Horror short heading to Perth, York and Wrexham

In recent weeks I’ve found out that my short film Little Brown Bird, has been selected for some more film festivals.

On Saturday 17th August, our Australian Premiere will be part of the Imported Fear strand at Perth Horror Film Festival. You can find out more here.

Following that the film will be shown in York, England at the Dead Northern Horror Film Festival at the end of September. The full schedule hasn’t been released yet, as I only got the notification we had been selected today. Find out more about the festival here.

On October 12th and 13th Little Brown Bird says welcome to Wrexham, for the Phantasmagoria Horror Film Festival. I’m pleased to add another Welsh date to our festival run and to let the North Wales audience have the chance to watch it.

I’m awaiting on decisions for sixteen more festivals whose notification dates are between now and the end of October. These are our sixth, seventh and eighth physical screenings and including online festivals/awards takes us to twelve official selections so far in our run.

The full rundown:

Marbella International Film Festival, Spain 2023  - World Premiere. Nominee, Best Short Film

Chapter Moviemaker, Cardiff, Wales, 2023 - UK Premiere 

Ramaskrik Presents at Minimalen Festival, Trondheim, Norway, 2024 - Scandinavian Premiere 

Scream by the Seas, Bournemouth, England, UK, 2024

Sunday Shorts, Lisbon, Portugal, 2024 - Portuguese Premiere 

Perth Horror Film Festival, Perth, Australia, 2024 - Australian Premiere 

Dead Northern Horror Film Festival, York, England, UK, 2024

Phantasmagoria Horror Film Festival, Wrexham, Wales, UK, 2024.

Online Festivals/Awards:

Director Talent Movie Awards ( Budapest), 2024 - Honourable Mention, Best Horror Short 

Athens International Monthly Film Art Festival, 2024 - Winner, Best Horror Short 

Prague Film Festival, 2024 - Nominee, Best First Time Director 

Los Angeles Short Film Awards, 2024 - Official Selection 

Little Brown Bird festival run continues

This Friday Little Brown Bird has its Scandinavian Premiere at Minimalen Short Film Festival in Trondheim, Norway. We are the opening film of six being shown as part of the Horror: Ramaskrik presents strand of the festival, which has been running for thirty-six years. You can see the full festival schedule and get tickets here.

Closest to home and in the county where I grew up, Little Brown Bird is coming to the South Coast next month. We have been selected as part of the short film program at the inaugural Screams by the Sea festival in Bournemouth on February 10th. Find out more here.

Festival update

Following Little Brown Bird’s premiere at the Marbella International Film Festival in Spain and the screening at Chapter Moviemaker, here in Cardiff , Wales, our short film has been selected for a few more festivals in recent weeks.

We won the Best Horror Film award at November’s Athens International Monthly Arts Film Festival, making us eligible for their yearly awards too. The trophy will take pride of place in my writing room.

We are also being screened at the Minimalen Short Film Festival, in Trondheim, Norway in January, as part of the Ramaskrik Presents section. It’s an honour to be selected as part of their curated group of horror films from all over the world.

Little Brown Bird premieres in Marbella

Last month Little Brown Bird had its world premiere at the Marbella International Film Festival and I made it over to Spain for the duration of the festival.  On the festival’s opening night on Wednesday 4th, and again on Saturday 7th October, Little Brown Bird played on the big screen at Red Dog Cinemas. 

We had a really positive reaction from festival goers and fellow filmmakers, which was extremely gratifying. On the final night of the festival, Sunday 8th October it was the gala dinner and awards ceremony. where Little Brown Bird was nominated for Best Short Film. The category was won by the excellent Dragunov, written by, directed by, and starring fellow Brit Robin Kirwan. 

One of the best things about being part of the festival was getting to spend so much time with other filmmakers, comparing notes and discussing the writing and filmmaking process was a real highlight of the week. I’ve been to a number of film festivals before in my capacity as a VFX Producer, so it was a really good feeling to be there representing my own work and as a filmmaker in my own right. 

Our next screening is at Chapter Arts Centre in Cardiff on Monday, as part of their monthly Moviemaker event which makes us eligible for next year’s BAFTA Cymru awards.

Cast and crew screening for Little Brown Bird

On Monday night we invited our cast, crew, Indiegogo crowdfund backers, and guests to see Little Brown Bird on the big screen in Cardiff. Producer Daniel J Harris from Eat Sleep Media introduced the film with me, giving an insight into the development process while trying our hand at being a comedy duo!. After the screening, I was joined on stage by lead actress Eliza Butterworth (The Last Kingdom, A Town Called Malice) for a Q&A.

Introducing Little Brown Bird with Daniel J Harris

Q&A with me and Eliza

I was a nervous wreck all day prior to the screening, I was worried about what to say to introduce it and unsure whether the film would be well received. I put myself through the wringer unnecessarily though by assuming the worst. From the moment I saw the name of the film on the door of Screen 1 in Chapter Arts Centre to the very last question at the Q&A, I felt relaxed and incredibly at ease, As soon as I joined Dan at the front of the auditorium all those nerves disappeared.

The audience reaction was extremely positive, which I was thrilled about and the Q&A was littered with interesting and insightful questions. All in all, I think it was a massive success, and it felt like all the hard work, the self-doubt, and the persistence had paid off. Next week we take the film to Marbella International Film Festival for its Festival Premiere, and I’m excited to see how it goes down on the Costa Del Sol too. It’s been an incredible, life-changing journey and it’s far from over yet. So many people have helped me along the way and I will forever be grateful to them all.

Storyboard artist Mike Collins, production assistant Cerys Hodgson, me, producer Daniel J Harris, Eliza, DoP Mark Nutkins

Everything is rewriting

There’s an old adage that all writing is rewriting, and I firmly believe that to be true. Through the process of directing my first short film, Little Brown Bird I’ve come to realise that everything is rewriting.

The obvious rewriting is the twenty or so versions of the script itself, which began life as something with far less substance than where we ended up. Taking on notes from writing mentors, my producer, and other writers I trust was the first part of the process. Much of that involved strengthening the central relationships and removing unnecessary dialogue and superfluous exposition. Each round of amends kickstarted new thought processes, and ways to strengthen things and make the story even better.

Then things shifted to the logistical, as the shoot became closer to reality, the casting, the location, the funding, and the amount of time we had to shoot, all these things lead to changes to the script. Some changes were very purposeful surgeon-like tweaks and others were very much happy accidents when I was backed into a corner with nowhere to turn. Some of my favourite aspects of the script, and in turn the film, were caused by restrictions and things I realised weren’t possible - necessity is the mother of invention.

Once we arrived at the location, me and our DoP Mark Nutkins had half a day to get used to the farm we were shooting at. We started to think about how to use the space, and what we wanted to do with the camera along with some initial staging and blocking conversations based on our shotlist. These conversations lead to rewrites and it was extremely cathartic to do those on set, looking around the real space rather than the version of it in my head (as our only location recce had been a virtual one). Seeing the farm encouraged me to trim back dialogue and lose some lines that we didn’t need thanks to how well the location worked for our film.

On the second day, and our first day of principal photography finally got to work with our lead actors in person at the location. A morning of staging and blocking conversations, discussions about intent and emotions and some all-important rehearsals helped shape the script even more. Once I saw the relationship between Dad (John Rhy-Davies) and Kate (Eliza Butterworth) played out before me, I knew that there would be looks, gestures, and touches between them that did far more than what was on the page. That led to more rewrites, honing some dialogue, making other lines work better for the three-dimensional characters I was seeing before me, and most importantly removing lines that weren’t 100% needed. This process carried on throughout our three-day shoot. Overnight I’d be rereading the next day’s pages in bed and deciding what could go and on-set I’d be giving notes that included changes to the dialogue as we moved between takes and scenes. As I became more confident about what we were making, more and more of the dialogue got stripped back.

The next round of rewrites happened in the edit, working with our editor Luke Andrews. His initial assembly cut had removed some lines of dialogue, to get out of scenes quicker or to allow the actors’ performances more room to breathe. As we went through new versions, and I gave my notes, we ended up cutting more lines, including some that had been my favourites during the writing process itself. Ultimately the script purely serves to inform the finished work and is not gospel, and in contrast some lines that felt throwaway on paper have become extremely important due to the shape of the edit and the power of the central performances from Eliza and John. Making this film has taught me a lot about directing, as it was my directorial debut, but it has taught me just as much about writing. The message I’ve taken away from this whole experience is that less is more, throw it all out there and then keep removing things until you have fulfilled your intention. Don’t be beholden to your own words, embrace change, enjoy collaboration and rejoice in something far greater than the sum of its parts.

We have locked the edit on Little Brown Bird and are partway through our colour grade and sound mix. Our score from composer Robert Reed was signed off on Friday, that also had a similar process to the script, paring things back, removing things, and honing the overall piece so that the intention and emotions were just how they needed to be.

Our film is being submitted to festivals in the coming weeks and there will also be a cast and crew screening, to include many of the people who backed our Indiegogo crowdfunding campaign. I’m very proud of Little Brown Bird and every rewrite has been part of that process, I can’t wait to share it with the world.

Little Brown Bird - Cast Announcement

In two weeks’ time, I’ll be heading to the Isle of Man to direct Little Brown Bird, a short film that I began writing during lockdown. I wrote about it here previously under the original title, Shortest Day.

Our cast is led by two fantastic actors- Eliza Butterworth and John Rhys-Davies. We’ve also assembled an excellent crew, including multi-award-winning cinematographer Mark Nutkins.

Cast members Eliza Butterworth (The Last Kingdom, Town called Malice), John Rhys-Davies (Lord of the Rings, Indiana Jones)

The film is being produced by Daniel J Harris for Focus Shift Films and Eat Sleep Media, with support from the Isle of Man Arts Council and Gorilla Post Production.

Two of my good friends are also on board as collaborators, with Mike Collins providing storyboards and Robert Reed composing the music.

Storyboards by Mike Collins (Freakhouse Graphics)

Most of my free time in recent weeks has been spent in HoD meetings and doing rewrites and adjustments, while Dan and his team have been working tirelessly to pull everything together for the shoot. More to follow on the project soon.

Packaged on BBC Two tonight

A quick reminder that short film Packaged, based on my script and directed by Lemarl Freckleton, is on BBC Two Wales tonight at 23.15. 

If you're outside Wales you can watch it on Sky or Freesat on channel 971. The film will also be available on the BBC iPlayer after it airs. 

Phillip John, who plays Jack in Packaged, deservedly won the Best Actor award at the It's my Shout premiere last weekend, so this is your chance to see his portrayal for yourself.  Packaged is the penultimate It's my Shout film to be shown on the BBC this year. They are all well worth watching and all seven English language films will be on the iPlayer for the next month or so. 

Packaged on the big and small screen

Last night this year's It's my Shout Premiere and Awards Evening took place at the Wales Millennium Centre in Cardiff Bay. Packaged, the short film based on my script (originally entitled The Package), was one of the nine films shown at the event. It was immensely satisfying to get to watch the film on the big screen and to experience the audience's reaction to it first hand.  

The awards ceremony that followed the screenings was as uplifting and entertaining as the films had been (the standard this year was very high across the board).  From beginning to end I was reminded just how many people from across Wales get to take their first steps into the film industry through the work that It's my Shout does. Every single award winning trainee seemed to be more humbled and grateful than the one before. The awards part of the evening was rounded off in style with a suitably rousing speech from Inspiration Award winner Russell T Davies. 

The after party that followed gave me the opportunity to catch up with, amongst others, the film's director Lemarl Freckleton and lead actor Phillip Jones, who deservedly picked up the Best Actor award earlier in the evening for his portrayal of Jack.  It was also great to catch up with many of the other writers who I met at the BBC Writer's Room as part of the selection process too. 

You can see Packaged on BBC Two Wales on Monday 18th September at 23.15 (Channel 2 or 102 in Wales and in the rest of the UK on Channel 971 on Sky and Freesat). It will also be available on the iPlayer for 30 days after it airs and I believe all the films will be on YouTube eventually too. It was a really enjoyable experience to be part of It's my Shout this year and it's made me keen to get more shorts made in the near future. 

The Package selected for It's my Shout

I found out a few days ago that my short film script, currently titled 'The Package' has been selected as part of this year's It's my Shout scheme. Things have been moving very quickly since I got the nod and it's only now that I've had the breathing space to be able to share the news properly. 

I had a lunchtime meeting today with my director, Lemarl Freckleton, to discuss his vision for the film.  It was a refreshing change to be discussing something I'd written in a meeting, rather than someone else's project that I was involved with the visual effects or titles for.

As hoped it was very productive, we both come at the project from a similar thought process visually and narratively and he's already brought some interesting extra elements into play just from this one initial meeting. My next job will be to work on rewrites to get the shooting script into shape, which will be happening in tandem with the pre-production phase, including casting. The ten-minute film is due to be shot in August and will air later this year on BBC Wales and at the It's my Shout event at the Wales Millennium Centre in October. An exciting few months ahead. 

Talking about other people's scripts at Cross Channel Film Lab 2016

It's My Shout/BBC Writers Room Wales

It's been a whirlwind few weeks on the screenwriting front. As I posted previously, I found out last month that my short film script 'The Package' was shortlisted for this year's It's my Shout. Since then I had some even better news, when I was notified that I had made it through to the even shorter list of projects that were being considered for production.

As a result of reaching this stage I was invited to the BBC Writers Room residential, two intensive days at Roath Lock, here in Cardiff, the BBC's state of the art centre of excellence for drama and home to Casualty, Pobol y Cwm and Doctor Who.  The workshop was overseen by BBC Writers Room Development Producer Rachel Williams and run by experienced producer Henry R Swindell. The first day was an overall look at story and writing for the screen. We discussed and watched lots of film and TV, all of which really helped cement the points that were being made, including relating the theory to our own favourite mainstream movie, in my case Predator. 

The second day centred around specific feedback on our scripts and pointers on what to focus on for the next round of rewrites. I was one of the first to get notes, so I spent much of the second day tucked away in a corner with my headphones on, listening to instrumental tracks while working away on the next version of the script. 

The notes I received gave me a lot to think about and really pushed me to take the bull by the horns and start to try some new things out. I spent all of last weekend and a good few hours last Monday working on revisions, until I had a version of the script I was happy to submit. The next stage includes not only the team from It's my Shout and the BBC Writers Room evaluating the revised drafts, but also the Directors who have also been selected, who get to decide which of those shortlisted they are most interested in bringing to the screen. Decisions should be made very soon, so I'll have more to say when I hear if I've been successful. Either way, this has all been really valuable and has given me lots of diagnostic tools for not only my screenwriting work, but also my comics projects as well. 

Something old, something new...

I decided that I wanted 2016 to be a year where I procrastinated less and wrote more, and so far that's be going to plan, as the year has gotten off to a very productive start.

Title - TBC

(Comic short) 

In January I took an idea that had been in my head for about four years and finally put it on the page as a short story. It doesn't have a title yet, but I already had it accepted for an anthology title once a suitable artist is found. This story ended up taking on a life of its own and went in a slightly different direction than I had planned and the ending wasn't what I was expecting. I think the story is all the better for these changes though. 

Working Title - Viva Las Venus  

(Comic mini-series) 

Re-evaluating old work has been part of this year's plan too. Looking back on unfinished projects and deciding whether to ditch them and move on or give them another chance has been a wise move. 

This space opera project started life about ten years ago and I wrote the whole mini series for submission to Visionary Comics. I've gone back to the concept a few times over the years, but disliked so much of what I'd written that I could never quite get past it. This time I ditched a lot more, kept the world and the two main characters but dropped parts of the high concept. I also brought in characters from two other sci-fi story ideas that had stalled in the early stages. Creating an ensemble piece gave the series a new life and pushed me to take the story further and I'm really enjoying working on it. I think two pages from the original book have made it into this new version. 

I wrote Issue 1 in January and did two rounds of rewrites in February. The plan is to do some more rewrites this month and then to look for a suitable artist while working on the other issues.  

Title - The Package

(Short Film) 

This project started life a short comic script in about 2009, when I first came up with the idea. Two years later, having lost the original script I wrote it again, following the same plot and that version has been sitting on my hard drive ever since. Every now and then I'd consider pitching it to an anthology title, but it never quite felt like the right fit.  

I've been thinking for a while that the concept is much more suited to film, so took the plunge and wrote it a third time last month, this time as a short film. The cringeworthy dialogue from the 2011 version has all gone and despite the plot being essentially the same, the characterisation is stronger, the pacing more interesting and the overall finished script far more satisfying. It's coming in at eighteen pages currently, so would be pushing twenty minutes so my next job is to try and get it back to fifteen minutes.  Once I've done that I'll start thinking about ways to get it made. 

Title - Break

(Short Film) 

Another short film, which I've been mulling over for the past few weeks prompted by a specific call out for submissions. The submission has some specific criteria that the story has to meet and at one point I did consider reworking 'The Package" to make it eligible. In the end I decided that having two shorts written was a better plan than trying to make that story into something it wasn't intended to be. I got the plot for this one down on paper yesterday and I'll need to have it written, polished and submitted by the end of the month. 

As well as these projects I'm also working on 'Seven Shades', a supernatural western comic series with artist Dave Clifford (Dexter's Half Dozen). It's based on an idea he had, which we fleshed out together in January. I'll be doing this one Marvel style, to allow him to really flex his artist muscles and I should be starting work on Issue 1 very soon.

Sci-fi mini series 'Flux' which I'm co-writing with Steve Aryan (Battlemage) is gathering pace. Artist Maysam Barza is hard at work on Issue 2, Issue 3 is written and we're in the process of tightening up the breakdown for Issue 4 before we start scripting it.

Lots going on, hopefully I can maintain this pace throughout the year.