Life Just Is

Jayne Wisener Vlog: Life Just Is Cast & Crew Screening at BAFTA

2012-02-09T10:16:00.002Z

End of Phase One

2012-01-20T09:53:00.000Z

As some of you may have gathered from the various posts and tweets that have been flying around in the last week, Life Just Is is now finished. This blog might seem like a rather low-key way to announce what is, in many ways, the summit of everything that we've been working towards... but we are all too aware that our biggest challenges still lie ahead of us: breaking onto the festival circuit and trying to secure some kind of distribution deal. Completing the film is only half the battle. We have an exciting and scary time ahead of us as we enter the second phase of the Life Just Is journey.

This time last week, we were getting ready to hold our Cast and Crew screening at BAFTA. I'm pleased to say that the evening was a great success, and so far the response to the film has been amazing (especially from critics... more on which soon). For now, though, here are a few pictures from the evening, taken by the super awesome João Serejo. Enjoy!

- Alex

Left-Right: Producer Tom Stuart, Co-Producer Pat Wintersgill, Writer/Director Alex Barrett and Exec Producer Christine Hartland.

Producer Tom Stuart (left) with Writer/Director Alex Barrett (right).

Jayne Wiserner (Jay) with Alex Barrett (writer/director).

Music Supervisor James McWilliam (right).

The pre-screening drinks reception.

Writer/Director Alex Barrett (left) with Jef Streatfield, frontman of the band Plan A, whose song Moving Along is sung by 'David' (Will De Meo) in the film.

Writer/Director Alex Barrett (left) with Editor Murat Kebir (right).

Justine Priestley (left), our Social Media Marketing Guru

Left-Right: Nathaniel Martello-White ('Tom'), Alex Barrett (writer/director), Will De Meo ('David'), Andrew Hawley ('Nick'), Jayne Wisener ('Jay') and Fiona Ryan ('Claire').

Joshua Osei ('Vince') with Writer/Director Alex Barrett.

Producer Tom Stuart (left) giving his intro.

Alex Barrett (Writer/Director) and Tom Stuart (Producer) giving their intros.

Writer/Director Alex Barrett giving his intro.

Actress Fiona Ryan ('Claire').

Costume Designer Charmaine Parram (left) talks to actress Fiona Ryan ('Claire', right).

Actress Alix Wilton Regan ('Zoe').

Our Soundtrack!

2011-11-28T10:15:00.000Z

I decided fairly early on in the process of developing the style of Life Just Is that I didn't want to use a traditional score, and that the only music in the film would be diegetic (i.e. that it would come directly from within the world of the film in moments where, for instance, the characters themselves are listening to music on a stereo). The main idea behind this was that I wanted to avoid any kind of manipulation of audience emotion: I wanted to see if I could draw out an emotional response to the film purely through audience identification with the characters and their situations, rather than through a few strings ringing out on a soundtrack. Rereading Robert Bresson's Notes on the Cinematographer during development no doubt also contributed, with three of his maxims never straying too far from my mind:

'Build your film on white, on silence and on stillness'

'Be sure of having used to the full all that is communicated by immobility and silence'

'No music as accompaniment, support or reinforcement. No Music at all*.
The noises must become the music.
*Except, of course, the music played by visible instruments'

Conflicting with these ideas, though, was another: that of Life Just Is as a covert musical, in which characters sing to one another and in which music clearly plays an important part.

So, the point was never so much to abandon music as to use it in a way that mutually supported the characters and the story, without resorting to the falsification of the moment or fabrications of emotions that traditional scores can sometimes bring.

With all that in mind, finding the right music for the film became extremely important.

It's therefore with great pleasure that I'm now able to announce, for the first time, our full soundtrack listing!

I know it's very easy to be hyperbolic when writing a piece like this (we are trying to promote a film here, after all), but what makes this announcement even more exciting is that some of the bands listed below are among my all-time favourites. I feel incredibly privileged to have been allowed to use their music, and I'd like to thank everyone involved for their kindness and support. I'm genuinely touched. The Wildhearts have been my favourite band since I was nine years old, and being able to use their music in my debut feature is something of a dream come true.

It was through The Wildhearts that I discovered some of the other bands listed, including Deckard, who I first came across when their singer supported The Wildhearts' frontman Ginger during an acoustic tour some seven or eight years ago, and The Jellys and Plan A (both of whom feature ex-Wildhearts members, and both of whom are now sadly inactive).

Another sadly inactive band is The Lustjunks, who were a regular fixture on my local music scene when I was growing up. I always seriously loved their stuff, and I'm glad that I was able to track them down and include them here. (I can also exclusively reveal that Andy, their frontman, is working on a new album – so that's certainly something to keep an eye out for!) Also culled from my local music scene is the terrifying, crushing behemoth that is nate_seacourt, who can currently be seen tearing apart venues across London (literally).

The rest of the bands came to me through our music supervisor, James McWilliam, and although I didn't know many of them until Jim suggested them, I'm no less excited about using their music in the film. Thanks to Jim's hard work and the generosity of the bands he contacted, I think we've managed to put together a genuinely interesting, exciting and eclectic sound track: Animal Kingdom have just finished recording their second album with producer David Kosten, The High Wire recently supported Coldplay across multiple dates during their Viva La Vida arena tour, and The Heart Strings' second album will be getting a physical release in January 2012.

Anyway, that's enough of my waffling – I'll let you have a listen for yourself...

- Alex

Music tracks and artists featured on our soundtrack, listed in order of appearance:

(Where possible, song names link to Spotify/Soundcloud tracks, band names to official websites. To download the free MP3s please right click and 'Save Target As...')

Starlight Serenade – John Elleson-Hartley

Impatience - Emma McGlynn (free MP3 download)

And Rear Lights - The Lustjunks (free MP3 download)

Gravy - The Heart Strings

Holy Rolling - Deckard

Say Something Stupid - Deckard

Glita - nate_seacourt (free MP3 download)

Good Times Are Coming For To Get You - The Heart Strings (free MP3 download)

A Future Ending - The High Wire (free MP3 download)

Drunk Love - Emma McGlynn (free MP3 download)

Mephistopheles - Animal Kingdom

Dreaming in A – The Wildhearts

Music tracks performed/quoted by the cast of Life Just Is, listed with the names of their original artist, in order of appearance:

Geordie in Wonderland – The Wildhearts

On My Mind - Will De Meo

Moving Along - Plan A (free MP3 download)

Lemonade Girl – The Jellys

Dreaming in A – The Wildhearts

Postproduction Vlog: Finalising the Sound and Music

2011-11-17T10:46:00.001Z

Postproduction Vlog: Second Pass Sound

2011-11-02T09:12:00.000Z

Taking the Myth Out of Transmedia

2011-10-31T20:30:00.002Z

When one of the speakers backed out of our event 'UPGRADE: Building a Creative Career in the Digital Age' last week, I started making notes in case I needed to give the speech himself. Luckily a replacement speaker was found, but rather than waste the prep work I'd already done, I decided to turn it into a vlog. It's basically a short talk in which I aim to take the myth out of transmedia and get people thinking about how they can maximise creativity, audience engagement and revenue potential. Here's the video, but for those who prefer to read rather than watch, I've included the key points in text form below. (We'll be back to our more regular type of blog/vlog posts later this week).

What is 'transmedia'? Also known as 'cross-platform' or 'multiplatform', 'transmedia' is a word used to refer to the practice of telling a story across multiple platforms and formats. An example of this would be The Matrix Reloaded, which used transmedia storytelling in two distinct ways: 1) they expanded the story itself across different media (the film and the computer game, Enter The Matrix), and 2) they used different media to expand and enrich the universe that the film takes place in (by telling other stories – in both comic books and animated shorts – set in the world of the film).

While you may not have the resources to work on a scale as large as that of The Matrix, that doesn't mean you can't think in cross-platform terms when conceiving projects: even something like a Twitter account set up and run in-character can be effective. Indeed, the possible platforms are endless: social media sites, live-action games, computer games, widgets, mobile phones, films, web shows, TV shows, live events, merchandise, websites, DVDs and comics are just some of the platforms you can consider to help tell your story.

Filmmakers have to acknowledge that the way audiences are consuming their work has changed: the sanctity of the cinema is not what it once was. Technology and the hyperactivity of the modern age have shattered it. Once this fact is acknowledged, the next step is to try and understand it and, more importantly, to try and turn it to our advantage.

Although it's true that genres like science-fiction may, in some ways, offer more obvious opportunities for a transmedia approach, it doesn't mean that opportunities aren't there for non-genre based projects too. For example, when we were in the development stage on Life Just Is, my producers and I had several conversations about the possibility of making a webseries to go along with the film. Consisting of five or six episodes, each episode would have focused on one of the film's lead characters and explored their lives in the run up to the moment at which the narrative of the film begins. In other words, the series would have offered a further emotional and psychological insight into the characters in the film by exploring some of their backstory. In addition to considering the webseries, we also discussed the possibility of telling these stories in comic strip form. Although the prequels didn't ultimately come to fruition, I was excited by the creative possibilities that they offered: as the writer/director of a film which focuses intensely on the lives of its characters, the opportunity to explore them in even greater detail was something that appealed to me.

The reason why we never took the idea of the prequels beyond the development stage was simply down to budget constraints, and when conceiving transmedia projects you will need to think about the cost of each of the different elements, not only in terms of finance, but also in terms of time.

However, while transmedia projects may well require a bigger outlay, it's also true that, potentially, they offer a greater capacity for revenue return: simply put, by creating multiple works, you have multiple products which you can monetise. And this is a key point to remember: each element you create has value within itself.

Another important consideration in conceiving a transmedia project is to think about how your audience is going to travel between platforms, and this needs to be thought about in terms of both the physicality and psychology: for example, how are they going to move from the cinema to the internet and, more importantly, what is it that is going to make them want to make that transition?

Here, perhaps, is where genre helps. Mystery aspects are a good way to hook in an audience, as is mythology: think about the buzz which surrounded The Blair Witch Project when it came out, another film which can be said to have utilized transmedia elements: again, they used the medium of comics, but they also made a television mockumentary – The Curse of the Blair Witch – which expanded upon the world of the story and made you want to know even more about it.

The use of the word 'expanded' here is key. If you want your viewers to actively engage in transmedia content, the work needs to add value to the story you're telling. It shouldn't just serve to promote a central product, but should genuinely help enrich the world and/or the characters of your story, because ultimately creating a world or characters that people want to find out more about, that people want to get to know, is going to go a long way to encouraging them to travel between platforms and seek out the further branches of your project.

Another point to remember is that not all audience members will engage with your project in the same way, so you really need to think about the way in which people will be consuming your work. Again, The Matrix Reloaded serves as a good example: half the storyline of the film was being told in other media, so viewers who weren't engaging with the project across the multiple platforms were only getting half the story. Literally. So you need to make sure that your project isn't alienating to people who only want to dip in and out, or to engage with it on only a single platform. But you also need to make sure that it's engaging enough for the viewers who do want to see everything.

One final aspect of the transmedia user experience that shouldn't be overlooked is the desire for interactivity: sitting back and watching as a passive viewer is no longer enough for many people. In his keynote speech at the Power to Pixel conference in 2009, film producer Ted Hope said that 'we have to go from giving the audience a monologue to having a dialogue with them', and many audience members do now have a desire to contribute back. Story Architect Lance Weiler has spoken about how audiences should be seen as collaborators, while Hope spoke in his keynote about seeing ourselves as enablers, not creators: we need to look at ways in which the 'crowd' can contribute to our work, and not be afraid to let our viewers create on the same level as us: why not allow the user to become the co-creator, and therefore the promoter, of our work?

There are many ways to encourage audience participation, from remix competitions to fan-fiction to crowd sourcing ideas. (For those of you who don't know, crowd sourcing means asking your followers to contribute ideas, storylines, or designs – or whatever – to your project, usually through an online community). Of course, co-creation is only one form of possible interactivity, and things like games or comment boards also invite audience involvement. But whatever approach you take, it's by turning the viewer into an active participant that you can achieve the highest level of audience engagement.

In short, the new technologies and the new ways in which projects are consumed calls for there to be new forms of interaction, and these new forms of interaction allow for increased revenue potential, increased audience engagement, and increased creative output. In other words: It is an exciting time to be a creative.

- Alex

UPGRADE Photos

2011-10-29T14:41:00.004+01:00

A few photographs from 'UPGRADE: Building a Creative Career in the Digital Age', the event that we put on earlier this week in association with Student Film Festival London. Photography by João Serejo.

The reception.

LJI Writer/Director and SFFL Programmer Alex Barrett giving his introduction.

Social Media Expert Justine Priestley giving her presentation.

Case Study Talk #1: Videomaker Simon Panrucker.

Case Study Talk #2: Director and comedian Mawaan Rizwan.

Case Study Talk #2: Director and comedian Mawaan Rizwan.

Producer Amy Mathieson talking about Transmedia.

The panel QA.

Alex Barrett during the QA.

Postproduction Vlog: Working on the Grade

2011-09-17T15:35:00.000+01:00

The Crowd-Funding Effect

2011-08-07T10:50:00.003+01:00

Although it might seem slightly off topic for this blog, I wanted to write a short post about Ginger Wildheart's recent success over at Pledge Music with his Triple Album Project. Why? Because we've always tried to make this blog interesting and informative to other filmmakers, and Ginger's record-breaking crowd-funding seemed like something relevant that we can all learn from. And, lest that still seems too random, there are also more direct connections between Ginger and Life Just Is: he's been very supportive of our project and kindly given us permission to use two of his songs in the film (more on which another time...). I've also recently directed a video for his Ginger Wildheart Mutation project which stars Life Just Is cast members Fiona Ryan and Andrew Hawley.

For those of you not in the know (and if you're not, you really should be!), Ginger is a British musician who found a following in the early nineties leading the rock band The Wildhearts. He's a prolific song writer who has worked on a number of projects over the years (including a recent stint in the Michael Monroe band), and who is now working on what is perhaps his most ambitious project yet: a triple album. In true independent spirit, Ginger decided he was going to do the album off his own back, crowd-funding it by pre-selling to the fans through 'pledges'. This is 'music made for the people by the people'. The triple album will only be available to those that pledge (a stripped-down, one disc version will later receive a general release, with the track listing for that version decided by those that bought the triple album). As always with crowd-funding, different benefits are offered for different pledges: £10 gets you a download version, £20-25 a deluxe 3CD set, £25-30 a signed version of the deluxe 3CD set and £100-110 gets you the albums on both CD and vinyl, plus your name in the special thanks list in the sleeve notes. All this info, and more, can be found on the Pledge Music Page, along with the amusing little video embedded below.

The campaign was launched last week, with 60 days set as the period within which to meet the target. But it took Ginger a mere six hours to reach his target, and within 24 hours the campaign had reached 200% of the sought amount.

So, how did this happen? Obviously it's impossible to know for sure, but the answer seems simple to me: because Ginger has built himself a loyal following of dedicated fans. It's important to understand that there was little publicity around Ginger's campaign, and the whole thing was achieved seemingly through a few tweets from Ginger and his cohorts Rich Jones and Gav McCaughey, and a few posts on Ginger's Facebook page.

At this point you might be thinking 'what does this have to do with filmmaking?', but let's break it down. Ginger's worked hard to build his following. Yes, there's the back catalogue of work, but there's also more: there's the respect and gratitude he continually shows to his fans, there's his outright honesty in speaking about his life (public and private) and there's his approachability (see, for instance, his Formspring account). All of this adds up to a personality behind his work, and one that his fans can access and, for want of a better expression, get to know. It's simple, really, but it bears pointing out: if you want your fans to actively engage with your work (in whatever medium you're working in), you need to give as well as take. Yes, the work needs to be good, but that in itself is no longer enough – you need to put yourself out there. Sure, if you're Terrence Malick maybe the mysterious approach works, but the rest of us need to make ourselves heard in an overcrowded market place. And how can we do that? By getting ourselves known as individuals with a personality that people want to (and can) engage with and support. Ginger's campaign worked because he inspires passion within his fans. And with a bit of hard work there's no reason why we, as filmmakers, can't do the same.

- Alex

Postproduction Vlog: Starting the Grade

2011-07-21T20:41:00.000+01:00

Postproduction Vlog: Starting the Sound Mix

2011-07-20T09:24:00.004+01:00

EIFF 2011

2011-06-23T09:57:00.004+01:00

I've written elsewhere about the changes that Edinburgh International Film Festival itself has undergone this year, but there's also been another big change since Tom and I attended the festival together last year: Life Just Is has been shot!

Prior to Tom and Christine's trip to Cannes in May we had a batch of branded USB datasticks made up, which featured a QuickTime video of our promo, along with a document containing a synopsis, cast and crew bios, and other important info. We also had a set of postcards of the film's poster printed. Picking up from where Tom and Christ left off in Cannes, I took these with me to EIFF and handed them out to appropriate Sales Agents and distributors.

The festival was quiet this year, meaning that I didn't manage to give out as many as I would have liked, but it's still been a worthwhile trip, and the emails I sent out to distributors prior to the festival (asking for meetings) have also resulted in several companies expressing interest in seeing the film, which is amazing.

In addition to Sales Agents and distributors, I also met a number of other filmmakers who were interested to hear about the project and offer me some invaluable advice. So, despite being slightly less busy than last year, EIFF 20211 has been another great experience.

On a related note, my film reviews from the festival will be appearing on Directors Notes over the coming week.

- Alex

The LJI branded USB datastick

Postproduction Vlog: Moving Along

2011-05-31T20:30:00.000+01:00

Messages from Cannes

2011-05-24T11:25:00.002+01:00

Life's Just Networking Photographs, May 2011

2011-05-11T11:34:00.008+01:00

Some photographs from our final Life's Just Networking event last night. I'd like to say a MASSIVE thank you to everyone who's ever come along to one of our evenings, and to all the filmmakers who have shared their work. I'd like to think this isn't the end, but the start of a new era... the first leg of our Life's Just Events journey may be over, but who knows what the future will hold! Thanks again to all those who have travel along with us!

-Alex

'Life Just Is' Associate Producer Augusto da Rocha before the event.

'Life Just Is' Associate Producer Roland Holmes before the event.

Filling up.

'Life Just Is' writer/director Alex Barrett (left) talks about his short film 'Canbury', along with soundman Jason Creasey (centre) and actor James Wallace (right).

Watching the QAs.

Director Thao Dang (centre) and actor Tom Ruddock (right) talk about their film 'Scot Tells Amanda He Wants to be More Man'.

Watching the QAs.

Murat Kebir, Writer/Director/Editor of 'My Dad and Spike' and Editor of 'Life Just Is', gets animated talking about his short film.

Watching the QAs.

Director John Michell talks about his film 'Barry'.

Watching the QAs.

Producer Jay Taylor (left) and Director Lawrence Page (centre) talk about their film 'Love Hound'.

Fiona Ryan, star of 'Life Just Is', talks about her role in 'Love Hound' and acting with her canine co-star.

Watching the QAs.

Murat Kebir (left) talks about his new project.

John Michell presents his new project.

Thao Dang talks about getting ahead and building a presence through Social Media.

Networking.

LJN host and organiser Alex Barrett (right) with LJN regular Ralph Stenzel.

'Life Just Is' casting assistant Barnes Cook with LJI flyer.

Networking.

Some of the cast and crew of 'Life Just Is'. Left to right: Alice Caronna (1st AD), Jason Creasey (Sound), Fiona Ryan ('Claire'), Alex Barrett (Writer/Director), Niina Topp (Production Design), Tom Ruddock (DIT) and Roland Holmes (Associate Producer).

Postproduction Vlog: Polishing the Fine Cut and Target Audience Test Screening

2011-05-06T11:12:00.000+01:00

Cannes Promo

2011-04-24T10:17:00.002+01:00

Over the last few weeks, alongside working on the edit, I have also been spending time trying to put together a short promo for Tom and Christine to take to Cannes. Distinctly not a trailer, the idea was to put together a short reel featuring several short extracts from the film (in case you're wondering: we want to concentrate on really getting the film right first, before cutting the trailer. Plus we felt that the extract-style promo reel might better serve our purposes here). The point, of course, is to try and raise awareness of, and interest in, the film among potential Sales Agents and Distributors. We're planning to get the promo put onto branded USB sticks which Tom and Christine will hand out during their festival trip (though we'll also be doing an online version to send to other contacts).

Putting the promo together has turned out to be much tougher than expected: our aim was to introduce all six of the main characters, convey something of the film's tone, its style, its themes and of course, its story - all in under five minutes, something which has been made even harder by the length of many of our scenes. Many of the clips we tried - which work brilliantly in the film - simply didn't work when divorced from context. However, Murat was able to step in and save the day, suggesting a great extract which works on its own merits and cutting down some of my choices, bringing us in at a punchy 3 minutes 20 seconds. It may not quite offer the all-encompassing setup that we had originally wanted, but I believe that it gives a good impression of the film and hopefully it will entice people to want to know more. We'll be doing a special launch for the promo, pre-Cannes, at our final Life's Just Networking event on May 10th, so why not come along and judge for yourself?

The full programme for our special finale will be announced on Tuesday, and features films made by and starring the cast and crew of Life Just Is.

- Alex

Life's Just Networking Photographs, April 2011

2011-04-21T11:32:00.006+01:00

Photography by Daniel D. Moses.

Battersea Power Station as seen from The Duchess.

People arriving.

Networking.

The cast of 'Bubble Burst'.

Networking.

Filmmaker Sankar Jayaraman doing some networking before the screening of his film 'Bubble Burst'.

LJN host Alex Barrett doing his intro.

'Bubble Burst' actress Carmen Gabriele.

Director Sankar Jayaraman is joined by his cast for the 'Bubble Burst' QA.

Simon Rickards and Augusto da Rocha talk about their film 'Retreat'.

Filmmaker Xavier Rodriguez talks about his film 'Prey'.

'Life Just Is' Executive Producer Christine Hartland relaxes on the sofa.

Networking.

Director Ben Hyland doing some networking after screening the trailer for his feature film 'Frontman'.

Sankar Jayaraman presenting his new project.

James Rumsey returns to the LJN stage to talk about an upcoming project.

Simon Rickards presents his new film.

LJI Associate Producer Roland Holmes watches Howard Cohen's presentation on comedy, 'What is Funny?'.

Howard Cohen talks about Community United National Television during his presentation on comedy, 'What is Funny?'.

From Paper Cut to Fine Cut

2011-04-05T20:03:00.001+01:00

I've been promising to write a small update on our postproduction for this blog for a while now, and I recently decided that the time was finally right (I was waiting for us to reach a natural point in the editing process). As it happened, my 'small update' grew into a longer piece detailing the whole process that Murat and I have undertaken up till now, and as a result I decided to turn it into an article for our friends over at Directors Notes. They published the piece earlier today, and you can now find it here: http://www.directorsnotes.com/2011/04/05/life-just-is-from-paper-cut-to-fine-cut. Enjoy!

- Alex

Poster Competition Ebook

2011-03-31T10:49:00.002+01:00

The ebook of our International Poster Competition is now online! You can find it here: http://www.lifejustisfilm.com/life_just_is_poster_ebook.pdf. To help celebrate the work of all the entrants, we'd love for as many people as possible to see it, so please do help us spread the link around in any way you can. Thanks!

I'd also like to take this opportunity to publicly thank Justine once again for all her hard work on the competition, and for assembling the ebook. Thanks Justine!

- Alex

Life's Just Networking Photographs, March 2011

2011-03-19T15:47:00.006Z

Some photographs from our March event. Photography by Nana Green.

Filmmaker Andy Poyiadgi doing some networking while the place fills up.

'Life Just Is' Writer/Director and LJN host Alex Barrett doing his intro.

Andy Poyiadgi (left) talks about his film 'Schizofredric'.

Miriam Rowe talks about her 'Home Grown Stories' Project.

Peter Davies talks about his film 'I Am What I Am'.

Alex getting all excited during Peter Davies' QA by Peter's reference to Béla Tarr's 'Sátántangó'.

The Fabulous Poo Brothers talking about their film 'Gasp'.

Fabulous Poo Brother Andrzej Sosnowski during his QA.

Filmmaker James Rumsey (who screened at LJN in March and May 2010), returns once again to do some networking.

Watching the presentations.

Russell Thomas Owen talks about his upcoming feature 'Welcome to the Majority'.

Andy Poyiadgi talks about his new projects.

Peter Davies presents his new project to the crowd.

Wezley Joao Ferreira gives an impromptu presentation about his work as DIT.

'Life Just Is' cast member Anna Brook enjoys doing some networking.

The Fabulous Poo Brothers doing some networking after their screening.

Alex with 'Life Just Is' 1st AD Alice Caronna.

'Life Just Is' Production Assistant and LJN Doorman Roland Holmes with LJI Executive Producer Christine Hartland.

'Life Just Is' soundman Jason Creasey (left) with writer/director Alex Barrett (right).

Teaching Aide

2011-03-05T10:10:00.004Z

As regular readers of this blog will know, two of the main aims of our production process (besides the making of the film itself) have been to be as open as possible about what we've been doing, and to actively engage with our growing community. Yes, this is ultimately about promotion and building an audience for the finished film, but I hope that it's also something more, hence my use of the word 'community'. People that come to our networking events will know the vibe I'm talking about, but I hope that people belonging to our online following do too...it's about open dialogue and sharing experiences and creativity. Indeed, one of the reasons why I've written so openly about the process of making the film is that I want to share my creative experience with others in the hope that they will find something interesting and, even better, something useful in what I've been through.

This week I was invited to take this to the next level, when Peter Harmer of Anglia Ruskin University asked me to contribute to a session he was giving to his second year Film Studies students. The session focused on preproduction, and I was able to contribute a first-hand case study, talking about the making of Life Just Is and using material such as our storyboards to illustrate what I was saying. The session seemed to go well, and I hope that the students enjoyed hearing about the film and getting a special sneak-peak of a couple of scenes.

Following on very nicely from this, yesterday I received a phonecall from Marvin Belle, who some of you might know as the editor of Directors Notes. As he later explained in a message written for this blog post:

I was tasked with teaching a session on creating promotional materials for the third year Media Production & Media Studies students at Chichester University. As an element of this focussed on poster creation with Adobe's InDesign, I asked Alex if we could use the recent Life Just Is poster competition as the basis.

The students hadn't ever touched InDesign or Photoshop before the two hour session - here are the best three of the final posters from Hayley Cummines, Jessica Brown & Leanne Prince.

You can find the posters below, and many thanks to Hayley, Jessica and Leanne for letting us share their work.

I'm very excited by the fact that the material we're putting out there is proving useful in a context such as this. (It's not the only example: back in January I corresponded with a tutor from Wales about something that Murat and I had discussed in one of our Vlogs, something which he was thinking of suggesting to his students.)

The reason why this all excites me is because it helps me feel like we're achieving our aim of providing information which people can get something from...which comes back to that community vibe I was talking about earlier. Hopefully that's something which will continue to grow, and to flourish, as the project progresses further. I'm aware you're all due an update on the project itself, and you can expect a piece in the not-too-distant future detailing both what Murat and I have been working on, and the way we've been working on it.

In the meantime, if anyone wants further information about anything that's been said in any of our posts or videos, or would be interested in having either me or one of the team come and give a talk, please feel free to drop me a line on alex*at*lifejustisfilm.com.

- Alex

Design by Leanne Prince

Design by Hayley Cummines

Design by Jessica Brown

Poster Competition: And The Winner Is...

2011-02-28T11:34:00.002Z

Well, it turns out I wasn't exaggerating last week when I said that Christine, Tom and myself would have a hard time choosing a winner. All of the shortlisted designs had their own merits, and deciding which one deserved to clinch the top spot wasn't easy. However, after much discussion we reached the unanimous decision to select Soledad del Real as the winner. We were particularly impressed by the way her design managed to set up the film's three main story strands and all six of its main characters in such a simple and economic fashion. I am extremely pleased with the final outcome of our competition, and would like to extend my thanks one final time to all who participated, either as an applicant, a voter or a panel member. The eBook containing all of the designs will be available for download in due course.

- Alex

Soledad del Real's Winning Design

Poster Competition: The Shortlist!

2011-02-22T11:02:00.003Z

It is with great pleasure and enthusiasm that I am now able to unveil the shortlist for our poster design competition!

As you will see below, the extremely high quality of the entries meant that our panel of industry experts had a very hard time choosing three designs to shortlist and, as a result, we decided to expand their shortlist to six designs! Participation in the public vote has also been inspiring, with people voting in their thousands. The top three voted designs are included in the shortlist below.

I'm sure you'll agree that it's a great shortlist, and I know that Christine, Tom and I now have a hard week ahead of us deciding on the final winner.

Thanks again to all who entered and to all who voted. It's been a very exciting few weeks and I look forward to announcing the winner next Monday.

- Alex

The Shortlist

Design by Suzanna Kagi


Design by Gerry Byrne	Design by James Gan

Design by Nassim Bahloul	Design by Sofia Gonzalez

Design by Soledad del Real	Design by Andrew Santoro

Design by Andrew Santoro	Design by Roberto Pujol

Life's Just Networking Photographs, February 2011

2011-02-09T19:01:00.003Z

The second event in our second run of Life's Just Networking was another great success, so many thanks indeed to all those who came along and made it that way! We'll be back at The Duchess on March 8th for more. Hope to see you then!

- Alex

Life Just Is Production Assistant and LJN Doorman Roland Holmes checking people off the RSVP list as they arrive.

Filling up.

Actor and writer Benjamin Green (right) talking about his short film Keeper.

Director and Animator Rafi Nizam (right) talks about his music visual Follow the Legs.

Actor Andrew Hawley (left) talks about his film Besties.

Writer/director Steven Dorrington talks about his mockumentary Toothless.

Life Just Is writer/director and LJN host Alex Barrett takes a seat to watch the presentations.

Benjamin Green talks about the feature version of his short film Keeper.

Steven Dorrington presents his new project.

Filmmaker Tim Berry presents his new project.

Poster Competition: The Entries!

2011-02-07T13:58:00.004Z

Yesterday marked the deadline for our poster competition, and you can now find the complete set of entries below! The public vote to shortlist three entries is running from 7th - 21st February over on our Facebook page, so please do stop by and cast your vote. Alongside the public vote, our panel of industry experts will also shortlist three entries. The shortlist will be announced on February 22nd, and the winner - as decided by Tom, Christine and myself - on February 28th.

I'd like to publicly thank all of the entrants for taking the time to submit their designs. I am amazed by the quality of the submissions and I look forward to choosing a winning design from the shortlisted entries.

-Alex

Postproduction Vlog: The Test Screening

2011-02-02T20:10:00.001Z

Postproduction Vlog: Polishing the Rough Cut

2011-01-24T10:18:00.002Z

Shorty Awards

2011-01-17T20:56:00.002Z

Earlier today we were nominated for a Shorty Award! We would therefore be very grateful if those of you with Twitter accounts could take the time to vote for us - all you have to do is write a Tweet with the words 'I nominate @lifejustisfilm for a Shorty Award in #entertainment because...', followed by your reason for nominating us. For more info on how to vote, and the awards themselves, please click on the badge below. Thanks!

- Alex.

Nominate Life Just Is for a social media award in the Shorty Awards entertainment category

Poster Design Competition: The Panel!

2011-01-16T11:20:00.003Z

With just three weeks to go until the deadline for our poster design competition, we are very pleased to announce the panel of industry experts who will be helping us with the shortlisting process. They are:

Robyn Larkin, What is Bobo
Robyn Larkin is the head of What is Bobo, a creative agency specialising in design campaigns for film and DVD including Winters Bone, Antichrist, The Disappearance of Alice Creed, Me and Orson Welles, and Fish Tank. http://www.whatisbobo.com.

Stacey Parks, Film Specific
Stacey Parks is the author of The Insider's Guide To Independent Film Distribution and the founder of Film Specific, which educates filmmakers about the complex world of independent film distribution and gives them the tools and resources they need to compete effectively in the marketplace. http://www.filmspecific.com.

Stuart Coles, Walt Disney Studios UK
Stuart Coles is Digital Publicity Manager at Walt Disney Studios UK, overseeing online publicity for theatrical releases from Disney Animation and Live Action, Disney-Pixar, Touchstone and select DreamWorks titles. http://www.disney.co.uk.

Justine Priestly, Really Bright Media
Justine Priestley is the Media Director of Really Bright Media, an agency for social media solutions; strategy, training and film. She is also the brains behind the Social Media Marketing of Life Just Is. http://www.reallybrightmedia.com.

So far the response to the competition has been excellent. If you'd like to take part but haven't yet registered, there's still plenty of time, so please download the entry form and return it to us.

The entries will be appearing on this blog, our website, and our Facebook page after the deadline, so if you don't feel entering is for you, please still take part by stopping by to check out all the designs and vote for your favourites!

- Alex

The Return of Life's Just Networking

2011-01-12T16:22:00.004Z

A big thanks to all those who came along to the first event of the second run of Life's Just Networking and helped make it such a success. I hope you all enjoyed the evening. We'll be back on February 8th for more, but in the meantime here are some photos from last night!

-Alex

The Duchess.

Filling up.

Life Just Is Production Assistant Roland Holmes.

Director Dictynna Hood (right) talks about her film 'The Other Man'.

LJN host Alex Barrett with writer Virginia Hayden and star Otto Baxter talking about their film 'Happiest Day'.

The cast of 'Happiest Day' during their QA. Left-right: Otto Baxter, Shane Chester, Ben Forster.

Animator Heidi Stokes (right) talks about her film 'Brick It Up'.

Alex talking to filmmaker Faye Thomas and actor Jack Gordon about their film 'In the Dark'.

Christopher Thomas Allen (left) talks about the making of his film 'Schlimazeltov!'

Life Just Is Associate Producer Augusto da Rocha.

Life Just Is actors Will De Meo ('David', left) and Jack Gordon ('Pete', right) with writer/director Alex Barrett.

Life Just Is soundman Jason Creasey (left) with cast member Lachlan McCall ('Lawrence').

Life Just Is 1st AD Alice Caronna with actor Will De Meo.

Life Just Is cast members Nathaniel Martello-White ('Tom', middle) and Jack Gordon ('Pete', right) with attending filmmaker Christopher Thomas Allen.

Postproduction Vlog: Reviewing the Rough Cut

2010-12-31T10:04:00.002Z

Postproduction Vlog: Working on the Rough Cut

2010-12-21T20:42:00.001Z

The Supporting Cast

2010-12-18T22:07:00.004Z

It recently occurred to me that although I've written at length about the casting process and the fantastic lead cast that we have, I've totally neglected to mention our equally fantastic supporting cast. In fact, they've been neglected to the extent that we've not even announced all their names on this blog. So that's something I'd like to rectify with this post! Without further ado, then, here they are:

Please click on photos for more info

Rachel Bright Anna	Jason Croot Walahfrid	Vanessa Govinden Michelle

Andrew Hawley Nick	Lachlan McCall Lawrence	Joshua Osei Vince
Niall Phillips Ollie	Alix Wilton Regan Zoe	Gillian Wisener Beth
	Anna Brook Waitress

As you can see for yourself, they're an incredible group and I feel very lucky to have had such high quality performers supporting the main cast.

- Alex

Postproduction, Stage 1: Preparing for the Edit

2010-12-09T13:08:00.004Z

Ahead of the first official Life Just Is edit session this weekend, I thought I'd write a small update on what Murat and I have been doing since the shoot. Although it was very tempting to jump straight into cutting the film, Murat and I both felt like it would be a mistake. As I'm learning more and more every day, making a feature is a complicated process, and it's important to prepare yourself accordingly if you want to try and get the best out of the project.

Right after the shoot I took a much needed break (or at least, I tried to), both to recover and to try and get some distance from it – I wanted to put the experience of shooting the footage behind me and approach the material with fresh eyes (if such a thing is possible). Murat, however, got straight to work transcoding, syncing and organising the files.

While Murat continued this process, I began to look through all the rushes. Before cutting anything Murat and I decided that we should know our material and get familiar with the rushes. So I started going through everything on a shot-by-shot, take-by-take basis, making notes (75 A4 pages of them in total!) on all aspects of the footage, working specifically under three separate headings: Performance, Visuals and Audio. Murat has used my notes, along with the comments from the logging sheets completed on set, to create a searchable database. That way, when we're three months into the edit and I suddenly remember that we have a take where Tom smiles a bit wider than he does in the take we're currently using, we'll be able to find it at the touch of a keyboard. We'll also know how many angles we have on each scene, what I thought of them all, and therefore what our options are if we want to change things around. Although creating all of this has been something of a lengthy process, it'll speed up the editing process no end and it's also provided me with the perfect opportunity to really get to know the material.

Watching playback on set.

While the focus on this period of postproduction has really been about familiarising myself with the rushes, I have also been making notes more specifically related to the edit. I've spoken before about my attempt with this film to reach something approaching a synthesis of form and content, and what this means practically is that we're trying to use the language of filmmaking in a way which goes beyond the illustrative. To this end, then, I've been noting down editing schemes for the scenes based on, for want of a better expression, the conceptual ideas that I had in mind when planning the coverage for each scene (now that the rushes are in front of us, it's important not to lose sight of these ideas, even if we ultimately discard them during the editing process). An example of such a 'concept' would be a scene featuring the characters of Tom and Pete. At the beginning of the scene they are arguing, approaching something from two different sides with no common ground. For this part of the scene the idea would be to keep them apart visually by using single shots featuring only one actor at a time. Then, when the emphasis of the scene shifts and becomes about their friendship and support for one another, we would begin to use shots featuring both actors within the frame. Whether these ideas will work practically remains to be seen, but they certainly point towards an editing pattern for the rough cut (which, incidentally, we are still hoping to have done by the beginning of the New Year).

Despite the heavy workload all of this has been, I have been working on other exciting Life Just Is related things, as some of you may have seen. Firstly, we're running a competition to design our poster. Special mention has to go to Justine and Roland here for their hard work in helping make this happen. Personally, I'm really excited about it because we've always wanted to involve people in what we're doing and make them a part of our process. All the entries will be compiled into a free e-book that we'll give away for download on our site, and we'll also be running a public vote as part of the judging process, so I hope that you'll all get involved even if you don't want to enter the competition directly.

The other big piece of news is that our hiatus is over, and Life's Just Networking will be returning to The Duchess on January 11th 2011. Can't wait to see you all there!

- Alex

Taking the Plunge

2010-11-19T09:58:00.001Z

A piece by Alex about the experience of directing his first feature has been published on Directors Notes. Check it out here: http://www.directorsnotes.com/2010/11/18/life-just-is-taking-the-plunge/.

Director's Portraits

2010-11-11T11:36:00.006Z

While on set writer/director Alex Barrett took some 35mm portraits of the cast and crew. Here are some of those images. To see the full set please visit:
http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=251446&id=74928943075.

Jack Gordon - 'Pete'.

Fiona Ryan - 'Claire'.

Nathaniel Martello-White - 'Tom'.

Will De Meo - 'David'.

Paul Nicholls - 'Bobby'.

Jayne Wisener - 'Jay'.

Niall Phillips - 'Ollie'.

Rachel Bright - 'Anna'

Andrew Hawley - 'Nick'.

Alix Wilton Regan - 'Zoe'.

Jason Croot - 'Walahfrid'.

Gillian Wisener - 'Beth'

Christine Hartland, Executive Producer

Alice Caronna, 1st AD

Niina Topp, Production Designer

Yosuke Kato, cinematographer, Alice Caronna, 1st AD and Tom Stuart, producer.

Alex Barrett, writer/director, as photographed by Jayne Wisener.

Tom Stuart, producer.

The Wit and Wisdom of Charmaine Parram

2010-11-05T15:21:00.002Z

One source of constant amusement on set were the statements that our costume designer Charmaine came out with. Here are some of her classics, reproduced for your reading pleasure...

"I think I have... but I don't think I have used this yet"

"Oh my God. I'm so cold, even my boobs are cold!"

"I got loads of overtime pay but kept eating pies. So basically, it was like getting paid in pies."

"Ding,ding, ding! Hello everyone. My name is Charmaine and I am very clever."

"I feel like I have never eaten before. Can someone teach me how to chew?"

(Crawling into the room...) "Oh! I am DONE with walking!"

"I hate this part, but I love this part where you have to eat all the food"

Jayne's Vlogs

2010-11-04T14:56:00.005Z

For those of you who haven't been following Jayne's Vlogs during our shoot, here's a full roundup:

And we're wrapped!

2010-11-03T19:54:00.000Z

Yesterday we wrapped, finishing the shoot with a day of scenes in which Pete (Jack Gordon) is alone in his bedroom. It was a great way to end. Jack gave us some heart-wrenching moments, and the crew was all on top form. I think the shoot has been something of an emotional rollercoaster for all involved, but we got through it and we came in on time and on budget. It's going to be strange not being on set anymore, and I'll miss my cast and crew, but now is also an exciting time. After a couple of weeks off to get some distance from the shoot, I'll start looking through the footage and then work closely with Murat to get the best out of the footage we've got.

But before I get carried away talking about our postproduction plans, I'd like to take this opportunity to publicly thank all the cast and crew for their hard work. It's been an amazing experience and certainly one I'll never forget.

- Alex

Week Two

2010-10-31T18:09:00.006Z

Week two has been tough. We've all had to work very hard to stay on schedule and the hours have been long for the last couple of days. But as well as being tough, it's also been another enjoyable week. The team is working well and we're getting what we need. Our camera went down on Wednesday, the day we were doing one of the script's longest scenes, so we lost some time and had to drop some shots, but we did a rough cut of the scene that night and know that what we have works. Yesterday we did our house-party sequence, which involved thirteen actors on set. The fact that we managed to get through the whole sequence in one day is a testament to the hard work that the cast and crew are putting in. Despite the pressure, we managed to keep the mood light, and some great ad-libs from Andrew Hawley and Jack Gordon had the rest of us in stitches (yes, I admit it, I'm guilty of ruining an otherwise decent take by not keeping it together, but it's really Jack's fault when you think about it...). As yesterday was Jayne, Fiona and Paul's last day we decided to take our group photograph. Just two more days to go now...

- Alex

The cast and crew of Life Just Is. Back to front, left to right: Mali Rosen-Rawlings (continuity), Louis Tarbuck (runner), Emily Lomasney (production manager), Lisa Smith-Milne (makeup), Jason Creasey (sound), Harpall Kaura (gaffer), Niina Topp (production design), Charmaine Parram (costume), Alice Caronna (1st AD), Niall Phillips ('Ollie'), Yosuke Kato (cinematographer), Tom Stuart (producer), Paul Nicholls ('Bobby'), Jack Gordon ('Pete'), Will De Meo ('David'), Nathaniel Martello-White ('Tom'), Joshua Osei ('Vince'), Andrew Hawley ('Nick'), Jayne Wisener ('Jay'), Alex Barrett (writer/director), Fiona Ryan ('Claire'), Gillian Wisener ('Beth'), Dean Hilton (focus puller), Tom Ruddock (DIT), Rachel Bright ('Anna'), Lachlan McCall ('Lawrence').

Shooting Week One

2010-10-24T22:31:00.000+01:00

Week One

2010-10-24T12:29:00.005+01:00

As I write this I'm sitting in the production office we've set up in the basement of our first location. In an hour Tom will be coming over and we'll be shifting everything over to location number two. It's quiet being here alone – quite a different feeling from what it's been like over the last six days. The first week of our shoot has flown by in a flurry. We started with perhaps the two most ambitious days of our schedule. Day one consisted of six scenes in seven locations, and day two was five exterior scenes, all of which were covered in single, continuous Steadicam shots. It was a tough start, not helped by the heavy rain on Tuesday afternoon. But we got there, and we worked through our issues. On Wednesday evening we shot the film's ending – also exterior – and luckily the weather held (as late as last week they were predicting snow, so I have to admit I was pretty worried for a while...). On Thursday we settled properly into the location, but we had a couple of tracking shots which slowed us down and which, naturally, brought their own problems with them. On Friday and Saturday we hit our stride and had our best two days. I'm very excited by the footage we got. Our biggest issue this week has been sound, largely due to the flight path over the location, and time has been tight. The schedule and budget we have dictate that we have to shoot quick. In some ways it's nice as I like to work fast and it keeps the momentum going, but time is always the greatest premium on a film set, and an extra few hours here and there would not have been missed. But luckily for me the entire crew has been extremely hard working and made it happen. We've run a little late a couple of times, but everyone has shown great patience and understanding and there's a real community vibe on set. The cast has been fantastic, both on and off screen. They're a great bunch of people and they've delivered some truly spell-binding performances so far. I'm very touched by the dedication to the project that the entire cast and crew have shown this week, and I'm looking forward to continuing the shoot tomorrow (but not so excited about the location move this afternoon...).

- Alex

Screen Daily

2010-10-22T22:06:00.003+01:00

Very excited that we made Screen Daily earlier this week! The shoot is going well - more news and more photographs soon!

Photographs - Shoot Days 1 & 2

2010-10-22T21:58:00.005+01:00

Cast Rehearsal, 16/10/10

2010-10-18T07:04:00.003+01:00

Production Meeting

2010-10-16T02:14:00.005+01:00

Last night we had a final production meeting with the crew to talk things over in preparation for starting our shoot on Monday. Here are some photographs, courtesy of our still photographer David Lau.

Left to right: director Alex Barrett, soundman Jason Creasey and production designer Niina Topp.

Producer Tom Stuart

Left to right: producer Tom Stuart, production manager Emily Lomasney, 1st AD Alice Caronna.

Left to right: focus puller Dean Hilton and cinematographer Yosuke Kato.

Director Alex Barrett and soundman Jason Creasey.

New Videos

2010-10-13T19:05:00.003+01:00

Some new videos fresh from our YouTube Channel...

Every film has its 'thing'

2010-10-12T10:54:00.010+01:00

As anyone who has ever tried to make a film will tell you, filmmaking isn't easy. On top of all the creative and technical difficulties, there are also issues of logistics: filmmaking is a group activity and trying to line up everyone's schedules can turn into a nightmare, especially on a microbudget production such as ours. It is therefore with sadness that I have to announce that Jamie Di Spirito and Hannah Tointon have had to leave our team, despite their enthusiasm for the project. Jamie has contractual obligations to fulfil, while Hannah has personal commitments which render her unavailable for our shoot.

Needless to say, we were disappointed to have Jamie and Hannah leave the project, but on a brighter note I am extremely excited about the new additions to our cast: Jack Gordon and Fiona Ryan.

Jack Gordon
Pete

Fiona Ryan
Claire

The casting for Life Just Is has not been easy. From overwhelming choice to scheduling conflicts, every step of the way has been fraught with tough decisions. But in the end it has all been worth it, and I know that we have a fantastic line up of extremely talented and passionate actors on board. As a debut feature director, it's everything I could hope for and everything I've always dreamed of.

-Alex

Workflow

2010-10-08T21:25:00.001+01:00

Things are hotting up as we head into our final stretch of preproduction, and we're all very busy trying to pull things together for the shoot. Although there's far too much going on for me to write about everything in detail here, I thought I'd write a quick post to mention a meeting that we held yesterday: Yosuke, Murat, Jason, Tom and I got together in the downstairs bar of the Curzon Soho to talk about workflow. One mistake I see independent filmmakers make time and time again is under-planning their postproduction route and underestimating the potential difficulties involved. In this respect I'm lucky as I have a very dedicated and experienced crew who agree that it's vital to make sure we have our game plan finalised before the shoot – and hence the meeting. We discussed a range of aspects, from kit to codecs, from paperwork to timescale. We still have a number of decisions to make and details to finalise, but the plan is certainly coming together.

-Alex

Tech Recce

2010-10-06T00:28:00.007+01:00

Yesterday Tom, Alice, Emily, Yosuke, Niina, Jason and I spent the day on a tech recce, visiting all of our locations to discuss the logistics of the shoot and the production design, and to try and finalise our shot list. Since my post on storyboarding, Yosuke and I have been through all of my sketches, talking through them shot-by-shot, on location, with a viewfinder in hand. Off the back of our discussions I've made a written shot list, added illustrations to it, and tramlined a script so that we know which part of which scene each shot is going to cover (this is also very useful for giving Murat a good idea of what footage he'll be getting in the edit room, allowing him to suggest further changes before it's too late). Yesterday's recce also gave us a chance to talk through the shot list from a sound point-of-view, a production design point-of-view, and a schedule point-of-view. I'm sure things will change once we're on set (inspiration will hit, the actors will want to reblock, the light won't be right, etc, etc), but at least now we'll be prepared and have a lot of notes to fall back on.

-Alex.

YouTube a-go-go

2010-09-29T08:51:00.009+01:00

Thanks to some great work by Justine, we now have a YouTube page! You can check it out at http://www.youtube.com/user/LifeJustIsFilm or watch our first batch of videos below. Enjoy!

Storyboarding

2010-09-27T19:54:00.003+01:00

Over the last few days I've been spending time sketching out shots for the entire film. Almost right from the inception of the project I've had a pretty clear vision of what I want from the film stylistically, so it's been interesting to sit down and actually try to flesh those ideas out properly. I had some notes and sketches that I'd jotted down during the scriptwriting phase, and it's been interesting to revisit them. Some of them were good, some of them were corny, and some were simply no longer relevant to the latest draft. Even though my new ideas have stayed true to my original intentions, I feel like the style has evolved and developed over the last few weeks. In putting together the talk I wrote about previously, in which I outlined my ideas to the crew, I was forced to really think my ideas through, and having to articulate them in that way was certainly a helpful part of the process.

I feel good about my ideas, though I know there's room for improvement. Tomorrow I'm going to meet with Yosuke and Murat to talk through the film, shot-by-shot, and make sure we're covering all the scenes in the best possible way. It's great that I'm able to include Murat in this process, as having his input and advice (from both an editor's and a filmmaker's perspective), means that we can go into the edit room prepared. I always think about editing when I sketch out my films, cutting the shots together in my head as I draw them out.

I'm really excited about the style that we're going for with this film. We're aiming for a total synthesis of form and content, which I believe should always be the aim of the filmmaker. Hopefully we're going to create something a little different, something which draws the audience in and really takes them all the way into the characters. I've written pages on all this, but I'll spare you that and just give you the paragraph we used on our one page pitch sheet, so you can get an idea of what I'm talking about:

'Life Just Is' will be understated and naturalistic, shot largely in long tripod-based takes punctuated by carefully planned camera movement. The editing pace will be meditative, while the soundscape will be calm and unaffected with little use of non-diegetic music. By using this style, the film will go beyond the realm of surface narrative and delve directly into the lives of its characters.

As anyone who knows me knows (and no doubt much to my crew's dismay), drawing isn't my strongest point – but I wanted to include one page of my sketches to give you an idea of my process. After the meeting tomorrow these sketch pages will be turned into an illustrated shot list. Whether the images are redrawn or not will depend on time and how many changes we make to them. We're still fairly early on in this process, so no doubt there will be many – starting tomorrow.

- Alex

The first page of sketches made for Scene 7 (page two not shown)

David

2010-09-22T19:30:00.007+01:00

We are very pleased to announce that we have now recast the role of David with actor Will De Meo! His details are below, along with Hannah's, for those of you who have not yet seen them over on our website.

Will De Meo
David

Hannah Tointon
Claire

Production Meeting

2010-09-22T12:29:00.005+01:00

Last night we had a production meeting. Our schedule is coming together, we are finalising our locations, and things are starting to fall into place...

- Alex

The crew at the meeting (l-r): Jason Creasey (sound), Yosuke Kato (cinematographer), Lisa Smith-Milne (makeup artist), Alice Caronna (1st AD), Emily Lomasney (production manager), Niina Topp (production designer), Charmaine Parram (costume designer), Alex Barrett (writer/director).

Camera Testing

2010-09-18T10:47:00.005+01:00

Yesterday Yosuke, Murat and I went to visit Concept Cameras to do some camera tests. There's a certain look that we want for the film so we thought we'd try out several cameras and a range of lenses to see how we can best achieve it. There are still a few points we have to think through, but the tests were hugely helpful and we now have a definite idea of what our options are (and the pros and cons they bring with them). So many thanks to Agis for letting us come and have a play!

Testing the Canon EOS 7D

Testing the Canon EOS 5D Mark II

Testing the RED One

After we left Concept we had a long talk about lighting. Lights are expensive and our budget is small, but the ideas are coming together and we're already planning ways to work around our financial limitations. Once the script is rewritten I'll start working properly on the storyboards so can solidify our lighting plans.

- Alex

Running up to the Read-Through

2010-09-15T18:43:00.006+01:00

The cast read-through. Left to right: Paul Nicholls (Bobby), Nathaniel Martello-White (Tom), Jamie Di Spirito (Pete), writer/director Alex Barrett, Jayne Wisener (Jay), Hannah Tointon (Claire).

So, the whirlwind that I mentioned in my last update seems to be continuing. Yesterday was our cast read-through day, which was a brilliant experience for me. But before I get to that, let's rewind...

It's been a crazy few weeks, but it's a very exciting time and we are inching ever closer towards making this film a reality. Enough funding has fallen into place for us to make the film, and our shoot dates are now set. As is always the case with these things, this fantastic step forward for the project came with a downside: due to scheduling conflicts Jenna-Louise Coleman, Joel Dommett and our original cinematographer Bartlomiej Sienkiewicz have had to step away from the project. They have all been very supportive towards the film and I'd like to publicly thank them for their time and enthusiasm, and wish them the best with their new ventures.

As the eagle-eyed amongst you will have already noticed from the updated crew-list on our website, we wasted no time in finding a new cinematographer, and I'm very pleased to say that the very talented Yosuke Kato has taken on the role. I've brought him up to speed with the project and I think we're going to make a great team. If we can pull off the things we're talking about then this film is going to look amazing. Yosuke is not the only new crew member, and I'm very excited about the fantastic team that we've been able to assemble for the film, who include Production Manager Emily Lomasney, Production Designer Niina Topp, Costume Designer Charmaine Parram, Makeup Artist Lisa Smith-Milne and our online social marketing superstar, Justine Priestley.

Equally exciting to all this is our new Claire: I'm very pleased to announce that actress Hannah Tointon has joined our cast. As the read-through yesterday proved, Hannah is fantastic in the role and a real pleasure to work with. It's brilliant to have her on board and once the film is done I know you'll all understand why I'm so excited. All the cast gelled so well at the read-through that I can't wait to get this film on screen so I can share it with you. I'd always imagined that it would take us weeks to get to the stage where the actors shared with each other in the way that the characters do in the script: instead it took minutes. There was a real generosity of spirit in everyone that I found infectious. Their input into the script and the characters (both through ideas for script tweaks and performance) is going to take this project to the next level. A character piece such as this was always going to live or die by the quality of the actors involved, and based on what I saw yesterday we are very much alive.

The cast after the read-through. Left to right: Paul Nicholls (Bobby), Nathaniel Martello-White (Tom), Jamie Di Spirito (Pete), Jayne Wisener (Jay), Hannah Tointon (Claire).

The read-through was very swiftly followed by a crew meeting (yesterday was something of a mammoth day, it's safe to say). I subjected everyone to an hour and half of me droning on about the style of Life Just Is as I see it. I talked and showed some clips and images from films which I think serve as references. I like to work collaboratively with my crew, so the idea was to try and explain my vision for the film in more detail: that way we're all on the same page and everyone can input ideas which lead in the same direction.

There's certainly a lot of work for us to do in the next few weeks as we lead up to the shoot. But after yesterday I am feeling extremely energised and ready to face the challenge head-on.

- Alex.

Moving Forward

2010-08-26T12:48:00.001+01:00

Right now it's like I'm living inside a pressure cooker. So many things are happening with Life Just Is that I don't know where to begin... so for now it'll have to suffice to say that things are moving forward and the project is starting to gain momentum. If all goes to plan, next month we'll be holding a read-through on the script with the actors, which is something I'm very excited about. The idea is to get their input, scene-by-scene, and to talk more generally about the characters and their relationships. I will then write another (hopefully final) draft of the script off the back of these discussions. To prepare for this I've been breaking the script down moment-by-moment and looking over all my character notes.

In addition to the read-through prep, I've also been working on finding more crew members to join our team. At the moment everything is a whirlwind, so I don't want to say any more... but I hope we'll have more news soon.

- Alex

Life's Just Networking Photographs, August 2010

2010-08-12T14:18:00.007+01:00

On Tuesday night we said farewell to the first run of our networking event with a fantastic night of shorts, presentations, networking and a discussion of the making of two microbudget features. Although we're now on hiatus while we go off and make our own feature, we'll be back at some point further down the line. As ever, you can keep up to date by following along here. The response to our first run has been fantastic, and I'd like to extend my thanks to everyone who has been a part of it in one way or another, from the filmmakers to the audience to the monthly team who help me run the events. On the production side, things are moving slowly forward and we'll be posting regular updates here as we roll further toward production of Life Just Is.

- Alex

Writer/Director Mike Rymer discusses his film 'Sick'

Writer Suzanne Heathcote discusses her film 'Covered'

Writer Joe Banks discusses his film 'Where's Alan?'

Writer/Director Marc Hardman discusses his film 'We Are What We Drink'

The Crowd

Joe Banks presenting his new project

Marc Hardman presenting his new project

Nicholas Paton talking about his microbudget feature film 'Macbeth'

Networking

Life's Just Networking Photographs, July 2010

2010-08-03T16:07:00.005+01:00

With all the excitement surrounding our casting last month I'm aware that the photographs from our July event never got put online...so, here they are! We're back at The Duchess on 10th for one last event before we go on hiatus, so be sure to come along!

- Alex

Some pre-film networking.

Stephen Fingleton talking about his film Driver.

Taking a question from the crowd.

Scott Cutts talking about his film Spicy Dealings .

Avgousta Zourelidi talking about her animation Dog's Day Afternoon.

Valmike Rampersad talking about his starring role in Get to Know Me.

LJN host Alex Barrett.

Casting Announcement

2010-07-16T08:55:00.003+01:00

And so here it is: I am very very excited to announce the actors that we have cast in the six lead roles of Life Just Is! Seeing them breathe life into the characters that I started creating so long ago has been a great experience for me, and I look forward to being able to share it with you once the film is finished. I can't wait to start working with Jayne, Jenna, Paul, Nathaniel, Jamie and Joel to develop their characters and create something special for the screen. More soon.

- Alex

Please click on photos to see biographies (will open in a new window)

Jayne Wisener Jay	Jenna-Louise Coleman Claire	Paul Nicholls Bobby

Nathaniel Martello-White Tom	Jamie Di Spirito Pete	Joel Dommett David

Casting: A Journey

2010-07-14T18:39:00.003+01:00

On August 27th last year we announced that Casting Director Jane Frisby had joined our team, and that we hoped to begin casting the film in the following months. We even opened a call for CVs and headshots through our mailing list. It was early days for the casting process and we knew that it would take some time, but back then we didn't know just how much time it would take!

Around October, shortly after Tom came on board the project as producer, we took the first steps towards casting, but we then decided to concentrate on developing the script and other aspects of the project, delaying the casting until we knew we were ready for that stage of the process.

This took us up to March 2010, six months after our initial announcement. But Jane was busy working on The Fighter's Ballad, her first foray into the world of feature film producing. Although at this time we could have progressed without Jane, we didn't want to do that. Tom and I were looking forward to working with Jane and we knew that her experience and expertise would prove invaluable to the project. So we waited. Then, finally, in early May we were ready to begin the process in earnest. We had a long list of applicants from our initial casting calls, so now it was a case of doing some shortlisting. This in itself was no easy process due to the overwhelming number of CVs to consider, but decisions were made and the script was sent out. Based on previous experience, we decided that we would shortlist twice as many actors as we were hoping to see - a 50% drop off was inevitable, we thought. Some people won't be available, some won't like the script, some won't be willing to work at a microbudget level. That's just the way it goes. We set our dates: 10th and 11th June for auditions, 15th June for callbacks. In other words, the casting would be done between my trips to the Hamburg International Short Film Festival and the Edinburgh International Film Festival and July would be nice and peaceful. If only.

What happened was this: the response to the script was phenomenal. Far greater than we had planned. Agents kept suggesting new people, our drop off rate was negligible, and suddenly we had almost twice as many people wanting to be seen as we had planned to see. So the 15th became a nonstop day of additional auditions (literally – from 9.30 till 6.30 with no breaks!), and callbacks were moved to the 30th.

With hindsight, trying to do the callbacks only four days after our initial auditions would have been overambitious. Even with a trip to EIFF in the middle, the two week turnaround was more sensible, allowing us to think things through, to plan and to organise ourselves and the actors (we were seeing the actors in groups of six, the number of parts we were casting, and this did take some organisation). The callback day went brilliantly, but there were a few people whose initial auditions we'd loved who couldn't make it along. So suddenly an extra callback day was added: Tuesday 6th July. The process was becoming protracted. But we had to get it right. I was spending days poring over the tapes and nights dreaming of various combinations of actors. My consciousness was submerged.

By the time the 6th came and went, certain things had become clear. Seeing the actors together had made us realise particular things about the group dynamics that we'd perhaps lost sight of in the initial audition phase. We soon reached decisions about three of the six parts, but we decided that before filling the other roles we needed to see how certain people worked with each other. So a final callback day was arranged, with a very select group of actors.

After six casting days, and many hours spent looking at audition tapes, our decisions finally became clear. It was like a weight was lifted; everything clicked into place. We were ready to make our offers...

And so, with that, the six main parts of the film are cast. Once we've picked up the pieces and caught our breath we'll be starting the process again, searching to find people for the remaining, secondary parts. But for now we can breathe.

We will be making an official announcement about our leads in the next few days, so please check back soon for details. Needless to say, I am extremely excited about the actors that I will be working with on the project, and I can't wait to move further into production on the film.

Before finishing this post I would also like to say a big, public thank you to all of the actors who came in to audition. We were constantly amazed by the high quality of the performances we saw and I genuinely hope to work with many of them in the future.

- Alex

Life's Just Networking Photographs, June 2010

2010-06-12T16:24:00.005+01:00

A few photos from our event on Wednesday night. Many thanks to all those who came down and helped make it one of our best nights yet. We're currently busy working towards casting the film and planning our trip to this year's EIFF, but we'll be back at The Duchess on July 13th, so I look forward to seeing you then!

- Alex

Filling up.

Watching Feral.

Ryan Haysom talking about Feral.

Miriam Rowe talking about the Home Grown Stories Project.

James Baker talking about Hickory Dickory.

Ben Cato Clough talking about When Copyright Goes Bad.

Ryan Haysom presenting his new project.

James Baker talking about his new project.

Ben Cato Clough presenting his new project through a musical performance.

A Small Update and Some Photographs

2010-05-12T13:42:00.006+01:00

Since our last update, Tom and I have been continuing work on the project, and things are moving in the right direction. As well as approaching financiers and continuing our fundraising activities, we have been approaching several bands whose work I'd like the characters to sing during the film. The idea behind these references is to help situate the film in the real world and, at times, to comment on the action of the film through the song's lyrics. Although I feel it's a bit early to be announcing who the bands are, so far things have been progressing well and we've been met with a huge amount of kindness and generosity. I'm also particularly excited to be able to include the work of these bands in the film as they are all among my lifelong favourites and have therefore no doubt helped in some way to make me who I am, which, in turn, has made the script what it is.

We have also been having some meetings recently with an eye to expanding our production team, and have now officially started the casting process and hope to hold auditions in the next few months. More details on both of these points will be announced as things progress. Meanwhile, our executive producer Christine Hartland is currently in Cannes, where she will be promoting the project and looking for investment. If anyone reading this would like to arrange a meeting with Christine while in Cannes, please don't hesitate to drop us an email on info@lifejustisfilm.com.

Finally, a big thank you to those of you who came down to The Duchess last night. It was another great evening and I'm genuinely touched by the feedback that you've been giving. We'll be back in June, so please check the website for details. In the meantime, I'll leave you with some snaps of the filmmakers speaking at last night's event.

- Alex

Writer/Director Will Kenning (left) talks about his film Road Kill

Director Nick Reed talks about his film After 8

Writer/Director Ben Hyland talks about an upcoming project after the screening of his film Reflections of Love

Life's Just Networking Photographs, April 2010

2010-04-14T16:12:00.013+01:00

A few photographs from our event last night. Many thanks to all those who came, and to the filmmakers who screened. We will be back at The Duchess for more on May 11th. Hope to see you there!

Michael Chandler (right) talking about his film The Fall.

Ryan Vernava (right) talking about his film Inept.

Pete Williams (right) talking about his film Cryptomnesia.

John Jencks (right) talking about his film Go Away Please .

Networking.

Michael Chandler presenting his next project.

Watching the presentations.

Actor Valmike Rampersad talking to Life Just Is Executive Producer Christine Hartland.

Life Just Is writer/director Alex Barrett with Maria Horn, Film Manager, Wandsworth Film Office.

Networking.

Update

2010-03-29T17:05:00.002+01:00

The latest draft of the script is complete and being circulated to financiers and developers for funding and feedback. It is a challenging climate, but the advantages of filming an intimate story with the latest technology and a small crew, makes the project eminently achievable this year. As we delve deeper to find funding resources the opportunity becomes ever more present. We will soon launch into the casting process and with Jane Frisby's assistance an excellent cast is on the cards. The next Life Just Is event is happening on April 13th. It is a Tuesday, but come down and you ll enjoy an excellent selection of the latest short films to reach our neighbourhood. Hope to see you in Battersea very soon.

- Tom

Life's Just Networking Photographs and a Special Announcement!

2010-03-11T21:04:00.004Z

Following below you will find a brief selection of photographs of the filmmakers talking at our event earlier this week (big thanks to all those who came!), but first, we are very pleased to make a special announcement!

From now on, all those who attend our events can enjoy a 20% discount on their first rental from equipment hire facility DECODE!

We're very excited about being able to offer this opportunity and would like to extend our thanks to the team at Decode for making this possible. Their kind sponsorship of our events means that as well as connecting you with collaborators we are able to offer a further hand in helping you get your projects off the ground!

To find out more about this offer please email us or speak to us at one of our events. The next one will run on Tuesday 13th April.

James Rumsey talks about his film 'Milk Man'

Duncan Robertson talks about appearing in 'A Beard Film'

Phoebe Boswell talks about her animated film 'The Girl With Stories In Her Hair'

Richard Edwards talks about his film 'A Year of Your Love'

Michael O'Kelly telling the crowd 'How It's Done'.

Teaser Image

2010-02-25T17:42:00.002Z

To illustrate the new information sheet for investors that I mentioned in the last post, Tom and I knocked up the following image, so I thought I'd share it with you. Don't forget that anyone interested in investing in the film can email us at investment*at*lifejustisfilm.com and request a copy.

- Alex

Broadcast Video Expo

2010-02-20T17:33:00.002Z

Earlier this week the Broadcast Video Expo took place in Earl's Court, London. I know first hand from past experience that it can be a great place to meet people and talk to them about upcoming projects, so in the run up to our visit Tom and I worked on a new draft of our one-page pitch sheet to take along. Armed with the pitch and the intention of talking to various people (and especially kit-hire companies), we spent a day walking around the expo and meeting people. Although we're quite some way off from rolling into production, we have now raised awareness of the project and made some personal connections for when the time comes.

Tom and I have also been working on a new information sheet for investors, which will hopefully be going off to people from next week, and, of course, I have also been continuing to work away at the new draft whenever time has permitted. I'm hoping to finally have a good stretch of time to work on it during the coming week, so hopefully I can thrash it out.

More soon.

- Alex

Redrafting

2010-02-05T16:10:00.001Z

Hello, I am writing to tell you about the latest draft of Life Just Is. After the illuminating read through with actors at the ICA Alex was put in the challenging position of writing with the audience in mind, and he has thrown himself into the fray with considerable success. The development of a script often requires endless tweaking. No doubt once we have cast a selection of up-and-coming stars of tomorrow in the various roles, and rehearsals have begun in earnest, there will be more changes relating to character and dialogue. At present the structure is there and the premise is straightforward, but now comes the most important task of bringing the characters and their interaction a greater feeling of the conflict of life. With the freedom and fun of being young while at the same time faced with the prospect of an unknown future and all the complications the real world brings. Early 20s is an intriguing and unsettling time of life, and Alex is striving to explore how friendship will see you through the confusion. There is still work to be done, but I feel the new draft is a benchmark for the development of the story of Life Just Is. The script will only improve. Being bold and venturing beyond the comfort zone to tell a story an audience will truly relate to has to be the final objective.

- Tom

Life's Just Networking Photographs, February 2010

2010-02-04T16:11:00.008Z

Wow. What a night! Big thanks to all those who came down last night and made it our busiest event yet! We'll be back on March 9th with another great selection of films, but until then here are some snaps...

Waiting for the films to start.

Life Just Is writer/director and LJN host Alex Barrett giving his intro.

Alex Sufit, writer/director of The Morning After, talking about her film.

Producer/Director Thomas Stark Holland talking about his film Lucky Old Bag.

The crowd watching the QAs.

The crowd watching the QAs.

Marcel Garbi answering questions about his film The Spooky Healing.

Networking during the break.

Alex Sufit talking about her new projects.

Thomas Stark Holland talking about his upcoming films.

The team behind the film Foxes in the Underground (Producer Joanne Michael and Director Daniel Nickson) present their new projects.

Networking.

Exchanging cards!

Networking.

An Update

2010-01-18T17:17:00.002Z

As it's been a couple of weeks since we last gave a progress update I thought I'd just write a brief account of what's been going on. Well, last night I sent a completed pass of the new draft to Tom and Christine. I'm not sure that the new draft is necessarily finished, but it's now at the stage where I felt that talking to the others would be beneficial before continuing. I'm feeling pretty good about it. It's tighter than the last draft and a few pages shorter, which I see as a big positive. That said, I think it stills needs a little more work before I'll consider it as the completed next draft. Hopefully I'll be able to meet with Tom and Christine soon so that we can discuss it further and then get it finished and ready to send out to prospective investors. In other news, we unfortunately found out that we weren't shortlisted for the iFeatures scheme. Obviously it's a real shame, but given the nature of what we're trying to do and the nature of what they were after, it always felt like a long shot. So we're staying positive despite the setback, and alternative plans are starting to take formation. More soon.

- Alex

Playing to the Crowd

2010-01-11T10:36:00.002Z

As we've always promised to try and make this blog interesting for other independent filmmakers embarking on their own projects, I thought I'd mention on here that I've just published an article that I wrote surveying the current landscape of production, distribution and promotion over on my personal blog. You can check it out directly here.

- Alex

ICA Lab Photos

2010-01-04T21:00:00.009Z

Further to Tom's post on our ICA Lab, here are a few more photographs from the session, taken by Deva Palmier, who runs the Lab. I've started to think properly about the new draft today, going through the script and the notes that Tom, Christine and I made in response to the Lab, and the feedback has certainly proved invaluable to the development of the project. I'm pretty happy with how the plans for the new draft are going so far. Although, in a sense, the changes we're making are 'surface' changes, I think they're going to have a big impact on the script. There's certainly a lot of work ahead of me in the next couple of weeks as I dig down deep into the story and the characters and filter all the feedback into concrete script changes. Right now I'm still in the thinking and planning phase, but I'm hoping to start the actual writing soon - if all goes to plan, the new draft will be ready to show the others by the middle of the month. I'd like to take this opportunity to publicly thank Deva and all the actors involved with our Lab for their contribution to the development of our project.

- Alex

Left to Right: Rebecca Eve reading 'Jay', Matt Prendergast reading 'Bobby' and Charlotte Workman reading the Scene Directions.

Left to Right: Matthew Thrift reading 'David', Rebecca Eve, Matt Prendergast and Charlotte Workman.

Left to Right: Life Just Is Executive Producer Christine Hartland, Writer/Director Alex Barrett and Producer Tom Stuart.

Left to Right: Shane Zaza reading 'Tom', Nicola Raby reading 'Claire', Matthew Thrift and Rebecca Eve.

Left to Right: Nicholas Banks reading 'Pete' and Shane Zaza.

Left to Right: Nicola Raby and Matthew Thrift.

Left to Right: Nicolas Banks, Shane Zaza and Nicola Raby.

Left to Right: Matt Prendergast and Charlotte Workman.

Left to Right: Christine Hartland and Alex Barrett.

Merry Christmas

2009-12-21T14:50:00.001Z

As we're going to be taking a short break from the project over the festive season it might be a little while before our next update, so I just wanted to wish all our readers a Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year! I'd also like to thank all those who have offered support to the project, from our friends/fans/followers through to our direct collaborators, and I hope that next year will prove to be an exciting time for the project!

- Alex

Please note that although we will be taking a little break, our next networking event is scheduled for January 6th and we will remain open for RSVPs throughout the holiday period.

ICA Lab

2009-12-15T20:11:00.006Z

Hello, to introduce myself, my name is Tom Stuart, and I am working with Alex Barrett and Christine Hartland to produce the feature film of Life Just Is.

On Sunday 13th December 2009 we made our way to the ICA in Central London to read through the script with 7 magnificent actors. To hear the script read aloud brought the characters to life and threw new light on the whole story. We were extremely lucky to have a talented group of performers who brought all their experience and imagination to play in the world of the script. Not only that they were perhaps the first collective audience of Life Just Is, and as such they became critics in the discussion following the read through. Getting actors involved in the creative process is a really superb development tool that is no doubt sorely underused by the UK Film Industry. A read through usually only happens once the film has been cast and production is imminent, often very late in the day, meaning any subsequent changes may be rushed and under pressure. A film script is hugely complicated and the process of making the film is inherently collaborative, so ultimately the earlier and more generous the feedback and co-operation, quite frankly the better.

Alex responded bravely to the honest but constructive thoughts and feelings of the actors. Taking the proverbial bull by the horns we met on Monday 14th at the BFI. We spent 3 hours analysing the drift of the discussion and picking apart what we felt was important, so that Alex might be best prepared for further work on his script in the light of this intelligent audience opinion. The aim is to enable a good script to become a great script. I thoroughly recommend a read through to any and every filmaker interested in writing the best script they possibly can, and as a member of the ICA you get a world class arts venue for free! An experience that is both invaluable and stylish.

I think this read through has been the biggest creative boost to the project since my involvment. I am very excited by the prospect of a new draft of Life Just Is, which Alex is aiming to produce in the New Year. Indeed 2010 promises to be a great year in the evolution of Life Just Is, so watch this space.

- Tom

The cast of the ICA Lab with producer Tom Stuart and writer/director Alex Barrett. Back row (left-right): Tom Stuart, Nicola Raby, Rebecca Eve, Shane Zaza, Nicholas Banks, Matthew Thrift. Front row (left-right): Charlotte Workman, Matt Prendergast, Alex Barrett.

Life's Just Networking Photographs, December 2009

2009-12-05T10:51:00.007Z

Last Wednesday was the December edition of our Life's Just Networking event, and what is there to say except 'What a night'?! Great films, interesting QAs, a friendly atmosphere and of course amazing people. The feedback we're getting on the event continues to be extremely positive, and I'd like to give a big personal thanks to all those who come along and to those who take the time to tell me their thoughts. I look forward to seeing many of you again - hopefully along with some new faces! - at our next event, which will be on Wednesday 6th January. We have another strong line up of films for you, including two award winners. Details will be uploaded to www.lifejustisfilm.com/networking.htm in the coming weeks.

Tom and I having a production meeting before the event.

Jason and I setting up.

Filling up.

Filling up.

Actor Morrison Thomas (centre) and director Simon Bennett-Leyh (right) discussing their film Who Cares.

Director Will Kenning (right) discussing his film Masters of the Universe.

Returning director Nick Reed (right) discussing his film Whoops.

Director Daniel Gill (centre) and writer Philip Gawthorne (right) discussing their film Modern Life Is Rubbish.

Who Cares actor Morrison Thomas (left) watching the QAs.

Masters of the Universe director Will Kenning presenting his next project.

Watching the presentations.

Tom talking to Modern Life Is Rubbish director Daniel Gill (left) at the end of the evening.

iFeatures and an ICA Lab

2009-11-24T10:38:00.001Z

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.

- Alex

Life's Just Networking Photographs, November 2009

2009-11-05T17:27:00.017Z

Some photographs from our event last night! As always, many thanks to all the filmmakers who screened and to everyone else who came along. Our next event will be on Wednesday 2nd December, and further details can be found at www.lifejustisfilm.com/networking.htm.

Filling up

Life Just Is Executive Producer Christine Hartland

Watching a presentation

Filmmaker Jonathan Harris after the screening of his film Hikikomori

Filmmaker Clayton Fussell during his presentation

Filmmaker David Skynner (right) talks about his upcoming feature Tea Shop Asylum with Life Just Is writer/director and LJN host Alex Barrett (left)

Writer Barry Lewis during his presentation

Life Just Is soundman Jason Creasey

The Ultimate Aim

2009-10-13T21:36:00.000+01:00

A complete synthesis of form and content must be our goal at all times.

Life's Just Networking Photographs, October 2009

2009-10-03T10:09:00.017+01:00

Some photographs from our event earlier this week! Thanks to everyone who came along and made it such a great night! Our next event will be on Wednesday 4th November (running one day early due to Bonfire Night). Please visit www.lifejustisfilm.com/networking.htm for further details.

The view from the balcony at The Duchess.

Life Just Is producer and LJN doorman Tom Stuart (left).

Networking.

Networking.

Networking.

Networking.

Networking.

Networking.

Networking.

Networking.

Networking.

Life Just Is writer/director and LJN host Alex Barrett giving the introduction.

Alex Barrett with Elisabeth Charbonneau during her Q/A session.

Alex Barrett with Barry Lewis during his Q/A session.

Alex Barrett with Jason Creasey during his Q/A session.

Nick Reed and Mathew Bird presenting their next project.

Nick Reed and Mathew Bird presenting their next project.

Music

2009-09-24T11:47:00.001+01:00

Making little-to-no use of non-diegetic music in the film will help force the focus onto the 'rhythm of life'.

The Role of the Camera

2009-09-16T20:01:00.005+01:00

When planning the film's camera movement and placement, it will be important for us to think about the camera's relationship to the movement of the characters: does it follow them? Or does it anticipate and foreshadow their actions? The former option would give the impression of the camera as casual observer, while the latter would imply the playing out of fate.