Good things happen..?

Well I had a great time at the London Screenwriters' Festival which I must say despite some minor teething difficulties was the best of the screenwriters festivals I have been to in recent years. London is a much more sensible place to have it - reflected mostly I think by the stellar speaker line-up it attracted. The speakers seemed much more friendly and approachable too - so well done to Chris Jones, David Chamberlain and Lucy Hay and others for putting it together.

I met lots of other screenwriters and made some good connections. I also met some established Facebook friends for the first time though not all unfortunately - I had been looking forward to meeting Elinor Perry-Smith - Mother Superior at the Convent of Eternal Armament in Peckham but somehow we missed each other!

I was also present late on in the bar when myself, Danny Stack, Piers Beckley and others hatched up the St Patrick's Day short film challenge - " It's got to be between 3-5 minutes (not including credits), have no more than 5 actors in it (counted as anyone with a line, on screen or off), and you need to either write or direct the film."  Deadline 17th March 2011. So please join us and have a go!

When I returned from the festival I was fortunate to be able to pitch separate ideas to two different producers - mostly as a result of my relentless networking. A Birmingham set feel-good recessionary fable to some producers here in the UK that have just had a big success with one of their films and also a game/graphic novel/film idea based on an ancient text to someone in the USA. I can't say any more for now but fingers crossed.

Back here in Birmingham I'm very busy writing and producing for one of my low budget feature ideas with my new friends and collaborators Jazz Virk and Stewart Addison. I had met Jazz earlier in the year as he was one of the judging panel on the music video competition my Stickleback Productions team won.

I met Stewart - a long time collaborator with Jazz rather circuitously when I was desperately trying to find a Director of Photography to help me shoot my 1/2 hour wake drama short Trouble At My Door back in late August. That's now hopefully going ahead during the schools 1/2 term in February.

We're now shooting the Finders.Keepers idea over 2 + 2 days from the 13th of December making both a trailer short and a longer B story festival oriented short to help find investors/finance.

Rising Star - Chloe Farnworth

We have some great actors involved such as Chloe Farnworth (Dead Cert), Adam Fray (Hustle),and Joe Egan (Sherlock Holmes I and II) plus some really fab locations so I'm really looking foward to both the shoot and to seeing the finished result. 

I helped out on a Bollywood music video shoot with Stewart and Jazz earlier this week and was really impressed by their technical and creative ability so I'm certain that will also do wonders for the Finders.Keepers trailer and short and hopefully the resulting feature which Jazz is down to direct with me writing and co-producing with Stewart.

DIY all the way I say! Onwards and upwards!

TAFN

B x