Short Film Contest

A Short Film Contest 

Several of us in The filmmakers Group decided to participate in a short film contest run by Sala Montjuic.

I had an idea that seemed fairly simple but this is rarely the case. I should realise this by now having made a few short films.

Also I wanted to use kids… 

One of the most stressful things is finding actors and then hoping they will turn up. This turned out to be a real concern with this film. Out of 4 only 3 appeared so there was a lot of script changes on the fly.

I was also feeling like crap! The day before I came down with a head cold and could hardly drag myself out of bed.

On the day of the shoot I doubled dosed on any medication I could find and went through the whole experience in a kind of a daze.

I knew it was going to be a disaster but in the end it was not as bad as I thought.

The biggest issues was one of the kid actors really was slow on the update of what she needed to do. My patience was paper thin because her parents had turned up with a crying baby.

Truth be told just thinking about the whole experience feels like a distant bad dream.

Somewhere along the way I had forgotten the brief. I did not have a hope in hell of becoming a finalist.

Also preparation is king! I was using a tent I had just bought and did not attempt to assemble it until the day of the shoot. The bloody thing was like an IQ test!

And is always the case afterwards I say to myself “never again!” Until another idea for a script begins to infect my mind like a crappy head cold