2010: My Decade

2010 is the start of a new year for me as it is for all of you. However, it's also the start of the most important decade of my life. In summer 2011 I will graduate from my Digital Film Production degree and be entering the real world, where I'm going to make it in the film industry. I'm not aiming to be the next big Hollywood director, all I'm aiming to do is make the films I want to make and earn a respectable living.

I'll be entering the industry during an important stage in it's evolution, which it's still going through, and I will therefore need to open my mind up to new ways of thinking. Not just in terms of film making, but also in terms of business models. In a world where everyone with a mobile phone can make a film, what is it that sets me apart from the rest of the human population? And how do I make money from the film I've made?

I'm going to be exploring something this month and next month that I've never seen before, and having already done some tests, I think it is going to turn out better than I had initially expected for the way I'm going to film it, which is basically what makes the film. I'm not going to say any more on this project until it's finished, because I want to get a fresh reaction from the audience on what I think is a fresh new approach to the type of film I'm going to be making.

I've also got quite a few side projects that I'll be working on this year. And looking at how busy I'm going to be this term, I'm starting to think that I might have said yes to a few too many projects.

When I go back to uni, I'll be finishing off work on Distant Donors (progress report below) and starting work on some narrative films. I'm going to have to do some serious script writing before then if I want to get one of my ideas chosen, which I really really do, because I'm dying to direct having done none since about April last year. I think I'm going to be writing quite a lot this year, as I'm also doing a screenwriting module.

In other news, this is how things are with Distant Donors. This video shows you where we're at with the edit. As you can see there is still a lot of work to be done on it. I've managed to get my friend Tom Law to write some music for it, which if we use it (as other members of the group are also trying to get people to write music for the film), will be dispersed throughout. Currently we've got some temp music in for the last couple of minutes.

I've found working on this film rather boring in terms of the job that I've had to do. Boom Operator is not a job I ever want to have again. I did get to use the camera during the last few days of shooting, as we did quite a lot of cutaways in the car. We must have filled about a tapes worth of footage of stuff we shot in the car, and I think only one of the shots is actually in the current edit. Which is the shot of Jack in the car at night, the only shot of mine which has been used so far. Is it too much to ask for an additional camera operator credit!? If that's the case could I push for some sort of edit credit as well, as I put a couple of shots on the time line!?

And here is the music that Tom Law has written for the film:

I should have the finished piece for you next month.

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