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 An article about short film ‘Spirited’ has finally made into page 16 of the Birmingham Mail today. The article talks briefly about the screening held in December and touches on the funding process and inner workings behind the film. 

 Check out the article at: 

http://www.birminghammail.net/news/top-stories/2009/02/24/big-screen-debut-for-spirited-97319-22992222/

 This Friday I awaited the all important phone call from Dan Lawson of Screen WM. A phone call which would determine the immediate future of Ronnie Thompson and Colin Butt’s short film, ‘Stained’. We had been developing the project since being introduced in September 08 and are eager to get the finance together to begin pre production.

 The pitch went well but knowing there was a lot of competition surrounding the grants, with only five to be commissioned, I knew it would be tough to secure the funding. (Look at previous blog for more about the pitch).

 When the phone call came I was a wreck of nerves, having told myself we wouldn’t be successful. This meant I was so relieved and grateful when Dan informed us we’d be put onto this years Digishort slate. It was like being given another bite at the cherry, a real opportunity to up our game and make something which can really compete at the International Short Film level.

 The vist to Clermont had really opened our eyes to what we have to do with ‘Stained’. The script itself presents me with some great visual challenges but I also understand that I need to need to be bold, creative and confident in my direction, to deliver a truly special short, which will open up doors for all those involved.

 With workshops to begin on Thursday I’m really keen to push forward and get the this exiting short underway!

 ‘Stained’
Hard-hitting prison drama from director Lewis Arnold and producer Tom Knight, the team who brought us the 2008 digishort ‘Spirited’. The script is an uncompromising real-life account of life as a prison guard by Ronnie Thompson, who co-writes here with Colin Butts.

Today we received the news that we will be making ‘Stained’ as Digishort alongside Screen WM and The UK Film Council. We were luckily enough to make ‘Spirited’ through the same scheme last year, but now hope to really move forward with this new and exciting project.

The short film written by Ronnie Thompson and Colin Butts follows  Jamie Tyler and Ian Truman, both late 20s, both violent men and both in prison, however Jamie’s got the keys. A dark and chilling short film set to leave the audience unsettled after a shocking climax and revelation.

With Ronnie currently developing a slate of projects, including a feature film and a pilot for a TV show in LA,  he is defiantly a hot talent to watch out for!

 We recently made a series of Idents and videos for Birmingham City Creative Awards 2008. The videos were played on the event and are now being used in the run up to the 2009 Awards.

 Made by the team at Aquila. 

 So last Tuesday bought around the pitch for digishorts 2009, after a month of development with Screen WM. We were to pitch our short ‘Stained’ to Dan Lawson, Amy Newbury of Screen WM and Jude Goldrie of Lifesize Pictures, representing The UK Film council.

 The pitch itself isn’t as bad as you may assume, although I was still very nervous. You sit opposite ‘the panel’, as they casually ask you questions about the film and its current development. These are the kinds of questions you’d expect, relating to stylistic approach, audience, budget and script development.

 It was a very relaxed environment which helped although i did drink around a gallon of water to help with the nerves and dry mouth from all the talking!

 Overall I feel we answered all the questions confidently but you never know if they were the answers the panel wanted to hear as Dan is master of the poker face. 

 We are due to find out whether we were successful or not on Friday and I will keep you all posted!

 

As sad as it is we are excited to see that ‘Spirited’, has got onto the Internet Movie Database, giving Lewis and Tom their first imdb credit. 

We are unsure why some of the crew are missing and are now investigating to get all the cast and crew inserted asap.

Check it out at: http://www.imdb.com/title/tt1366725/ 

On Sunday the 1^st February Tom and myself made the long drive to Clermont for the Short Film Festival, taking about twelve hours as the dam SatNav took us through Paris!

Our intention was to really complete last years digishort experience by attending the Festival, whilst also preparing ourselves to better ‘Spirited’ with our latest project, ‘Stained’.

Unfortunately we hadn’t got ‘Spirited’ into the International Competition but as we were in the Short Film Market we decided to attended regardless and I’d say it was worth every penny.

It was a real eye opener to how many short films are actually out there! And like all the other few thousands filmmakers, we’d turned up armed with a bunch of DVD’s, which everybody was just throwing into the pigeon holes of unexpected sales agents and festivals!

 They must have been screwed if they were flying with the added weight of thousands of dvd’s! It made me realise a good marketing strategy could go a lot further then bombing pigeon holes like we did. Next time ey!

It also really gave us a real sense of what we and a lot of UK short films have to compete against on the global scale. New Zealand for example only commission nine short films, meaning each short has more finance, shooting and finishing on 35mm. Granted the ideas were also great too and they come for free to those lucky enough to have them! You have to check out, ‘This is her’ by Katie Wolfe, AMAZING.

A lot of the drama shorts we’re also very ambiguous with endings that provoked conversation and thought, whether you liked them or not. It really made us look back over our next project to see how we could improve our festival and distribution chances.

The event was also a great networking opportunity. You end up drinking, chatting and having a laugh with some of the real movers and shakers of the industry. With The UK Film Council, British Film Council, Sales agents and festivals all with a real presence out there it’s defiantly worth a trip!

Didn’t I also mention all the free booze and parties?

All the Galaxy Vodcasts are now online to view at www.youtube.com/LewisAEA

Made for galaxy FM and Global Radio these short viral’s take a range of different formats, with many of them including Galaxy’s FM very own DJ’s.

Look out for New vodcasts this year!