Arrested development: the importance of having the right producers onboard

It has been a long time since I had the time, focus and energy to write a proper blog update. The summer has flown by with busy ‘summer fun stuff’, a busy workload at the agency, selling our house and looking for a new home... and the developments (!) of my feature project, ‘Shadows’. This blog is about the trials and tribulations, the hopes and the disappointments and the false dawns and frustrations of film development.

Sometimes I get the
feeling  I've been here before!

Screenplay: the final lap

The last couple of weeks have been 'spent' on the remaining 10 or 12 pages of my Shadows re-write. I say 'spent' because only a very small percentage of time writing a screenplay is actually dedicated to writing (I speak from my own personal experience and this won't apply to everyone). The rest of the time is spent doing anything... absolutely anything... other than writing. I'll listen to music, do some photography, process pictures, reading blogs, looking at other photographer's work on the computer, spend money on eBay, see who's Twittering little gems of info, read a magazine or book... anything... but write that script.

Back on the screenplay treadmill

PCKNAEZ3C2ME Back in 2005 / 6 I had a feature project called ‘Shadows’, based on a screenplay I had written, almost ready to go. The potential financing package fell through and the producer at the time suggested looking at other means of getting the project into production.

By then, two things were happening in my life that prompted me to put the project, and filmmaking in general, on the back burner. First and foremost, my wife was pregnant with our first (and only) child. Added to this, we had become heirs to a dilapidated 400 year old farmhouse that we decided would become our home. The task was immense. It was clear that I couldn’t focus on a film project properly with these things happening in my life... and I certainly wasn’t going to pack my bags and disappear for a year playing movie-maker while leaving my wife with a new-born baby to contend with and the renovation of the farmhouse.

So... what’s the plan?

Now my blog is up and running (I wanted to see if the first post goes up to satisfaction before really getting going)!

As my profile and header states... I am a screenwriter, director, photographer and head of creative & audio visual production at the Malta branch of an international integrated communications agency. As well as the obvious interests such as film, books and photography, I am also a big football fan (my team is the ‘legendary’ English lower league club Southend United, but, by way of an apology, I also look out for Liverpool as my Premiership club), world food lover and a wine, malt whisky, cognac and cachaca guzzler (not always all at the same time). Oh... Southend United's nickname is 'The Shrimpers', so that will explain my blog's title.