Big Screen Little Things

So, would anyone like the opportunity to see Little Things on a screen other than a computer monitor and in the presence of an audience? Well you're in luck because you have two opportunities...


For those of you who live in or near North Wales, this is a really interesting one. Andrew Gale at Dogsdinner Productions and my newest facebook friend has made a film called Dark Waters and here is the teaser trailer...

Looks awesome don't it. Dark Waters has in its cast none other than Little Things' own Richie Nolan and is having its world premier at the Llangollen Fringe Festival on the 19th of July, and Andrew has been generous enough to include Little Things as part of the program. Not only that, but there will be a Q&A session with Andrew and the writer, Andrew Stevenson. So for a few quid you get to support North Wales indie films and get involved with a discussion with the writer and director, for the life of me I can't think why you wouldn't want to! So 19th of July, Llangollen, tickets are available here. Get your tickets booked now so that you won't be disappointed.


If however you life on the south coast and coming to North Wales to see Little Things with an audience is not really an option then fear not because Little Things will come to you. Christopher Regan  who writes the excellent Writer by Night blog runs a monthly even in Brighton showing off more indie film, and again has been generous enough to include Little Things in the August line-up. Moviebar runs on the first Monday of every month and will show Little Things on the 1st of August, with hopefully me getting there to defend myself chat about the film.


Can I also say, god bless the interweb, without which none of this would have been possible...


Next time I'll talk about my next project that Pete spoke about in his last post. Working title - I Don't Bite

Thoughts on co-writing

With Little Things finished and released online, the time has come to set our sights on the next Broc Glic project. I don't want to give anything away about the plot, but it's an idea Mark has been playing with for a while. He started working on a script a couple of weeks ago and approached me with a little experiment.


I was one of the first people to read the script for "Little Things" and gave Mark fairly extensive notes on it over a few months, which was the sum total of my involvement in the writing process. This time out, Mark suggested that he and I try co-writing. I was dubious to say the least, and thought the resulting argument would make him reconsider asking me to be his daughter's Godfather. In short I expected abject failure, but figured what the hell, it could be fun so Mark sent me his first draft.


It's turned out to be a really productive process. As I said before Mark and I discussed the script of "Little Things" extensively over a few months. Mark took a lot of my ideas on board, modified some and rejected others out of hand. This being said it was very much Mark's work that I helped with. This time when he mailed me I butchered the script. I completely rewrote the first scene, dropped the final one and redefined the main character entirely. I used ideas that Mark had already vetoed. My draft fixed some problems in Mark's script, created problems that hadn't existed before and highlighted problems that existed in both.


With both Mark and I both invested in the writing process we were able to debate about character motivation, style and probably most importantly, what was being achieved with each scene. Shorts are tough, you have very little time to play with so you have to be into the whole brevity thing. I didn't like Mark's final scene at all. I thought it was too long, had too much dialogue and introduced too many new characters. I removed it completely and integrated what I thought was necessary for the plot into the scene before (which had already been heavily rewritten). My ending didn't work at all, the tension peaked too quickly and necessary character exposition was lost. So the last scene in neither draft works, but looking at both it's clear what needs to be achieved in a rewrite. We had a brainstorming session yesterday and may have a solution.


Thus far the co-writing experiment has been a success.
More thoughts on this are very likely to follow.
Comments welcome folks.

and here it is...

Little Things is finally here for you to see. please comment and tell me what you think

Carpe Diem

Got an e-mail out of the blue from Will from Northwest Vision and Media, you may remember him from such previous e-mails as "it is not a piece of work that would stand up to an audience in the highly completive world of filmmaking and festivals". 


Subject - The Adjustment Bureau
Message - New Hollywood film – they nabbed your idea!


I replied with: 


Subject - RE: The Adjustment Bureau
Message - I think the only way I can claim that is if I say that my idea was nicked by Phillip K Dick. Maybe that isn't a bad idea, then I can say that Blade Runner was all my idea as well...


This little exchange cheered me up a little about Little Things. No he hasn't changed his mind about the quality of the film, but this is a guy who sees a lot a shorts and whatever it was, something stayed with him. Just a small thing but it put me in just a little better mood about the film.


With that in mind and with the difficulty in arranging a screening for cast and crew I've decided fuck it, Little Things has been under wraps long enough. I'm gonna release it for you all to view online on Vimeo on Friday. 


Watch this space...

Lies, Damned Lies and, Well, Shit That's Kinda True Actually....

Short post today. You may recall in the last post that I'd had a, shall we say, negative review, but one review is not a consensus. Two however is getting on for one. Three, well, you get the idea...


Okay, so I have now had the opinion of the professionals. 


The consensus is that as a first effort Little Things was quite the undertaking, that said, when stacked up against a more professional piece of work, it doesn't compare. Film festivals would not be an option. 


AND Ireland were beaten by France in the 6 Nations at the weekend!


Despite these seemingly negative events I am in a pretty good state of mind (apart from the rugby thing, I'm still pretty morose about that one). First of all, I have not had any illusions shattered. I am acutely of all of Little Things' flaws. I did fuck all but look at footage from it for months! I have seen every single flaw, from every single angle. I didn't need feedback to tell me that Little Things was awesome. I just needed perspective. 


So now I have perspective. Little Things is and always will be something I am immensely proud of. Whatever I do film-wise from this point on would not have been possible without Little Things. And yes, it's dialogue heavy, visually a bit static and low in production value, but fuck it, so was Clerks and Kevin Smith's done alright for himself. 


So what is next for Little Things. Well first up I'm hoping to get a viewing together for cast, crew, friends, well wishers etc. After that, it'll go online and you all will get the chance to give me your thoughts. Then its on to the next project. I've got two short scripts in the works, horror mockumentary and surreal dream, one or both of which I want to get done in 2011. And done better. 


On a final note and keeping with the title of this post. I have checked out my stats from Google and I'm getting hits on this site from Ireland and the UK as I would expect, but also, Sweden, New Zealand, Slovenia, Poland, South Korea and Germany, a huge amount of page views from the USA and bizarrely a huge amount of page views in Russia. I can only conclude one of three things...

1. Word of the bollocks that I talk has transcended language and spread across the globe
2. People from my past have ended up in far flung locations
3. My surname 'Moynihan' is coincidentally the Russian for 'Blow-job'

Each of these possibilities are equally cool so if you happen to be reading this please leave a comment telling me who you are, where you are and what brings you to my blog.

I wait with baited breath.