In need of a little Christmas Miracle... namely funding!

We enter 2019 still in the trail of “10 Days in December”, a script we’ve been trying to get made for 4 years or more. We original thought of making it as a short, “One Day in December”. We even ran a month long crowdfunding campaign, which failed! But I think we asked too much for what it was. It also occurred to me, if we were going to put this much trouble into a short, and it’s a lot of trouble to do a short properly, let’s just do the feature! So, we set out on getting 10 Days made. 

The actual 171 page first draft of 10 Days in December

It took a while to write the script, we were both working full time, in busy demanding jobs, me at Apple, Maryann at Stanford. Not to mention the fact we had two small kids and no real support network, no family who could drop in frequently, take the kids for an hour here and there. So we would write at night, after the kids went to bed, between the hours of 9:30pm and 12:30am. Over the course of a year we got a feature script written.

Of course, that was just the first draft. So we started rewriting. I wasn’t really happy with where it was, or indeed, my own ability. I was starting to doubt myself. So I took some time out to reeducate myself. Blow off some cobwebs and unlearn some bad habits. 

The Rewrite

I did the Aaron Sorkin MasterClass, which was ok, I picked up a few hints and tips. Also the Ron Howard MasterClass, same thing. Where I found the most insight was from a book by Linda Seger called How to make a Good Script Great. It is by far the best screenwriting book I’ve ever read, and I’ve read quite a few over the years. It breaks down the process in the most constructive, practical and simplest way. It’s to the point, clear and concise. If you’re starting out as a screenwriter, or you want to get into filmmaking, start there. You wont regret it.

So I went back in. By now, about two years had gone by and we started contemplating shooting this thing. We were already going back to Ireland for Christmas, so we started playing with the idea of shooting it then, Christmas 2016. But it was too close, there wasn’t any money, so we settled on a proof of concept. We raised a couple of grand, gathered the cast and crew, booked the gear and we were set.

DOP Ivan McCullough and me talking shots

We came home for a family holiday with one days shoot planned, three days before Christmas. I thought it might be stressful, it wasn’t, it was wonderful! Everything I hoped it would be. Fun, creative, invigorating, we just wanted to keep shooting! Alas, we couldn’t, we had to go home. (You can see the result here.)

We went back to work and life, I kept working on the script and editing the proof, which took a while, and then, our third child came along! So, as you can imagine, life got a whole lot busier and whatever spare time we had to write, was gone.

But the passion for the project burned. We decided, if we really wanted to do this we needed to be on the ground, in Ireland, so, along with many other reasons, we decided to move back. We bought our tickets and we were on our way.

While we prepared I put together an application for development funding with the Irish Film Board. We applied, and waited and waited and waited... for some reason it took the 8 months to consider the application. They rejected it in the end. We were also sending to producers and production companies in Ireland, only to face more rejections or, in classic Irish style, no reply at all.

What kept us going through all this was the fact that it was landing with a few people. And the people who liked it, loved it. They understood what we were trying to do. They got the jokes, the homour, the atmosphere we were trying to create. Even when we entered (and got rejected by) the Nicholl Fellowship, the readers notes were 50/50. One reader loved it, understood it, got everything we were trying to do and gave it a “Yes”. The other guy just got hung up and why the characters weren’t sleeping together straight away, and that made it a “No” for him/her. 

So, baby number three came along, 6 months later we would immigrate back to Ireland. No work got done during that time. But we weren’t resting on our laurels. We organized a half-cast reading (full cast weren’t available on the night). It was great. Great to see some people again, others for the first time, and hear the script out loud. Made it closer to being real.

Cast Table Read - Earlier This Year

By the way, these actors have been amazingly patient through this process. I think if someone promised me a job and four years went by, I’d have walked long ago. But I guess it’s the nature of this business, projects come and go, some happen quickly, others take their time, need their time. I’m grateful for the understanding of fellow artists and collaborators.

So, here we are, entering 2019 and we’ve already been on quite a journey with this film, before anything has rolled on it, or come close to rolling. 4 years in we still feel like we’re at the start of this, still figuring it out, still learning. I hope it’s the Universes way of telling us it, we, just aren’t ready yet. Saying “Don’t rush it. When is time, when is ready, when you’re ready, everything will fall into place.”

It’s going to be a strange feeling when that happens. Finally. Really. Standing on set, calling “Action” for the first time. It will be a surreal moment. But a moment we’re continually striving toward. And no film I’ve done will feel more earned than this one.

Next steps? Keep working on the script. Get it right. Then, somehow, find the money. 

So, here we go, again, wish us luck, me, my co-writer and wife, my cast and crew. We’re going to need every ounce of goodwill and good vibes to get this thing made. It’s a miracle anytime a film gets made. And us starting to feel like that’s exactly what we need, a miracle! But then, it is Christmas, this is a Christmas movie, and if ever there was a time for Miracles, it’s now.

Keep paddling... that's Life

“The Book of Life” was on TV this morning, so sat and watched it with the kids, it’s a beautiful piece of work from Guillermo Del Toro as producer and Jorge R. Gutierrez as director. 

It is exquisite, glorious to look at and endlessly fun and entertaining, with real emotion running through it. It’s an action/adventure with a character in search for meaning and acceptance at its center. I remember when Coco came out, I think the two were in production around the same time, and Coco, coming from the behemoths that are Pixar and Disney, stole much of its thunder. 

This happens a lot, I don’t know what it is, genuine coincidence, parallel thinking, theft?! Gasp! In Hollywood, surely not! But it happens. I can attest to that, it’s happened to me a few times. I remember my old writing partner and I spent months developing a script about three friends, who lose a friend, and are employed to go to India in search of a woman. Then Wes Anderson announced “The Darjeeling Limited”. 

It ended up being nothing like the story we wanted to tell, but the foundations of the story were so similar it made it pointless pursuing it. All that to say, while “The Book of Life" and “Coco” are stories about a guitar playing hero, facing pressure from family to be something they are not, forced to enter the afterlife in search of truth and meaning... they are entirely different, unique, wonderful and worthy. If you haven’t seen “The Book of Life”, check it out, you’re bound to love it.

Filmmakers Side note: This is a tough area, you spend so long working on something only to have the wind taken from your sail by a larger ship. That may have set sail much later than you, but has the power to out run you. It’s disheartening. But you just have to paddle for a while, until the next gust comes along to carry you to different, often distant shores. 

Many of us set out on the same path, some just have bigger, faster, better funded ships. It’s the tough thing about being an indie filmmaker. You wish you could make people see your vision, make them understand it will be entirely unique and different to Director Goliath’s film. But most companies aren’t willing to take that risk. 

I once had a refusal based on a script I co-wrote called “The Race”. A cycling movie about an old champ coming out of retirement to race in the rás, Ireland’s largest bike race. They rejected it based on the fact there had been another cycling movie the year before, “The Flying Scotsman”, about and Olympic track racer... it’s like saying, “we’re not going to make “Saving Private Ryan” because “The Thin Red Line” came out last year”… they’re both set in WW2 and entirely different stories. 

Refusing to see the story as unique because it also has a bike in it is entirely narrow-minded and short sighted, but you’ll come up against this a lot. You just keep paddling, and wishing for a bigger boat. And maybe if you catch the right wave and land on the right shore you’ll get the bigger boat and next time you’ll get there first. The trick is, just keep paddling, because that’s life.

I Should Be Writing.

I should be writing. But I'm on facebook. I should be reading. But I’m on twitter. I should be drawing. But I'm on instagram. I should be creating. But I’m distracted. Endlessly distracted. 

I can’t blame these platforms. Sure, they’re a bright shinny shopfront, but I could pass by. Except I’m the type that has to go in. I’m the type that has to buy the thing. Even though I can’t really afford it and should be spending my money on rent, bills, food. My time on writing, reading, creating.

I’ve decided to trying something different this year. I’m not deleting my accounts, they’re still up there. But for a while I’m going to step away from them and really try to focus on my creative endeavors. I have plenty to do. So, instead of scrolling for 20 minutes on twitter and facebook, maybe clicking on two or three interesting articles in that time, I’m going to start disciplining myself to do something creative. To work on my script for “10 Days in December”, which needs work. To work on my novel, “The Cats of the Crescent”, which I’ve had for nearly 10 years. To work on some smaller, new ideas I have. To work on the stuff I’m actually getting paid to do!

I also want to get back to film, and rediscover my passion for it, because, to be entirely honest, I’ve lost it. I sat down to do my top ten list of movies of the year, and I suddenly realised, I didn’t have a top ten! I don’t think I’ve seen that many movies this year. I used to see movies all the time. Several a week. Some times a couple a day. I can’t do that anymore, I have three kids! If I see more than one movie a day I’m usually watch Despicably Me 2 17 times.

I want to get back to study. I used to read about film all the time. Books, books on film, on directors, on camera, on technique, on lighting. Articles in journals. I’d buy all the film mags, Sight and Sound, Moviemaker, Filmmaker, Film Ireland, Digital Filmmaker, American Cinematographer, Empire and even Total Film! Just to get a fix, just to be up to date on everything that was going on and coming out. I don’t do that anymore. 

I don’t watch a lot of film, I don’t read about films and I don’t enthuse and gush about films like I used to. I follow a lot of successful filmmakers online, indie and mainstream, highly successful, working, newbies and oldies, and they all have one thing in common, they love film, the gush film, they talk 95% about film and their love for it (the other 5% is usually facepalming something Trump has just done.)

I used to be like that. I didn’t have twitter back in the day, but I’d do it to whoever was willing to listen. And there was usually someone nearby who shared my passion, or at least, like film enough to listen to me waffle on. I want to get some of that back. Or rediscover film, in a new way. With a different understanding. Fall in love again, and this stage in my life. Before I make another film.

And I do want to make another film. I’m not doing it because I have to, or because I’ve found myself on this path and don’t know how to get off. I’m doing it because I love storytelling and I love film. I love what it does and how it does it. I love that it can surprise, delight and change people, at least, change their way of thinking in a moment, that may lead to real change, inside a person and in a community. It shines a light in the dark. In the dark of a room, and of a soul.

My plan, or, hope I should say, is to be distracted less. To study and watch more. To see more films. To read more books. To clear my watch-list, and the 200+ DVDs, among the 1000+ I own, that I haven’t watched yet! I hope to be blogging more here too. I’ve kind of let this go over the years. Life. But I’m hoping to compile my thoughts, edit them, and present them in long form here, rather than in passing bursts of hot takes. And I’ll post updates on projects. It’ll be more like a journal. So, back to it I guess, I hope.