rain days coverFor the past few weeks I’ve been developing my feature film ‘The Rain Days’ as part of Screen Yorkshire’s Triangle scheme. We’ve been selected for the second phase and will be developing the idea to treatment stage at which point we’ll pitch to industry.

Here’s the synopsis:

Eighteen-year-old Isla lives on a farm with her father and four siblings. Like all the young people in this rural community, she has never seen the sun as it’s been raining perpetually for thirty years. She has been raised to believe that the troubled seas beyond their island offer little chance of survival, nor any guarantee of a better life. When a beguiling stranger passes through their land, searching for a missing woman and telling tales of a brighter future beyond these shores, Isla’s life of steadfast resilience is thrown into doubt and disarray. She becomes obsessed with the charismatic young man and thoughts of leaving begin to haunt her. When challenged by his daughter, Isla’s father becomes increasingly irrational and is unable to see the possible danger in his own dogmatic belief in staying put. John believes that he must protect Isla from the perils of the outside world, whilst she starts to believe that there is something better out there. Her sense of loyalty and guilt causes confusion as she clashes with her father in a bid to leave. 

 

sammy1TimeOut ★★★★

Sammy’s War was highlighted in the Sunday Times Critic’s Choice section in advance of its broadcast and also received positive reviews and previews in the Guardian, Independent and TimeOut!

SammysWar3_16.9_1280TX dates announced for SAMMY’S WAR, my Channel 4 Coming Up drama! It’ll screen on C4 at 11pm on Monday 29th July.

Starring Celia Imrie, Jessica Lester, Jessica Barden and Lucy Cohu…

I’m very happy with this little film, it was an amazing experience. It’ll live on 4oD after the broadcast…

Screen Shot 2014-06-08 at 15.20.28I’m now represented by the brilliant duo Nish Panchal and Sam Greenwood at CURTIS BROWN. It’s a brilliant place to be… very happy!

WEB NEWS_6DEditing 6 Degrees! It was a baptism of fire and a brilliant challenge – I’ve never shot so many pages in a day (and even managed to enjoy it A LOT!)! It’s coming together nicely too…

WEB NEWS_C4

A good many months ago, I met with the execs at Touchpaper Television in relation to my application for the Channel 4 ‘Coming Up’ scheme… Heard nothing for a while so I was very excited to find out that I’d been shortlisted for the workshops earlier this month. The next stage involved taking part in a 2 day workshop – where I was paired with different writers on various short exercises and met some experienced tv directors and producers – offering words of wisdom on working in television.

They had to cut the list from 14 to 7, but after a nail-biting weekend of waiting and hoping, I got the good news today that I’ve been accepted onto the scheme for Coming Up 2013 and will work with the brilliantly talented writer and fellow NFTS graduate Regina Moriarty. This is about the best news I’ve had all year! Very, very happy…

Roll on 2013!

WEB NEWS_6D

After several weeks of shadowing an experienced TV director in Belfast, BBC NI & Stirling Television have offered me my first TV gig – directing an episode on the second series of BBC NI’s university/youth drama ‘6 Degrees’… Excited!

I’ll begin shooting at the end of October and it’s bound to be a baptism of fire – the budget is tight and the schedule is even tighter! It’ll be a great opportunity to pull together all the skills I’ve developed through having made several short films – and cut my teeth at professional television directing…

WEB NEWS_molodist logo

For Megan has been selected for the student competition at the 42nd Kiev International Film Festival, Molodist! The festival runs from 20th-28th October. There are 21 films from all around the world screening in the programme and the British Council have offered me the opportunity to attend the festival. Here’s hoping I’ll be able to go…

WEB NEWS_brest logo

Waterbaby screening at Brest European Film Fest

Waterbaby has been selected for the short film competition Cocotte Minute (films under 10 minutes) at the 27th Brest European Short Film Festival (13-18 Nov 2012)

WEB NEWS_communion2a

Amazing news! Communion has been selected for the BFI’s new annual season ‘Made In Britain’ in a strand dedicated to shorts and curated by Birds Eye View: Made In Britain: Next Gen.

Mon 2nd April, 18:30, BFI (NFT 3)

“It would be wrong to celebrate British women filmmakers without giving a platform to those currently emerging and creating outstanding short films. Birds Eye View began life as a showcase of short films from the UK, before becoming the international film festival it is today. This programme crosses genres with an eclectic selection of the most powerful storytelling and skillful filmmaking we could find from women working in the UK today”.

dresden white-300x180 2

I’m über pleased to say that Waterbaby has been selected for the International Competition of the 24th edition of Filmfest Dresden.

“The selection committee has nominated 42 animated and short fiction films for this year’s International Competition out of 2,222 entries from all parts of the world.”

"A special mention goes to the short drama For Megan, which impressed us greatly with its restrained subtlety and ambiguous, complex character interaction."

Alex Barrett (LSFF Jury)

lsff-facebook-imageFor Megan received a Special Mention for Best Student Short at the London Short Film Festival.

“A special mention goes to the short drama For Megan, which impressed us greatly with its restrained subtlety and ambiguous, complex character interaction.” Alex Barrett (LSFF Jury)

1 2