Upcoming FWOAN screening in Glasgow...

"For Want Of A Nail" will be screening at the Scottish Mental Health Arts Festival in Glasgow on Bank Holiday Monday the 6th of May. The venue will be the Centre for Contemporary Arts.

It will be shown as part of the "Scottish Connections" portion of the schedule, which will take place between 5:30pm and 7:30pm. You can find out more information by visiting their website HERE.

What's our Scottish connection, you may be asking. Well, not only is our lead actor Clark a gent of Scottish descent, so is our on-set adviser Kasha, and I too am a fellow Scot by birth and blood.

You can also keep up to date with all things FWOAN by following us on Facebook.

Oxford ISFF 2019...

The Oxford International Short Film Festival will be holding a special double screening of "For Want Of A Nail" in its full length form on Saturday 23rd March - and in addition to that, we've racked up another nomination for Best Editing.

The inaugural Oxford International Short Film Festival (OXISFF) celebrates the diversity and creativity of short films. OXISFF is located in the heart of the historic university city, on the same road where Inspector Morse, CS Lewis, and JRR Tolkien famously all enjoyed a tipple, a mere stone's throw from Hogwarts' Dining Hall.

The festival will be held in the beautiful grounds of St John's College at The University of Oxford in the newly refurbished auditorium.

On Saturday the 23rd of March FWOAN will be showing in Venue 3: Prestwich Room between 3pm and 4pm in the "Quirky" slot, and then again a little later in Venue 2: The Larkin Room between 5pm and 6pm also in the "Quirky" slot.

Find out more about the OISFF by going HERE, and be sure to follow FWOAN on Facebook.

REEL Recovery Film Festival - FWOAN Hits Santa Monica Blvd...

The REEL Recovery Film Festival will be taking place in Los Angeles between the 24th and 30th of October and "For Want Of A Nail" will be screening there at the Laemmle Royal Theater (11523 Santa Monica Blvd).

SCREENING INFO FOR OUR L.A. PREMIERE:
Thursday October 25th at 2pm
FREE ADMISSION
The Laemmle Royal Theater. Schedule info HERE.

Writers In Treatment is proud to present The REEL Recovery Film Festival. This multi-day event is  a celebration of film, the arts, writing and creativity. We showcase filmmakers who make honest films about addiction, alcoholism, behavioral disorders, treatment and recovery. Slated for screening is an eclectic lineup of contemporary and classic films, documentaries and shorts from American and international, first-time filmmakers and industry veterans.

This will be the 10th year anniversary for the festival.

FWOAN Surrey Screening...

This past weekend - on Sunday the 20th of May - we had our first big screening of For Want Of A Nail, which was followed up with a Q&A featuring Ali Causon (Producer), Lucy Joan Barnes (Director), Clark Alexander (Lead Actor), Kasha Khan (On-Set Advisor), and me (Writer). The screening and Q&A went really well, and there was a lot of audience engagement afterwards - during which a silent auction was held to raise money for OCD Action (the charity which endorsed our film).

We received lots of positive feedback, with many members of the audience remarking that they'd learnt a lot about OCD that they had no idea about prior to the screening - and that's the main drive behind FWOAN, to spread the word about what OCD actually is, rather than the stereotypical representations that we've seen for so many years and, unfortunately, continue to see. With FWOAN we're seeking to break down all those stereotypes, to crack through the barrier of fear surrounding mental health, and to inform as well as entertain.

Taken as the audience were entering the theatre.

The screening followed an article in the Epsom Guardian about the film - you can read it HERE - as well as another article on the OCD Action website in which Lucy, Clark, and myself were asked about the making of the film - you can read that one HERE.

You can view more information and pictures from the screening at our Facebook page. Don't forget to like and follow us to keep up-to-date with the film's progress!

"Just War" at the Borderlines Film Festival 2011...

As mentioned in a previous post, Just War (on which I served as editor) will be screening at this year's Borderlines Film Festival - and it will be shown on Saturday 26th March at 1pm at The Courtyard in Hereford - entry is free, and after the screening there will be a discussion chaired by director Joe Jenkins.

"Made with much skill, this timely film explains clearly and succinctly the challenges faced by those who have the terrible responsibility of engaging in a war and how those who are engaged should behave." - General Lord Guthrie, Former Head of the British Army

Belmont Abbey screening...

Last night there was a screening of Gaia & Genesis at Belmont Abbey just outside Hereford city, so naturally I went along. Same format as the Kilpeck screening a while back, splitting the film into two parts and then closing the evening (after discussion time - which proved very fruitful last night) with Doing Our Bit.

It was interesting to watch it through again, now that I've cut together the third Zombie Man short, as well as Just War (the latest educational project I've edited), as I was able to see all the areas in which I've improved my editing skills since doing Gaia & Genesis, and how I now employ the NLE software.

So all-in-all it was another positive screening of the film.

Borderlines Film Festival 2010...

Find out more about the festival here:

http://www.borderlinesfilmfestival.co.uk/

On Saturday February 27th we had our screening of "Gaia", "The Rapture", "All Things Are Connected" (three of the five portions that make up "Gaia & Genesis") and "Doing Our Bit" (our entry for last year's One Minute To Save The World filmmaking competition).

From the website concerning locally produced films:

"Shell Shock is just one among a cluster of films showing at Borderlines this year that were made locally. Still Life is a strikingly ambitious drama made by The Rural Media Company with members of the community in Bromyard while Gaia: all things are connected consists of two thoughtful and visually exciting short films on the future of our environment from Herefordshire film-maker Joe Jenkins."

The drive there (the screening was at the Hereford Courtyard theatre) wasn't much fun being that it was torrential rain and the roads are all still littered with potholes after January's hellishly cold bout of persistent snow ... and then the parking ticket machine had the cheek to take my £1.10 and not give me a ticket, and the other one (that actually worked) wouldn't give me change, so it stole a further 10p from me ... my guess is that the ticket machines are working for the government, stealing money from innocent civilians so that it can go towards paying off our nation's ludicrously gigantic debt.

Anyway, the night before the screening I'd be thinking "oh geez, please let there be more than two people there", so I was pleasantly surprised when I found out the theatre had been almost sold out!

The screening itself went well, having already met the nice folks we'd been liasing with in the lead-up to the screening, and there was lots of positive feedback after the show when we met members of the audience and discussed the films and the filmmaking process behind them in some depth.

So it was a positive atmosphere with the audience all enjoying the films on show. It's always nice to get a boost like that as a struggling filmmaker, because at times it can appear bleak - in this early stage in one's career - however, it's really a nice boost to your confidence when you get a good turn-out at a screening and the people respond positively.

As for the drive back, there wasn't so much rain, but there was hellish traffic leaving Hereford - which is notoriously clogged with traffic most of the time - and of course having learned the layout of the potholes on the road driving towards Hereford, the drive back would naturally have an entirely new layout of potholes to avoid, ha!

You can also view the festival's Flickr photostream here:

http://www.flickr.com/photos/41085820@N04/

Borderlines Film Festival 2010 screening...

Saturday 27th February at 2.15pm, Hereford Courtyard Theatre, tickets are free.

http://www.borderlinesfilmfestival.co.uk/gaia.shtml

Updates...

There was another screening of Gaia & Genesis earlier this week, this time for Kleen Energy Week in Kington, Herefordshire.

http://kingtonblackboard.org/2010/01/film-gaia-genesis/

...

I have also updated the Credits Highlights section (down there on the right hand side with tons of other info about me and my filmmaking), with an updated list of Film Festival and TV screenings of my work.

"Gaia", and "All Things Are Connected" - Borderlines 2010...

Saturday 27th of February at 2.15pm at the Hereford Courtyard theatre for the 2010 Borderlines Film Festival.

http://www.borderlinesfilmfestival.co.uk/programme.shtml

And the page on their website for the film:

http://www.borderlinesfilmfestival.co.uk/gaia.shtml

Gaia & Genesis screening...

I've received word that a couple of the chapters from Gaia & Genesis ("Gaia" and "The Rapture") will be screening at the Borderlines Film Festival 2010 on the 27th February.

Good news to start the year then.

http://borderlinesfilmfestival.blogspot.com/

http://www.borderlinesfilmfestival.co.uk/

"Gaia & Genesis" and "Doing Our Bit" screening...

Last week Friday we had a screening for these two films (the former in a joined-up 63 minute cut) in one of the nearby villages. The event was a fundraiser for the Climate Justice Fund, and proved to be very successful indeed (plus it got my name in the local paper for the first time in years, which was nice).

The hall was packed out with people who came to see the screening, so much so that we had to cram in some extra chairs so everyone could get a seat. As for the films themselves, they were received with rapturous applause - something which you're obviously rather chuffed to receive, but which also makes you go all a bit "aww shucks".

A number of people even came up to personally congratulate me on the quality of the films themselves, with which they were very impressed - so that was rather nice too. It was also very interesting to hear from other people who were also involved in the project itself - by means of providing additional voice overs and so on - and it was great to see that everyone 'got' the film. They understood the intention, and they really responded to the style and construction of the film, the aim of which was to help draw the viewer in and keep them constantly interested - mission accomplished on that front, I'm pleased to report.

The event itself had a very strong community vibe to it. Lots of people chipping in to help out, lots of people making tea, a whole table of home-cooked goodies, and a variety of home-made crafts on sale, so it was great to see first hand a rural community coming together under one roof to sit down and watch films I'd put together.