Category Archives: Awards!

‘Making A Killing’ The Winningest Comic Short At Iron Mule, NY!

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The Iron Mule was a 1925 silent film directed by Fatty Arbuckle and produced by Buster Keaton. In it, an early steam locomotive – the “Twenty-Cent Limited” – puffs and blunders its way through the American interior with a hotchpotch of weird and wonderful passengers and a highly capable and endlessly harassed engineer. Cattle get in the way. Horses won’t do as they’re told. Tunnels aren’t tall enough. The locomotive escapes. Everyone falls acrobatically off something at least once.

It’s actually quite a hoot.

As is The Iron Mule Short Comedy Film Festival, running out of New York since 2002. We were hoping to get 2020 off to a flyer, so imagine the degree of chuffed-to-bits-ness we were elevated to when we heard that Iron Mule would be screening Making A Killing at their event on 6 January.

MAK Iron Mule

It then transpired that one of our fabulous leads, Tiff Stevenson, would be in New York that week promoting her latest tour. Being a thoroughly good egg all round, she offered to attend the screening and take part in a Q&A. And if that wasn’t reason enough to see in the decade with a throaty ‘huzzah’, Making A Killing left the building with the Audience Favourite Award!

All while I was sat on the A25 in the early hours waiting for my engine to pack up…

 

4 Screenings (And A Funeral, Sadly)

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The whole point of making films is to make them well and get them in front of audiences…

…and we’ve been doing that, mostly around the Dick Whittington gold-paved conurbation of coolness that is London, our local-ish ‘manor’. Most recently, we were invited to screen our dark comedy ‘Snug As A Bug’ at the Wimbledon Film Club, located at Merton Arts Centre, as part of an evening of shorts touching on the theme of ‘crime’. Snug fits squarely, or rather snugly, into that category since it features a corpse being lugged around town by a pair of hapless, hopeless, low-level lowlifes. A small but engaged audience watched 5 films in total and Snug drew out the ‘lols’ all the right places. Lots of good questions in the Q&A too.

[NB. shout-out to another short screened that evening: ‘Good Morning Alice.’ Both of us thought it was very well scripted and performed—written and directed by Matthew Stacey].

Next up was the Emerging Filmmakers event, which asked to screen our supernatural thriller-chiller ‘Between’ for an evening of similar short shoots. Filmed last summer on a micro-budget (you can’t get more ‘micro’ than £0…), it came out well, with Director Louise Galizia of Cue Pictures and DOP Caroline Bridges translating the quiet tension and enigma of the predominantly dialogue-free script into an edgy, atmospheric and engaging short. The audience responded positively and Andy, together with Louise and lead actor Georgina Blackledge, went along to present the film and answer questions from the audience. Great to circulate and chinwag with folks after too—definitely a lively and enthusiastic network of filmmakers to be part of.

And at the end of March, we had the great privilege to be screened at the gala finale of the Crystal Palace International Film Festival—one of the largest annual new film events in London (actually in the country, we’ve since been informed). Either way, we were chuffed to chuffing bits to have Snug not only being shown at a gala awards event which closed the festival but NOMINATED FOR BLINKIN’ AWARD TO BOOT! Yes, we were up with 4 other films nominated in the Best Comedy category, (including feature film The Bromley Boys which went on to win the festival’s Best Feature award). Just breaking in to as strong a field as that was frankly reward enough, though the champagne and canapés added a sozzled-and-replete tummy bonus to the whole affair. The only thing that could’ve been more of a win for us would’ve been…an actual win. Despite making our blood sacrifice to the Elder Gods of Dark Comedy under a full moon just off the M6 toll road, we returned gong-less, though there was absolutely no shame in losing to the feature film Kill Ben Lyk.

Thoroughly ego-buffing to be nominated though, and the real takeaway from this and other screenings is that the film (and all the creative skills of our cast/crew) are getting positive attention.

Fast-forward to May and another screening of Snug is in the offing at the rather fabulous Peckhamplex cinema in South-East London. We’ll be there to front our pungent, pugnacious little pup on the 20th and look forward to meeting other writers and filmmakers on the bill. Come along if you fancy…

It seems strange to end on a sad note, but during this string of screenings and happy evenings thumping the tub for our various creations, we lost our good friend Anna to cancer at the dreadfully early age of 44. Despite her illness, Anna and her husband Nick expressed interest in, supported and helped finance our filmmaking efforts, something we’ll always be grateful for. There are no silver linings to losing a friend, but with a raft of screening invitations, an award nomination, some VERY nice feedback for our film ‘Making A Killing’ from several major TV channels and another script attracting the interest of a new director, we can’t help thinking she’s out there somewhere, putting in a good word with someone important.

Cheers, luv.

‘Snug’ Nominated For Best Comedy Award at CPIFF 2019…!

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With all the terrific festival-pick news drifting across the North Atlantic throughout January, we had to sit on our hands like fidgeting five-year-olds while a cracking score closer to home filtered through to waiting hopefuls…

The 2019 Crystal Palace International Film Festival!

As January dragged and drizzled into February, we would’ve been forgiven for thinking there’d be nothing but festival tumbleweed until deep into the Spring. Not so with plucky, mucky ‘Snug As A Bug’ out on the circuit: approbation in Albion with selection for CPIFF 2019 in its 10th Anniversary year.

Kudos. Validation. A tonic shot for the endorphin drones.

Then we hear about the award nomination: kudos-plus; validation GTi; endorphins through the wazoo. We write to get the writing noticed – when a respected funny-someone judging ‘funny’ finds your ‘funny’ funny, you can’t help but feel that you’re scratching the right creative itch. We certainly don’t write to get ourselves noticed – nobody deserves that.

‘Snug’ will be screening during the Gala Finale on March 30th and we’re bloody well going. Here’s a taste of what else is planned…

‘Snug’ Proves A Hit In The Beaver State…!

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This is just getting silly…

Nothing’s supposed to happen in January; pub abstinence; kale smoothies; suffocating ennui; nine o’clock bed. January’s when excitement, energy, surprise and unexpected cool stuff take their own vacations, safe in the knowledge that nobody needs or anticipates them for 31 joyless, colourless, water-flavoured days.

That said, not everyone has a cheeky flick like ‘Snug As A Bug’ in their corner…

Oregon’s an interesting place. Having nabbed the lion’s share of the American beaver fur trade during the War of 1812, we Brits demanded a sizeable portion of the Oregon Territory extending deeper into the United States (nearly Mexico) than the United States was prepared to stomach. The United States in turn demanded a sizeable portion of the Oregon Territory extending much further north (nearly Alaska) than we Brits were prepared to entertain. Cue much political toing-and-froing, a rush of land-grabbing settlers, a furious few rounds of mutual moustache twirling and a threat of war at a time when we Brits were still mixing it in the heavyweight division. Calmer heads prevailing, however, more diplomatically-inclined Brits and United States-ians agreed to split the disputed territory cleanly across the midriff at the 49th Parallel. The bit from the bellybutton down to the Converse soles became America’s 33rd state in 1859 to much fanfare and moustache twirling.

It’s capital is Salem. It’s known as The Beaver State. It’s legalised cannabis for medicinal and recreational use. More importantly, it’s home to the annual Oregon Short Film Festival. Even more importantly, its 2019 iteration will be screening ‘Snug’ at the 5th Avenue Cinema in Portland on 23rd February!

We might just stick a cherry in our kale smoothies.

Check out the full 3-day itinerary here – don’t forget to pop along if you’re in Portland, seeking to carve a surreptitious slice of Oregon off for Trump or Liz The Second…

Near-Return Of The Prodigal Film… With More Plaudits!

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After a successful year of festival running, screening and kudos earning, “Snug As A Bug” is set to return to the bosom of our writerly home where we’ll listen to it’s tall tales of life on the road and overload the washing machine with it’s dirty laundry before packing it off for distribution.

Anticipating its arrival – like the Pale Rider, cresting the majestic dental peaks of the Sawtooth Mountains – we could be forgiven for thinking that it was done with the itinerant life… but no! News from the Jelly Film Festival that a semi-final posting warranted a laurel and a later-year screening was almost trampled underfoot by the breathless Hermes advising that another film festival was eager to put the “Snug” on it’s estimable slate!

We’re sworn to secrecy for now (organiser’s orders…), but let’s just say we’ll be able to get to it without disrupting the fragile ecosystem of our financial holdings.

More to follow…

snug pic

Happy Critics & A Category Win In Toronto!

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Word came in on the Toronto screening of ‘Snug As A Bug’ on July 5th… and the Word was GOOD!

Not only did the rakishly ruggish ‘Snug’ snaffle the gong for ‘Best Cinematography’, it also left an audience of FEEDBACK Female Film Festival critics wanting more. Do we accept the verdict that we wrote an “adult cartoon”…? Yes we do. Are we happy with the plaudits heaped on the writing, acting and directing…? Yep. Is the praise lavished on our comic beats and timing forcing a shy “aw, shucks” smile of gratitude on the outside whilst inwardly we’re charging around the walls of our inflating egos with our shirts pulled over our heads…? You betcha!

What really struck us was the number of critics calling for a feature or series… because that was precisely the motivation for creating ‘Snug’ in the first place. Its big sister, ‘Happy Birthday Mrs. Shine’, came long before the thought of a bookended showcase short, so to hear viewers wishing there was more to the story bodes well for our future feature offensive.

Check out the filmed audience reaction here:

Thanks again, FFFF, and thanks to you too, Toronto: we’d celebrate with a Ruben at Shopsy’s, but we’re just the wrong side of the Atlantic at present…

A Win, A Shiny New Thing & A Mini-Revelation.

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At the beginning of the month, we were notified that ‘Snug As A Bug’ had placed in the One-Reeler Short Film Competition – a smashing new piece of industry endorsement that came at the same time the film was screening in Toronto as part of the FEEDBACK Female Film Festival…

…at the same time we were being reminded by our calendar-crunching social media accounts that it’d been a year since an I-dotted, T-crossed ‘Snug’ birthed in a central London editing suite… at the same time we realised two years had passed since a script with a different name had risen to the top of a keen director’s slush pile and gotten the whole snuggy, ruggy snowball rolling.

So cheers, One-Reeler! You’ve been added to a growing list of favourite Rich Teaser festivals and competitions: a tacking, broad-sailed “yes-please” on a rolling, wrecking sea of “no-thankyous”. Or something less overtly nautical.

“If you’d told me two years ago I’d be the first man from Greater Manchester in space when I was still clearing up half-eaten plates of sausage and mash in Mecca Bingo in Bolton… I’d have laughed in your stupid face.”

In 2016, we had lots of content, no films, no writing credits (no terribly recent ones, anyway…) and no fast-track plans for demolishing all the insurmountable-looking industry walls separating us from Square 1. Then someone liked something we wrote. Then someone else did. Then the BBC invited us over to Broadcasting House to wax lyrical about our work and tell us we could “absolutely” write for this industry. Then a film got financed and made. Then three more. Then we won some laurels. Then some more. Then something else we wrote attracted the interest of some people we could never have imagined getting close to when we first started. Then that got made too. Then we acquired interest in a feature. Then we began writing a television series.

Then we realised we’d gone a lot further than we’d ever thought we’d get two-point-something years ago.

As planless as we might’ve been way, way back in 2016 (when we toiled in sepia with top hats and smoking jackets…), the greatest favour we did ourselves was to write and write and write. If anyone was to ever give us the time of day, we weren’t going to be short of winning alternatives – after all, the Beeb got us in for a gangster flick then asked where we stood on children’s comedy. Having additional content kept working relationships going past the ends of individual projects and started fresh dialogues with new and interesting filmmaking folk. It kept us invested in our own game, revising, refining, even repurposing material as new enquiries were made and opportunities developed.

We didn’t exactly sit the wrong side of the Square 1 wall praying for a Christ-in-cornflakes style revelation of arcane industry secrets, but we did sit on a pile of finished works wondering how we’d ever get them looked at. Turns out once we got that one important break, we’d already laid the foundations to demonstrate quality, versatility, timeliness and a willingness to adapt: yes, we did have ‘other stuff’ that was just as good; yes, we could have it ready for the end of the day, week, month or Skype call; and yes, we can adjust it to fit all of X, most of Y and enough of Z to tie it all together.

Oh, and that shiny new thing…?

We’ve recently seen the assembly cut of our newest flick ‘Making A Killing’. It stars a critically-acclaimed ‘Bombshell’ actress and comedian and an Olivier Award-winning actor and accomplished nailer of tricky bathroom takes.

But I think that’s all we’ll say for now…

More too on our One-Reeler placing once we know it.

‘Snug As A Bug’ Wins “Best Dark Comedy Short” At The Independent Shorts Awards In LA…!!

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I used to win loads of things as a kid: hand-written “Sports Day Superstar” stickers for finishing 4th in 3-man races, decorative wooden spoons by the score and a visually stunning array of colourful participation rosettes. Now there’s a short film award to add to that unbroken string of ‘life victories’:

BEST DARK COMEDY SHORT.

Certificatetemplate [Convertido]

This time, however, the laurels weren’t awarded by my long-suffering mum or lovely old Mrs. Aylward in Class 2 who took pity on me when my plimsoll flew off halfway through the 60-yard dash sometime in the summer of ’78.

Oh no.

This time they came from industry judges and viewers who thought it proper to bestow them regardless of what mum thought – many thanks to the Independent Shorts Awards for the tip of the hat. Especially pleased for director Louise Galizia who never struck me as the kind of gal who’d lose her plimsoll in a running race.

The Bug goes from strength to strength!

Independent Shorts Award Winners, April 2018