Scribble, Scribble, Scribble...

As the hazy summer days have crept into Autumn, I have found myself submerging into my writing more and more.  In fact, I couldn't wait for the blasted 'Indian Summer' to bugger off, so that I didn't feel quite so guilty about wanting to shut myself away in my bedroom den for days on end, curtains closed, scribbling and researching to my hearts content!

The music video has had to take a back seat for a while, as Medway Council have still not allocated Niamh a school place, and being a single mum, I have had no time off to shoot the final scenes. In a way though, this is a blessing not a curse, as I anticipate wrapping the shoot, just in time to edit over the holiday period, when Justin is free from Uni to help with the CGI and After Effects side of things.  Jon and I will also have more time to prepare for the shoot, so hopefully it will run fairly smoothly, and we'll get the shots we want.

Script writing has become my new best friend.  My diet consists of: Reading a film script for breakfast every day (today I read 'The Graduate' by Buck Henry, which truly is script-writing at its finest), as lunch cooks for Niamh, I sit in the kitchen and dive into a brilliant book Jon lent me called, 'My First Movie' by Steven Lowenstein.  It is a brilliant collection of interviews of various famous Directors, being questioned about the ins and outs of how they made their first ever movies.  Joel and Ethen Cohen were first on the list, and it inspired me so much to hear about the painstakingly difficult way they traveled about, visiting the homes of small business owners, showing them their movie trailer and asking them to invest in their movie. Today is Tom DiCillo, who was DP on Jim Jarmusch's first two award-winning independent films, and who later went on to make it as a director himself after writing 'Johnny Suede'.  I now know, more than ever, that this is what I want to do, and by hook or by crook, I will.

So dinner is a film, whichever is next on the list to watch.  Sometimes I'll spend this time re-watching the previous night's film and taking notes (such a geek)!  By evening, once Niamh is in bed and dreaming, I sit at my laptop, spending endless hours working on my current script.  I am in my element when I'm writing.  Shut off from the world (give or take the few distractions Facebook throws my way) and submerge myself in characters, story-lines and subplots.  I can't wait for the day that I am able to direct one of the scripts I have written, but I think I will probably have to write something that I don't mind selling to another director first, because money is so tight I can barely afford to eat.

I have however, just been offered the chance to jump on board as Co-Writer for a project that a friend is involved in.  I met Stella Corradi on a rather unusual music vid shoot back in the summer.  We spent 18 hours, over night, knee-deep in water in the pouring rain, on what was a rather ambitious and difficult shoot.  She made me giggle and we kept our spirits up while all around us, crew were getting grumpier and grumpier! I kept hiding from the 1st AD's Irish temper by delving into my Celtx Iphone app, and working on my script, and Stella mentioned that she'd had some funding interest for a film that a friend of hers had written.  Apparently, he is a director and DP and needs a writer to jump on board and work through the dialogue and narrative.  Stella got in touch a few days ago to see if I'd like to take it on, and hopefully I shall.

So, gone are the days of going out and partying, but I don't miss it too much.  'Achievement' is a far superior feeling to 'hangover', and hopefully a way out of this dreaded poverty. So off I scribble, and shall pop back soon to let you know how it's all going. Thanks for your interest, Han. x

What's Love?

And here is a link to one of the outtakes from the shoot...

http://www.facebook.com/video/video.php?v=10150304877879219






x

Shipmates & Glue

So this summer, I set sail with the 'What's Love?' Crew on a voyage into the deep, blue sea of directing.  Having previously worked as part of other TV & film crews, I was keen to start working on plans of my own, and simultaneously, Justin Easton (Bassist from Medway band, 'Rocket Proof Glass') approached me, asking if I'd like to direct his music video.

I leaped at the chance, and started work fleshing out the band's idea into a script treatment.  After a few months of pre-production and planning, we finally started shooting the first scenes last week. I'll introduce you to some of the crew...

At the back there is Jesus. Oh no, sorry... That's Jon Henkel. He is the Director of Photography and the glue that sticks us all together.  Coming from a family of film-makers, Jon's knowledge and expertise have been an invaluable asset to the team, without which, I may have pulled out my own hair.

To the left is Justin Easton, who is not only the band's bassist, but also going to be doing some CGI work and helping with the editing and after effects side of things.  He makes us laugh, and can usually be found going to, coming from, or sitting on the loo... or else talking about it. During filming the most common sentence used is: "Justin, get out of the shot!"

To the right is Dan Wills, guitarist and front man in the band, and main character in the film.  Dan is so much fun, always asking after banana's and amusing us with his own brand of humour. Dan is such a placid person, that when his character requires him to be angry, we have to fill him with beer and get Bex to slap him round the face a bit. This usually seems to work.

Bex Wilkinson is at the front of the picture. She's our lean, mean, badass leading lady, who is absolutely brilliant to film.  The supplier of many a chortle, great shot, and some hilarious outtakes! It's been bloomin' marvelous to work with her.

There are many more band and crew members, which I shall tell you all about once I have photos of everyone.  So for now, I shall leave you with a picture of us letting our hair down after a long day of filming...

x

'Beginning's Are Always Messy' - John Galsworthy

In the beginning, there was a word. I'd like to think it was 'Fucksticks', because I've always found that to be a very useful word. It is a word that ails every mistake amicably, and what are we without mistakes?


People seem to get very irate at the prospect of making mistakes. This baffles me. For without mistakes we learn nothing. Mistakes are great adventures, and can be embraced with excitement and curiosity. Curiosity is the key to all knowledge, and knowledge is a bloody useful thing to have.


So, here I begin, full of curiosity about blogging, and willing and eager to make mistakes as I learn.  I'm hoping I will be able to document my journey, in all it's mistake-filled, curious glory, and in so doing, share the knowledge I gain from it.


Go fourth, fall over, and fix it with fucksticks...
Hannah