Although we've been keeping this blog active with posts about our events and some thoughts from my notebook, I'm aware it's been a while since our last progress update. In all honesty, last month ended up being a quiet month for the project due to other commitments, but work on the film by no means ground completely to a halt. For instance, James McWilliam joined the team as Music Supervisor, and I began to discuss ideas with him for some of the diegetic music which will feature in the film (some of which will need to be finalised before the shoot so we can be sure that we have all the required clearances in place before we roll the cameras on the cast singing along...). I also met with our Casting Director Jane Frisby to begin the short-listing process. We've now decided not to audition people until next year, but it's been exciting to really start looking over CVs of potential candidates. Finally, I also had the chance to attend the Power to the Pixel conference, which provided some good inspiration for potential production and distribution opportunities for the project (I'll be posting more about this soon).
As some of you will already know, producer Tom Stuart joined the project back in September, and I'm pleased to finally announce his involvement officially (those of you who have been paying attention from the start will know we've had a couple of false starts with attached production members, so this time we wanted to hold off a little before blowing the horn, so to speak). Tom's biography has been added to the site, so be sure to stop by and check it out if you haven't already.
With Tom now firmly onboard, I'm hoping that the project will start to gather a little bit more momentum. For instance, right now we're in the process of putting together a submission for iFeatures, a scheme which is aiming to fund three features to the tune of £300,000. The scheme is for films set in Bristol and consists of several waves, the first two of which consist of development. Although Life Just Is is a fairly developed project, we feel that the scheme offers a number of great opportunities, not least of which is the funding. Obviously it would mean taking the film down a different road, and if we were to get through it would call for a certain amount of rebuilding from the base up, but that's a challenge which interests me and which could lead the project off in exciting new directions. However, any scheme such as this is always a long shot by virtue of the number of applications alone, so we're certainly not putting all of our eggs into this one basket, and are continuing to work on alternative plans.
While we solidify these plans, we're also continuing to develop the script, and in the middle of December we'll be doing an ICA Lab on the project (essentially a workshop with actors to read through and discuss the script). It's something I'm very excited by and which will hopefully provide helpful feedback which I can use when working on the next draft of the script – which I'm hoping to get done by early next year, right around the time when we'll hear if we've been given an interview for the iFeatures scheme. That way, whatever happens with iFeatures, we'll be able to start the New Year with a bang.
More soon.
As some of you will already know, producer Tom Stuart joined the project back in September, and I'm pleased to finally announce his involvement officially (those of you who have been paying attention from the start will know we've had a couple of false starts with attached production members, so this time we wanted to hold off a little before blowing the horn, so to speak). Tom's biography has been added to the site, so be sure to stop by and check it out if you haven't already.
With Tom now firmly onboard, I'm hoping that the project will start to gather a little bit more momentum. For instance, right now we're in the process of putting together a submission for iFeatures, a scheme which is aiming to fund three features to the tune of £300,000. The scheme is for films set in Bristol and consists of several waves, the first two of which consist of development. Although Life Just Is is a fairly developed project, we feel that the scheme offers a number of great opportunities, not least of which is the funding. Obviously it would mean taking the film down a different road, and if we were to get through it would call for a certain amount of rebuilding from the base up, but that's a challenge which interests me and which could lead the project off in exciting new directions. However, any scheme such as this is always a long shot by virtue of the number of applications alone, so we're certainly not putting all of our eggs into this one basket, and are continuing to work on alternative plans.
While we solidify these plans, we're also continuing to develop the script, and in the middle of December we'll be doing an ICA Lab on the project (essentially a workshop with actors to read through and discuss the script). It's something I'm very excited by and which will hopefully provide helpful feedback which I can use when working on the next draft of the script – which I'm hoping to get done by early next year, right around the time when we'll hear if we've been given an interview for the iFeatures scheme. That way, whatever happens with iFeatures, we'll be able to start the New Year with a bang.
More soon.
- Alex
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