'Tis the Season for a Birthday

Hello scrumptious ones

As my post title has reliably informed you, the very busy Birthday season is just about to descend upon Tenacious Towers.  

Next week, I will be cyberbrating none other than this little Blog's 2nd Birthday, ah, and what a fantabulous two years it has been!  I'll be stocking up on a right nice selection of cakes and pastries for next Friday, so please feel free to pop by for a cuppa, gin & tonic and a nibble when the fancy takes you. I was hoping to have clocked up 10k hits by the official day (19th) but I guess I will have to be happy with nearly 9,000, and when you consider the total drivel that makes up the majority of content on this blog, that is pretty much a miracle in itself.  I know some sites get 9k hits a day, but I am quite happy with my figure, thank you.

So, I am thinking if it's the Blog's 2nd birthday, that means it is also two years since the Bloomsbury Bloggers met en masse and formulated individual - but intricately connected - global screen domination plans.  The rest is, as they should say, literary history.  How far we have all travelled in two years.  Super stuff.

I must say I am very happy and excited to be part of such a posse of particularly talented people. It's a group that grows steadily by the month and offers a sense of 'you are not alone' in The Great Quest for Ultimate Artistic Satisfaction - or even just a hint of where the colour of money is glistening, of course...

So, Blog Birthday aside, it is also my *very own* Birthday tomorrow.  It's going to be a bit of a strange one as I'll be on my total lonesome due to one reason or another - but fear not for the Tenacious One, for I shall have a trusty bottle of something sparkly, a draft shot list and a step outline nearby to keep me company. Strangely enough, in an odd twist of Fate, I only just realised I am actually going to be a year younger than I thought I was ! How very funny!

Staying on the positive side of life is my short, "Perfect", which I understand has now gone to Lifesize/UKFC for comment. It's not long until final D-Day when the green light button is pushed or not - but I do hope and pray that little green glimmer shimmies in my direction. Only time will tell. This week also saw a lot of voiceover work come in for me and the design completion on my site, Brave Soldier Films, which, as with all these things, is a work in progress being updated as and when.

Right, I'm off to select my vintage from the cellars to make sure it is thoroughly chilled for midnight. I bid you a wonderful weekend when it arrives at your door.  Shall catch up with you soon.

Onwards.

Shorts, Longs and In-Betweens

It's been a funny old week, as it has kind of imploded on itself.  Don't ask me to explain why - it just has.

I was glad to have made the screening of David Lemon's very funny and brilliantly crafted feature, "Faintheart", earlier in the week.  If anyone ever needs a filmic example of the Hero's Journey, then this is your DVD. 

Well, I'm totally thrilled at nailing my beat sheet at last, and was even more happy to send off my [latest and greatest?] re-write to my Script Editor and Producer.  Yes, you read that right - "Perfect" now has a Producer and he's that Dan Turner bloke. He begged me nicely, so I said he could join in. Only joking, Dan, I know you read my ramblings here and I'm very glad to have you on board... ;)  

All in all, the project feels like it's coming together now - it's starting to feel a bit more real, which is creeping over me like a strange, uneasy calm.  Although I have spent quite a bit of time sourcing possible music, design, locations etc, there's nothing I can do about any of it until I get the big thumbs up; but to me, all these areas are of huge importance and have really helped focus my mind on the end result of the script.  I also finally found the picture I have been searching for in the Tenacious East Wing loft - this is my creative reference point for half of the scenes in the film and from which I can create a solid foundation for the "look". Ooooh, lovely. Anyway, all I have to do now is make "Perfect" all so spiffingly - well...um...perfect - that Screen East and UKFC have to select it to go into production. Oh crap. April seems so near yet so very far away.

So, here I am feeling like I'm twiddling my fingers to be honest.  I have read through my rewrite and changed a couple of words, but there's no point in going to town on it until I have notes back from Script Editor and Producer who are both reading it over the weekend. They have a copy each, by the way, just in case you thought I was making them share...

I am half tempted to start outlining my new feature idea but I need to finish off my final bit of research first - that should take precedence this weekend. However, before I tally-ho off, I have was memed by Miss Read earlier in the week.  She tasked me with: If you could go back to live in any one year from your lifetime, which one would you choose?

I am an eternal optimist, thus being a firm believer that the best is still to come, although this is not to say what has passed hasn't been good.  However, if I had to choose a year then it would be 1977. Jeez, most people probably weren't even born then, but I was - but only just as I was very, very young.

I have a strong memory of this particular year because it was so damn hot and I remember spending the whole summer in shorts and t-shirts, usually running around all day playing in the searing heat with the dogs, cats and chickens and then when it became too hot, I would beg, borrow or steal a home made lemonade and head for my den.  "The River Dell", as I named it, was very special. I had to climb up a little DIY ladder hidden behind the summer house to get over the fence at the end of our the garden, and then I was in a magical world of pixies, elves, fairies and witches, all hidden under the cooling canopy of the trees. There was a trickling brook which dried up in the height of summer (especially '77), but the ground was always damp enough to make mud pies - albeit dry-ish ones.

If I wasn't in the Dell then I was up the tree at the front of our house as it was perfect for watching into the distance for Mum or Dad coming home, visitors arriving after a long journey or just the local farmer, shotgun slung over his shoulder, whistling at his sheepdog whilst walking through the late afternoon haze across the drought ridden corn fields.  I also vividly recall the smell of my Dad's aftershave and my Mum's perfume when they were getting ready to go out to do a gig or go to a party.  More than anything, I guess there were no worries, no cares, lots of barbecues, parties and laughter, and both my Mum and Dad were just a cuddle away.

This was also the summer Elvis died - a day I remember so clearly. I took ages to get dressed that morning as I had been having a shorts & t-shirt dilemma - honest! I had been given an outfit as a present which had come from America - matching pale green shorts and t-shirt  - but they had butterflies all over, which was just too girly for me. I had decided to give the outfit it's premiere and remember walking into the lounge all ready for my Mum or Dad to make comments on how lovely the butterflies were, but they didn't - they just sat at the table in the kitchen, listening to the radio, stunned. 

Mum told me what had happened and in a typical child-like fashion I replied "Oh. That's sad. Did we know him then? Did he come to one of your parties or did you go to his?"  Mum and Dad laughed so much but I didn't understand why. I think I just stole some of Dad's toast with lemon and lime marmalade on and went out to check on my sweetcorn growing in the garden. Ah, special times. 1977 - I'd see you again.

I tag: you, dear reader.

Farewell 2008 - Hello 2009

And so here we are - I can now gaze back at 2008 in its totality and raise a glass to what has quietly turned out to be a refreshingly marvellous year.  It's not been an easy-peasy 12 months at Tenacious Towers, that's for sure, but then where would the fun and sense of achievement have been if it had all been too effortless?

I am glad to say I have made more friends and contacts this year than I have lost, and lost more kilos than I have gained, so that's got to be a good thing; I have created more and written more this year than I ever have, including of course my experimental short film, "three" and my NaNoWriMo effort, "Taking the Fast Lane", which looking back on the experience really is recommended for anyone with a dose of writer's block, creative collapse or even penetrating procrastination. Not that I was actually suffering from any of the aforementioned afflictions mind you - I just felt like a challenging change. Last but not least, I have of course, been selected as Writer/Director for Screen East's DigiBytes scheme and start my script development in the first week of January 2009. I am really excited about the whole project and can't wait to get into the swing of it all; I know it's going to be really hard work but I can't wait! I am living, breathing and sleeping my short, "Practice is Perfect" and I keep having comedy moment panicky dreams about it. Here are a few recent horrors:

1) Staring at the shooting script, forgetting everything I have ever learnt about filmmaking / writing / performance, 

2) Not being able to find the set (!), 

3) Walking onto set and just shrugging and grinning at everyone as they await my instruction, 

4) Realising the actors are in the wrong costumes waaaaay into the shoot, 

5) Having agreed the lighting design for the Digital shoot, finding out, as we wrapped, we had been shooting on 35mm and no-one had bothered to tell me...

Oh, I could go on, but I won't as I am [nervously] laughing too much about the difference in size of a Film camera to a Digital camera.

I have approximately a three month period of development and only then do the successful five (out of seven) projects get chosen to go into pre-production and onto shooting.  You'll not be catching my ass near any laurels having a rest until I know what's what, that's for sure - it's so not over 'til the fat lady sings.  Or Screen East/UKFC say yes. Whichever comes first.  

And on that note, my dearest near and far friends, family, colleagues and e-stalkers, I have work to be getting on with. 

I wish you an ebullient Hogmanay and bid you an effervescent 2009.  

Onwards as always.

Check, Check, Check

Four completed Outlines - check

Four 25WOL - check

Four Publicity Poster mock-ups - check

Three completed Screenplays - check

One Showreel - check

One Biography - check

Four Completed Application & Monitoring forms (one per film) - check

One full printer cartridge ready for 'The Mass Print' next week - check

Envelope (sturdy) - check

Minor adjustments aside: Weekend Off - check

Wish cyberpeeps a good weekend - check

x

Back on Track

Crikey it's been a busy old week again at Tenacious Towers - and it's only Tuesday.

I finally managed to focus my brain, complete and submit my application for Think-Shoot-Distribute.  It was something I felt I really should apply for this year and although I am sure the competition is very tough, a girl's gotta try!  I have also been tweaking (and faffing) with the shorts I propose to submit to Digital Shorts '09.  

The various regional screen agencies will be gearing up very soon for the 2009 scheme to open, so if you've got some work you'd like to get out there, check out all the details with your particular screen agency. 

If you're not sure which regional agency you fall under, here's a titchy map for you to squint at - or click on the link to the full size map here.

I managed to get along to the UKFC Development Fund talk & networking event held by Euroscript last week.  It was a very good, relaxed event and I was really interested to hear the bare facts and figures from Tanya Seghatchian, Head of the Film Council's Development Fund.  The one lasting impression I came away with was: they read everything submitted.  And the magic formula for ticking their boxes?  Good, solid writing that works.  

Not rocket science by any means, but sometimes it's easy to forget the simple and obvious.

Last night I attended the Writers' Guild London & SE Branch drinks where Arnopp of Camden's absence was duly noted. I met lots of lovely writers, old and new - oh, plus fellow bloggers Perry & Beckley - and had some interesting chats laced with a teensy-weensy bit of alcohol. Ahem.  Nice bunch that Guild lot.  

My thought on the way home at midnight was, "if only the trains didn't stop so goddam early..." - my thoughts at 5am this morning when The Kid started were far less savoury.  Damn that Guild lot and their bottles of wine.