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On Friday 15th February around 9:30 am I found myself sitting in Bec’s living-room battling to get my head around AVID Express in order to start the first assembly of the Sleepercurve music video. Whilst having a complete nightmare of a time readjusting from final cut pro to the AVID I received a call from Lynne Stanford at Screen WM.

I’d be expecting the call since Thursday and was really anxious to accept the unknown number which had appeared on the phone. This was as on the other end of the line was the verdict to whether or not we had been awarded the Digishort grant we had been working towards for the last three months.

I had told myself that if we received the call before 1ish then it was more then likely we hadn’t received the grant as they would more then likely be giving the bad news out first. My heart faced as Lynn greeted me, I mean this grant could really help to establish myself and Tom and really build on our showreels which as it stands hasn’t changed much since leaving university.

Lynne wasted no time in informing us that we had been selected to take part in the 2007 / 2008 digishort scheme which now meant we would be making Liz John’s short film, ‘Spirited’ with Screen WM and the UK Film Council for a budget of £10,500. Its no surprise that I went absolutely crazy down the phone, jumping around the house and waking up Bec’s little brother who was at home on half term. I mean this is an amazing opportunity to really make a great short film with a professional cast and crew as well as a chance to really challenge myself as a young director who is still trying to learn the ropes.

From here we have a three day workshop with ‘The Script Factory’ and a meeting with Dan Lawson and Lynne Stanford from Screen WM before we can really make the push and go into fifth gear in regards to pre production, budgeting, casting, location reccying with our co-producers Julia and Nat Higgingbottom of ‘Aquila’.

My aim is to document the process honestly and accurately via blog’s which will be posted on this website as we aim to put ‘Spirited’ up onto the big screen. I’ll hopefully keep this weekly blog up, right from pre to post production.

My aim is simply to make a personnel record of the events as we try to make our first short film out of university and with the aid of some of Britain’s major funding bodies. It will hopefully be read by my friends and family but I also hope that this will be insightful and useful to any young film makers looking to learn from my mistakes and experiences…