Userfarm Short Film Award.

This morning at 10, i received an eMail from Userfarm confirming that my short film 'Do Not Bend' had been approved for their Short Film Award.

I posted the film in my last blog.

My UserFarm video page is HERE if you'd like to see it on that website. I'm not sure that views help in anyway, as far as i'm aware it's down to the editorial team to choose a winner. Which will be on the 24th of February.

I got me an eMail today...

And it said;

Hi Grifter Films!

Lollopop just sent you a message on Vimeo:

"Hi Griter Films,

Your video Do Not Bend (re-edit) is very cool, I really enjoyed the quality of your work in particular. I recommend you to post it on the Short Film Award on Userfarm Videomakers Festival 2011:

http://www.userfarm.com/page/videomakers_festival2011

There is no limit to the number of videos you can participate with, and my impression is that you may have other videos that can get a reward.

Keep up the great work!
-Name removed-

The video in question;

Woman in White update.

[Date: 16th Nov 2011]

Sorry it took so long to get back to the fourth draft of the script, but i did finish it nearly a month ago and just wanted to sit on it for a bit, to see if i still liked it after a short break from it.

I read through it and made some very minor changes, and gave it out to my team of reader again, so far all is good, i’m going to leave it alone again for a bit, maybe only a few weeks thins time, then read it again, if i still like it i’ll be posting the script on a few websites to try to get a crew and a cast.

I would need only three actors, two woman and one man. One of the woman will only appear in a three shots, and her shots are mostly all single shots, with her just on her own, but as i need the camera to remain in a particular position  i’ll need her there each day (3) so i can shoot the other half of that shot and not have to move the camera to do it. I want to be able to separate her character from everything else in that shot as she is supposed to have an etherial feel to her.

The other two characters will be needed for each day and they will need a chemistry, as they are newly weds. But i can’t imagine that being much of a problem.

As for crew, i’m producing (Maybe) and directing, but i still want an HDSLR to shoot with, so i’ll need a camera man/woman to hold and operate the camera, i’ll be the DoP or cinematographer so, someone with equipment but no real understanding of framing for lighting is’t an issue.

I may b forced to shoot Day for Night as well, not ideal but you work with what you have, right?

Most likely it’ll be shot in my house

Woman in White update.

So, Monday i tried to get Draft 4 completed but due to irritations and annoyances i couldn’t get my brain in gear to even think about it, i opened the Final Draft file and just stared at the screen. My headache grow and my frustration along with it, i think that as i was already frustrated before hand didn’t help as that also grow as i found i couldn’t get any writing done, and believe me, this is a project i want done.

Yesterday i was out all day so got zero writing done.

Today i was woken up nice and really early, not something i enjoy doing, so i could listen out for a fireplace to get delivered. I sat around until 14:30 when it came, knowing now that i can get on with my own life i opened up iTunes and plugged in my headphones turned up the volume to its highest level and started playing a new playlist of metal/rock music. 5 Albums from ‘Disturbed’. I do this so i can drown out all other noise, so i can only hear what i want to hear, in this case very loud Metal/Rock music.

I opened an already edited Draft 4 of ‘Woman in White’ and went straight to the point i had to re-write. I removed an entire scene, it needed to be changed. So i sat down and just started to write. I love it when that happens, it somehow feels more natural.

So today i completed draft 4 of ‘Woman in White’ using feedback i received from +Dan Dollar and +Sarah Skuseth (the ‘+’ refers to Google Plus) both of whom read draft 3 for me, a request i posted on Google+. Both gave great feedback, some of which i used, and some i didn’t. But thats how feedback works, you have to be able to see what will help and what either won’t help or is’n needed for your vision.

Another great thing about re-writing is the time factor. If we just made films based on a first or even a second draft then you’d sit watching your film wishing you could change a few things or a lot of things. The time you spend in re-writes means you spend far more time thinking about the project, making changes as you go. So hopefully if the script is made into a film, when you sit watching it, it’s closer to what you envisioned, and you don’t feel the need to want to change that much or anything.

But, no matter how many re-writes you go through you will always want to change something once you see a final film cut. Thats just the way the creative mind works i guess. We’re never really happy with our work, it could always use a little more work, a fine tuning, a tweak here and there. You just have to know when to say “It’s done” otherwise you’ll be re-writing it forever.

Woman in White: update.

So Tumi the possible Producer gave me lots of feedback, some of which i ignored, because answering those would have given away what/who the woman in white is, something i don't want to do. For me the Woman in White's identity is up to the viewer. There is a specific reason for her being there, but i want to see what other people make of it, if anything.

Of course if the film is made then then a short time after release i'll explain what/who she is and why she is there. But not until after. I'll even explain how i had the idea because like Tumi said in his feedback;

"Overall, this is a very intriguing concept and appears to me to draw from the ring, others with Nicole Kidman albeit from a different perspective and even, dare I say, Blair Witch in some respect but mostly - Paranormal Activity."

I'm sure that others will draw the same conclusions, which won't be to much of a surprise to be honest, even i thought about it. But there is something that gave me the idea, dramatised as it is, but this idea did come from some where, the films Tumi mentions may have influenced where the idea came from, but there are not where the idea came from. Which shall be explained later.

And so after reading through Tumi's feedback, which was extensive, and a chat with a friend, who said "producers can and often do mess up screenplays with their ideas" I guess the over all consensus is that producers do not work from a creative stand point, but instead need things explained to them, if the producer doesn't understand whats going on then how would anyone else or how could he then work on the project if he doesn't get it.

I took some ideas, ones i thought were good suggestion, in fact, everything he said about the two main characters i was able to fix by adding only a few lines of action and not impacting on the overall script, i few minor detail changes later and i'm at the end of a third draft, which i'll be putting out there tonight.

Anne and Scott will get a copy, but i want at least 4 or 5 others to read it and give feedback. What i'm looking for is more perspectives on what you think might be wrong with it, or things you didn't get or full understand.

Using your feedback, or not, i'll get what ever comes of it out to Tumi, i mean it could be Draft 3 or Draft 4, depending on what i get back, and when. I'll also be uploading the script to Stage32 and ask for a producer. Tumi of course gets first refusal.

Well, thats where i am right now.

Woman in White: update.

So, some of you might already know that a few weeks ago i wrote a short film script called 'Woman in White' with help from +Scott Murray and the lovely +Anne Burgot.

Shortly after Anne did a proof read of the screenplay she sent it to a producer friend of hers, a fella named Tumi, who on Saturday or Sunday i can't remember as the last three days have kind of merged into one, but anyway, Tumi gave back a lot of feedback, he said that he read through it in 5 minutes and liked it, a diamond in the rough to use his words.

As a this is the first script that i've written that has been read by a producer, i feel very validated right now, i still need to go through all his notes and figure out what i want to use and what i don't, i like the ambiguity of the script. But there is one thing i already know that i want to take a closer look at.

Anyway, this is just a heads up.