I broke the Action On The Side website.
The project starts in four days.
While I fix the page, if you haven’t signed up yet, sign up here.
1. Add yourself to the mailing list through Mailchimp at
2. Pay the fee to take part in the project here:
Today I learnt not to touch the URL information in the back-end of a WordPress site.
My most recent project for my Raindance MA was a Research Methods Report. For this, I researched the Film Communities currently available to London-based filmmakers. This was aimed to help me place Action On The Side within the market, and to determine its USP (Unique Selling Point, or Value Proposition). My overall MA goal is to develop AOTS into a sustainable short film business model.
After doing all the research, I had a large appendix with details on film organisations. And why not share that information?
Of course, since writing the report, new communities have cropped up, or I found ones I should have included. Please add a comment if you see any errors or omissions and I will amend them accordingly.
Last night I attended a Film Matters talk run by The Pitch. It was presented by Jackie Sheppard, a feature film producer with Footprint Films. The topic was Pitching a Produceable Film.
The Pitch runs the Film Matters series regularly and promotes their events on Eventbrite.
Jackie is a wealth of knowledge, both as someone who has pitched in the UK and Hollywood, and as a Producer who is pitched to. I would love to share all of her tips, but will limit myself to a couple of snippets. Believe me, I have many pages of notes from this. I also found it relevant as someone who is getting into more and more pitches, and who hears a few pitches.
If you’re going to be pitching your film for the November 2015 Action On The Side project, keep these points in mind.
When you’re pitching, the buyer will ask themselves three questions:
The investor wants to know the answers to the following questions. You have to answer these in your pitch.
After your pitch, you want the investor to think two things:
Questions investors will ask:
I also learnt a new term last night: the rip-o-matic.
So, when you’re planning your next pitch, think of the above points.
Amazing first day at Festival de Cannes – Page Officielle . Made it to Nice, then got to Cannes to collect accreditation about 5pm. Phone died many times during the day so very few photos. Found the UK Film Pavilion to volunteer at the WFTV Reception (masses of awesome networking). Then headed out to dinner, and nearly made it to the Vanity Fair Polish Party — except had been up since 5am, so instead caught the last train back to Nice. Now to sleep before getting up to volunteer at La Plage Royale on the Croisette.
I am ill.
I’ve had most of the week off work, and have spent this entire weekend in bed. It’s a virus.
Usually when I’m ill, it’s psychosomatic. It’s my body saying, “you haven’t had a break in weeks; things have slowed down a bit, so now I’m going to make you ill so you rest”. And then I have a day or so off, and am back at it. Actually, I find the best way to get over it is to power through and clear up some of the things that have been stressing me out. Then I can destress and relax and get better.
This time doesn’t feel psychosomatic. However, in an attempt to destress so I can feel better, I’m updating my blog with the things I have been up to. This is killing two birds with one stone. I haven’t updated some people with what I’ve been up to, so now it’s public and out in the great ether.
I’ve been trying to grow as a person recently, and have realised that I have a bad habit. When things get too much and I have too much to handle, I shrink into my shell and disappear. And I won’t come out until I have finished whatever it was I needed to. Now, this means if you’re meant to be communicating with someone, and saying “I suck, I can’t finish this right now cause I have too much more”, you can avoid admitting that you suck and avoid the person/people hating you, and avoid admitting weakness. Until you finish the thing, and then can turn up with it and say “look! It’s done! I don’t suck! Sorry for not communicating, but look at the thing I finished! Please forgive me.”
I suck.
I’ve been massively busy at work for, oh, a year and a half. I had months of ‘too-busy-to-think’, especially whilst teaching. I picked up too many film projects and don’t want to come out of my shell and admit I suck until I’ve finished them.
Do any of you suffer from this affliction as well?
I also worked out that I suffer from another bad habit. I love starting projects! Love it! I’m like a magpie: seeing “ooh shiny!” and reaching forward, grasping, “gimme gimme!”.
Finishing projects is harder. Because if they’re not 100% gold-standard perfect, your name is on them, and having ‘not-awesome’ work out there is, well, not awesome. And sometimes you run out of energy and time and passion for a project. Films take a long time to finish (and sometimes they never are finished), so you need to be passionate and dedicated to the project until the end.
I’m learning to say ‘no’ and not ‘gimme gimme’ to the shiny new projects, until I finish my previous ones.
Right, there we go. Dirty laundry in the open. Growing as a a person. New blog posts on their way, with my updates. And hopefully being communicative and less stressed will help my body to kick this virus thing.
Best,
P
I thought, why don’t I make a video with my achievements for 2013. Then I could share it with my friends online. It could be a new tradition.
Then I realised I don’t have enough time!
So, here is the new tradition. The reflection on a year gone by.
Film
Dance
Travel
Career
Miscellaneous
So often on social media, we all promote our best times and fail to mention our worst. From the outside, our lives are awesome. But some people had a crappy 2013 and just want it to be over. I think it is important to reflect on the crappy as well. Our lives aren’t all perfect, and it is important to talk about the bad stuff too. So, a few of of the downers.
Here’s what I’m looking forward to in 2014
Wishing you the best for 2014!
-Patricia
I’ve been missing quite a few dance classes recently. Usually I’m at 1-2 hours of ATS classes on a Monday night and 2 hours of Bellydance on a Tuesday, with 5 hour workshops twice a month (Performance technique and teaching bellydance). It is important to me to get to my regular classes: I don’t go to a gym, and it’s my main source of exercise. It’s also how I cope with stress, and relieve the build up of stress-related tension in my muscles.
However, with all the film projects I’ve got going at the moment, and with how busy it has been at work, I keep missing my dang dance classes. It’s so frustrating!
I recently got to shoot the auditions for a new feature film, ‘Pirates Of The South’. Here are a few of the behind-the-scenes photos…
From the director, Djonny Chen:
Behind the scene photos from the casting session of our upcoming feature film “PIRATES OF THE SOUTH” on Saturday, 22nd December 2012 at The Phoenix Artist Club (Phoenix Theatre, London).
“PIRATES OF THE SOUTH” Feature Film
————————————-
Director: Djonny Chen
Producers: Jason Cook, Mark Straker, Djonny Chen, Lisa Cachia
Executive Producer: Eileen Hutchinson
Screenwriter: Lisa CachiaMore details at:
– Film website: http://www.southpirates.com/
– Facebook page: http://www.facebook.com/PiratesOfTheSouthAcknowledgments:
– A huge thanks to Noel Wilson for arranging the location and helping out the casting session on the day.
– Special thanks to Kurt Dimineux, Patricia Hetherington, Chantelle Lavel and Edward Ferrysienanda for helping out on the day.
– Many thanks to Chantelle Lavel and Edward Ferrysienanda for taking the behind the scene photos.
By the way, the Phoenix Artist Club is quite nice.
Hi all,
You should head over to Adelaide Screenwriter. One, to read the interview that I did there. Two, to read the other posts and pages that Henry has written.
Oh, and if you’ve come across my blog from Henry’s … welcome 🙂
I attended the Guerilla Filmmakers Producers Masterclass about a month ago (the blog post about it is still in my drafts section). There, I met some wonderful filmmakers. One of whom I got on so well with, we decided to collaborate in future.
That filmmaker, Kira, asked me to be third camera for filming a choral gig last weekend. It was the Pink Singers concert at St Johns, Smith Square. I was shooting with Kira and her film partner, Andrew. Boy, did I miss shooting and then handing over the footage to other people to edit. [Also, no matter if you have two 32GB CF cards, one 8GB CF card, and two fully charged batteries, the 7D will still overheat by the last song of a 2+ hour gig, and will tell you your card is full. (in actuality, I was 1/3rd full, but what are you gonna do?)]
I also got a boom pole (finally!) and a 32″ fleckie (reflector to non-kiwis). And a 50mm prime (two lenses!). I’m building up my film kit.
