Just Joined
Posted: Sat Dec 19, 2009 10:10 am
Hi. Having just registered for this Forum, I thought I'd introduce myself and let you know that there's an IAC member in darkest Norfolk.
My name is Peter, and mostly these days, since retiring (early) from the day job six years ago, I write novels. I've occasionally written screenplays, having been involved in film-making for some 40-odd years. One of my first jobs was with a BBC contract film unit, shooting news and features mostly for BBC East, but occasionally for national programmes.
After that, I was part of a film-making group based at Bury St Edmunds Youth Centre, and during this time, I briefly taught the subject at Mildenhall College of FE.
Then life took over, marriage, career, children, etc, so I didn't do much more filming until about 15 years ago, when I bought a Ferguson F23 (I think - it was a rebadged something else) S-VHS-C camcorder (shoulder mounting) in time for our Silver Wedding holiday treat, on safari in Kenya.
A few years later, I wrote and made a spoof coffee 'commercial', based on the last chapters of A Tale of Two Cities, in which good old, British-to-his-Union-Jack-underpants, Sidney Carton takes the place of Charles Darnay, awaiting his fate at the guillotine, in the Bastille prison (inadvertently, in this case, being too seduced by the enjoyment of Bastille Blend - "Makes Your Neck Go Numb" (popular among inmates), to notice when Darney puts on Carton's coat and walks out past the short-sighted (and very stupid) prison guard, whom he tips generously. ("Thank 'ee sor," says the guard, "there aren't many gennemun left in Paris these days.") (Well, no, there wouldn't be!)
This year, I adapted one of my short stories, a romance/fantasy, as a screenplay and bullied some friends into taking part, hoping to make a film worthy of putting into one of the competitions. (A technical fault appeared on the soundtrack, which meant I couldn't really inflict it on the judges, and I couldn't reshoot because the location had, believe it or not, been sold and was no longer available.) It was good practice, though, and proved, if nothing else, that I could really do with help behind the camera. (I was doing all the technical stuff myself, which probably accounts for why the sound problem wasn't noticed at the time.)
Now, I'm writing a screenplay for a drama, which hopefully can begin shooting in the late Spring of 2010. I've started to assemble a cast (it's a four-hander, involving an MP, his wife, his 'bit on the side' and her boyfriend, and the 'inciting incident', as we writers call the event which kicks off the story, is the receipt by the wife of a letter from a woman claiming to be the daughter whom, with her twin brother, she gave up for adoption at birth, 22 years previously). I expect to be filming in Norwich and Great Yarmouth locations.
Now, I know there's an IAC-affiliated group - Norwich Movie Makers - not a million miles away from where I live, but they were, when I was briefly a member, and apparently still are, looking at their web page, a collection of individual film-makers, not a co-operative. I need people who are prepared to manage camera(s), sound and lighting, props and makeup, and if there are any in this neck of the woods, I'd be delighted to hear from them.
Peter
My name is Peter, and mostly these days, since retiring (early) from the day job six years ago, I write novels. I've occasionally written screenplays, having been involved in film-making for some 40-odd years. One of my first jobs was with a BBC contract film unit, shooting news and features mostly for BBC East, but occasionally for national programmes.
After that, I was part of a film-making group based at Bury St Edmunds Youth Centre, and during this time, I briefly taught the subject at Mildenhall College of FE.
Then life took over, marriage, career, children, etc, so I didn't do much more filming until about 15 years ago, when I bought a Ferguson F23 (I think - it was a rebadged something else) S-VHS-C camcorder (shoulder mounting) in time for our Silver Wedding holiday treat, on safari in Kenya.
A few years later, I wrote and made a spoof coffee 'commercial', based on the last chapters of A Tale of Two Cities, in which good old, British-to-his-Union-Jack-underpants, Sidney Carton takes the place of Charles Darnay, awaiting his fate at the guillotine, in the Bastille prison (inadvertently, in this case, being too seduced by the enjoyment of Bastille Blend - "Makes Your Neck Go Numb" (popular among inmates), to notice when Darney puts on Carton's coat and walks out past the short-sighted (and very stupid) prison guard, whom he tips generously. ("Thank 'ee sor," says the guard, "there aren't many gennemun left in Paris these days.") (Well, no, there wouldn't be!)
This year, I adapted one of my short stories, a romance/fantasy, as a screenplay and bullied some friends into taking part, hoping to make a film worthy of putting into one of the competitions. (A technical fault appeared on the soundtrack, which meant I couldn't really inflict it on the judges, and I couldn't reshoot because the location had, believe it or not, been sold and was no longer available.) It was good practice, though, and proved, if nothing else, that I could really do with help behind the camera. (I was doing all the technical stuff myself, which probably accounts for why the sound problem wasn't noticed at the time.)
Now, I'm writing a screenplay for a drama, which hopefully can begin shooting in the late Spring of 2010. I've started to assemble a cast (it's a four-hander, involving an MP, his wife, his 'bit on the side' and her boyfriend, and the 'inciting incident', as we writers call the event which kicks off the story, is the receipt by the wife of a letter from a woman claiming to be the daughter whom, with her twin brother, she gave up for adoption at birth, 22 years previously). I expect to be filming in Norwich and Great Yarmouth locations.
Now, I know there's an IAC-affiliated group - Norwich Movie Makers - not a million miles away from where I live, but they were, when I was briefly a member, and apparently still are, looking at their web page, a collection of individual film-makers, not a co-operative. I need people who are prepared to manage camera(s), sound and lighting, props and makeup, and if there are any in this neck of the woods, I'd be delighted to hear from them.
Peter