We Won Another Award!

 

We are thrilled to announce that we have won another award: the Jury Award at the Mexico International Film Festival! We are very happy! Thanks to all involved for awarding our film!

We Won an Award!

We are very pleased to announced that Life Just Is won a 'Gold Kahuna Award' at the Honolulu Film Awards last night! Thanks to all involved for awarding our film!

Deleted Scenes

In celebration of our US Premiere, which takes place at the Arizona International Film Festival later today, we thought we would share these two deleted scenes from the film. Enjoy!

 

 

The LIFE JUST IS University Lecture Tour

Talking to students on the BA (Hons) Film Production at the University of Gloucestershire. Pictured with Course Leader, Freya Billington.

 

As we've always tried to keep our friends, followers and fans posted on what we get up to behind-the-scenes on LIFE JUST IS, I thought it might be worth writing a quick piece about the main LJI-related thing that's been keeping me busy over the last month: going to Universities to talk about the making of LIFE JUST IS.

 

After the publication of the DIRECTOR'S JOURNAL and SCRIPTBOOK in January, Roland and I decided it might a good idea to start getting in touch with film courses up and down the country. As a small, independent production, we always knew that a reasonable percentage of our audience would be made up of aspiring filmmakers, and as a film about recent graduates, the student and graduate market has always been of interest to us. So going in to talk to students about the film seemed like both a logical extension of our general aim to be as open as possible about the making of the film, and a good way to hopefully drum up further interest in the film and the books.

 

I suppose it remains to be seen how successful the lecture tour is in terms of translation to actual sales of DVDs and books, but it has been a lot fun. Plus, having a classroom of students listen to you talking about your film seems like a much more engaging and rewarding way to promote it than sticking up some Facebook adverts.

 

Hopefully the students have been enjoying the talks too. I've been honest and open in my sessions, so with any luck it'll help them on their way to making their own first features.

 

For anyone who's interested in finding out more about our talks, or in arranging for us to come and talk at your institution, feel free to drop us a line on info*at*lifejustisfilm.com.

- Alex  

America, Here We Come!

We are thrilled to announce that LIFE JUST IS has been selected for the 22^nd Arizona International Film Festival. The film will screen on Sunday 21^st April 2013 in The Screening Room, Tucson.

 

For more information on the screening and the festival, please visit the festival's website.

LIFE JUST IS: A FILMMAKER'S JOURNEY

For those who missed our event last week, here's a video of the introduction that Alex and Sam gave...

Books Launched!

Last night was the official launch of the two LIFE JUST IS books that we wrote about here. They can now be ordered from all the international Amazon websites. Links for Amazon.co.uk are as follows:

LIFE JUST IS: DIRECTOR'S JOURNAL (hard copy)
LIFE JUST IS: DIRECTOR'S JOURNAL (ebook)
LIFE JUST IS: SCRIPTBOOK (hard copy)
LIFE JUST IS: SCRIPTBOOK (ebook)

The event was a great success, and we'd like to sincerely thank all those who made it along – and especially those who stayed for the (hour long!) Q&A.

Some photographs from the event:

Writer/Director Alex Barrett (left) and host Sam Wigley (right) during the introduction.

Writer/Director Alex Barrett (left) and host Sam Wigley (right) during the introduction.

Writer/Director Alex Barrett (left) and host Sam Wigley (right) during the Q&A.

Writer/Director Alex Barrett (left) and host Sam Wigley (right) during the Q&A.

Producer Tom Stuart (left) and Writer/Director Alex Barrett (right) during the Q&A.

Producer Tom Stuart (left) and Writer/Director Alex Barrett (right) on the sofa during the Q&A

Producer Tom Stuart (left), Writer/Director Alex Barrett (middle), and host Sam Wigley (right) during the Q&A.

Executive Producer Christine Hartland at the book stall.

Genesis Cinema Q&A Photos

Q&A after our screening at the Genesis Cinema, 13/12/12. L-R: Niall Phillips ('Ollie'), Fiona Ryan ('Claire'), and writer/director Alex Barrett.

Q&A after our screening at the Genesis Cinema, 13/12/12. L-R: Niall Phillips ('Ollie'), Fiona Ryan ('Claire'), and writer/director Alex Barrett.

Q&A after our screening at the Genesis Cinema, 13/12/12. L-R: Niall Phillips ('Ollie'), Fiona Ryan ('Claire'), writer/director Alex Barrett and host Anna Delaney.

Fiona Ryan Set Tour

To celebrate this weeks release of our DVD in the UK and Ireland, we thought we'd look back to the shoot with this set tour, hosted by our 'Claire', Fiona Ryan. Buy the DVD here: http://amzn.to/TlCv3S.

 

ICA Q&A Photo

Q&A after the screening at the ICA, 09/12/12. L-R: host Philip Concannon and writer/director Alex Barrett.

Andrew Hawley Improv

When shooting one of the party scenes in LIFE JUST IS, the actor Andrew Hawley was asked to improvise. This was the result...

Riverside Studios Preview Photos

Here are some photographs from the Q&A after our Special Preview at the Riverside Studios last night. Thanks to everyone who came along!

 

L-R: Executive Producer Christine Hartland, Nathaniel Martello-White ('Tom'), Fiona Ryan ('Claire'), writer/director Alex Barrett and host Zena Howard.

 

Photographs by Jason Creasey.

As a small, independent production we are reliant upon the support and the kindness of people like you, dear reader, to help us spread the word about our upcoming release. With this in mind, we have created our profile picture campaign. There are three ways that you can help:

1) You can change your Twitter and/or Facebook profile pictures to the picture labelled 'profile' below.
2) You can change your Facebook cover picture to the picture labelled 'cover' below.
3) You can click this link and then 'share' the picture on your own Facebook page.

Of course, if you want to be really helpful, you can also share this blog and encourage other people to get involved!

THANK YOU FOR YOUR SUPPORT!

- Alex

Profile Picture

Cover Picture

The Stills of Life Just Is...In Motion

Trailer!

Here it is! Our trailer! Hope you like it!

Don't forget that public booking is now open for our BFI run, and tickets are still on sale for our special preview at the Riverside Studios. More soon.

- Alex

From Education to the Abyss - Share your stories!

While working on Life Just Is, we came to realise that everyone has a story to tell about entering 'the real world' after education. As Justine explains below, WE WANT TO HEAR YOUR STORIES! Post a video reply on Justine's video, sharing some of your experiences, thoughts, funny moments or heartbreaks from that time of life. This is a social experiment to get the conversation going about life after uni. We hope that by sharing these stories, we can shine a light on the issues faced by young people leaving uni today.

 

And, to get the conversation started, here some stories we've added ourselves:

What You Can Expect, and When You Can Expect It!

As you can imagine, we're busy beavering away getting things ready for our release in the UK and Ireland in December, and in celebration we have a host of things planned for the coming weeks. So I thought it might be a good idea to just quickly note down what you can expect, and when you can expect it!

w/c Nov 5th
From Education to the Abyss: Next week we'll be kicking off our video campaign, 'From Education to the Abyss'. The idea behind the campaign is to open a discussion about what happens during that awkward first year after you've finished University: we're sure that the characters in LIFE JUST IS aren't the only ones who have had life-changing (and life-challenging) experiences during that time. Launching on our YouTube Channel, we'll be inviting video responses to spark off the discussion. So, whether you have a funny story, a heartbreaking anecdote, or a terrifying tale, get ready to tell us about it! We want to hear all about your horrendous jobs, your disastrous love affairs, and your hilarious adventures… but most importantly of all, we just want to hear YOUR voice and find out what happened to you when you entered the gaping abyss of 'real' life!

w/c Nov 12th
The Trailer: The moment many of you have been waiting for – the official launch of the LIFE JUST IS trailer!

w/c Nov 19th:
The Stills of Life Just Is…In Motion: As we approach our release, we look back to the shoot with a unique behind-the-scenes documentary made from the stills taken on set by photographer David Lau. I'm particularly pleased with the way this has come out and wish we'd have had it in time for the DVD… be sure not to miss it!
Facebook Profile Picture campaign: A double-whammy this week! As well as releasing the video, we'll also be asking you to help us spread the word by changing your Facebook profile picture to an image with all the details of our release. As a small, independent production, we really need people like YOU to help us make our film a success.

w/c Nov 26th:
Andrew Hawley Improv: During the shoot it became apparent that some dialogue I'd written for the character of Nick (played by Andrew Hawley) wasn't long enough for what I needed from the scene. So I asked Andrew to improvise. Which he did, to hilarious effect. Unfortunately for me, the first few takes were ruined by our lead actors Nathaniel Martello-White and Will De Meo being so amused that they couldn't keep a straight face. Luckily for you, we're releasing this footage as a special bonus. Another one not to be missed!

w/c Dec 3rd:
Fiona Ryan Set Tour: Another look back to the shoot, this video features a short tour of the set, in which lead actress Fiona Ryan takes us around the film's main location and introduces us to the cast and crew in her own, inimitable style.

So, there you have it – what you can expect, and roughly when you can expect it! With any luck there will be one or two further surprises along the way, but hopefully this is enough to get you excited for now!

More soon.

- Alex

BFI Screening Details

Full details of our BFI screenings are now available below. From the Guide: 'An independently made British debut with a difference, Alex Barrett’s look at the difficulties faced by a group of friends confronting the ups and downs of post-uni life avoids the usual clichés. First, the concerns of the two sets of London flatmates are not all to do with sex ‘n’ drugs ‘n’ rock ‘n’roll; work, professional ambition, even religious doubt get a look in. And while sympathising with his vulnerable characters, Barrett doesn’t indulge them; deft dialogue, careful compositions and naturalistic performances leave room for wry humour as well as keen insights.'

Screenings:

Dec 7th: 18:40
Dec 8th: 16:20, 20:50
Dec 9th: 18:40
Dec 11th: 18:40, 20:50
Dec 12th: 18:40
Dec 13th: 20:50
Dec 14th: 20:50
Dec 15th: 18:40
Dec 16th: 16:20, 20:50
Dec 18th: 18:40
Dec 19th: 20:50
Dec 20th: 18:40

Tickets for members go on sale Tuesday 6th November, while non-members can book from Tuesday 13th. Click here for more details.

Tickets now available for Riverside Preview

Just a short one today, to tell you all that tickets are now available for our Preview Screening at the Riverside Studios: http://www.riversidestudios.co.uk/cgi-bin/page.pl?l=1350056750. Hope to see you there!

- Alex

Books

We are pleased to announce that we will be publishing two books to tie in with the release of LIFE JUST IS – "LIFE JUST IS: DIRECTOR'S JOURNAL" and "LIFE JUST IS: SCRIPTBOOK". We'll be bringing you more information about the books in due course, but for now here are their blurbs:

LIFE JUST IS: DIRECTOR'S JOURNAL

Graduating from a university film course in 2005 at the age of 21, Alex Barrett had an idea: he wanted to make a feature film. Flash forward seven years, and the idea has been realised as his debut feature LIFE JUST IS, nominated for the Michael Powell Award for Best British Film at the Edinburgh International Film Festival 2012. But how did a young graduate with no industry connections manage to get a film made, sold and distributed? And why did the process take so long? And what was the toll it took?

LIFE JUST IS: DIRECTOR'S JOURNAL offers all these answers and more. Giving an unparalleled exploration of what it takes to get a debut microbudget film made, the journal presents a fascinating glimpse into the conception, development, production and postproduction of a film.

Alongside its insight into the development of a film, LIFE JUST IS: DIRECTOR'S JOURNAL also builds a vivid picture of the development of an individual. Edited as it is from seven years of daily entries, Barrett's passions and frustrations are laid bare in full, while his honest, open and engrossing journal entries are filled with anecdotes, musings, reviews and thoughts which slowly build into a coherent philosophy of film and of life.

LIFE JUST IS: SCRIPTBOOK

Throughout the production of LIFE JUST IS, writer/director Alex Barrett has been documenting the process of the film's creation. In keeping with this open exploration of the making of the film, LIFE JUST IS: SCRIPTBOOK presents not only the final draft of the script, but also the first draft, thereby offering a unique insight into the film's development.

LIFE JUST IS tells the story of Pete, Tom, David, Claire and Jay, a tight-knit group of friends who share neighbouring flats in London after recently graduating from university. As they hang out, throw parties and navigate the new responsibilities of adult life, romantic tensions and existential crises begin to simmer beneath the surface.