2 screenings in 24 hours

Screening Invitations are like buses it turns out, I went to two screenings of films I am in over the last 24 hours, one in the main cinema at the BFI.

Pearl which premiered in Forest Hill which was a lovely short I did last year directed and written by Nick Barrett. Trailer below.

It got great feedback and Nick did a Q&A afterwards. His favourite question was

‘Who was the man in the Wendy house’,

His quick reply ‘My friend Martin’  got a big laugh.

Once you have see the scary thing in the dolls house you will never forget it!

Pearl was so well received that it is to have its big screen premiere in a couple months at Crouch End Arts Cinema

Pearl trailer from CORPOREAL Films on Vimeo.

 

My second screening  was Closer To Home (kickstarter details here) at the BFI directed by Bhavithrah Satkunarasa & produced by James Lyndon today along with the other graduation projects of UAL, however the sound was not ready so the film had to be pulled at the last minute. It was still in the programme and I am now waiting to see it but the standard of the other films was great so I am super hopeful it will be as good and well shot as the others!

Peter Hinton, the actor and director I worked with at at a script writing analysis at the London Screenwriters Festival last October was brilliant in ‘Santuario Del Collel’

Also Thomas Stoppel was totally brilliant in one of the films ‘Things I Do For You’
However not only is he an actor, he also has produced, written and directed short films and feature films. I asked him how he got into making films, His website link here

‘I made my own TV Cookery series when I was 18.’

He gave me such great advice as we discussed the fact that I am currently mulling on all the scary bits of making a film. I have written, directed and produced my own theatre shows but film with its budget, technical and crew issues just plain scares me. For me the leap of faith on this is huge, made worse by my all too clear understanding of what making a film actually entails, and that is before sound design, editing, colour grading and then making people watch it and their views, entering it into festivals and that sales side!

Don’t even think about a budget, it will only stop you making your film. If you say ‘I need 5k’ and you don’t get it then you will never make your film.

Accept it will not be perfect, accept that you will be learning

Whether you make it via your iPhone or a cheap camera just make it. Don’t hanker over that £25,000 camera or more that you want or you will be calling on all those business cards you got in Cannes and they will still say no, whilst you could have been making your film.

You have to have a burning desire to tell the story.

 

I needed to hear all of this as I have been saying that once I get my next 10-15 minutes of my show on stage THEN I will write a script and see what length the film is. However this is actually just an excuse. Why can’t I make a short film in the next 3 weeks before I take my stage show, let us face it I could. Yes there are already some issues I will have to deal with, I know already but I could do a trailer. I made a trailer and a comic strip for a previous show.
It is that fear, that leap of faith I need to take to jump forward.

 

The New Shoots Nights where I am workshopping is on July 8th 7.30pm at The Lost Theatre, London if you want to come along and see along with 7 others also previewing great new work) Link to details, we are on July 8th