Long time no post

So, we’ve finally come up with a concept we can commit to. I haven’t quite figured out a way to explain it that doesn’t make it sound complicated as hell, but therein lies the challenge! Right now it’s character work, and Matt’s coming up with some really interesting stuff. I can almost see our main character (ex Hans for those who know) ready to walk off the page. But he has a long way to go, and I can’t wait!

Our last few months has been packed full of work, if only trying to convince people to help us keep doing it. Looking forward to the script workshop in late October. Why do I look forward to learning so much… wannabe nerdlinger!

The fat lady has sung…

Crazy week.

Did some crazy things. Couldn’t blog, obviously. Didn’t have time.

Sarah and I came up with a brand new feature idea some time on Sunday, and on Tuesday we were showing it to representatives of some of the most important distributors and film festival heads and producers and a sales agent. Can’t believe we did that, but we did. In fact, it only seems strange in hindsight. After a morning on Sunday of despair, moping around the SAFC without a sense of hope, Stephen talked me out of my funk, we got our shit together and then all of a sudden I wasn’t stressing about it all. Just did it.

Scariest part of the whole thing was being alone in the SAFC past midnight. I was finishing off a video for our presentation, a video which demonstrated five diverse characters I came up with by doing strange things like writing at 3 in the morning, and I had to stay back by myself until twelve, in this freezing, freezing warehouse that creaks and groans and in which many things go bump in the night. Plus I was in charge of setting the alarm! I can’t handle that kind of pressure.

Feedback from the panel of industry types was good, but I was hoping for some more of a response about the actual idea itself, the quality of the potential story, rather than its future trajectory. Guess that was a symptom of just how embryonic the idea was. But that’s FilmLab. Not the end, but the end of the beginning, as Stephen says.

Last day was like the last day of school. Tension relieved, concentration low, spirits high. Paddy pulled in a sound engineer (cheers, dude) and got me and Sarah to record our Song (about K). That was fun. Probably be on the radio soon, so watch out for it. (the written word is surprisingly unhelpful at conveying sarcasm, and not even Mr. Cleary’s been able to tell me how to get a handle on that).

Then suddenly it’s all over. Can’t wait to watch ridiculous amounts of Joss Whedon all weekend, but apart from that craving, I’m bummed we won’t be going back. To be amongst such passionate and talented people has been inspiring. Most of all, I’m gonna miss the three main men – Paddy, Stephen and Peter, who have been so supportive, so determined, in it as much as we were, and I owe them for changing some pretty significant things about my future as a writer and filmmaker (in a very good way).

Good day, to you all, labbers and lab-heads. Cheers to you, SAFC. I hope we will all meet again, sooner rather than later.

Watch this space.

Not literally this space, I’m not sure how much I’ll keep blogging, you know. It was a metaphor. Is that a metaphor? Or like a play on words? Or irony (the use of words for other than their literal intention)? I don’t know. Some writer I am. Better apply for the next FilmLab, I guess.

Video as promised

enjoy. or don’t. your choice, really!

commencing countdown, engines on

Three days to go and I cant help but think about how quickly the time at Film Lab has passed. Being completely submerged in development – both personal and professional – has proven to be somewhat confronting in my experience, particularly of late. I’ve had a few run-ins with the lab-law, through which many conversations have taken place re: my motivations as a producer and whether this is what I truly want to get myself into. While it is a question I think everyone must ask themselves about their chosen path, I must admit I did not expect my own personal ponderings of such a general nature to be unique enough to end up in the spotlight. That said I would like to address the WWWorld and make a point of the driving needs that keep me alive. In to particular order: I want to create. I want to learn. I want to explore. I want to love. I want to laugh. I want to make my family and friends proud. Who knows what shape my life will take in the future but up to this point, I am not aware of another occupation that ticks more of these boxes for me than film-making. Possibly I haven’t looked hard enough, but maybe that’s because I don’t need to. I know it’s an enormous commitment, and I also know it’s one I’m willing to make. As long as I can recognise my own strengths and weaknesses, I can become the kind of producer I want to be. A lucky few of you will soon hear what that is.

Intimately witnessing four extremely talented groups and their projects being deconstructed and rebuilt in a similar way to my own experience is a powerful privilege to say the least. Never again will I have such an opportunity. Matt and I have discovered ways of working together that have already proven fruitful and will significantly inform our future work from this point, which is an acquisition you simply cannot put a price on (contractual clauses not considered!) So I grieve for the drawing to a closing of another day, but my glass remains half full. So much to do! So little time! (If only I could keep those thoughts at bay) I wonder what surprises tomorrow has in store.

Haushinka is a girl, with a peculiar name…

Well, it’s now 1:45am on one of our “days off” after the second week of Film Lab. I should be in bed, but I just spent a few hours applying for more career development. I can’t get enough of this stuff, it would seem. I don’t have days off, really, been hitting up the day job in between stuff. I’m gonna be tired on Saturday…

Felt really good about Wednesday. I presented 5 characters I’d come up with in variously bizarre ways, including clay sculpture, word association, hot-seat off-the-cuff interview sessions with Paddy and, like right now, writing stuff way too late at night. With the help of the very helpful Paddy, Sarah, Bec, Eddie and Mr. Matthew Bate, I presented them as interspliced monologues. Felt good about how that turned out, although I suspect a lot of the success lay not in the characters themselves, but in the way I wrote about them and the method of presentation. Which could be a problem…

Everyone else did so well. We’ve been stuck in a room (alright, a few different rooms) with some of the most creative people in SA, and they all deserve to be famous. Closer Prod’s amazingly awkward meeting of two actors, the hilarious and disturbing antics of Matt Bate and Julie’s verite audio recordings, Ashlee’s great artwork, Hugh in a bear costume playing violin – genius, all of it. I’m just bummed that Sarah’s spent all week knocking up this presentation and I don’t get to see it because “I’m not a producer”. No fair.

Stuck now though – where to from here? Back to a story? More with characters? What’s to become of FilmLab’s newbies, Matt and Sarah? Only time, and (hopefully) some input from Stephen, Paddy and Peter will tell. Can’t wait for Saturday. Don’t want it to end.

For now, some sleep, and gotta make sure I keep ‘The Colour And The Shape’ in the car for Eddie.

“…did she know? did she know, before she went away…”

crunch time

So here I am, 7:38pm on Tuesday, writing a blog while everyone else has gone to the movies. Except for the Closer team ofcourse, who are busy making their own! I am here because I still have a talk to write, and those who know me understand the varying degrees of pain this puts me in! But hey, there’s something empowering about facing your fears like this. I’m getting better at speaking to groups of people, and that’s what it’s all about.

Blog, Sarah. BLOG!

As day one of our second week comes to an end I can’t help but wonder what else Peter, Paddy and the Pied Piper have in store for us over the 9 days to come. I wonder if my sponge of a mind will reach it’s limit or if I will manage to continue to drink in every glorious moment until the very end. God only knows… hey boys? Strangely enough, I seem to be mourning the end already! Maybe after all this I will just have to continue to sing in the morning, surround myself with inspiring folk, take time out in the afternoons to reflect and unwind  and possibly have a catering truck on standby at all times.  Wait a second, I already do all that… minus the food GLORIOUS food… perhaps I will just have to make more of an effort to appreciate it all. For now, I’ll just have to focus on my 12 minute talk, 90 second movie and last but  certainly not least keeping the faith that Matt and I will find that diamond in the very very rough…

Character (word) Assassination (association)

A Dark Night

It is with great sadness that I make this post.

Tonight I discovered that Matt Bate does not like The Dark Knight.

Can we ever again enter into meaningful conversation? Only time will tell.

A Song About K

Black fingernails crack over strings.

Bleached hair that’s starting to give its way.

No bouncers now; just kids that still pay.

-

Spotlight expose an empty stage.

Stale beer and air that tastes the same.

A cheer then; a sound that won’t wane.

-

If that’s all that you know, can I possibly take that away?

If that’s all that you’ve seen then you’ve stumbled in my eyes.

And that’s all that you hear; but the yelling stopped years ago.

And I’m sure that you know that high school doesn’t exist.

-

Photos for sale bring in the bucks.

Bet they recall ten years ago.

The kids are there; the ones that still know.

-

Buoyant breath; booze, sweat and tears;

Fingers still manage to hold him high.

A lesson learnt; a smile that’s still wry.

-

Fortune’s lost dog;

Battles one might save the war.

You said it best;

All good things come to an end.