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Drafting Invisible Girl

27/8/2014

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This holiday weekend, I spent the whole of Saturday and Monday writing a different short script for the ishorts deadline. As I was “with muse” for the first time in months, I turned my attention briefly to Invisible Girl to try and shoulder my way through the script notes I received from Lucy a few months ago.

Rather than reading through my last abandoned draft with the same despair I had when I left it, I read it eagerly and GOT what needed to happen in order for it to click. I could read off the page where the problems were BEFORE I referred back to Lucy’s notes.

As it was, the notes were enacted in about 45 minutes as I reengaged with the characters and the story and a new draft was sent out to the interested parties within the hour.

I’ve had a couple of people come back already – one Lucy, with two slight “have you thought about this” notes and two, Judy – my good old LSF buddy – who I am committed to put a script into ishorts with. Both positive. Both “I get it”. Both “it’s almost there”.

We are, on Invisible Girl, for the record on draft ten. I reckon it’s about 90% there. And it’s the last 10% tweak that will make the difference. It’s the sense check, comedy pass, director pass, logistical pass, characterisation pass and “anything I can think off to make sure I’d be happy to send it to my dream actors to ask if they want to be involved” pass.  

It goes to show me two things – I am a slow learner, by the way, and need to re learn this lesson once every six months or so.

1)      Time gives perspective on scripts – you need to let scripts marinade and you need to give yourself the perspective to be able to react to the notes sanely and rationally. IF you dash in feet first and try and “fix” something you don’t agree is broken, you’ll fuck it up.

2)      Scripts will “pop” in when ready – Take the other script I spent a considerable amount of time on Saturday and Monday on – it’s called Dans le Boudoir and is about Body Image and Boudoir Photography. I’d called about four writer friends at the tail end of last week about this idea AND spoken at length to my friend Mel about Boudoir Photography to get the insights I needed from her angle. I love the idea, I know what I’m trying to do but the script is not right, the story is not working…it too will need the perspective marinade and a whole heap of thinking time before I can be happy with it.


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Cancer Hair Festivals

31/7/2014

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Please as punch to announce that Cancer Hair will be premiering at the Cambridge Film Festival (2nd and 5th Sept) and then transferring to the Isle of Man Film Festival (14th Sept)

Awesome news - well done all.
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One of those career affirming weeks...

1/4/2014

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One of those career affirming weeks

…had the cast and crew screening of Cancer Hair last night which went well. Everyone said lovely things. Thank you very much for the support guys.

…we’re screening 50 Kisses at Bafta on Friday to coincide with a very special announcement.

…got the concept art in for Invisible Girl and it looks great – onwards to the next one!

…great feedback on Project O concept/treatment



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Spare Change

8/3/2014

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Spare Change (2013) from Andrew Carslaw on Vimeo.

Spare Change, directed by Andy Carslaw, is a short I wrote and produced at the tail end of 2013. We were looking for a 2//3 page short that was relatively easy to film in a couple of nights. This sure as heck gave us a taste of night shoots *shudder* not something that I would run back to with any great gusto soon! Total budget under £500.

And here is the result - a morality tale of a business man who shuns a homeless man asking for change, only to have the tables turned on him
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Pipelining Projects

24/12/2013

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Ah Christmas Holidays - that time of year when you get to catch your breathe between one year and the next, even if it is only for a few days.

For me, I have just finished one short term contract and I'm about to get head long into another one. So the Christmas break has been a brilliant time to consider what I've achieved this year and what projects I want to line up for next year.

Being an old sales hand, I call it pipelining. The industry calls it having a slate. It's the same thing, and serves the same end purpose of having a number of projects in various stages of development ready to go when the money should appear.

So I have three shorts on slate as writer/director. Cancer Hair is almost finished and I'm looking to follow it up with at least another film next year.

I have a 20/25 minute hard hitting drama, another 10 minute shades of light and dark comedy drama and a historical adaptation of something that I CAN'T FUCKING BELIEVE has not been adapted. All shorts.

Feature wise I have a couple of ideas I need to sit down and actually fucking storyline. I know there are big schemes like ifeatures and Microwave coming up and I want to have something ready to go out to them.

But, and here is the rub - all this planning is great but the shorts need money, and the features need producers standing over me yelling at me...on top of all of this, I need to go out and earn money to pay the bills.

The life of an independent filmmaker - eh? Half the time your head is in the clouds, half the time your feet are firmly anchored to the ground - no wonder you feel a little stretched. 

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Cancer Hair Shot - Now to Post!

3/11/2013

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Cancer Hair was shot on 12thand 13th October this year in central London. As well as being exceptionally lucky with the weather, our cast and crew, we've had a look at the rushes and are exceptionally pleased with what we have got through the other end.

So, now what? Well it's now on to post production. We have a couple of meetings set up this week to keep up the momentum and try to get the film finished this side of Christmas.  Thank you to everyone who has supported us to get to this point.





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Announcing the cast for Cancer Hair 

6/10/2013

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Laura Aikman as Claire

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David McCusker as Andrew

We are proud - and pleased as punch - to announce the cast for Cancer Hair.

Playing our lead character 'Claire' is the exceptionally talented Laura Aikman.   Playing opposite Laura as our 'Andrew' is the equally as talented David McCusker.

We are delighted to welcome them both onto the team and can't wait to get started.
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Spare Change in Virgin Media Shorts 

18/7/2013

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A great little short I wrote and produced last year, Spare Change, has just been uploaded to Virgin Media Shorts. Have a look and give it a vote!

http://www.virginmediashorts.co.uk/film/5323/spare-change#.Ueg7i23Ek_g

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Cancer Hair Concept Art Winners

13/7/2013

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As you know in May and June, I ran a competition to find some KICKING concept art for Cancer Hair, my ambitious little short. It has been an interesting process all facilitated via Talent House. Talent House crowdsources great artists for you – if you offer a prize. My prize was paltry in comparison to some of the big boys but I wanted to go global and get people interested in helping Cancer Hair become a reality.

Cancer Hair is about a young, self-conscious women in remission from cancer, who goes on a date with a likely-lad who is seemingly after a one night stand.

We had over 20 submissions over the course of the competition and I am delighted to so we have three winners. Two that we chose and one "peoples choice" - we have decided, the public have chosen. So who has won?

Our two winners were:-

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David Vidal – David’s work can be seen HERE

What we liked about this image was that it captures some of what the film is about. A young couple on a first date get off to a bad start, partly because she is self conscious that she has lost her hair while undergoing chemo and partly because he says some things he shouldn’t. Although our couple don’t kiss in the script, this image provides a hopeful what if moment that our audience can follow.

David, as well as being an illustrator and fine artist, is also a music producer and can be found at https://www.facebook.com/jakoboofficial

Well Done David. And thanks, we love your art.

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Diane Gibson – Diane’s work can be seen HERE

What we liked about this image is that it really convays the emotions that the characters are going through. Again, the scene doesn’t necessary appear in the script but we love the rawness of it. This young woman is trying to get her life back after cancer has devastated it. She is going to be scared of what comes next. Will she be rejected? Will he like her? Will she want to run away?

Diane is a mother and a grandmother and has her hands full. As well as being kept busy by the family, she is also a talented artist, drawing out the emotion from the situation and laying it bare for all to see. Diane’s portfolio can be found at http://www.talenthouse.com/shamrockedlady

Thanks Diane, we love this piece.

The Peoples Choice winner was:-

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Diego Valdez – Diego’s work can be found HERE

What we liked about Diego’s illustration was that it showed a haunting portrayal of a woman without hair staring proudly at the viewer. It was a very powerful and arresting image and we can certainly see why this won the people’s choice. There is even a touch of angelic wings coming our the back of his image which gives the piece an ethereal feel.

Diego is a formal fashion model who is now an artist, author and illustrator. He has a number of projects on the go and more can be found out about Diego at his website http://www.diegovaldez.com/ . We also recommend you follow him on twitter at @realdiegovaldez

Thanks Diego and Well Done!

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Time to Vote

9/6/2013

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Our concept art competition has been ongoing for the past four weeks. We are now opening the voting up to the public to get their opinion on which piece of work encapsulates the spirit of the yet to be made film. It’s had over 650 votes so far, and we want to make sure you don’t miss out on getting your say.

There are two prizes – the prize for our favourite and the prize for the public favourite. These could be totally different treatments. So, we won’t tell you our number one but right at this point we want to know yours.

Go look at the designs and then vote by Facebook or Twitter for the one you think is the best.

Go to http://www.talenthouse.com/design-for-cancer-hair

If you can share our Talenthouse page with as many people as you can, we’d be most grateful.

Share this http://www.talenthouse.com/design-for-cancer-hair


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    Gail Hackston is a filmmaker, screenwriter and producer. Her blog is about getting things made in the UK Film Industry.

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