This morning one of my mates referred to his child as 'the milkman's.' It struck me that that phrase really must have gone out of fashion now cos I don't know ANYONE who has a milkman anymore because they are too expensive. Not even my Mum has one, who would be housebound without anyone else around to take her out or get her shopping. I think she looked into it and a pint of milk was 80p or something, so she couldn't afford it on her shitty state pension.

My Mum once tried to fix me up with our old milkman. She kept telling me how when she was paying for the milk on a friday he'd tell her how much he fancied me. He asked if I'd be interested and she said she'd ask. I was 17/18 at the time, and baby carrot was probably not even walking. I said I wasn't interested. Not that I'd seen him, but I'd heard him cracking jokes to my Mum and that was enough. Plus he was years older than me and divorced with 9 near old twins. Mum said now I had a baby I could do worse than settle down with someone with a steady job. When I refused to come to the door to meet him he suggested to my mum about putting a message in an empty milk bottle. I told her he needn't bother.

One morning I was caught off guard and went and answered the back door. It was the milkman and he looked exactly like the owner of SPIT THE DOG. Afterwards I cried because it showed just how low my Mum thought I'd sank. I suppose I knew that though, because she'd also suggested I put my name down to be a lollypop lady at the local school. The school that I had gone to. She wasn't being nasty, it was the most she thought I could hope for now I was a single mum. Not that I have anything against lollypop ladies. I used to think it was an amazing job and had more than a bit of lollypop envy. But I was about three years old then.

Getting in the bath now with a late birthday present - that book by madonna's brother. I like to think that trashy biographies are good character research. He's gay so it doesn't matter that I'll be naked.