Florida Shorts Film Festival Semi-Finalist notification
Florida Shorts Film Festival Semi-Finalist laurel
Semi-Finalist listing screengrab – Golden Script competition
IMPRINTs latest laurels
IMPRINT, the horror short script, has done well this week. It made it through to the Semi-finals of the Golden Screenplay Competition as well as Florida Shorts in the ‘best unproduced script’ category. Both festivals aren’t done judging yet. But it’s great news that the screenplay has placed in some more festivals. 🙂
Also, as a result of the Golden Script placing, I got a new badge on Coverfly. That was nice. I’m very grateful. It’s good news while I’m writing this current screenplay for BLÖDA. Have a great weekend everyone.
Underground Indie Film Festival laurel for IMPRINT
Latest IMPRINT laurels
We’re very happy to announce that IMPRINT and MR CLEAN are both award nominees for the Rotterdam Independent Film Festival. And IMPRINT has also been selected by the UndergroundIndieFilmFestival. In fact we were lucky enough to enjoy some amazing films as part of that festival last night. You guys missed out if you didn’t attend.
We’re awaiting the results of the Rotterdam fest – which I think are announced June 20th. But congrats to the team behind PATRON which won “Best experimental film“
Also, work on BLÖDA, the Pagan horror feature is going well. The main story beats are plotted. Now I’ve just got to finish off the character breakdown and write the damn thing. 😉 But I’ll be really happy to share the way I’ve been working on this, when it’s all done. Definitely have been enjoying a lot more mind-mapping and writing by hand, to get the creative juices flowing.
I’ve had some computer issues, one where I’ve needed to re-install my editing machine software, to fix a crash after installing a recent plugin. Got a little more work to do on that to free up some space on the drives too. But hopefully soon I can resume work on TUMBLE DYING again. Luckily, despite my system crashing, no data was lost. Just the time to fix it. But I definitely had a brown trouser moment when I first saw the black screen of death.
I hope everyone’s doing well. There’s been a lot going on – including the first Covid-19 vaccine dose knocking me for six. But let’s focus on the scripts and festival news.
MAGIC IS MURDER poster with Finalist laurel
MAGIC IS MURDER, the horror comedy script I co-wrote / polished last year, has made it through to the finals of the Beyond The Curve International Film Festival in Paris. It was a great test, to see if I had the chops to work on someone else’s feature screenplay and collaborate. Firstly, it was a good test to see if I could get it done before my birthday last year – and despite a heavy workload, it took me 5 weeks to do a complete rewrite. And it was a real pleasure to get to know the author and original screenwriter and producer Simon O’Kill and to collaborate on all of the changes. So despite it being a little unconventional, I’m chuffed for the team that this script has been received so well.
Next, IMPRINT, the very dark horror short script, has just made it through to the semi-finals of the Cairo Indie Short Festival and hopefully we’ll find out on June 10th if it progresses further in the competition. But super chuffed that there’s life in the project yet.
IMPRINT – semi finalist laurel for Cairo Indie Short Festival
I am currently working on the plot for another horror feature. This is a new project that I’ve mentioned here before. I have 1/3rd of the plot sorted for it. I’m toying with the title BLÖDA (aka Bleed, formerly known as BLÖT), for this pagan horror feature. But nothing’s set in stone yet. But I am making efforts to bring this one to the screen asap and get this feature project off the ground this year – if doable. I’m already on the hunt for materials to make some of the props I’ll need. As soon as I’ve figured out the plot, I’m knocking this one out in script form.
One last thing… I’m currently evaluating whether I should do a Patreon site. The idea being that perhaps I can share more of my filmmaking journey, including lots of unseen BTS materials, give people early sight of screenplays etc, more information on filmmaking and screenwriting tools, techniques and information, in return for some support to help me keep at this filmmaking journey. Hopefully the idea appeals. Please let me know please if the idea of a Patreon does interest you!
Today I learned that IMPRINT, the short horror script, is a finalist and had been placed in the top 7 short scripts of the Portland Screenplay Awards. It was in top 30% of 1000 scripts. And also, as this was a horror screenplay being judged against a diverse range of genres, and horror not being everyone’s cup of tea, I’ll that as an almost-won.
Screengrab from the website showing IMPRINT being listed amongst the other finalists
It’s been a while since we produced COMFORT HIM and now that the bulk of the festival run is done and key premiere’s have taken place, I thought it was time to finally release the planned BTS videos. There’s a deep production breakdown and three interviews to enjoy.
Watch the BTS – including a break down, test shoot and bloopers
For all those people who’ve been following the Blog long enough to know what SVEN GUNNAR is, I”ve got some great news for you. Well two things actually.
SHORT FILM youtube premiere – As the film festival run is almost complete. Darwin is releasing the short film on YouTube. Click on the link below to book a place for the premiere. It will also be released on Instagram and Facebook.
Click above to set a reminder for the premiere of SVEN GUNNAR
2. Feature film – secondly, there now exists a SVEN GUNNAR feature film script. At long last, after hinting at working on the plot for a while, and being blocked on it, I have a feature length script.
It wasn’t easy. For one, I had to write it around my day job. For another, I still had a massive gaping plot hole. But needs must, and I had to get this done now or risk pushing other planned projects behind. I almost gave up a few times, due to exhaustion, sickness, and work pressures. But it was important to see if I could get it done in 30 days and replot the end of the 2nd act and start of the 3rd act to make it work, to hit my self-imposed deadline of doing the script in 30 days. And I had to get it done now to clear the decks for other things.
I failed the 30 days part. Had to take a day off due to sickness, and then completed it on the 31st day. But it’s done now.
And it definitely feels like its grown beyond the original short proof-of-concept.
SVEN GUNNAR movie poster with laurels
Future of SVEN GUNNAR?
Who knows. For now, I have to get well, then move onto other things, and revisit it when I have some clarity on what works and what doesn’t work from a structural perspective. But also, now I can wait and see what people think of the vomit draft, to see how much appetite there is to take this script further and to find out what people love about it and what doesn’t work / needs fixing. And to have a few discussions about when, if and how we’re making it.
SVEN GUNNAR feature Title page
The script is currently treading a fine line between Slasher film and Action Thriller genres. It wasn’t planned, but it’s how these things can sometimes change course in the writing – especially when your characters start getting inventive when put under pressure. It’s also completely beyond the original no budget roots of the original short above. It will require a reasonable budget to proceed as currently written. But I think the script definitely delivers plenty of thrills and spills, as well as an entertaining body count.
The other thing is that I have a good choice of 13 potential names for the feature. I was never really much of a fan of the name SVEN GUNNAR to tell the truth. It’s different. But it doesn’t really hint at the content / tone and genre of the piece. But we’ve got some corkers, with one potential strong contender / early favourite to consider for the future.
However, I may yet scale it back a bit, take it more into horror territory in the next draft. But for now, I’m happy that another goal has been achieved for this year. And that people can finally see the short above, and we can find out if despite its flaws, is there an appetite for a feature?
Anyway, I hope you enjoy it. Click on the link above and enjoy the short!
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