Midlands Today Report

The Midlands Today piece on Stop/Eject goes out tonight at 6:30pm on BBC 1 in the West Midlands, and on Sky Channel 979, but if you can’t wait that long you can see it here: http://www.facebook.com/photo.php?v=10150454093341266&set=vb.21263239760&type=2&theater

My first Midlands Today appearance in 2002
My first Midlands Today appearance in 2002

So how did I get my ugly mug on the custard and jelly? Well I’ve been on Midlands Today twice before – once with The Beacon in 2002 and then again with Soul Searcher in 2005. Both times I was interviewed by the same reporter, who gave me his number and said I should feel free to call him if I ever needed any other films promoting. So getting on this time was relatively easy. Even though that reporter no longer works full time at Midlands Today, he promptly forwarded the info I sent to the relevant person and the next day I had a phone call to arrange the shoot.

There’s a certain amount of luck involved as well. You have to catch them on a slow news day. And since your piece will not be news in the strictest sense, i.e. it won’t be tied particularly to that day, it will be the first piece to get bumped off the show and postponed to a later one if something more newsworthy comes up.

As to how I got on Midlands Today the first time, back in 2002, I’m afraid I simply can’t remember. I’m pretty sure I didn’t approach them, and there was some good coverage in the local papers at the time, so most probably a researcher saw that coverage and they contacted me.

I have to say that everyone I’ve met and dealt with at Midlands Today has been incredibly friendly and helpful and I’m very grateful to them for giving my little film project a bit of publicity.

Remember, there’s just one week left to make your contribution to Stop/Eject at http://tinyurl.com/stopeject

Midlands Today Report

My Density Has Popped Me to You

"I am your density."
“I am your density.”

At the risk of sounding like a Media Studies teacher, I’d like to talk a bit about the themes of Stop/Eject. Warning: this post contains spoilers.

I see themes as a way of making a film seem tighter and more cohesive. Let’s say you have a scene where a character is reading a book. As a writer, you ask yourself what book he should be reading. Firstly you’ll probably consider the plot: is it important to the storyline what book he’s reading? If not then you’ll consider the character (which you should always do anyway of course): what kind of book would this character be reading? This will doubtless narrow down the field but ideally you should now think about the themes. Can he be reading a book which somehow reflects the themes? For example, if the film has an environmental theme, could he be reading Watership Down?

I used to see putting themes into a film as giving myself extra work, but it actually makes it easier to reach decisions because it narrows down your options. And anyone who knows me knows I need all the help I can get with making decisions.

Okay, onto Stop/Eject. The first draft script had no themes at all that I was aware of. When I had to give my characters something to do while talking I chose things at random and kept them pretty generic. But the thing about themes is they’re always there – you just have to find them and tease them out.

Tape recorder
Tape recorder

I chose a tape recorder as the vehicle for time travel in the film simply because it seemed like a cool idea. And I chose “hit by a car while trying to get mobile reception” for Dan’s demise just because I’m a grumpy old luddite who hates mobiles and I’ll take any chance I can get to portray them in a negative light. But then someone pointed out the link between these two things: audio.

So I chose to develop sound as a theme in subsequent drafts. How do you develop a theme? Easy. You just bung in more references to it.

So Dan’s hitherto-unspecified job became Sound Designer. Which in turn transformed an unoriginal scene of Kate working late to Dan’s chagrin to a more unique and thematic one in which Dan’s loud editing of some dialogue in his living room studio sparks the conflict.

Co-writer Tommy Draper and I had been struggling to come up with a satisfying “meet cute” (Hollywood parlance for the key scene in a romcom where the couple first meet). Dan’s new job soon provided the answer as we came up with a nice sequence in which Kate first sees him hovering around the weir with a big fluffy microphone recording sound effects.

We even tweaked little things to enhance the theme. So instead of Kate being woken up one morning by a beam of sunlight coming through a crack in the curtains, it’s an alarm clock: sound again. And instead of the driver who runs Dan over being distracted by writing a text, it’s tuning the radio that takes his eyes off the road.

Stop/Eject‘s other theme is destiny, as Kate quickly discovers that although she can effectively travel back in time she can’t change anything. This came in handy when trying to write Dan’s proposal speech; at the risk of it being too “on the nose” I had him tell Kate that she’s his destiny. (It doesn’t hurt that a certain George McFly may have uttered similar words.)

Belper's horseshoe weir (photo: Sophie Black)
Belper’s horseshoe weir (photo: Sophie Black)

But the destiny theme is mainly developed visually. I picked the Derbyshire town of Belper to shoot in primarily for its aesthetic qualities, but as the script evolved I saw the thematic benefit of using Belper’s river wherever possible. A river flows continually, like time moving unstoppably forward… or like the tape in a cassette… which linked to another visual theme that had emerged: circles.

It was clear from early on that the film would feature many close-ups of the tape recorder, particularly the capstans (the bits that make the cassette spools go round). When storyboarding, I looked for places that I could echo this image to create a visual motif. The most obvious thing was to include a shot of a waterwheel in one of the river scenes. More subtly, I moved a scene to a bandstand so I could have Kate cycle around it. And when she microwaves a ready meal I conceived a shot looking straight down on it, inside the microwave, as it rotates. Aside from a visual continuity, hopefully these things will suggest the Circle of Life to viewers on some unconscious level – linking in to the destiny theme.

If you had told me in my A level Media Studies lessons, as Mr Clutterbuck paused Psycho for the twentieth time and pointed out some minor detail which I was convinced the director had not planned as deliberately as my teacher seemed to think he had, that I would one day put so much stock in cinematic themes I wouldn’t have believed you. But if you can take control of your film’s subtext I’m now convinced your audience will have a better time, even if they can’t put their finger on why.

If you’ve enjoyed this blog post and you’d like to see Stop/Eject get made, please contribute a few pennies at http://tinyurl.com/stopeject

My Density Has Popped Me to You

Stop/Eject Visuals

Poster concept 1
Poster concept 1

On Friday morning Satnam Rana, arts correspondent for BBC Midlands Today, came and shot an interview with me about Stop/Eject. Two interviews in fact – one for radio, which went out just before 6pm that evening on BBC Hereford & Worcester – and one for TV, which was meant to go out that evening too, but subsequently got bumped back to tonight’s (Monday’s) show. Look out for it at 6:30pm in the West Midlands or on Sky channel 979.

Poster concept 2
Poster concept 2

The report should go on their website as well, so hopefully in my next post I’ll be able to bring you a link to that and I’ll also explain how I managed to get myself on TV.

There have been some visual developments with Stop/Eject in the last few days. Sophie has taken some of my crude storyboards and fleshed them out, while I’ve been taking photographs of cassettes and mangled tape and trying out some new poster concepts. The wrapped tape one has garnered the most response so far, some loving it, some hating it, but I’m interested to hear what you think.

 

Stop/Eject Visuals

Katiedidonline Homeware Giveaway

PLEASE NOTE: THE ITEMS OFFERED IN THIS POST ARE NO LONGER AVAILABLE.

Stop/Eject‘s costume designer Katie Lake of Katiedidonline has kindly donated some beautiful items from her Mayumi range of hand-made fabric gifts which we are delighted to be offering to new sponsors. We have two sets of pretty fabric coasters, two sets of cute baby bibs (a pair of boy’s bibs and a trio of girl’s bibs) and four stylish hostess aprons to give away. These lovingly upcycled, eco-friendly items would make great gifts for Valentine’s Day, Mothers’ Day or Easter.

£10 of sponsorship to Stop/Eject will get you a set of coasters, £20 will get you a set of bibs and £30 will get you an apron – while stocks last of course. We’ll do our best to accommodate any combination of those values, so for example if you contribute £40 you could either have both sets of bibs or one set of coasters and an apron – providing someone else hasn’t beaten you to those items! To be sure of getting one of these items you’ll need to contribute before we hit the £1,300 mark.

You can visit Katie’s shop for many more gorgeous hand-made gifts and remember you can see her discuss the Stop/Eject costumes in behind-the-scenes podcast #4.

Please note:

  1. Postage to a UK, European or US address is included.
  2. Katiedid items will only be given if we reach our £2,000 target by the Jan 18th deadline. At this time, if the target has been met, we will ask you for your preferences on specific Katiedid items, giving first choice to those who sponsored earliest.
  3. You will still be entitled to the other rewards as listed on the summary page.
  4. If you’ve already sponsored, you’ll need to increase your sponsorship by at least one of the amounts above to qualify for these gifts.
Katiedidonline Homeware Giveaway

How to Make a Fantasy Action Movie for £28,000

This weekend, eschewing some sleep and new year celebrations, I completed a 20 minute video called How to Make a Fantasy Action Movie for £28,000. Presented by me, disguised as a homeless person who’s just been dragged through a hedge backwards, it’s a completely frank and open breakdown of Soul Searcher’s budget: where the money came from, how it was spent and how much the film made. It’s an invaluable tool for anyone considering making a feature, and since it also looks at the details of the distribution deals I was offered and why I picked the one I did, if you’ve just completed a feature and you’re wondering what you can expect when you sell it then this is definitely something you need to watch too.

Here’s the trailer for Soul Searcher to get you in the mood:

And here are the first few minutes of How to Make a Fantasy Action Movie for £28,000….

To see the full programme all you have to do is sponsor Stop/Eject £10 or more before January 18th. There are other great rewards for sponsoring as well, but you’ll get access to this programme straight away, regardless of whether we make our target or not. http://tinyurl.com/stopeject

How to Make a Fantasy Action Movie for £28,000

Letter of the Week

This is a genuine email I just received at the email address linked linked to my other website, The Dark Side of the Earth (a site about a family fantasy-adventure film).

Hi
I’d like to offer you a review copy of bestselling author and sex educator Dr. Sadie Allison’s newly released fifth book, “Tickle My Tush,” for you to review on The Dark Side of the Earth. Dr. Sadie has written a smart new paperback that helps women and men learn the true pleasures of the under-explored seat of love. I’ve compiled everything about the book into a microsite for you to check out here:
http://ticklemytushbook.com

The Swordsman prepares to thrust from behind
The Swordsman prepares to thrust from behind

Please let me know if you’d like a review copy or would like to interview Dr. Sadie. If you post or tweet, please pop me the link as I would love to share it with her. If you have any questions, I am here to help.
Thanks you,
Barbara

Barbara Dunn
Tickle Kitty

Well Barbara, I’m very flattered that you thought of The Dark Side of the Earth when planning your marketing campaign for this obvious literary delight. I kept it quiet on the site, but The Dark Side of the Earth will be a film liberally sprinkled with anal love-making. In fact the main reason I’ve never made the pilot available online is because some more conservative surfers may be shocked by the graphic images of backdoor coitus it contains. Honestly, you don’t want to know where the Wooden Swordsman’s sword has been.

Whilst I’d love to review your book, its content so clearly overlaps with my film that I feel it would be a conflict of interest. I therefore decline your kind offer, but wish you every pleasure in your ongoing exploration of the seat of love.

Letter of the Week

Resolution

Last year Katie made a new year’s resolution for me: to write down an idea for a film every day. I didn’t stick to it very well and gave up completely around Easter, but at least one good thing came out of it: the idea for Stop/Eject. (Just seventeen days to go – make your pledge now or never.)

I’m going to do it again this year, but here is a selection of the ideas I came up with in 2011…

When Traffic Cones Turn Bad
When Traffic Cones Turn Bad

22/1/11 – WHEN TRAFFIC CONES TURN BAD: What if the cones declared war on us? Perhaps starting subtly, by guiding drivers to the wrong places. Perhaps the mortal enemy of the cones is the Sat Nav.

16/2/11 – TROJAN HORSE: Aliens make contact and give humanity an impressive gift – which turns out to be full of alien invaders.

19/2/11 – A tramp who lives in a junkyard builds a rocket and flies to the moon.

24/2/11 – LAPTOP: Future-set film about robots that have laptops built into their laps. Awkward!

25/2/11 – Reality is controlled by some small children who do annoying things like removing objects from reality for a few minutes so people think they’ve lost them and hunt high and low only to later find them in the first place they looked.

5/3/11 – Clouds are really floating sheep-like creatures.  Now imagine how freaky the shepherds must be.

7/3/11 – 4OD: Film about an infuriatingly shit on-demand TV website

16/3/11 – THE POINTLESS TOWN: Documentary about a reporter trying to find out just what the point of Leominster is.

17/3/11 – THE POINTLESS CITY: Sequel to the above, in which the same reporter visits Hereford.

20/3/11 – Psychological thriller about a man who descends into madness after repeatedly having good ideas for films and forgetting them before he gets around to writing them down.

1/4/11 – APRIL FOOL: Jim Carey vehicle in which an intelligent, successful businessman is cursed by a vengeful ex such that his IQ is temporarily slashed on April 1st each year, which always seems to coincide with a really important meeting at which it’s vital he makes a good impression.

Resolution