Pale Stone Podcast Episode 2

Episode 2 is up! 

Here I interview Maryann Koopman. 

Former film researcher and co-ordinator of 

the Heartland Film Festival in America.

This is part one of the interview, with 2 more parts to come.

We discuss the behind the scenes of the film festival world, 

Independent film and there's plenty of info 

and tips on entering film festivals.

Part 2 coming soon.

Enjoy!

 

Oh, and Happy Halloween!!!

Episode 1 is Up

Episode 1 of the Pale Stone Podcast is up!

This is just an intro, not much advice imparted.

But I hope you enjoy nonetheless. 

Next week: Maryann Koopman. 

Former Film Researcher and Co-ordinator of the 

Heartland Film Festival in the US.

With advice on the dos and don'ts of entering festivals!!!

Should be good.

Clippings

More for my own benefit, and indeed for the interest of others, I've decided to compiled my news clippings here.

IFTN 1: "Jason Byrne Leads Emily's Song"

IFTN 2: "Shooting Wrap on Emily's Song"

IFTN 3: "Emily's Song Wins US Award"

IFTN 4: "Emily's Song Selected for Oberhausen"

IFTN 5: "Emily's Song Honoured at Oberhausen"

IFTN 6: "Jason Byrne is Paddy Muck"

IFTN 7: "Bill, For Short Screens at Electric Picnic"

IFNT 8: "Bill, For Short Selected for Heartland Film Festival"

Crewger 1: "Bill, For Short Selected for Heartland Film Festival"

Crewger 2: "The Pale Stone Podcast"

Crewger 3: "Crewger Links to Pale Stone Blog"

The First Pale Stone Podcast

Here, at last, is the LMFM interview with Daire Nelson. 

Click below. Enjoy.

(From now on the latest podcasts will 

be posted on the right below the intro.)

The Moon Blog

I want to link you into a friend of mine, at least, we were friends through college 8 years ago, but we've been back in touch recently. Stephen Mooney, he's a comic book artist. His stuff is great. Check out on his site and his blog:

www.moondog.cc

www.moondog-themoonblog.blogspot.com/

You'll enjoy it.

The Week In Review

What have I been up to? Well, I got married on Tuesday, so that was something! But being  as this is my professional blog I wont go to much into my personal life! Needless to say I'm very happy and excited about it!

In other news: 

Thomas and I are still working on Night, at least, we're trying to. Thomas is as busy as ever lecturing at College, particularly as the college is going through so many changes, what with the state of the economy and lack of funding. (Why is it when the economy is in trouble the first thing the government cut is education?!) Hopefully we'll get back to it soon. It's going well and I'm looking forward to getting it finished. 

I'm also working with a new writer, Caroline Farrell, on a beautiful short script she wrote called ADAM. More on that soon. It's the first script I've worked on outside my own or those with Thomas and it's proving to be an interesting and enjoyable process. 

I did a rewrite on Slán agus Beannacht. Opened with a punch. Tightened it up. It's a better script for it. I may look into shooting it next year. It's a complicated one though. I think I can do it for nothing and still make it a moving and effective film. But it has a large cast for a short and at least two complicated scenes, one involving someone in intensive care strapped to a life support machine! I may have to lose that one!?! But I'm sure if I put out a casting call I'll find the people I need to make it a reality.

I'm waiting to see how things pan out for the rest of this year, especially with Night, before I decide what I'm going to do next. The idea is to get a feature film made, so that is number one on the list, but I do like the shorts I'm working on. If the script for Night isn't finished by the end of the year and if the momentum doesn't pick up in the new year I may move onto shooting them sooner rather than later. It's all about momentum.

I'm also in the process of organising a reading of Ghoster with a theatre group (more on who and where later) with a view to turning into a stage play. However, I have absolutely no theatre experience, I've never even been to a play! So I'm not sure yet how viable that would be. I'd still like to make a feature with it. The reading will be helpful no matter what way I go. More news soon.

Some new stories in the works: A horror story called Scarlet Street and a piece of nostalgic drama called Leavio. If I ever find the time they might become screenplays one day!  

That's all my news for this week. More soon. Stay tuned for news and announcements. I'm sure it's all about to kick off any day now!!! Thanks for reading. Bye for now.

Linking in

Little mention on Crewger here. Thanks again to Brendan and the all the folks for linking people in. Hopefully I'll have some exciting news here soon for you. 

Week in review tomorrow. I promise! I missed last week, but I guess there were a few posts in between. I'll try to think of something exciting between now and then! If you hear a grinding noise off in the distance that'll be my brain.

More tomorrow.

Advice/Stories/Thoughts

I have been posting on FilmmakersNetork.ie for the last few months, it's been fun. It's a great place to ask advice, offer advice and share experiences.

I happen to think much of my advice has been pretty good, it's all truthful, so it must be of use to some people. So I've decided to post it all on my blog, not here though, cos this be the news page... but click on 'Asides', just to the left there, and you'll get all my post from the forum.

Hope you find them interesting and useful.

Enjoy.

Frank

Live On Air

Just back from the interview with Daire Nelson on LMFM. It went very well. I enjoyed it immensely. We talked about Bill himself, the film, my career so far and what's to come. 

(My folks taped the show, so I'll try to make a digital transfer and post it here at a later date.)

Thanks to Daire for finding the time in his show to fit me in and help promote Bill, For Short, the support is most appreciated. And thanks to Sinead Brassil for everything.

It certainly is odd to find myself in a radio station talking about this film, if you scroll down to the first mention of Bill it was something that almost didn't even happen. But now it's out there it seems to have taken on a life of it's own. 

It'll be interesting to see where it leads me next.

Thanks again LMFM, thanks for the support!

Video Killed the Radio Star.

I'm being interviewed on radio tomorrow about Bill, For Short.

Tune in to LM/FM on 95.8 Fm at 12:15 pm approx.

You can also listen online by clicking below.

Enjoy.

The Week in Review

I really should make more of an effort to blog more, at least once a week, I've only written 20 blogs all year! That's it, from now on, every Friday, there will be a new blog. 

So it's friday. The week in review... balls! This means I have to come up with something worth writing! 

Well, work on Night is progressing well. We had a writing session this morning that was very tough but went well. I think I'm finding that we're morning writers. We get about three good hours in and then we're zonked! I mean, I can write for hours by myself, but it's much more leisurely, I can set my own pace, take breaks and take it slow. But when Thomas and I write together it's pretty full on. But it's good.

The local paper did an interview with me about Bill, For Short that was in this weeks paper. I'd add a jpeg or something but my computer wont let me upload files over 2kb! It's a joke, but it's one it's last legs. The disc drive stopped working, then the ethernet connection, now the screen stays black when I wake it up from sleep and I have to re start it to get it going and the internet connection keeps dropping... and it's only 2 and half years old! That was €1300 well spent! Great investment. Go Mac!

Anyway, the interview in the paper just talked about how I couldn't attend the premiere of the film in Indianapolis because I'm getting married, to Maryann, who I met at the same festival two years ago after see picked my film when she worked there! It's all very romantic!

News on Emily's Song again. It will be screening in November in Australia across 8 screens nationally as part of a Heart of Gold Film Festival retrospective. So that's great news. It means Emily's Song will be seen by many more people. So that's over two year ES has been screening around the world. And it will continue to do so, as we also sold to minimovies.com.  

I think that's everything. Tune in next Friday for the new weekly Pale Stone Productions update.

News

Here's an article from Crewger.ie. Crewger is a new website for independent filmmakers. 

Bill's Got Heart

I'm proud, excited, delighted, thrilled to announce that Bill, For Short has made Official Selection at the Heartland Film Festival.

It's more then I could have hoped for or imagined was possible. After all, we shot the film in a day and a half for no money! But the idea for the film took a year to form and it came from an honest and meaningful place. 

In many ways the film is reflective of the man it was about. It was made for no money, but it came from the heart with nothing but honesty. Like my Grandfather, a poor man, never had much money but he was always honest and always loving.

The festival opens on October 16th in Indianapolis and during that week Bill, For Short will screen eight times across the city.

Emily's Song won the Crystal Heart Award at the festival in 2006. In fact I think my first blog here came just before that festival. Wow! That mean's this blog is over two years old! Anyway, It's a great festival and I'm only sorry I can't go again this year. It looks like they have a good line up of films. Their opening film is The Boy in the Striped Pajamas.

Hopefully this will be the start of more for Bill, For Short, but even if it is not I'm excited to be a part of Heartland once again.

As I wont be able to attend I'd like to thank everyone involved for the work they did. My brother Noel for giving up his weekend to walk around in 50 year-old uncomfortable shoes in the cold and rain. To John Lawler, who's abounding energy and enthusiasm drove the film and skill as a cameraman helped capture some wonderful images. To my Mother, for delving deep into her heart and past to find painful memories that helped me get a clearer picture of Bill. And to Maryann, my fiancé, for encouraging me to tell this story, it probably never would have been done if it wasn't for her. Thanks all.

Nighty Night

Hello,

First my apologies for not having posted in a while and not posting that well when I have! Did I mention that I have moved all unrelated material to 'Asides' over on the left? So anything that is not directly related to Pale Stone Productions, stories, poems, thoughts etc will be posted there.

Unfortunately there's not much going on at the moment. Except for the fact that I'm preparing for my wedding, which is less than two months, so that's mainly what I've been doing.

I am writing a new feature script with Thomas however. It's called NIGHT. It's based on an idea Thomas had. We've been trying to get to it since July, grabbing a week when we could and a day or even hour here and there. But it's going well despite that and I'm enjoying writing it a lot. I'm very excited about it I have to say. 

I could say when we hope to shoot, Thomas and I will co-direct, but I'd just look foolish when that doesn't happen! So I'll keep it under wraps until I know for sure. At the moment we're just trying to get the second draft done.

I don't want to say much about it though, story wise, at least not yet, except to say that it is dark and violent noir like thriller. So it's very different from anything Thomas and I have ever written before. We do tend to gravitated toward drama and comedy. 

However, on my own I tend to go for the darker stuff, BLOOD DIRT MONEY, the terrible first feature I wrote that brought Thomas and I together was in the same vein as this one. BAD MOON and NEVERMORE are both dark and violent. Maybe that's why I'm enjoying this one so much!

We should have this draft finish soon I hope. Stag parties, Weddings and honeymoons might delay things, but hopefully not too much! 

We also have something special planned for this particular script. Something I've been thinking about doing for a long time and something that always comes up when a new script is finished. But I wont tell you. I'll just show you when it's done. It'll be posted here first.

OK, that's all from me for now. Hopefully more soon.

Here's an interesting interview with Chris Nolan on The Dark Knight. I've added it because he talks about Noir. Enjoy.

SDGI Finders Series

I went to the Screen Directors Guild of Ireland Finders Series event  a couple of nights ago. Tomm Moore picked up the SDGI Finders Series Award for his Animated Feature "Brendan and the Secret of Kells" 

It was a fairly dull night over all it must be said. I'm sure other people had a wonderful time, but I think I would have rather been anywhere else. But it had its moments I suppose. Met some old friends, made some new ones. John Carney gave a short speech, which was funny. Michael Apted did too and then made the presentation. I met him at the Heartland Film Festival, he's a nice man.

The award was set up between the Irish Director Guild and the American Directors guild. Where every year they select one filmmaker and their feature and fly the to the states for meetings with distributors in hope to find American distribution for said film. Last year "Kings" went and was successful. So it's a great prize.

There was some footage of the film shown last. I have to say it looks wonderful. It really is like nothing I've seen before. I hope it does well for them, but I'm sure it will.

a few links:

http://www.cartoonsaloon.ie/

http://blog.cartoonsaloon.ie/

http://sdgi.ie/index.php

Electric Bill

Here's a look behind the scenes on Bill, For Short, the short docu-drama I shot in February of this year. 

If you're heading to the Electric Picnic at the end of this month you can see Bill, For Short, as well as Emily's Song, Paddy Muck and Polls Apart. They will all be screening in the External Sounds tent.

Keep an eye out for Jason Byrne and Colum McDonnell in the Comedy tent too.

Goodbye and Blessings

No, I'm not going anywhere, it's the name of my latest short screenplay (or at least the english translation of it.) I have just recently completed a new short Screenplay entitled "Slán agus Beannacht".

It tells the story of a rent collector, who has been walking his route for 30 years and now stands to lose his job due to escalating violence on the streets.

The theme is that of the change in Ireland in recent years and talks about how we have lost values and community because of fear, greed and convenience.

No shooting plans as yet. More will be posted soon.

Don't Let The Turkeys Get You Down.

Not all news is good news as they say. RTE said no to our series idea via standard rejection letter, no reason given at all, which is annoying. So we're not sure why they didn't go for it, idea, setting, characters, us as writers, all of the above. It would be nice to have had some feedback, so we know what to avoid next time.

We will continue working on ideas. In fact Thomas and I are meeting soon to go over new series ideas and an idea for a new short, which, like Bill, For Short, will be shot digitally and for no money. So we're both excited about that. Don't let the turkeys get you down as me ol Da always said.

I am still waiting for news on The Race and Ghoster, both of which are on the slow foot, which is as frustrating as ever. I'm about to start a new draft on Ghoster, just letting some new ideas ferment for a bit.

In the meantime I've started work on a new story, not for the screen, entitled "The Cats of the Crescent". I'm well into it and I'm really enjoying it. I try and get to it everyday, which is sometimes impossible, but usually get about 2000 words written each sitting, sometimes more sometimes less. I'm at the 20,000 word mark at the minute and aiming for 80-100k, so about a fifth of the way there. Not that the word count really matters at this stage, it's a first draft and will most likely change quiet a bit. But I guess word counts are like road markers or rest stops. It's good to have them along the way, breaks the journey up and sometimes you arrive at you destination before you thought, other times you still have a few mile to go before you've made it.
It's nice to write and not have to worry about trying to film it at the end! It's a bit more liberating. So more on that one later.

And work will soon begin again on this...



So stay tuned.

Seattle Screening of Emily's Song

Emily's Song will be screening at 7th International Festival of Cinema and Technology in Seattle, WA, USA, on July 5th & 6th.
http://www.ifct.org/ifctschedule.html

Paddy Muck - Concept Design

Jason Byrne is “Paddy Muck”

Jason Byrne (RTE’s Anonymous) has recently completed a new short comedy film entitled “Paddy Muck”. Shot on location near Swords in Dublin it tells the story of a bunch of rural Irish idiots who try to trick a bus full of rich American tourists out of their money so they can buy a new church, but not everything goes according to plan.

This Mister Bean meets Father Ted comedy, written by Byrne himself, stars a who’s who of Irish Comedy, including Colum McDonnell, Dermot McMorrow (Emily’s Song), John Henedrson (Co-writer), Reuban, Bernard O’Shea, Eamon Bishop, Willy White (Des Bishop’s - Joy in the Hood), Andrew Stanley (I Dare Ya), John Collery, Joan Butler, Eric Lalor and more.

DOP Lisa Thomson (Skeleton Crew). Edited by Andy Kemp (Panorama). Executive producer Gary Reich. Directed by Ewan Taylor and Produced by Brown Eyed Boy (the British company behind BBC’s “Little Miss Jocelyn”) in association with Pale Stone Productions (“Emily’s Song”).

The short was conceived of as a pilot for a TV show of the same name Byrne is writing with John Henderson.

Byrne has just finished recording a show for Radio 4 called “Odd Half Hour” and is currently working on a new show for BBC Radio 2 called “The Jason Byrne Show” due for broadcast in July. He is also touring with his comedy show; go to www.myspace.com/jasonbyrnecomedy for dates and info.

Emily's Song will screen at the National Celtic Festival in Portarlington in Australia, close to Melbourne. We're exciting to be screening back in Oz, having been a few festival there over the last two years.

Looking back...

I was browsing the blogs of old classmates and found some amazing art. I studied animation at college, but always knew I was destined for film! Those who carried on turned into fine artists I must say. But looking are their stuff made me want to go back a dig out some old stuff of mine.

These pages were a first pass at The Anatomist, when Thomas and I began it as a comic book. Unfortunately at the time it proved too much work for everyone involved. Thomas had just had his first child, Dan was working elsewhere and giving his nights to the project and I was unemployed, uninspired and going insane! But we still managed to write a full story arch, get four finished issues written and 12 illustrated pages started.
So here are a few for your enjoyment.


Page One. (The only finished page)


Page Two. (Without effects from here on in)


Page Three


Page Four


Page Five


Page Six.

The story still exists and is by no means abandonned. It's just on hold until we become better writers! It wont be approached this way again however. I think if we start it again we will begin from scratch.

In the meantime here's page one of a new comic book I've started on my own and using a very simple technique. I guess there's comic books in my blood! But I love doing them - when I can find the time! This is a script I wrote called Insomnia about a man who has an eye transplant and can see into another world. First two scripts are written so I'll keep plugging away at it from time to time. No real aim with this one, it's just for fun. Enjoy.

High Noon... actually it's 1 o'clock, the clocks went forward!

Hello der,

I'm happy to say Thomas and I are writing together again. We've been developing a new project for Tyrone Productions. In a search for amazingly talented and handsome new writers they realised that Ted Elliot and Terry Rossio were too expensive, as was Stephen Gaghan, David Milch was just insane and collects guns and Daniel Knauf, Doug Ellin, David Simon and Larry David were all busy... so somehow they ended up finding us.

If it happens, and everything goes according to plan, it will be a new 6 x 1 hour Comedy Drama series for RTE 2. But we have to wait and see. So far the experiences has been enjoyable. We're working with the head of development Dearbhla Reagan, who's been great and very patient with us.

It's really nice to be pushed, challenged and to get constant and instant feed back. Very invigorating indeed... even if sometimes I just wanted to curl up in a ball and sleep. Like in those dreams, where you appear naked in a maths exam you haven't prepared for, so to get out of it you go asleep... or maybe that's just me?!?!

Anyway, they seem happy with what we came up with and they're presenting to RTE this week I think. So it will be interesting to see if it goes anywhere after this. it may not of course, which would suck, but it has been a good experience and an interesting learning curve. But fingers crossed eh?

Not much else going on. Still waiting to here on Ghoster and The Race. Maybe soon. You, my loyal readers, will of course be the first to know.

I'm heading off to Montana for a couple of weeks to meet the Fiancés folks! Which should be fun. I'll be staying the hometown of Gary Cooper! Cool huh!

All right, bye for now. More news soon.

Frank

My One Regret

I haven't posted in a while as i haven't much news to report, all is quiet on the frontline.

Emily's Song is continuing to play at festivals around the world. It is currently touring in America as part of the International Film Festival of Cinema and Technology. We also recently screened in the Bangkok International Children's Film Festival and at the Kurz Film Festival in Cologne. And although things have slowed down with Emily's Song we are still getting requests to see it from other festival, which is nice.

No news on Bill, For Short, but the festival I've entered don't close their doors for months to come, so I reckon it will be a while before I hear yay of nay. But it's getting a good responce from the few who have seen it, I'm happy to say.

I'm currently helping my friend John Lawlor with his college films, which is loads of fun. We shot a fake commercial for an iPod, which involved a 1985 Steve Jobs in a Back To The Future tie-in, it was funny.

We also completed a 9 minute comedy short this week called "My One Regret." About a guy who has the worst day of his life, where everything goes wrong. I'm the guy!


Me in "My One Regret" a film by John Lawlor.

It involved diving into bathtubs, summer-salting out doorways, running around town and generally acting like a buffoon! But it was fun, I enjoyed it and so far the results have been getting big laughs. Especially from my Dad, who watched it today and almost had a heart attack he laughed so hard at one particular scene! So was worth it for that alone!

Again it comes down to having fun, gorilla style, with digital technology in the "Shut up and Shoot" school of filmmaking. Perhaps the stuff I'm doing right now isn't high-art and I don't expect it to win any awards, but hell, it's good fun and getting home stiff and sore from spending the day rolling around like a fool and laughing is a good feeling, I'd recommend it to anyone!

I'm starting to write the next in our series of "Shut up and Shoot" films, another comedy, which is a bit more complicated then the last three, but should be loads of fun and hopefully very funny. I'll keep you posted on what's to come.

On the grander projects, I have finished the second draft of "Ghoster" and I'm happy with it. There are still some changes I want to make. I feel like I need to get deeper into the characters and the subtleties of their relationships. I'm only touching on it now, but I could take it much further.

"The Race" is still being sent around and we're looking at the possibility of shooting it in Australia! I'm talking to a producer down there who is interested in it. Hopefully some more news there in the coming months.

I'm back working on another draft of "The Wolf of Nevermore." I'm excited about it. I made a lot of changes and I think it skips along at a much better pace with a lot more going on. I've been dying to make a Horror film since I started writing, but a certain kind of horror, there's a type of foreboding atmosphere I want to capture. That feeling you get when walk through a forrest at dusk, just as the sun has dipped behind the horizon and darkness is coming and you suddenly realise you're not quite sure how to get out, panic rises... I love that feeling and I think I know how to get it with this script.

Well, that's all from me for now. It just leaves me to congratulate Darren Thornton for his continued success on "Frankie," it has been doing amazing business. Having won at Cork and Galway it has gone one to recieve the UIP Prix at the prestigious Berlin Film Festival, which automatically qualifies it for the European Film Awards. So well done there, long may it run.

I also just wanted to say that I'm delight the guys won the Oscar for Once! I loved that movie and I found it very moving to see those guys on stage recieving that little gold statue! And I was excited to see Daniel Day-Lewis pick up the Oscar!

That's me! Hope all is well readers, whoever you may be?! Please feel free to leave comments, ask questions, I'd be happy respond. Thanks!

Bye for now
Frank

FINISHED!!!

Hello Hello Hello...

I'm happy to announce that my new short film:Bill, For Short, is complete!

Well, almost, a few minor sound tweaks, but it's done. It came it under the 10 minute mark at 9'40", so I'm happy with that. And I'm happy with it in general. I like it. I think it's a nice piece. It has a certain feel to it, a pace that's quiet and reflective and I feel like it moves along nicely and delivers the message I was hoping it would. Both from a personal perspective, looking back at my Grandfather's life and from a technical perspective, as an experiment to see what we could shoot in 2 days with just 3 people and no money.

Unfortunately I'm not going to post it!!! I know I said I would, but I'm going to enter it into festivals, see if it does any business and one of the rules to enter festivals is that the film not be publicly screening anywhere, whether online or on TV.

So in the meantime here's the poster!


My brother Noel played the part of me in the film and John Lawler was the Cinematographer . I wrote, directed, edited, composed and performed the music and did the voice over.

I have to admit, I love digital technology. I think if I had the opportunity to make a feature film I would chose to shoot on Film, but for just getting out there and making something digital is the way to go. I feel very lucky to be a filmmaker right now.

Hopefully I'll have more news on the film soon. Right now, I have to get back to work on the next draft of Ghoster... more news there soon.

Best
Frank

Shooting over.

Another good day of shooting, some nice stuff. It was a beautiful day and we managed to capture the golden sunset while shooting in a graveyard. I think I have all the footage I need, so I'm going to start editing. I may do some pick-ups, we'll see.
One pain-in-the-arse thing that happened was that I drop my lovely black Samsung NV3 7.2 mega pixel stills camera and it got run over by a car! Sucks! I loved that camera. Strangely, it still takes pictures, but the dislay is smashed so I don't really know what I'm taking or how! Oh well.

It's a very small a simple thing we're doing. And for me it's just something to keep the cogs oiled while I'm writing on larger project. But it has also been immensely enjoyable. I'd recommend anyone who is interested in getting into film to just go out and shoot. Whatever, where ever, you'll learn as you go and you'll come to realise what goes into making something work.
Even if you're just going out to practice scenes, what makes something suspenseful? What makes something exciting? Try it, tape is cheap and the experience is invaluable.

It should take more than a week to edit, so hopefully I will have something up by next weekend and you can see what I mean by just going out on weekends with a camera and only enough money for sandwiches!

More Pics & Clips

Here are some more images and clips from Bill For Short

Bill, for short... Shoot Day 1

Hi all, we started shooting Bill, For Short today, it's a mirco micro micro shoot, me, Noel (My brother) and John, one camera and no money... sept for sambos!
It went well, we got a good bit in the can. I think it all looks pretty cool, we found some great locations. All of which are real, in that, they are places my grandfather used to work. And like on Emily's Song they are also places I played as a kid that are now being pulled down to make room for new appartment buildings, which isn't a bad thing in this instance, but it's always sad to see those places go. So once again, I'm glad I got to put it on film.
Tomorrow I'm going to be doing some interviews. Then I have maybe another day or two of other footage and then I can start editing.

Here's a behind the scenes clip...

New Year

Howdy Folks,
2008 is well underway. Not much to report yet. I got straight back to work on Ghoster. So I'm looking for to getting my teeth into that. I've been working on some new ideas too for other scripts, so hopefully I'll be able to find the time to sit down with them.
I may be shooting a digital short this week. It's call Bill, For Short. It depends on my schedule though, but I think we'll be shooting it this week. If it turns out all right I'll let you know, I may even post it here! But if not, you may never hear of it again!!!

Well, all the best. Keep checking back, I'm sure this year this blog will be packed with wonderful and exciting news!

Frank

Season's Greetings!!!

Award Winning Independent Filmmaker Seeks Investment for Original Feature Film to Shoot Summer 2008.

My apologies kind readers for my absence this last while! I've been very busy indeed. My American trip was a great success and I had a wonderful time. I had fun in LA, hung out with some friends, made some new friends and planted seeds, which I hope will grow and bear fruit in the coming months, more news on that when it happens.

I've been working hard on Ghoster since I got home and I'm happy with the progress. It weighs in at 109 pages, down from 119, I'm aiming for 100. Not that that will change the story at all, but it will make the script more concise. It still needs work and I'll continue to plug away at it over the next couple of weeks. I hope to have this script ready for the consumption of other in the next week or two and there after I hope it will be a speedy process to shooting it! But I'm happy to say I have some people waiting for it who may indeed be able to help me make it... more on that when it happens.

I tried a new technique on this one, which I have never done before and which I found very useful. I read the script out load into a dictaphone and then played it back, effectively creating an audio script. It meant I could hear right away if a scene was going on too long, or needed more, or if I ended the scene after it had reached it's emotional climax. I think I may do this from now on. It was a very quick way of editing. I also found as I listened my mind was able to freely wander and I came up new several new scenes, all of which went in and I feel improved the script. I'd recommend trying it.

As the film is set on a building site I want to be authentic and shoot on a real building site. Of course I chose to ignore the fact that no developer would stall building on four houses so we could shoot for two or three weeks! But then JJ (Rolfe co-producer on Emily's Song) reminded me of the builders holidays, when for two weeks every year all the builders in the country go on holiday and the sites close. So I figure that's the time I have to aim for. Next summer!!! Can it be done!!!

You know what?! I believe it can. All I really need is investment of between €100,000 and €200,000 and I can do it. So I'm putting the call out: "Award Winning Independent Filmmaker seeks investment for original feature film to shoot summer 2008. Please contact frank@palestoneproductions.com for further information."
Let's make it happen!!!

This Year's Heartland Film Festival

Well, I'm off to LA in a few hours, just packing at the moment. It's been a great couple of weeks in Indianapolis, and not the last before I fly home. I've had a greta itme at this years festival. I have to admit I was a little sad to have been one of the filmmakers this year, but it was great to meet most of them and to hang out with them.
THe highlight of the event for me was Mia Sarah, a wonderfully swet romantic conedy with a real throw back to the Hollywood romantic screwball comedies of the thirties and forties. The guys are still trying to get distribution but should they succeed it is film well worth checking out (Click on the link at the side for more info).
Another highlight was hanging out with the guys who made it, Gustavo, the writer/director, Alavro, his brother and the Producer, Cesar, the composer, Andreus, the Executive Producer and Manuel, the Star. Great great guys, we all became good friends, in fact Gustavo invited Maryann and I to his house in Spain next year.
I'm meeting the guys in LA, two of them are based there and Gustavo is in town to screen his film for distributors etc. So that should be fun.


The festival was great this year, a strong selection of films and a desent turn out by the filmmakers. Also some interesting sides. ONe of which was a presentation by disney of there next few films, National Treasure Book of Secrets, I heard the first wasn't great, but they seemd to have amped up everything, more action, bigger stars Helen Miren and Ed Harris and this looks pretty fun. Also a new CGI Carton called BOLT, about a tv super hero dog who thinks he really is a super hero and then gets lost in the real world and has to find his way home. I know it sounds a bit naff but it looks like loads of fun and the snimation is great, the character design are reallly cool and the background are like nothing I've scene before in CGI, they're like N.C. Wyeth paintings in 3D, very cool.
We also looked at new footage fromt eh next Narnia film. I have no real interest in seeing it, might be fun, but it looks beautiful, great epic shots, very reminicent of Lord of the Rings. THey also revealed that Micheal APted is directing the thrid one.
But the absolute highlight of the night was a sneak peak at Wall.E, the next pixar movie. I can honestly say I have never seen anything like this. It is... and I cannot emphasis this enough... absolutely stunning looking. I was BLOWN AWAY!!! They showed a teaser first which was great, and then a five minute clip, upon which my jaw dropped and stayed hanging for the entirety.
This is going to be something special. First of all the character design and animation is astounding. It's basically a rusty box on track with two big eyes on top, but within the first few seconds you are completely invested in this character and love him.
It looks beyond belief. I was watching it thinking, how in the world can they possibly make it look that good??? How??? The colours are beautiful, rich, vibrant, hyper real, the effects, shadows, lighting and dust are just incredible. They have raised the bar so high in this I can't how it it's going going to take something mind boggling to surpass it.

Well, that's me for now. I better get back to packing. I'm off soon. More news and pics on the way.

Take care.

And So It Begins

I'm happy to say I've completed the first draft of my new feature script "Ghoster". I've been working on the script since I arrived in Indianapolis, when I could grab a day or two. I guess it took about eight days to write, which I think is pretty good going! The thing is though I've been thinking about this story for years and I was working on the plot and characters for a couple of months before I arrived here.
It was just nice to have two week where I could find uninterupted time to work on it, so for that I have to thank my girlfriend, Maryann, who gave me the opportunity to do that.
So now the work begins. Like any first draft it's basically just the idea thrown down as quickly as possible in script form. So it's too long, too much is spelt out from the beginning, it's not the most subtle form of storytelling. But the idea is there, the characters are there and the story is there and that's the most important thing. Now I have to carve the statue from the block of marbel and hope for a 'David'! Or at least as close as I can get.
I'm happy with the first draft, the characters and the over all story work well. I can see the potential for more and for a really good script, that I hope will be my first feature film. I'm going to start preping it when I get back to Ireland. I need to find my Cast and Crew and of course... MONEY!!! The hardest part. So if anyone reading this wants to invest it what is going to be a hilarious, moving and fun picture, then don't hesitate for one more second to email me now (frank@palestoneproductions.com)

In other festival and movie related news, I've been having a great time. I had lunch with Angelo Pizzo a few days ago, the writer and producer of Hoosiers, Rudy and The Game of Their Lives. He's a friend of Maryann's and and all round nice guy. I enjoyed his company. He spoke about a pet project he's hoping to write, I wont tell you anything about it, that'd be spoiling it, I'll just say I really hope he gets to make it, it's a great story and will make a great film. It's like Stand By Me with balls!
All the filmmakers arrived for the festival last night. I met the makers of a Spainish film 'Mia Sara', great guys, really funny and good to hang out with. I took them to the Claddagh, which is the local Irish pub (Wasn't my idea by the way! It was just the closest) So it should be fun hanging out with them for the week. I think we're going to meet in LA next week while I'm there.
They were also talking about shooting their next project in Ireland or England, so I'll have to convince them to my own fair shores.

That's all for now. More news as it happens. I'm just really happy at the moment with Ghoster, I think it's going to make a good film. So I'm going to try and find investment while here. While in LA I'll be stopping by the American Film Market, so you never know who I'm going to meet. And even if Ghoster isn't for anyone there I have three more features in the bag!

More news soon.

And Away We Go...

Well, I'm biting the bullet and heading off to Hollywood. Unfortunately, all our scripts this year, two shorts and two features, have not found a home anywhere, which has left us at an impasse. Being constantly faced with this disheartening lack of support has prompted some drastic action. So America it is.
With the continual lack of belief and support for our work we have found it increasingly difficult to believe that we can actually make films here in Ireland. So, first off I'm flying to Chicago, where I'll stop by the Chicago International Film festival. Then to Indianapolis where I will attend the Heartland Film Festival, where we won the Crystal Heart Award last year. All in the hope of meeting fellow filmmakers, producers and financiers. Then I'm off to LA for a while, where I've set up some meetings with Producers.
I'm not sure what will come of it, I'm hoping for interest and investment in one if not all of our four feature scripts and short film scripts. I will also have the opportunity to pitch the on-going comic book story Thomas and I have been developing over the past five years.
I'm not sure if the trip will pay off but it's better then hanging around here doing nothing. So wish me luck. More news here soon.
Frank

New Award

Emily's Song has won the Unicef UK Award from the Showcomotion Film Festival. Unicef is a charity we strongly advocate and we are proud and honoured to have this award and to carry their name on our film.

The Fellowship

Our feature script "The Race" has made it to the the top 20% of over 6000 screenplays entered into the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences 'Nicholl's Fellowship in Screenwriting' this year.

New Festivals for Emily's Song

This week we have been invited to screen in four new festivals.
The Korean International Film Festival
The Seoul International Family Film Festival
The 10th Auburn International Film Festival for Children and Young Adults (Austrlia)
and
The International Festival of Cinema and Technology, which is a traveling festival, taking in cities all across America.

First Broadcast.

Well, we had our first broadcast last night on national television. It was very exciting and I was surprisingly nervous. I guess it was the thought that thousand, tens of thousands, perhaps even hundreds of thousands of people all across Ireland were watching it. Before we've always been in the comfort and safety of a screening room or movie theatre, but this was something very different. I felt very proud I think.
I got a great kick out of it being shown after Entourage, which also happened to be the U2 episode! And with Johnny Drama sporting an Irish flag, almost as if to say Good Luck!
I've had a steady flow of congratulatory calls and texts from well wishers, so thanks to everyone. And thanks to all who watched. I hope you enjoyed it.

Emily's Song on RTE 2

Emily's Song is being broadcast tonight on RTE 2 here in Ireland at 11:15 pm. Sandwiched in between Entourage and 24, so we should get a good audience... so long as everyone's not up making tea after Entourage! We're excited, there would ahve been more notice, but no one told us and we only found out be accident! I don't know, whadaya gonna do?!
Anyway, it's great news, we're excited. Thanks to Derry and Hughie and everyone at Network Ireland Television for their work and thanks to RTE for buying it and giving us a great slot.
I hope you catch it. If you do leave a comment, let me know what you think, good or bad, don't be shy. Thanks and Enjoy.
Frank

Thanks

We would like to acknowledge the help of the Arts Council for their assistance on our recent trip to the Oberhausen Film Festival in Germany and thank them for making the trip possible for us.

Master-classes at the Fleadh

I went to to Galway Film Fleadh this weekend, just to attend the master-classes. The first on Friday was with Terry George, writer of In the Name of the Father, Some Mother's Son and The Boxer and writer/director of Hotel Rwanda and the forth coming Reservation Road. Anyway, it was very interesting. Interesting to get a glimpse into the world of a successful writer and hear about the kind of techniques he uses, most of which where very different then my own and the way Thomas and I write together. Really what I took from the talk was a reaffirmation that the way I write suits me best and really writing, whether you're successful or not is an entirely personal thing with regards to how you go about it.
On the Saturday morning I attended the acting master-class with Jeremy Irons, which was absolutely fascinating. It was an intimate setting with room of about 100 people. He spoke about his beginning, his decision to become an actor, his training, his start and his career to date, peppered with anecdotes and lessons. He came across as being very charming, funny and a genuine character. He was interesting, intriguing, something of an enigma and had a certain alluring quality that set him apart from everyone else in the room, I guess they call it star quality or, for want of a better phrase, the X factor.
I love hearing stories of what went on behind the scenes, "Meryl and I where in the dressing room chatting before a take..." then you kind of pause for a moment and think "He's talking about Meryl Streep here isn't he?!"
When asked about his voice he referred to a conversation he had with John Hurt while having tea in his house in London, they were talking about the new actors on the scene, Jeremy mentioned that there were some very good ones coming up and John said, "Yes, but do know what I say to them? I say, 'you have a wonderful voice. Do you ever listen to it?' " Nice story.
They largely talked about The Merchant of Venice, Lolita (Irons' personal favourite) Dead Ringers and The Mission. What was fascinating was how he found each character. I enjoyed the story of how he resisted Dead Ringers for a long time, more afraid of the technical aspect then anything else, but once realising that it wasn't going to be difficult he committed and then set about finding how to play the twins.
At first he ask for two separate dressing rooms, went out and shopped for different clothes on different days and played them very differently. But after seeing what he had done, which was to make them two completely different characters easily discernible from one another he knew he'd got it wrong. So he went back, forgot about the two dressing room idea, mixed up all the clothes and found an internal way of finding the character, which was to change the focus of the character. With Elliot, the more confident of the twins, he placed the focus between the eyes, forcing him to stand up straighter, be more direct. With Beverly, the weaker of the two he placed the focus in the throat, a vulnerable place, making him more vulnerable and causing him to slouch and hide.
He also talked about how to use your body, your hands, how to be in an audition, how to control nerves, all very insightful stuff and I'm sure for any actor in the room invaluable information.
He went an hour over the time, so it was certainly value for money. And I came away from it feeling reinvigorated. I guess I was reminded of part of the reason I want to make films, as much as it is about telling stories and creating cinema there is that intangible aspect, the magic that you feel when you're a kid, before you know anything about how films are made and what goes into them. I remember hearing the behind the scenes stories and being captivated by the stars and the world they lived in and for me it was that that drew me in. So nice to be reminded of it.
So thanks for that Mr. Irons, or as I now like to call him Jezzer, cos we're like that!

Frankie goes to Galway

We want to wish Darren Thornton the best of luck at the Galway Film Fleadh this week with his new Short Film "Frankie"... (It's nothing got to do with me!)

Tips

Here are a couple of things that I've picked up over the years.
Maybe this is just me, but I think you need a good notebook to write in, something that is a pleasure to open. I discovered Moleskine notebooks last year and I am now officially addicted to them. They are the perfect notebook, the right size, nice weight, wonderful paper to write on, even the lines are spaced the perfect distance and the off white paper is that much easier on the eyes. I love them. They are expensive,but I think worth it.

Something else I searched for for a long time was the perfect pencil. I've been drawing for as long as I can remember, did a year in art college, four years studying animation and I simply always drew. But I could never find a pencil I loved. Then, at a masterclass with disney animator Glenn Keane he shared with us what pencil he uses. The Sanford Ebony Pencil...

I love this pencil, even more then I love my Moleskines, if I had to choose, I'm sorry Moleskine, it'd be the pencil... but luckily I don't have to choose and together they form a perfect partnership, like Fred and Ginger, Tracy and Hepburn, Laurel and Hardy. They are a great pencil to draw with. They are round, smooth and slightly narrower then other pencils. They have a hard wide lead that creates a smooth dark line with perfect consistency, perfect for finite detail, dark broad strokes or equally light and heavy shading. For my money the best pencils around.
It's something I always tried to find out about, what other writers and artist use, so hopefully I can pass it on to some other budding storyboarder!

Untitled

We've started a new project. Untitled at the moment. It's a story about two brothers, wrongly accused of a crime. It's a new feature script and I have a good feeling that this will be our first one to shoot. We took a look at THE RACE and knowing it's going to take a large budget, huge crew, lots of locations and hundreds of extras, we thought we should scale it down... way down and do something achievable on a low budget first, with a small crew (only slightly bigger then Emily's Song) a small cast of good actors, not nessecary famous and minimal location work, in fact, so far, we have about three locations in mind.
It's exciting stuff. We're thrilled with the idea and we know it's going to be a great script. We got that buzz we get when we hit upon something we both want to make. We had it on Emily's Song and The Race. We had been working on a short script, but neither of us felt it was going anywhere. In the end we realised it wasn't a film we wanted to make. But this new idea is.
We're putting the story together now and we'll start writing the screenplay in about two or three week. Hopefully we'll have the first draft written by the end of the summer.
Summer is usually a quiet time for us, we don't get much written... kids, holidays, that kind of thing. Personally I use the time to catch up on my own writing. I've all ready dusted off BAD MOON, my werewolf script. 95 pages in and it's looking pretty good. I'm hoping to get back on NEVERMORE once that's done. I think another rewrite on both should see them right.
There is no other new at the moment, so I shall get back to it and wish you all the best until the next blog.

PUCA

Here are some images from Harvey's Sketchbook.

Out of the Blue

Howdy howdy, It's been too long since last I blogged, Having a sleepless night so I thought I'd blog away the empty minutes. It's been a hectic couple of weeks. Thomas and I have been writing our little handies off. We rewrote Puca (Concept art above. Not final design) and it's all the better for it, we believe. We've given it much more depth, and put the fun back in, for some reason it got lost along the way. It also has some wonderful abstract and sureal moments which we're really proud of, like windows floating in clear blue skies... you'll have to wait and see why they are! And we've added a new character, who we're delighted with, adds a whole new demension to the piece... she's actually picture up above too! And in case you hadn't guessed, that's Harvey in the middle looking somewhat morose.
So that was put in for funding with the Irish Film Board on their Short Cuts scheme this week. Hopefully they'll go for it, but you never can tell. Say prays to your gods, cross fingers, sacrifice virgins, what ever it is you do, it's all good, but send us the good juju!
Another short script we put in was something that came out of the blue, a short about a bike race called "Two Man Break". We wrote it in one sitting. It's a short piece, maybe 6/7 minutes and it's about a mind game that plays out between these two riders as they race along perilous roads. It's exciting and quite unlike anything we've done before, in that it's quite dark.
It's probably the more relivant of the two script, seeing as we want to make a feature based on Cycling! So if we get to make it it will be fantastic practice for the feature, as well as being and exciting six minutes of film!
We're sitting down later on today to start Thomas' Irish Language film, as yet untitled, it's a great idea, which I wont ive away hear, but it's basically a love story... with a twist!

We had a meeting with the filmboard yesterday and like too idiots we went to their Galway office for the meeting, when we were actually supposed to go to Dublin. So instead of having a nice lie-in and spending just an hour on the train, we had to get up at 6am and travel the whole way across the country!
It wasn't our fault, so I don't feel so bad, and they were very nice and apologetic when we got there! So what was the meeting about? I hear you cry!!! For a Blow up of Emily's Song, a transfer to 35mm film, which would be lovely... we'll find out in a couple of weeks what their decision is. But after making us travel all the across the bleedin country for nothin it better be a yes! The Blighters!

There's not much else going on, no new festivals of late, we're screening at Showcomotion at the end of the month, as well as in Korea, at the 9th Youth Film Fest there. It will be interesting to see how that goes down. Little Big Shots in Australia is coming up soo too. And there's a few more, but not until later in the year. We're still waiting to hear back from about 20 others.

Did I mention that we sold Emily's Song to RTE? I forget if I did on this channel! Well, just in case I didn't there it is, RTE. We have no date for the broadcast, but it wont be until much later in the year, if this year! We'll let everyone know when of course. But it's great news, we couldn't have hoped for better.

So I guess after this we have some time off. We tend not to write much together over the summer. But I think I'm going to take the time and go back over The Wolf of Nevermore, there are a lot of changes I've been eager to make and I think I've enough breathing space to go back to it with a clear idea of things.

Thomas and I are also talking about another project that's been on the cards for a while, top secret of course! But it's the best thing we've ever come up with and we think it's about time to breath some new life into it. The name of our production company and our logo are a huge hint as to what it is. But more on that project when the time comes. So stay tuned!

Bye for now.