SOUTHBANK UNSEEN PREMIERE September 7, 2011

You may remember me talking about a collection of short documentaries/films that I’m going to be distributing soon called SOUTHBANK UNSEEN, a while back…
 

Well they’re all finished and have been treated to a sexy grade and will be having their World Premiere as part of the Mayor’s Thames Festival this coming weekend on the 10th and 11th of September. They’ll be projected on to the side of the Royal Festival Hall and to keep things interesting the projector will be bicycle powered.
 

“Cycle-In Cinema screens the world premiere of Deva Palmier’s Southbank Unseen, a series of four short documentary dramas that give us an alternative view of the South Bank through the eyes and ears of four extraordinarily gifted individuals: Carolyn Findlay, a clairvoyant; Peter Bleksley, a surveillance detective; John Hutchinson, a twelve-year-old on the high end of the autistic spectrum; and, in the fourth film, Prof. Geraint Rees, who will enlighten us on their three views from his own perspective as a neuroscientist.”

 

I’ll be going along on the Sunday to see the four mini documentaries being screened together. Make sure to bring along a wireless radio to tune into the sound. It’s going to be quite exciting seeing the finished product in front of an audience.

  

Click the flyer to see the details or click here.

 
 

 

 

 

SOUTHBANK UNSEEN March 18, 2011

On the film side of things there’s a project that I’m extremely excited about which is called, “SOUTHBANK UNSEEN“. It’s going to be a collection of short films from the perspective on different people along the Southbank and in tandem it’ll be getting scientific advise from top neuroscientist Geraint Rees. As most of you know one of the jobs I do is that of Film Festival Distribution and it’s a job I thoroughly enjoy. I scout out different festivals all over the world and submit my client’s films into festivals whilst building up dialogues with the programmers and coordinators. I’ve been specifically asked to be involved with this project in that capacity, but I’m also taking on the role of Publicist. What captured my interest about this project is the amazing amounts of how interactive it can be. The approaches to getting it to an audience are limitless because of the variety of the films.

 

Collectively SOUTHBANK UNSEEN can be marketed as an entire project meaning that they could be entered in to festivals worldwide. There are a higher concentrate of experimental festivals that are art-led and explore installation territory abroad which means we’ll have an ever increasing audience across the board. There are genre specific festivals that call out for documentaries such as DOXA Documentary Film Festival (Canada), One World International Human Rights Documentary Film Festival (Prague), Sundance Film Festival (USA), Edinburgh International Film Festival, Palm Springs International Film Festival (USA), London International Documentary Festival, Sheffield Doc/Fest, the list goes on. All of these are established festivals with opportunities for further distribution that can add more interest to the project and propel it further. This is my job.

 

SOUTHBANK UNSEEN TEAM

SOUTHBANK UNSEEN brings together an amazing team, who are all working for the love:

 

Deva Palmier an award winning filmmaker, directing.

Fionn Groegor an excellent production manager, producing.

Jes Benstock an award winning filmmaker, co-producing.

Prof. Geraint Rees a world renowned neuroscientist, our scientific adviser.

Karoline Moser an outstanding editor and head of Editing at the Met Film School, editing.

Julian Stewart Lindsay an outstanding composer, who has worked with the best, composing.

Alastair Sirkett a top sound editor, designing the sound.

Marianne Agertoft a top costume designer, taking care of the costumes.

Katie McCullough who is amazing at publicising projects and clued up on international festivals, is publicist.

Nick Ward who has worked on numerous London Consortium TV shoots will be working in the crew.

 

London Consortium TV are offering to crew the shoot with students and provide the second camera and sound equipment.

 

The project has so many fantastic people attached and I’m excited for the outcome. Unfortunately (as most people are encountering right now) we had our funding application rejected. With so many brilliantly qualified people involved and everyone passionate about the idea, we were disheartened. But we’ve decided to go ahead and make the films regardless, just on a lot smaller budget than planned. We’re asking for a very small sum of money to be raised via IndieGoGo to cover catering, travel expenses, insurance .etc. The details that people forget are vital to any film shoot. We’ve been lucky enough to get equipment and editing facilities given to us free of charge, now it’s just tying up the loose ends so the project can run as smoothly as we’d like.

 

For those new to IndieGoGo it’s a donation site that’s international. Similar to WeFund that Box Of Tricks used for Word:Play4, but with this site the total doesn’t have to be reached for the donations to reach the project. There are particular donation amounts which will provide you with either credits, DVDs, private screenings and other quirks. This really is a project that I am excited about, because we’re making it because we want to. We’ve already secured our premiere to be at the BFI as part of the Mayor’s Thames Festival and to have the film screened on the exterior wall of the Southbank Centre and on top of that are in talks for other innovative ways to screen around the Southbank. We’re all invested and more importantly we have an audience already. I can’t divulge the finer details as yet, but when I can it’ll be electric! Please spare what you can, be it £5 up to whatever. Be a part of the collaborative process and help the arts at the same time. It’ll make us happy, you feel good and an audience appreciative of being able to see the finished product. Please share with those that might be able to help.

 

CLICK HERE TO DONATE AT INDIEGOGO

 

 

 

The White Room – ICA Lab February 3, 2011

I recently had an ICA Lab to work on and develop my script, “The White Room“. I’ve always spoken fondly about the ICA Lab in the past and this time will be no different. It’s a fantastic opportunity to try work out, get it on its feet or at least off the page behind the safety of a closed door. It’s a chance to to explore a project and discuss it with all those involved, from the actors reading the scripts to the outside eye you’ve invited.

 

The piece is an intense and extremely intimate script so having few people in the room to watch heightened this. Susan Stanley and Joseph Wilkins had (incredibly) done a lot of work on the piece before the reading, which I admired. They had met several times to go through the script, read through a few times and act it out with props and build a background to the character’s history. What made this Lab even more worthwhile is that a lot was discovered about the story that I hadn’t addressed fully, but also how to twist the tension up higher to gain more effect from the entire piece. This is something I would not have stumbled upon if it hadn’t of been for the feedback I received from the people I had invited. Having two theatre directors, a playwright and actors in the room all felt extremely useful and what’s more, they had invested their time into watching, reading and talking about it.

 

 

 

 

I always bang on about collaboration, but it is key. Without it we’re running on the spot, and that’s something I’m keen to avoid.

So thank you to Mel Cook, Melissa Dunne, Joanne Ferguson, Janice Okah and of course Susan Stanley and Joseph Wilkins.

CIRCUS March 30, 2010

Once again I’ve been busy. But productive. Any fellow writer who knows me will remember me banging on about ICA Labs and about how fantastic they are to airing work and pushing projects forward. The idea is simple – a private room in the plush ICA to read out your work with actors. That’s pretty much it to be honest, but like most things that at first seem simple they’re layered with hurdles and delights.

 

I had my Lab on Sunday and decided to work on the children’s TV programme I have banging around not doing much. I’d had an earlier draft of episode one read before but since then the theme of the project had changed. As well as writing in whatever spare time I have I’m always juggling three jobs (two out of three are interesting, fair turn out I say). So when I had some time in lieu to take from the boring job I toyed around with the idea of doing a Lab but then at that time all the projects I had at my finger tips were past having readthroughs and had been sent off to the relevant people OR were in rehearsal. So I turn my attention to CIRCUS and decide to write a second episode to see if it has legs. And then in true Katie-style I had several events and writing projects happening up until a week before I needed to send the scripts out. Oh and there was casting as well.

 

 

And in between that among deadlines for other such things I had a birthday which went something like this…

 

 

I always get ridiculously busy around my birthday to the point where I either forget it or end up doing something work related on the day. I have to write it on my own calendar.

 

Cut to a week when I’d planned to write the thing and I was struggling. I didn’t have time to indulge in a series outline or even attempt a bible. I was writing blindly and anyone following my Facebook statuses would have gathered that at times I was struggling. And procrastinating as usual. But jeez I love the pressure. By the end of Thursday night I had a first draft that then got posted/emailed/given to all the cast involved and then I had to wait till the following Sunday to see if it was worth investing time and energy into the programme.

 

Being a kid’s programme I had to cast kids. And going on recommendations from Rosemarie Partridge at Theatrix (where I’m their writer in residence) I had before me a bunch of eager and fully-trained kids. Fantastic. Meeting them to hand out scripts on the Saturday put my mind at rest, I was fortunate enough to be in a position where I could have the intended characters played as close as possible to their ages. A win/win situation. And even more brilliant was the fact that most of the children involved had only finished a production two days before and still all turned up on time and read beautifully.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

What was clear as we all read through the two episodes was that my fear of episode two being too dark was nothing to worry about. The general consensus was that people wanted to see more of this which ultimately means going back through episode one and re-threading the dark elements. Not only has this satisfied and reassured me but it’s a massive weight off my shoulders. I wanted to write a children’s programme that wasn’t all sweetness and light. I wanted it to portray an adult world through children’s eyes. We have death, peril and a rights of passage occurring but never are they expressed in a patronising light. They’re meant to be a celebration of how outlooks can differ; it’s the kids that express these things and I wanted that to remain true. It’s one big allegory for life and growing up in a world that’s not the same as every one else’s. But never is anything kooky for kookys sake. Their arena is true to their life but they still experience the embarrassment, the wonder, the pain and the laughter of growing up. It’s a magical environment and one that I’ve had immense fun writing. And never once have I felt like I’m pandering to keeping things simple because ‘the kids will be watching’. It’s had me thinking back to the Q&A session that I went along to at the Royal Court where Steven Andrews talked to us about things to remember. And the one that keeps sticking in my head is this:

 

“Remember to keep it child centred AND child driven. If problems arising in the script are solved by the adults no one’s going to keep watching… It’s called Children’s TV for a reason, stick to it.”

 

Utterly true. And that’s something that I do think is prevalent in my script at this present time. But it’s something that I can explore more now I know that there’s something to this idea. The feedback garnered from all the actors involved was thrilling to say the least and it was even more exciting that the children who were reading for me were throwing me some superb ideas and insights. It truly was a great moment especially as I don’t usually write for children. It goes to show that sometimes writing something you’re not fully inclined to do can make you realise that writing is all about telling a good story no matter what restraints you’re up against or used to. And it’s not all reliant on magic.

 

A big hearty thanks to the following:

Cariad Lloyd
Michael Bird
Ishani Canisius
Conor Gray
Michael Keir
Amber Townsend
Rupert Baker
Stanley Walton
Melissa Woodbridge
Neil Fox
Hannah Thomson