Avoid this film at all costs.

Actually, that’s a bit harsh. It’s not terrible but it’s just not very good. An American Haunting is a film version of the allegedly true events that took place in the early 19th century, apparently witnessed by President Andrew Jackson himself (although that doesn’t feature in the film). It’s been adapted by Canadian filmmaker Courtney Solomon who wrote, produced and directed the film. His directing C.V. basically reads “Dungeons and Dragons” (yes, that diabolically bad film with Jeremy Irons hamming it up) and this. I wish I had known that before I started.
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I’m half way through writing a pitch document and it’s doing my head in. The pitch is for a scheme called Metlab which is a scriptwriting training course I recently found out about via Lucy’s blog. I wasn’t going to submit anything at first because I was working on material for short films - I had my plan all set out and tackling a feature wasn’t due until next year. Then I realised how foolish that was and that here was an opportunity I should go for. The worst case scenario is that I don’t get accepted. The best case scenario is that I end up with a fully completed script which may be seen by some prodcos. But even in the worst case, I’ll still end up with a pitch document and an outline and something to work on.
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I don’t know if I’ve mentioned it but I recently got the wife started on watching 24. We watched the first series at the start of last month and she’s just started on the second series this week. (From memory, I think series 2 is the weakest of the lot so far but bear in mind I’ve only seen up to season 5 and I gather that season 6 may have jumped the shark.) Anyway, we were watching some after supper tonight and there was one scene which really grabbed my attention (I think it was hour 4.)

Basically (and without giving too much of the plot away), Tony Almeida calls up George Mason and asks him for his password which (without a care in the world for even the most common sense security protocols) George gives him.

Now both of these are returning characters from season 1. Mason’s character has already been set up and defined. He’s a stickler for following the rules, he doesn’t like Jack Bauer’s loose cannon approach, he’s ambitious and while not incompetent, you get the impression he’s perhaps a bit of a weaselly coward and not actually that good at his job. There’s more to it than that but essentially, he’s a straight laced pen pusher with aspirations that are beyond his capability and neither Jack nor Soul-Patch like him that much.

The password he gives Tony is “Hendrix”.

That single word tells us so much about Mason’s character - far more than a 5 minute casual chat with Tony or Jack in a downtown L.A. wine bar ever would. Just to be sure we’ve understood, Tony asks “With an X?” to which an affronted Mason replies “How else would you spell it?”

So, George Mason - Hendrix fan. Suddenly there’s an image of him at home sitting on the couch with a bottle of beer and unplugged electric guitar in his lap, listening to “Machine Gun”, strumming out “Foxy Lady”, dreaming of the rock career he never had. You wonder if every time he heard the Star Spangled Banner at CTU family days whether he was imagining the Hendrix live version. You realise that behind this officious grey exterior is someone who’s unconventional at heart and the impression you’ve already formed of him has been well and truly challenged.

All that with one single word.

Well, I said I wanted to watch it and now I have. Unfortunately, it wasn’t that good.

To be honest, I felt that what let it down mostly was the writing. The direction was perfectly sound but the writing felt a bit laboured and forced. Having said that, the film did get a little more interesting towards the end. Also, I wasn’t that sold on any f the performances. Franka Potente can be very good but here she felt stiff and awkward.

It’s on terrestial TV this week (Channel 4, Saturday, 23:10) so if you’ve got nothing better to do and want to watch a gory film that’s set in the London Underground, you could do a lot worse than this. Alternatively, Severance is on Sky Movies Premiere (but possibly only tonight and Friday) so I’d suggest watch that instead if you have access.

Most of this post is likely to be a rehash of this one from August. That pretty much outlines most of the lessons I learnt while filming Fairy Tale. But I thought I’d add a little more.

There were two maxims I kept in mind when planning the shoot:-
1. It’s only 60 seconds long and I am not Kubrick therefore it shouldn’t cost a lot and it should remain fun.
2. Even thought it’s only 60 seconds long, the shoot should still be run properly and “professionally”.
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I was down the pub on Friday night and got asked why I bothered doing a minute long film. It’s a very good question and one I asked myself at the outset of doing “Fairy Tale”. I thought I’d discuss it here for reference.

Let’s start with the feature I’m working on. When I first started toying with the idea, a lot of it involved that good old horror movie staple “being chased through trees”. Because I have it in mind that I’ll direct this myself, I got into my head that I should do some test footage of this type of action. But rather than just shoot test footage, I wanted to do it as a short film in its own right. So I had to come up with an idea for a short story that would end up with a chase through woods. Simple eh?
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Another awful week of training.

It started out well enough - a fast 5 miler on Monday, hampered only by my inability to go up the last hill because of tight calf muscles. Fortunately, the first 4.5 miles felt fast, flowing and free. I don’t know how there’s been such a turnaround in the space of 5 or 6 weeks but there has and it feels good.

Wednesday’s 5 miler didn’t feel quite as easy but I pushed it hard again and felt far stronger over a different route than I have before.

I’m glad I pushed both runs hard because that was it. I did nothing for the rest of the week. Still no trips to the gym and Friday’s run didn’t happen owing to work mostly (but also a certain amount of “why bother” having just surrendered my place in next weeks Rat Race. My weekend is already well documented and here we are back at Monday. I’m concerned that the tingling at the back of my throat is going to develop into something more and that the dull throbbing behind my eyes is ye olde mysterious space virus coming for a visit.

A run will probably do me good.

I’m still working on this pitch document for a feature screenplay.

I wasn’t going to - I was going to concentrate on shorts for a while and then revisit the script I wrote a while back. But things happen and my mind changes as frequently sa the wind. An opportunity has presented itself which I’d be stupid to pass over. Admittedly, it’s a 1 in a million chance (but, as the man said, 1 in a million chances happen 9 times out of 10) but hell, might as well give it a shot.

At the best, I’ll have a fully revised screenplay and the possibility that it might get shown to a production company. At the worst, I’ll have worked the story out and formed a more cohesive plot outline than the first draft ever had. But damn, that plot is a difficult one to nail down!

I have been trying to get some inspiration though. So far this week I’ve watched Rosemary’s Baby, The Changeling, The Shining, The Others and am currently about half way through Angel Heart. However, my story features neither ghosts nor the devil.

And, if I write it well enough, there won’t be an ounce of blood shed either.

There are days.

There are bad days.

There are fucking awful days.

There are fucking awful and expensive days.

Guess which type today was?
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Disappointingly, I’ve had to pull out of the Rat Race next weekend. I am gutted but I have other priorities which, um, take priority. There is always next year.

However, I will be putting what little free time I might have to good use by working on a pitch document for a feature film idea. But that, as they say (well, they don’t actually but I do) is another post.