During lockdown, I got into a groove of sharing my short films with a little blog on the background and the inspiration behind my short films. But then life, motherhood, existential angst and book edits got in the way so I didn't manage to complete the quartet.
Now, we are no longer in lockdown but floating aimlessly in the 'Rule of Six' era. I can't bring myself to subscribe to the governments latest Newspeak and call this post 'Rule of Six Film Share' so 'Film Share' will suffice to allow me to introduce The Introduction.
The Introduction came from the spark of an idea I'd been carrying around for some time before I wrote the script very quickly to submit to London Calling Film Competition when I'd suddenly become aware that the deadline was that evening. So it was with an equal amount of delight and surprise that I received the news that my script had made it into the South East Film Fund (SEFF) cohort to develop the film.
I had to put together a team of three to develop the script and pitch the film and so I immediately called two of the best film makers I know: Ricky J Payne of Invisible Darkness with whom I had worked on all my previous films as DOP and Editor and Grace Porter, who I had worked with as an actress on her feature film Between You and Me. A mini dream team.
The workshops in the run up to pitching were really interesting. We met some great film makers, learnt a lot about pitching a script and I had the opportunity and support to hone the script. Unfortunately, we didn't win the final pitch and so missed out on the funding but we held a fundraiser, begged and borrowed, attached a sound recordist, a assistant director and a male lead and made the film on a shoe-string anyway.
It was technically a very challenging film to make. The film is in real-time and was shot in a 'locked room' which meant the sound and film team squeezing into the bathroom with me and contorting into all sorts of shapes to avoid the mirror. The edit was equally challenging.
The feedback of the first-cut at a private view was really warm, but it wasn't until early thins year that the final edit was complete. Watching it back a couple of years after making it is strange- not least because it is about being stuck and I've just spent the best part of six months stuck in a house with a small child. It is odd seeing myself acting too. It's not easy to watch without finding myself being critical of both my performance and my writing, but there are bits I still find funny and, overall, it's piece of work I'm proud of. I hope you enjoy watching it!
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