One of the attractions of being a writer is to be a witness to the ever-changing circumstance that one finds oneself in. Of course these changes are not always good. As an example, a few years ago my wife and I went to a local Best Western hotel for a Valentine Ball & overnight stay. The three star hotel had four star rooms and it’s service and it’s catering were aspiring to greatness. Last year the hotel began an expansion programme adding a sports/leisure centre, which included a pool. Right, I thought, let’s checkout the Valentine’s day event. No Ball, but a meal and bed… and a freebee massage or facial that would get me some brownie points! And the result? The food was served on a factory basis and tasted like it was made for a Christmas party at a staff canteen. The room was still four star but the service staff were now ill trained and to cap it all the pool wasn’t finished! They couldn’t even take a booking for the freebee, as the appropriate staff wasn’t available until Monday.
Above is typical of how this year has been to date, there are other more serious setbacks which I won’t detail here but they could well affect projects such as The Bloodline. Jack Marshall (Intruder, A Question Of Content) is also having an bad start to the year with a car bump in the snow and now he’s even been stranded in the snow and had to put himself up at an hotel. Chris Jones (Gone Fishing) is having strife at the moment too. After Gone Fishing reached the last 10 at the Oscars, but failed to reach the final shortlist, he’s been torn between remaining in the UK Indie scene or making the move to Los Angeles to try and catch the big fish!
To digress… I have a theory about LA. America has a massive market for film, but I think LA is LA for reasons beyond the captive market and the weather. LA is Film City, it was effectively rebuilt for film, after the gold rush was over, and LA grow up on Television… almost everyone there wants to talk film or TV "shop" and some are even in the industry! As well as a smaller captive market and poorer weather London suffers one other great disadvantage. London is a truly world-wide great city, it has tradition and history, it has a diverse culture and a dynamic life all of it’s own. When people talk about film or TV it’s not shop, it’s "what’s on?", "what’s good?", what to miss etc. I believe that this is why having the once world capital of finance (The City) on it’s doorstep has not helped London. When LA started the money was in the East, thousands of miles away… as LA became Film City the money followed it, as money always follows a phenomena. If the British film industry had started a new town around the Bournemouth area, then perhaps we could have had our own LA? As it is we have a dispersed cottage industry of Indie filmmakers with no money and a few studios on the fringes of London fighting for the next American financed blockbuster.
Finally, Caen… and more on my previous blog and another clip of the real events in WWII.
The feature film outline for Caen was finished some time ago and I’d even started on the script, so what I did on Friday was to reread the script and then I added a few more scenes. I’m quite pleased with it so far, but as always the budget I’m building up to could be a problem! Watch this space.
Be Part Of The Miracle!!
email:-
brokenarrowfilms
