All My Dreams on VHS

So, we're right into editing All My Dreams on VHS. I got to check out the rushes over the bank holiday weekend and will get to see the first rough assembly this evening (yikes!). It's all a bit bloody exciting.

It's written and directed by Tim Atack, stars Gugu Mbatha-Raw and O-T Fagbenle, and is produced by George Chan for the BBC Film Lab. For my part, as well as my usual script-editing duties, I'm also line producer on the project.

Version: VHS
George had commissioned Tim to write a low-budget 10min screenplay for the Film Lab a couple of years ago. The result was All My Dreams on VHS. George liked the script but it wasn't feasible to pull the resources together to move it forward at the time. So last year, when Tim was looking for new projects, he asked me if I'd be interested in producing it.

Of course, I said yes, and we went about conceiving it for the low end of the low budget spectrum. We could confidently cut a few costs without going amateur (i.e. there was a lot of stuff we could do between us, without being paid; and we knew people... if you know what I mean), but a small budget would be useful, so we applied to the Digital Shorts scheme in 2006. Well, I say "we". Annoyingly, SW Screen doesn't let Producers apply as part of the creative team, so I wouldn't have got a Producer credit for it if we'd been successful with the funding.

And to clarify, we weren't successful with Digital Shorts... which, it turned out, was a blessing in disguise.

Because, sometime around Christmas last year, George Chan asked Tim if he'd done anything with that script yet.


Version: All My Dreams
The BBC Film Lab was set up by George Chan, Deep Sehgal and David Olusoga, and is basically a labour of love run out of BBC Bristol. It helps BBC staff learn skills in making drama for the screen, by enabling them to actually make films. It's not BBC commissioning, but it does mean access to a whole load of people, with a whole load of knowledge and skills who also want to branch into drama, build up their cvs, or just help out.

This year they wanted to produce a series of 10-15 minute shorts, and were interested in producing AMDOVHS as part of that series.

This, of course, was very exciting.

It was actually even more exciting than I thought it was going to be, because, as well as meaning we could work with a professional crew, it also turned out to mean:

a) A small budget on top of a wealth of in-kind support
b) A Producer who encouraged us to aim high in terms of the scale of the project
c) An official Line Producer credit for me

and importantly,
d) A huge learning curve

It's meant being able to shoot on HD, work with top class actors, a fantastic crew, and a great location. In terms of what I was expecting (and certainly compared to what we were considering before the Film Lab gig came in), we've so far had to make relatively few compromises... But it's not over yet, and with the completion deadline coming much earlier than anticipated, I bain't be counting no chickens...

Feed my blog!

I haven't blogged in AGES.
Yes, I've been busy... but you know... I've also watched a lot of TV, so no excuses really.

And then I got BLOG FEAR, the official term for which, I believe is "blogstipation".

I'm hoping to relieve my symptoms by going on a course of 'get-boyfriend-to-give-me random-blog-titles' pills. Let's see what happens. Given that summer seems to have taken the year off this year, I've got a lot more time indoors than I anticipated.

Stan's Cafe: Realising dreams in the real world

Last week, I went to a talk by James Yarker, Artistic Director of Stan's Cafe. I've only seen a couple of Stan's Cafe pieces (The Black Maze and Of All The People In All The World) and have loved both of them. Neither of them were theatre pieces, but I still often quote them as key examples of extraordinary ways to work with audiences. The image above is from It's Your Film.

It was a great talk, made thoroughly entertaining by the fact that James never seemed bored by the ideas and experiences he was telling us about. No mean feat considering we made the poor guy keep talking for 3 hours - what with our rapt attention and questions and the like. I mean, from time to time, you could make out the visible panic on his face as he realised just how much script he still had left to get through, but he never seemed bored by the actual things he was saying - the content. Remembering and recounting these stories seemed to be of genuine value and fascination to him, as well as to us. Or maybe he's just a great performer...

Either way, it was an inspiring talk, which focussed broadly on how you can uphold your artistic vision, whilst also sustaining yourself as a professional company. You can read the text from the talk here - it's well worth checking out, particularly if you're involved in making performance.

Was really great to hear someone talking about making work with a real scale of imagination - that's the size of the ideas, not necessarily the size of the shows - and with such thought for how an audience might experience the work (or idea), rather than just how the artist might want to explore the idea. "We dream dreams and must then find ways to realise them in the real world."

I Am STILL Your Worst Nightmare

26 - 27 April 2008, Arnolfini, Bristol

Image from Tuning Up by Bill Leslie & Stephen Cornford (photo: Toby Farrow)

Blimey, I think I've only just recovered from last weekend's 'Nightmare'. Nearly 60 pieces showing across the weekend, an open and generous atmosphere, a ridiculously broad range of work in terms of quality (from the truly sublime to the truly, truly awful), and baking sunshine for nearly the entire weekend. Brilliant! What's to argue with?

I'm not going to go into detail about the work because writing even one line about each piece would take a loooooooooong time and would probably suck the living daylights out of what was at heart a playful and fun weekend. Instead, I'm going to recommend checking out Ed Rapley's IASYWN Awards, if you want a flavour of what went down.

As with 2007's I Am Your Worst Nightmare platform, IASYWN marked itself out from most other platform events by deliberately puncturing any notion of it being a showcase. Yes, there is a selection process, but rather than trying to select the 'best' ideas, proposals are selected in terms of practicality and clarity (particularly in terms of how the piece engages with an audience). In fact, the selection is adamantly NOT based on the quality of the conceptual idea. As a curator, it's unbelievably difficult to turn off that quality control gauge, but the pay-off, when an uninspiring proposal turns out to be a thrilling piece of work, is fantastic.

Of course, the selection process is just one of many tactics that IASYWN uses to deflate any competitive urges within the programme. The sheer amount of work, for one. The very limited resources - 10 minute turnarounds, minimal fees. The level playing field: everyone is in the same boat - artists, audiences (particularly given that much of the core audience is made up of artists). The fabulously irreverent compering by the artists formerly known as Spaghetti Club. I think there was a genuine feeling that everyone could respond to work openly and honestly - with questions as well as carefully formulated critique. It felt like the event was genuinely owned by all those who participated, whatever their role.

All in all, it was a great weekend, with some fab stuff, some bad stuff and some proper nuttiness.