Filmmaking update

Editing on Don’t Look in the Attic is now complete. It’s down to me to get the music composed and to sort something out for the title sequence. After that we’re pretty much done. It has turned out to be around 30 minutes; ten longer than expected - which is good, because I didn’t like the idea of organising a premiere for a mere 20 minute feature. This year’s Film Club at Clounagh Junior High is also going strong. The original band of about 20 pupils has narrowed to five or six regulars. It’s a pity, but it’s really more manageable. Also, one of the pupils in particular has heaps of enthusiasm and has taken it upon himself to direct. This is a breath of fresh air for me, because it means I can let them get on with it instead of having to drive the thing forward myself all the time. The movie will be available for download close to the end of term (June). This summer, the plan is to put filmmaking out of my head for a year and knuckle down to writing my second novel. I say this with some hesitation, because I’ve had a few false starts, but we’ll see.

The bombscare movie: Filming underway

Film Club at Clounagh Junior High has been running for a couple of months now, and yesterday afternoon we finally picked up the camera to began shooting our little “bombscare” movie. I think it’ll end up being only three or four minutes long, but it’ll have a spectacular finale. Yes, this is not a phantom bombscare. The device will get to do its thing. We got half the shots in the can yesterday, but we’re by no means close to being finished. I’m estimating five weeks to get all the shooting, editing and special effects done. And we’ve got some great bloopers to show you, too.

Tick … tick … BOOM!

When I said I couldn’t face the strain of the film-making process right now, that was slightly untrue. I’m running a little film club at Clounagh Junior High School on Thursday afternoons for a handful of pupils. So far, we’ve constructed the synopsis for a sci-fi movie involving time travel. However, I’m starting to think the story is far too big to handle in the few months we’ve got left before the summer holidays. So, yesterday, we took the most breathtaking part of the story (a small segment where a bomb blows up the school) and turned it into a smaller story, complete in itself.

Over the next few weeks, we intend to shoot the movie, edit it, and add some special effects that will hopefully make people go, “How the heck did they do that?!” when they see it on the school website www.clounagh.com).