One Night’s Premiere at Belfast Media Festival

 

Without a day to spare, ‘One Night’ was completed in time for its’ premiere on October 18 2012 at the third annual Belfast Media Festival. Shown at a session held by Creative Skillset to introduce ‘The Next Generation’ within Northern Ireland’s media industry, ‘One Night’ coupled with ‘One Fortnight: the Making of One Night’ was met with positive feedback.  

The two films created a launch pad from which Creative Skillset, BBC NI and NI Screen announced the second intake of Aim High trainees next year. Slightly adapted from our 18 months, the second round of entrants will undoubtedly have as valuable an experience as we have.

Oscar-winning and highly acclaimed writer and director Terry George was also in attendance. The 15 Aim High trainees waited with baited breath to hear his thoughts on our wee film, and to our great delight he was complimentary! The director described short films as a “calling card” to be used to demonstrate what a filmmaker is capable of. This perspective was very welcome as I had thought that short films were often met with an air of snobbery by other TV or feature filmmakers.

We were extremely lucky to have an hour of conversation with Terry after the screening. He used appropriately imaginative metaphors to pass on advice to us. He compared films to cornflakes; some are the All Bran kind that you don’t really enjoy but are good for you. Others are coated in sugar, and some boxes are just empty. So when we’re making films, we should remember that we’re always making cornflakes… Terry’s key point was to always remember that cornflakes, sorry I mean, films must be entertaining (tasty).

Terry also reflected on the crucial importance of telling the story. Writers he says, are the only ones who can start from the end and work backwards because they’re the only ones who really know what’s meant to happen. He also expounded on the importance of the relationship between a director and their Director of Photography.

Terry was patient and encouraging in his conversation with us. His anecdotes of working with the likes of Jim Sheridan, Daniel Day-Lewis and Denzel Washington, and crossing paths with the men whose lives inspired his films, Gerry Conlon and Paul Rusesabagina, were entertaining and witty.

The rest of the Belfast Media Festival followed in a similar style, with keynote speeches and panel discussions packed full of information, advice and even self-mocking commentary on the media industry today as well as hopes for future developments.

‘One Night’ and ‘One Fortnight’ are two films that we deserve to be proud of. Made with industry-standard production values and a personal dedication that only come to a group of young friends making their first film together, we were all happy with the end results. There were hair-raising, headache-inducing, and fretful moments throughout production but that makes the final films even more rewarding.

Stills from the shooting weekend, news and updates on the film can be found at the facebook page.

Stills by Pete Graham. 

'One Night' – the Aim High Short Film

In May of this year, the NI Screen Aim High trainees decided to make a short film. Little did we know the commitment that we were putting ourselves forward for.

Three months later we find ourselves on the eve of the long August bank holiday weekend, and the two day shoot of our short film, ‘One Night’ (working title).

Our short has been written by a trainee, is directed by a trainee, produced by two trainees and crewed by trainees. We have gone through the normal stages that any short film producers do – in an exceptionally rapid period of time. I have been one of two producers for the short.

In June we went through a quick fire round of script development on three short dramas and one factual short documentary. We pitched all four to NI Screen and at the beginning of July we were left with the chosen script, ‘One Night’.

What followed was a speedy pre-production including casting, crew finding, breaking deals on equipment hire, drawing up a budget, redrafting the screenplay and negotiating locations. With just over 12 hours to go until the first crew call I have just signed off the final call sheet, production schedule and unit list.

Although we have found ourselves hugely fortunate to have the support of fantastic technicians, facility companies and mentors within our reach, it has by no means been easy.

We have learnt a huge amount in such a short period of time. Personally, I came from a singularly factual background and had never even formed part of a crew on a short film before. I sometimes wonder how it is that I have found myself producing a short drama film. Then I remember that it was my idea in the first place and I only have myself to blame...

The proof, they say, is in the pudding. Keep following the #onenight story here and on Twitter to find out if we manage to pull it off...