Our latest Action On The Side short film has been made and released, and it’s one that I wrote.
We’re now in the ‘get as many people as possible to watch and complete the feedback form’ mode
Watch the film here:
Hunting Rabbits from Patricia Hetherington on Vimeo.
Once you’ve watched the film, please complete our feedback form at this link.
Completed the feedback? Yes? Want to find out more about the script and how it was selected? Then click “read more”…
Back in 2014, I entered the NYC Midnight Short Screenplay Challenge. In 48 hours I had to write a six-page script that 1) was a ghost story; 2) had a barn as a key location; and 3) had a padlock. The screenplay I wrote was this story. I had set it in the American Mid-West (seeing as it is an American competition).
When I ran regular script development sessions, I developed the script further. One of our regulars suggested I change the title to something more interesting — previously it had been called SALLY. He suggested HUNTING RABBITS, which I stole (with his blessing — he got a Thank You in the credits).
Since 2014 I have pitched Hunting Rabbits for the Action On The Side project, as a way to show how pitching works. I knew full well it would never be selected: it’s too difficult to shoot in a month, unless you have a barn. Whenever I pitched it, people couldn’t imagine this American story being shot in London.
Another AOTS regular pointed out he had potential access to a barn.
I continued to use the script for script breakdown and producing exercises in my teaching.
I rewrote the script to make it British.
For the November 2018 project, with a dearth of scripts being pitched, I shared four scripts — more than I ever do — just to get the ball rolling for participants to feel comfortable to pitch their own ideas. As per usual, this included Hunting Rabbits, but the updated version.
On day 1, I pitched three of the ideas. We broke for lunch. After lunch, someone asked why I hadn’t pitched Hunting Rabbits.
I had forgotten, so I pitched it.
We shortened our long list, and discussed the pros and cons of each film idea.
I decided to pull Hunting Rabbits — there’s no way we could shoot it in a week without a barn (the aforementioned regular who said he had access to a barn, didn’t). But people argued. Hmmm, strange. Okay, it can stay.
Long story short, for whatever reason, the group decided this ghost story set in a barn would be a doable short, and voted for it.
AND four of our participants (all women) pitched to direct the film. FOUR!
Within six days, we sourced a barn location, just outside London; cast; additional crew; costume and props; and got everyone together to shoot.
We have one week to get all the feedback we can to see what the anonymous masses think of the film. It’s nice to get another writing credit, and to see our work on-screen.
Now I’ve got to write another default script to pitch each month…
Busy Times 