Scene 69: Pills Short Film

I've been involved in quite a few short films for the last few years - as a producer, extra, runner, editor etc. However, the latest film I've been involved in - not including my community film editing work - is particularly special. Pills is a short sci-fi about time-travel and trust, with a script written by me!

Yes, my very first script translated to the screen. And as with many scripts, it took a while to get there. I came up with idea at least a couple of years ago, and first pitched it in a session with Jon Reiss on a Second Light Lab for Producers.  A few months later I wrote the script, but it wasn't until earlier this year, after failing to get funding for it from a competition, that I decided, I'd produce it myself.

So, I got together with a couple of guys I've worked with before at Red Dog Film - a young cinematographer called Ben Groves who I also had as director, and a young director/actor called Will Jones who played the main protagonist George. I then cast along with an actress who been in Coins, a short film written and directed by Will Jones, as the second main character Izzy. Finally a new actor who is part of a film club I help run for RDF called ReBrand rounded off the cast as George's friend Mike.

The film was shot over a weekends towards the end of the summer, and is currently still in post-production - I've seen a rough cut and I'm rather pleased with it.

So, what did I learn whilst making the film? Well, I discovered first hand what it's like to have actors and directors taking your precious script and causually change lines or throw in new ideas, and though it was a little disconcerting, I knew that it was the way it was meant to be. Scripts as they say, are blueprints for films, and films are all about collaboration - everyone throws in their ideas, and hopefully expands and augments the original idea, making it better and bigger.

Or as I put it - a script is like a cake recipe. You perfect it, then give it to someone else - and yes, they aren't going to make the same cake as you did, but they might add things you never thought of and improve it.

In short, I enjoyed making the film and I'm intending to make more in future.

If you want to check out a few pictures from the shoot for Pills here's a link to the Facebook page: Pills on Facebook.