An Open Door.

'Raise My Hands' has been selected by the Maui Film Festival (I hope they fly filmmakers in!) which is very nice! Certainly seems to be going well. Mores festivals to come. Elliot (producer) has been great with this film, he's pushed and pushed and pushed and never given up on it. I had all but, until we got into our first festival. You really do have to get behind your films, I've said it time and time again, if you don't shout about them, no one will.

My problem is that I'm onto the next one, when I finish a film, I mean finish shooting, I'm usually writing something else right away and before the edit is finished I'm thinking about being on set again (how easily we forget the pain!) Right now, while finishing Derelict, I'm thinking about what's next. Circumstance are against me at the moment to be shooting anytime soon. But hopefully not for too much longer.

I may have used this analogy before, but it still stands - I find when I'm working on a project it's as if I'm locked in a dark room on my own, hunched over a table and concentrating so hard I forget about the outside world for a time. Then I'm finished, I look up, stretch, realise how dark it is and I open the door. When I do a gust of wind blows in and kicks up all my ideas, and the all float around me. I grab at them, but I can't hold onto one for long, I have to wait for them to land and for that one idea to land on my desk, the one that's going to make close the door, turn off all lights, all but for my desk lamp, and sit down again. At the moment the door is wide open and the papers are blowing everywhere. I have one project I have to wait until August to see if comes together, if it does, that's the next one. Meantime, while doubt lingers, I two ideas I'd love to get going. But again, circumstance, everything' a bit up in the air at the moment. Sorry, I'm being vague here! Annoying!

I'm still trying to finish Derelict obviously, we're close. We have a new sound designer on board, Christopher O'Grady, delighted to have him join the team. I'll be bring the footage up the The Element next week to finally start there. So we're almost there. It's exciting. We also have an editor on the trailer, Mark Rodway, so I'm very much looking forward to seeing that and releasing it! Finally giving people a taste of what I've been waffling about for the last two years!

I need to get creative about getting the film out there. I've entered it into a few festivals already, but a lot of the festivals I want to enter are expensive, between $50 and $100, and it adds up pretty quickly - and deadlines are fast approaching. I applied to the Irish Film Board for help, but they refused. I hit kickstarter at the start of the project, so I'd feel bad doing it again! It might be an option, but I'm not sure yet. So, yeah, I need to get creative... or maybe I just need to get a job, to supplement my film habit!

But it'll come together. I'm sure of it. What I'm looking forward to now is finishing and showing people, in particular the Cast and Crew who've been waiting so patiently. Then we'll see what the rest of the world thinks!

Right, I'm signing off. Feeling a little ill tonight. Perhaps why this post is a bit messy! More soon.