Ever since I was little, I’ve enjoyed creating ideas to share with the world. As many of you may know I have been following my dreams of becoming a writer and filmmaker. From creating content on YouTube since 2007 on windows movie maker(and weren’t those the good old days!), all the way to taking my first steps into the TV & Film industry in 2022. I just want to create content and share my ideas with the world.
At the end of 2020 I decided I wanted to take my first steps towards being a filmmaker by creating the idea of the Not Bucket List Journey. Making a long list of various goals I wish to achieve in my life, even adding more to this date. From creating films, to petting foxes, and even climbing mountains, I have a long list of goals I have dreamt of achieving and having stored somewhere that I could go back and reflect upon. To see how far I have come from day 1 and a reminder of all the achievements I have made. After some deep thought, I set to work by making my website and set up my social media accounts that I planned to use to share and store my memories.
Throughout the first year of my NBLJ I realised just exactly how much I enjoy creating content. Researching and learning from others who have inspired me. That’s where I came across a way to study professionally in the film industry. And well isn’t there a story to share about that, but don’t worry that is for a later date. I had made a film professionally by the end of 2022 and even premiered ODEON in Greenwich. Unfortunately due to complications I couldn’t release it until all the issues were settled. Because of it, my confidence I built up with film work had begun to drop. That’s where Harvey, a fellow filmmaker who I met through the academy and I came together to work on bringing a TV series I wrote over 9 years to life. Together we created a plan of making a short film for proof of concept to the TV series to hopefully sell on in the future. And whilst we have a great plan, I just didn’t want to rush into it. I have spent 9 years on this project, but we need to raise the correct funds and find the right cast for the roles to draw the interest we need to push the project further. In my heart I knew I needed to do this project justice, but as time drew on I got more nervous about making it right.
That’s when Harvey sent me a message in Feburary about a film festival advert he had seen. The festival, Hyperfokal specialises in hosting a 28 day challenge 6 times a year. At the start of each challenge, filmmakers are given a stimulus pack with requirements for each short film. With Harvey coming down for plans already with my 6 year stream anniversary, we through why not. Let’s have a bit of fun whilst we’re together and it’ll be some good practice for when we film Alone in Stasis.
March 1st came around and we got our emails to let us know the challenge had started. (Not that I wasn’t regularly checking the website counter regularly). When the page finally refreshed, I couldn’t help but chuckle at the stimulus. I know it was a challenge after all, but the requirements definitely added to it. What were they you may ask? Well let me tell you.
- Have a total runtime between 2-8 minutes, including all opening and closing titles and credits
- Genre: Mystery
- Prop: A Metal Bucket
- Dialogue: “That’s the last time I listen to you.”
- Situation: One of your characters is obsessed with photography
- Additional: Your film must be black & white
When I first saw the stimulus I thought are you serious? Are you joking? How are we even going do to this? But then we started joking and I made the comment on how black and white mystery films make you think of detective movies from the 50’s. That got me thinking of how I could bring that concept to life? We could always use the photography obsessed character as a forensics officer or even a victim, and the line ‘That’s the last time I listen to you’ could be something the killer says towards the end with the resolusion to the film. That left me to think over the final two requirements, the overall timing of the film and the use of a metal bucket. How could I possibly incorporate those two to make a catchy enough short film?
Instead of sitting mulling over the idea, I began my usual steps in writing scripts. Grabbing a piece of paper and pen, I drew a line across the page before splitting it into three sections. Act 1, Act 2, and Act 3. Inside the acts I then mark key points for status quo, plot twists and half way point. From there at the end I write a short sentance of how I want the story to end, and then go back to the beginning where I write the opposite for how I want the story to start. That gaves me the first map of direction for what to look out for and where to fill in main plot lines to keep the film flowing.
Once I had the basics of what I wanted to film, I then had the task of finding our required prop, a metal bucket, as well as other required props and costumes. This is where Facebook became my best friend. I reached out to my local freecycle Facebook groups asking if anybody has a metal bucket, to which a kind lady reached out and offered us her old coal bucket. After collecting the bucket and giving it a good clean, I then turned to Amazon for our final props. Some portfolio folders, sealable envelopes, a police badge and then our final most vital purchase. The crème de le crème for the finale – a pair of 3 inch google eyes. Once everything was ordered, I just knew we were going to have a laugh with our experimental short film challenge.
All we had to do next was get on with the filming. We planned for the shoot to happen on the Sunday after a celebratory stream the previous day. A stream which had a few hiccups with health issues putting our shoot at risk. I had a migraine during the stream that left me with a full blown stutter making it difficult to communicate what I wanted to get across. But thankfully with Harvey’s amazing mind reading skills and a bit of patience, we went ahead with no worries. Harvey had the pleasure of meeting a local actor named David two nights previous who was keen to help us on our little project, and I had a local Twitch friend who specialises in photography joining us to get photo’s of behind the scenes. At first I was nervous, we were putting a lot of it together suddenly even with a basic plan in mind. Not to mention we were also a group of people all meeting for the first or second time to shoot an experimental film, but I suppose that also added more fun to the day.
For location we had my flat, the use of the hallway and the surrounding gardens within the premises. This made it much easier for me when it came to release forms, but also for setting up of the camera shots. Those who have been on set before will understand it’s not just a point a shoot. You have to take in consideration for each shot and how it flows into the next. Considering a lot of the shots were in my head and brought to life on the day, I have to say I’m happy with how they came out. We did a lot of jerry rigging for shots, making fake blinds for a window shot using a clothing rail, string and a set of blinds I purchased that was too big for my bathroom. Overall though, I’m happy with what we got within the timeframe we had. Going from getting the pack, briefly planning and urgent buying props to then filming in one single day.
Once all that was done, all I was left with was the editing. I had planned to spend the rest of the deadline editing and putting together, but again health issues arose and got in the way leaving me just a whopping 24 hours left to edit and upload our film to the festival. With the day off, I managed to get the film all edited and complete ready to upload with 6 hours to spare. I’m not going to lie, it was a push and both myself and Harvey were left talking about whether we should even release it. It was a quick job, a film thrown on the spot with many hiccups but it also was a memory of what we could achieve in such a small time. And that is what I think lead to us deciding to upload and send it across to the HyperFokal challenge. As young filmmakers, we wanted to produce some work to keep going, to show what we can do. With our previous film having complications as I said before that were out of our hands, we felt we needed to create work to prove what we can do. Between that, and the experience of making and releasing a short film for the Not Bucket List Journey, we finally came to an agreement that we will send it off.
And so the scary part came. I created out Film Freeway account required to send off to festivals and uploaded our project as required. With HyperFokal we had to go through a specific link to apply for their festival as it was not available to the general public, instead only those who went through their website. I filled in all the required information, uploaded the film to YouTube as well as the project file and added the festival to the cart. It had me sitting there for a momnent, considering if we really should do this. Again doubt plagued my mind because of how we threw the film together. Do we really want to spend £50 submitting a sub-par film to a film festival? But then my mind filled with the responces from my friends who had seen it gave positive feedback. Much to my surprised, I struggled to believe what I heard. Did people really enjoy our silly little experimental short film that much? From what was initially disappointment and hatred towards the film being cheesey, I couldn’t understand the feedback we were receiving. Surely it’s not as good as people see? But then it gave me confidence to press pay and submit our film.
The thing is, when you submit a film on Film Freeway, it gives you the option to share about it on Twitter and Facebook. Not thinking much of it, I then decided to share it through my Twitter. All I wanted to do was share my experience of completing a Not Bucket List Journey goal, it is why I do this journey after all. To make those memories. What I didn’t expect, was my Twitter inbox filling quickly with Film Festivals requesting information on the film as well as asking us to submit it to their very own festival. I thought why not, I’ll send the first one the link to the film as requested and left it at that. Never expecting a reply. I mean surely they reach out to everyone who posts? But again, not much later I received a reply I have only dreamed of.
(Insert Twitter Photo of 4Theatre)
The first Film Festival to reach out to me 4Theatre, had taken the time not only message me but also spend the time watching my short film. Not only that, but to reply saying that they would be honored to select it for their festival? Words had lost me. I spammed Harvey on Whatsapp shocked with the reply and screamed internally. I couldn’t believe that our film, our experimental film, had gained such a response. It simply blew my mind. But then it wasn’t just 4Theatre. I then got more tweets and more private messages from festivals asking for us to submit to them, to send them our film for review. I was simply astounded by the amount of interest. Yes it cost money to submit to the festivals, but not lots. In total I spent $134.60 (which works out at around £107) towards 14 festivals from around the world, one of which was free and another we had been given a VIP invite.
My mind was just utterly blown by the amount of messages I received. My Twitter has had so many DM’s from other Film Festivals we have not yet submitted to asking for us to submit to theirs. I know it’s business and many reach out to potential films to draw in as many as possible. But a lot of them also had taken the time to reach out with a personal message, respond to questions and some had taken time to watch the film before hand. That along made it worth while submitting to them. Our main excitement was the HyperFokal challenge. After all, that was why we filmed Bucket in the first place. But then I received an email that threw me out of the loop.
At 15:43 on the 1st of April, I received an email from 4Threatre saying congratulations for your achievement to which I didn’t understand. Achievement for what? The only clue I had was the subject title being 4theatre selection but even that still had me confused. But then, 11:42pm that night I received an email from Film Freeway that woke me up with disbelief. We received an automated email to notify us that 4threatre had selected BUCKET to be included in their festival. I couldn’t believe it. Our film had been selected to be shared within their festival!
And then more requests from festivals came in, asking me to submit to them because they had seen the announcements that Bucket had been officially selected. It threw me into this world of just sheer amazement and excitement that someone had liked my work enough they selected it to be added to their festival. At work I was so happy and excited, it was all I wanted to talk about. I wanted to scream and dance that after all the horrors I went through with our previous film, I just couldn’t believe that our experiemental thrown together short film had gained such interest. But it didn’t stop there. Just 9 days later I received another email from Film Freeway to left me know that the judging status at another film festival had changed. We had been officially selected for another film festival, but not only that, that there may be more rounds of judging that we would be updated further upon. Even with being selected for another festival, I was beyond happy! Then to make it even better, the next day I received another email updating us to say that BUCKET had gone from beign Officially Selected to Finalist!
By then I just had no words. My views of the film began to change as more and more people gave me feedback and more and more festivals contacted me. I suppose you could say it’s one of those things where you dislike your own work. I’m similar to when I write. I hate my own work at first but then later down the line I actually like it. The overall experience put me on cloud nine. I felt so proud of myself for pushing on and actually submitting to festivals when I could have given into my self doubt and burried it away. Yeah in that time we received two emails to say we hadn’t been selected. But nothing can amount to the emails to say we’d been officially selected and even to have been selected as a finalist. Or so I thought. Because 7 days later I received an email that topped even that high.
Because on the 18th of April I woke up to two emails that I had received at 11pm the night before. The first had my stomach dropping. I felt so sick and I couldn’t believe what I was reading. I had two film festival emails letting me know the judging status has changed. The first from Golden Lion International Film Festival (GLIFF) congratulating me as a Film Festival Award Winner. Because BUCKET had not only been officially selected, but we had been named as Award Winner for the Best Mobile Short Film under 45 minutes. I simply couldn’t believe it. Never in a million years had I expected that we would ever WIN an award for BUCKET. Selected and shown in a festival, sure maybe? But to be given an award. Let’s just say I died of happiness inside. I couldn’t believe that I had gone to sleep and woken up to Unintentionally completing a Not Bucket List Goal of winning a film festival award! All because of a challenge. A challenge that lead to the second email.
The second email informed me of a judging status I had been awaiting. The status to the HyperFokal challenge. The whole reason we created this film, the whole reason I’ve been receiving these emails. And so I nervously opened the email with doubt in my mind. They had to have multiple applicants right? Why would they select ours? But then when the email loaded and I scrolled just a bit, my mind went blank. I stared at my screen and all words left me. I was staring at a green star with a tick and the word Selected next to it. We were selected? WE WERE SELECTED! In that moment I jumped around my room with disbelief and pure excitement. We had done it! The one festival that meant the most to me at that time and we had been selected. it didn’t stop there though. Not much later I received another notification to alert me that I had received an email from HyperFokal themselves to say we have been awarded ‘Runner up for Best Film’ as well as ‘Best Use Of Required Prop’.
That’s when it dawned on me, waves upon waves of emotions flooded in as I realised that we had not only been selected, but to also be given awards for our short film. To this day I still don’t have words to describe how I feel. I’m happy, I’m sad, I’m so freaking excited. But I knew at that moment, that it was worth everything. Because once again I had not only battled through my doubts and fears that held me still for so long, I had pushed on and achieved another goal in life that I had dreamed of.
All because I took that first step. So why don’t you?
Not Bucket List Journey 