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.

Battery Test.

Busy as ever. We still haven't started our scripts yet, it's getting close to the deadline! But we'll get there. We're doing a small film for a mobile phone company, one minute long sketch, just for fun and will be played on mobile phones as a battery test. More on that later and hopefully the clip too.

I had the pleasure of seeing the nearly locked picture of Darren Thorton's new film "Frankie" last night. It's great. Congratualtions Darren. I won't tell you what it's about yet, but I will tell you that it's an excellent short. When he's done and it's out there I'll put up a link to more info. But I'm sure it's going to do some business on the festival circuit in the coming year.

That's all for now, more news soon and hopefully a new clip. Keep coming back to the website, it will be updated soon with more pics, news and clips and feel free to leave comments in the guestbook, whether it be about Emily's Song, the other projects or on other peoples comments, get to know each other, so far everyone on there are my friends and all good people.

By for now.

Red Eye!

I've been busy since we've got back from Germany. I spent a couple of days entering more festivals and getting presskits and screeners together and sent off. We've been invited to a couple of festivals in Korea, the 1st Seoul Family Film Fest. and the 9th Seoul Youth Film Festival. We've also been accepted for competition to the Showcomtion Youth Film Fest in Shefield England, where we're up the UNICEF UK Award, so that's great news.

Things are heating up and time is slipping through our fingers as we race toward the Short Cuts Deadline with the Film Board next month. We have three scripts going in now, originally two, but we decided that seeing as we're trying to get a cycling feature film made it might be wise to get some practise in and make a ten minute short about a race, just to show them what we have in mind. Here's hoping they like the script! Next sunday we're going out to shoot some cycling footage for two minute clip to give them an idea of what we want to do, so that should be fun.

I'm very excited about this little piece of kit that's just come out. A new digital camera called RED... It looks pretty frickin snazy, I wont rattle on about it hear, just go to www.red.com and behold. It is a sexy piece of machinary!

Special Mention at Prestigious Festival

Emily's Song recieved a speicial mention at this years Oberhausen International Short Film Festival.

It's great news for us, we couldn't be happier.

‘Emily’s Song’ competed in the Children's and Youth Film Competition. The jury stated “The film is funny, spritely and entertaining and came very close to the winning film of this year's Festival. It shows that there is also a soft side to an insane boy and that family ties are also important. The film both moved us and made us laugh. The special mention goes to Frank Kelly and Thomas Kennedy from Ireland for their film Emily's Song.”

The 53rd edition of the prestigious Oberhausen Festival ran from the 3 – 8 May. 147 short films were selected from 43 countries to compete at the festival, chosen from over 6,500 entries received.

It was a great festival, very relaxed but well organised and there was an amazing standard of film. Thomas and I had our work cut out for us trying to get to see as many as we could. The competition was strong and the films were excellent. We met some talented film makers and over all it was a very inspirational week.

The overall winner in our section was Schnabi, from Switzerland, which was excellent, about sexual curiousity at the precipice of puberty but told in a very innocent, charming and funny way. Schnabi mean "Willy" by the way!

We were also delighted at the fact that another Irish film won the principal prize in the International Competition, Methamorphasis by Clare Langan, which happened to be my favourite film of the festival. It was absolutely breathtaking a true work of cinematic art. Stunning landscapes and beautiful imagery it was about the harsh and raw destructive power of nature. Seek this film out.

Clare also has installations based on her films which include huge images taken from her films. I'm going to the next one, I would strongly recommend that anyone reading this go find it too. go to www.clarelangan.com to chesk out her work. She told me her website needs updating, at the moment it's a year old, but keep checking back.

Well that's all from me for the moment. I'm off to get the next film moving. We have two short scripts to get ready over the next three weeks, so we've a lot of work to do. Hopefully one of them will break some ground and we can get back to Oberhausen some day. It was a great festival.

Me outside our hotel in Oberhausen.

www.palestoneproductions.com

Welcome to the new website folks. Thanks for stopping by and I hope you will continue to do so. I'll be updating it as often as possible and updating this blog every few days... and yes Conor, I will start using my spellcheck! thanks to Dan Gaynor for bulding the site. Excellent work. If you like the site and are in need some work done yourself then look him up, you can contact him at dang@mushnation.com. Click "Mush" on the links to find his website and links to his illustrations and comic art. Thanks Dan.

No news on the movie front at the moment. Eveyone I know seems to be jetting off to Cannes and every second email is asking me if I'm going or not. I still don't know. I would love to bring The Race over and try to find that ellusive deal, or at least some people how would be will to help us get it made. But of course it's cash! I know had some around here somewhere, but I seem to have misplaced it. Could be lost in the fungus like DVD collection, ever increasing in the corner... it's an afflication, I can't help it.

We have begun re-write on our short script PUCA, which is not on the website yet, but hopefully will be up soon. We're making a new funding application with some new ideas and a script that goes deeper into the themes we touch upon in this draft.

You'll notice on the side bar here some names; Mush, Tramp, Barley Films, they are links to the websites of friends of mine, all good guys, all great websites showing some amazing work. With cool stuff from comic art and illustration to animation to stuntwork they are all worth checking out.

Some news on Nevermore, the producer who was looking at it passed. Too bad. But that's ok. I think perhaps I sent it out a little prematurely as I have a few changes I want to make that will make it an altogether different, and better script. So it's probably a good thing he passed. I wouldn't wan tto have gone ahead on the draft I have.

So Oberhausen next week, I'm excited, four days in Germany at europes largest and most prestigious short film festival. Martin Scorsese, George Lucas, Roman Polanski, Alexander Kluge and Werner Herzog, and more recently Ulrike Ottinger, Romuald Karmakar, Pipilotti Rist, Jean-Pierre Jeunet and François Ozon have presented their first films at this festival. With 6,500 entries 147 films were selected from 43 countries, we were one of three irish films selected. So it's pretty cool!
Expect a full report here in a couple of weeks.

Meantime it's back to the plaestone (Yes conor, I stole your joke!)

The Boy with the Stone

The website is up, but still under construction, so I'm not going to send you there yet. In the meantime here's teh new logo. The silohuette of Paleston, the boy with the stone. Paleston is a character from an epic adventure story Thomas and I have been working on for years... but more on that and who Paleston is another time.
Not much has been happening on the movie front this week. We did get invited to another festival, Edmonton Film Festival in Canada. Leeds was this week and aparently it was a big success and by all accounts Emily's Song was well liked, nice to hear. We were just sorry we couldn't go, but I had to buy two new Beta tapes for screenings in Germany and Australia and send them off today, so that's where my money went!
Work on "Insomnia" is going well, I'm thirty pages in and of course it's getting bigger then I had first planned, I always do that! Can't help it I suppose, I see it that way and to avoid doing it would just be avoiding how I write... and it wouldn't be as much fun.

OK, that's enough for now! More later. Hopefully the next post will have a link to the finsihed website. In the website will be a link back here so keep checking back to either for updates. Until next time.

Quiet start to the week...

Not much news to report about any projects. It's been a quiet start to the week. We did get accepted into the San Diego International Children's Film Festival (Did I mention that before?) But it's good. Thomas and I also booked our flights to Oberhausen, so we'll attending the festival in May. There are two other Irish shorts in competition, "Farewell Packets of Ten" by Ken Wardop and "Metomorphisis" by Clare Langan, both exceptional filmmakers. So we're in good company and looking forward to it.
We've made a few steps toward going to Cannes this year, nothing definate yet, I'll keep you posted. Would be nice and good opportunity to meet some folks and see if we can't get some interest in our feature script.
Thomas and I attended Darren Thornton's wrap party on Saturday night for his new short film "Freddie". Ivan McCullough, who shot our film, was DOP. They shot for a week in Drogheda and Dundalk. So I wish him all the best in post. Looking forward to seeing it.
I think while it's quiet I'm going to get some writing done. I want to make some changes to Nevermore. I also came up with a new idea last night while dozing off. I think it could make a good mini series. It's called "Insomnia" and at the moment and that's all I will tell you. It came to me in that moment when I was just about to fall asleep, in that perfectly warm, comfortable, blissful state and this idea came fluttering into my mind like a butterfly landing on my forearm. My first reaction was to brush it away, then I watched it for a bit, pondered and decided to let it rest there for a while. But then it started to tickle me and I just had to turn the light on and write it down... the idea, not the butterfly, there was no butterfly.
But it's good, I like it, got me excited and of course my brain started firing off so it took me another hour to get back to sleep. Still, it was worth it, so often I've ignored the impulse to write an idea down so late at night thinking that of course I'm going to remember it and of course I don't! Good lesson, always write down your ideas, no matter what, like butterflies they do have a tendancy to float away if you don't pin them down.
OK, enough about insomniac winged insects. Time to get some work done. Hopefully there will be more interesting news here shortly. We're waiting for a lot of news to come in regarding Emily's Song and The Race. So check back soon, more news coming.
Also, check out this blog blogofkells.blogger.com I went college with a few of these guys and they're doing some great stuff down in kilkenny on a new feature film called "Brendan", the stuff looks amazing, I'm really looking forward to it.
OK Bye. More soon.

New Website Coming Soon...

www.palestoneproductions.com is on the way... sorry I couldn't get palestone.com but some blighter bought it and I'm paying him a stupid load of money for it! Anyway, my old friend, and talented artist, Dan is soon to begin construction. For those of you who are not Dan at this present moment in time click the link "Mush" to experience the bizzarity of Mushnation and the exceptional art of Dang 07. Enjoy.
Meantime watch this space for updates on our new site, will be full of pics, news, links, trailers, and other such things. It's gonna be good.

In the Meantime...

Well it's been a busy week, non-stop in fact. Tuesday (After the bank holiday) began with news that we were in two new festivals, Danville International Children's Festival and we were invited to Lola Kenya Screen Film Festival in Africa. Later on we were invited to another festival, Giffoni in Italy, so that was nice and we got accepted into the 53rd Oberhausen Film Festival in Germany, which is one of the longest running and most important and respected festivals in Europe, so that was even nicerer!!!

As I mentioned before we had an interview with the filmboard, that was yesterday and it went very well. We met with Andrew Meehan there and he was very nice and very reseptive of both us and our script idea. We talk for about 45minutes and we came away feeling like we had made an impression and shown him that we are indeed serious, we do know our stuff and we really rellly want to make this film.

So he was happy to let us move forward, the next step is to officially apply for development funding. Now of course, he could read the script, decide it's terrible and never call us again, but I don't think that's going to happen. But we'll see what happens, more later!

In the meantime we have to get our budget together for development, as in, what we're going to spend all this money on! It's something we need to be clear about and we need to go in there and be as knowledgable about our figures as we are about our script. Which is going to be hard work, Thomas and I are terrible at figures! Even worse at money! (perhaps I shouldn't admit that!) Well, we're just going to have to learn. But we know what we need the money for, it's just a question of getting quotes for all that and making sure we're clear and precise.

Meantime we're also applying for money to have Emily's Song transfered from tape to 35mm. Having been accepted into Oberhausen we can finally do that through the filmboard. So I'm getting quotation for that at the moment. It's probably going to cost uppers to €10,000! Yikes! But it'll be worth it. It will open up alot more festivals to us, alot more screening possibilities and just give us a great version of our film, how it should look.

So we've alot on and alot to get organised, but it's all good, it's all new, it's all learning and it's moving toward making our first feature film, which is a dream come true... at least it will be when we get it made! Until then I would count my cans of film until they're processed.

But it's all good. That lul I was suffering from is well and truely over and I'm busy again, so I'm looking forward to getting my teeth into another film and it looks like I just might have the chance to do that again at last.

Reality! Who needs it?!

It felt like a slow week this week, but I suppose I got a fair bit done. On tuesday I met with Damien Donelly, a producer friend of mine, who produced a film called Winters End last year. I was looking for advice on how to begin the process of getting this feature script of ours into production. He gave me a lot of useful tips. Including suggesting I go to Cannes this year to meet with producers and see if I can drum up some interest that way.
Seems like a viable option, if not a daunting one! But it's something worth looking in to. I know you can pay for a producer's pass, it's 300euros, which allows you access to these areas that are set up specifically for meetings, but you have to be an acredited affiliated producer! Which of course I'm not! But I'll look into it, there's bound to be a way to blag it!

I got back onto the filmboard too. After they rejected my proposal for first draft funding for Nevermore I got a bit peeved and sent them an email telling them as much... as diplematicly as possible of course! But it didn't lead anywhere. So this time I was much more proactive and constructive at ask them for a meeting to discuss The Race, to my suprise Andrew Meehan, executive incharge of development funding mailed me back within the hour and we're meeting him next thursday. So that that one did work.
It's a day trip to Galway, 4 hours there, 4 hours back! So here's hoping something comes of it. But at least it will be an introduction, we'll all finally be able to put faces to names and emails and rejection letters!

I also appproached a couple of production companies about the possibility of producing this script with them, Working Title Films, Focus Films and CrossDay Productions.

Working Title is probably britans largest and most successful indepensent production company, having produced everything from Four Weddings and a Funeral to Elizibeth and Bridet Jones's Diary to the upcoming Attonment. They have a diverse range and a wide slate, not to mention a seven year distribution deal with Universal in America... so they would be ideal for us.

Focus is much smaller, their most successful film would probably have been The 51st State (Formula 51) with Samuel L Jackson. But they have financing availble to produce films for budget of between £5million and £25million, which would suit The Race and a smaller end produciton company called Chilla Production, for films with a budget of £5mil and under, which would suit Nevermore... so they would suit too.

I chose CrossDay because they are new and only have one film behind them, Shooting Dogs, so I thought new young fresh talent/new young Independent production company... might be a good match.

Anyway, we'll see what happens, hopefully we'll here back soon from them soon... offering us a huge million pound movie deal!!! We can but dream!

In other news... I've started storyboarding Nevermore, bought a new Moleskine notebook, so gonna get stuck into those. I haven't done the rewrites yet, but I'm going to do the two together so I can just get in there and begin to explore it visually as I reshape it. I find when storyboarding it changes anyway, it did with Emily's Song and it certainly did when we were doing The Anatomist all those years ago.
I think it's that it's a visual language and a different level of communication. What works on the page in prose may not translate visually. I find that action scenes are usualy the most effected. For me when drawing my mind goes to a different place as I use a different part of my brain and visual things change from what they were when I was writing them and using that part of the brain.

So keep an eye out for storyboards, I will be posting them here.

I'm also hoping to have the new Pale Stone website up and running in a few weeks and I'll certainly have storyboards up there. Meantime check out our myspace page for info on Emily's Song, you can also see the trailer for it there... as well as the video I did for Boss Volenti. It's not great to be honest, but it's a bit more exciting then the one they finally used I think. What an ordeal that experience was! But at least I learn a valuable lesson... never work with rock bands!

I guess I felt like it was a slow week because I was actually supposed to be in LA this week. I was invited to the LA premiere of Shooting Dogs and I was hoping to meet up with Maryann and all the friends I made at Heartland last year. I was also hoping to get a meeting or two in with some agents and producers. But alas it wasn't to be, the gas, electricity, rent and reality bills all came in at once and by pure coincidence all added up to exactly what a trip to Los Angeles would have cost!

Reality! Who needs it?!