Writer by Night

Back to the blog?

whatwritesatmidnight@gmail.com (Chris Regan) — Wed, 13 May 2020 18:00:00 +0100

I've been thinking about resurrecting my old blog. This one, right here. I've considered it a few times over the years and usually I come to the conclusion, "No one will care! You need to make a new blog! Or use Instagram more! Set up another Squarespace website! Make more YouTube content! Is it time to try TikTok?"

This week I started reading through some old posts off the back of the Amanda Palmer/Neil Gaiman news. It shouldn't be news. Peoples' privacy should be respected. And yet it's become one of the things I check Twitter for updates on every day, then hate myself for. I remembered bringing up this issue in a blog post once, about going to see The Residents live and comparing their anonymity vs. Amanda Palmer's full disclosure approach to social media. I decided to go back and look at what I wrote and while what I found was pretty much just that, I felt conflicted about my not feeling like I should know all this private stuff vs. my interest in all the private stuff. At the same time I found a bunch of other references to Amanda Palmer gigs I'd been to, the time Neil Gaiman retweeted my friend Julia's Kickstarter, stuff I've liked of theirs over the years (I also just happen to be reading Sandman right now). It made me realise why the recent news, rightly or wrongly, has my interest. These are two artists who have had a huge influence over my life over the years and while yes, I care about them as humans and want them to be okay and yes, I admit to daydreaming that one day I'd be a famous enough writer to move in the same social circles and my wife and I would be invited over to their house for dinner, but really, underneath all of this all I really care about is the art.

I found other stuff in my blog too. I've kind of abandoned Facebook now so don't have access to those social media memories that to be honest I used to enjoy seeing, I just don't want my data to be used by supervillains anymore. The blog had more memories than I honestly remember sharing. I thought it might be nice to just carry on posting here. Things have changed. I have two children now. I think that's partly why the blogging stopped, a lack of time and also lack of interest. After my daughter was born I ended up commuting to Croydon for work because reasons and during that sleepless, exhausting period I would maximise my writing time as much as possible. I would write for an hour on the morning train and for 45 minutes on my lunchbreak and aware that it was the only time I would have I had to make it count, so something frivolous and unlikely to move my career forward like this blog became redundant. I was also working on a webseries, Paz vs. Stuff, which involved taking on an online persona who also ran a blog and Twitter account. In the early days the plan had been to outsource the blogging and tweeting to others but like most crazy, ambitious ideas I ended up taking on the bulk of the work myself. I started a video diary on YouTube instead.

That project has finished now along with most of the other projects I had ongoing over the years. When I started this blog it was at the point where my first produced feature, Ten Dead Men, was in post-production. Around the same time I started working with a production company in Brighton and signed options on a number of scripts I had written (for no money, which at the time should have been a warning sign and yet is now standard practice). The film industry was at the height of the DVD boom, micro-budget films were being released internationally and doing well. Streaming wasn't a thing. Piracy, that would eventually lead to streaming, was very much a thing. It was a different time. I was in my late-twenties and optimistic about my future as a full-time screenwriter. It seemed like such a sure thing to me at the time that I thought this blog would be interesting to wannabe screenwriters as a chronicle of how to break into the industry (I was, despite the humble tone of my prose, rather arrogant).

I'm now 12 years on since I started the blog and many things changed, mostly for the better. I write this now from my house where I live with my wife and our two aforementioned children. I've had adventures, I've had more work produced, I've produced more of my own work which is the work I'm most proud of, I've seen many more bands, watched many more films, played a sickening amount of PS4 games. I still have a day job in an industry that is not writing-related and I still struggle with that, but compared to previous jobs I've had in the past it's really not all that bad. I'm still writing all the time although I feel much more directionless than I used to.

For example, a couple of weeks ago I decided that to get myself out of a lockdown-induced depression I would write a lockdown-based web series. It was about a filmmaker who discovers he's had the same dream in lockdown as a few other people online. He sets up a video diary service for people to record their dreams and a sinister pattern begins to emerge. I wrote a treatment and I was happy with it and it cheered me up immensely. That week I made plans to contact actors to start filming, with the idea that everyone involved could film themselves and send the footage to me to edit. Then I decided that actually, the thought of doing it had been enough and I moved onto something else. I've been doing that a lot over the last year or so, ever since I finished Paz. I'll start some similarly ambitious project, will write some of it and start making steps towards making it then I'll either decide it's too much work and quietly abandon it, or something else will come up and I'll work on that instead. I feel like screenwriting may not be the best creative outlet for me anymore, but I'm struggling to find something to replace it with. I've started and abandoned so many novels at this point I've lost count. I have two abandoned plays on my hard drive. I started a podcast with my brother about a film we were developing, both of which are abandoned (mostly through my choice), I've started planning a couple of video games but producing them requires skills I am yet to learn, I've started a couple of video game streams but never really pursued them.

So I find myself back here, on the blog I started 12 years ago and I wonder if maybe just writing this blog will be enough for now. The primary, less arrogant reason I started this blog was as a writing warm-up exercise. It was something I did for myself. This may be the first of many more posts or the last for another few years. Let's see, I guess.

Evil Twin Update...

whatwritesatmidnight@gmail.com (Chris Regan) — Thu, 5 Feb 2015 23:38:00 GMT

I have an evil twin. If you would like to know the history of my evil twin along with details of previous sightings you can read about it here and here.

There has been another incident. Two, in fact.

The first didn't seem all that significant at first. I was in the shop near my house, a shop I've been going to a lot over the last couple of years because it's on my way home. I was served by a woman who has been working there as long as I've been going in. I don't know this woman, but I've spent enough time in there and seen her on enough occasions to think that she might recognise me as a regular.

On this one particular evening she recognised me and said 'hello', only it wasn't me she recognised. She asked if I had been a regular customer in a similar shop in another area, because she swears she used to see me there all the time and was surprised to see me in this shop. I have never been to the shop of which she spoke, and yet she seemed certain it was me.

You see, it wasn't me she recognised at all. It was my evil twin.

Then today I went to the coffee place next to my work. I go there at least three times a week to write on my lunch break. Usually I see the same bloke in there and he recognises me, we have a brief chat and then he goes to get me a cappuccino. If he's busy and I walk in he'll tell whoever is serving to get me a cappuccino. Once we had a conversation about the building I work in because he'd seen me in there. The point of all this is, the bloke in the coffee place next to my work knows who I am.

Until today. Today when I went in he told me that someone else came in who looked so much like me he thought it was me. He went to get the imposter a cappuccino, and the man stopped him, for he did not want a cappuccino. He was not me. This shocked the bloke who works in the coffee place because he was certain it was me. Only it wasn't, it was my evil twin.

This doesn't seem to happen to anyone else on as regular a basis as it happens to me. In most cases the common factor is that the witness is someone who sees me on a regular basis. I have no doubt that my evil twin has returned and is once again living nearby.

I will report further incidents as they occur.

2014...

whatwritesatmidnight@gmail.com (Chris Regan) — Tue, 13 Jan 2015 22:40:00 GMT

The blog isn’t dead! I just abandoned it for a bit. The funny thing is, this year has been full of blog-worthy happenings, but because I’ve been really busy I’ve not really had time to blog about them. That's not all that funny really.

A couple of years ago, before my son was born, I used the blog as a kind of warm-up exercise. So I’d write on here for an hour before working on a script or whatever. These days I don’t really have the luxury of time to warm-up as most of my writing is done in half-hour bursts on the train or on my lunch break. It’s kind of better that way, I think I actually get more done, but I’m between scripts right now so I thought this would be a good opportunity to update whoever still cares on what I did in 2014, and what I would've blogged about if I had any time to do it.

To put this all into context I really need to take you back to 2013. In the summer of that year I’d just finished the third Jenny Ringo short film (it’s the really short one so you can watch it right now if you have 2 minutes spare) –

Jenny Ringo and the Infinite Spellbook from Chris Regan on Vimeo.

When that was done I started working on the first draft of Jenny Ringo and the House of Fear, a feature based on the same character I’d established in the short films. I had a vague idea I might try and film it myself one day, or that I’d send it to the few industry people I knew to try to get it developed but really I was mostly writing it for myself. It was in writing that script that I trained myself to be able to write on trains and in crowded coffee shops, and without that I’m not sure I would have had nearly as busy a year in 2014 as I did.

At the end of 2013 I did some script editing on a project for Craig Fairbrass. He’d written a gangster film and it needed some work on the structure. The details of that film are here if you’re interested.
The rewrite went quite well and I got to meet the man who tried to kick Michael Rooker off a mountain in Cliffhanger so that was cool. The producer of Craig’s film, Nick Hamson, then asked me to look at a project he was working on.

This is when my day job really started to get in the way of my writing. At the end of 2013 and going into 2014 the UK experienced some of the worst storms on record. This resulted in extensive damage and severe flooding in various parts of the country and, without going into too much detail, that’s what my day job is all about. From November 2013 to March 2014 I was probably the busiest I’ve ever been. I was working late most days and at least one day of most of the weekends. At the same time the project I was writing for Nick turned out to be a lot of work as well as he wanted a draft ready for Cannes in May. That’s where being able to write on trains etc. became really useful.

In February I took a week off work purely to write. It was amazing. I was being paid to write and I had the time to do it. I finished the draft that week.

The script was ready for Cannes and there was some filming done. Here are some people being filmed -

There were a couple of articles about it, in Screen Daily and The Telegraph. Later in the year they filmed a scene in Ditchling where the film is set. This was pretty amazing as I got to go along and took my wife and my son and it sort of felt a bit more real. Here’s a picture of Eric on his first film set -

There was also a rehearsed reading, which unfortunately I couldn’t get to but I saw the recording and that was really exciting.

Alongside that project I was also working on two scripts with my brother, Pete. One is the martial arts/fantasy film that was optioned by Focus Films a few years ago. This was re-optioned again this year and we'll be doing a bit more work on it this year. I re-read it towards the end of last year and, if I do say so myself, it’s really good. I mean, it may not be to everyone’s tastes, depends how much you like undead ninjas, but from the perspective of coming back to a script we wrote at least five years ago it holds up surprisingly well.

The second project is an action film which we’re developing with Transfilm in Canada. Can’t really talk about that one, but it has been a really interesting process and has really evolved from the project we started with. We’re working on the final draft of that one right now.

Towards the end of the year I worked on a couple of gangster films, one a kind of action re-working of The Long Good Friday, and the other a more contained thriller. I just finished the first draft of the latter over the weekend.

A short film I wrote was also produced this year and I made it to a couple of screenings. The film is called Salvation and it's a ten minute action film with a serial killer sub-plot.

It screened at the Century Club and at MovieBar in Brighton (yes, the MovieBar I used to run - it was awesome to have a film screening there again), and at the Action on Film Festival in the States. There’s a really nice review of the film here. Here I am with director Ross Boyask and host Simon Messingham at the MovieBar Q&A -

Other stuff happened too! You remember the Jenny Ringo feature I mentioned at the start? I decided at one point I needed to finish the second draft, but with all the other projects I had on the go I was struggling to find the time. So in order to set myself a deadline I decided to enter the second draft into the Blood List contest run by Stage 32. I entered purely on that basis, to set myself a deadline, and at the final hour I almost didn’t do it. But I did, and it went on to do really well! The script made it all the way to the final thirteen. I didn’t make it into the final six, but I was really happy to have made it that far in the competition, especially as it was the first original feature script I’d written in a while.

It was also a runner up in the Ultimate Logline Contest in October last year. Here’s the logline –

When an incompetent witch discovers that her council estate is a prison for supernatural creatures she must recruit her neighbours to help her get better at magic so she can take on the evil witchfinder keeping them there.

In October I went to the London Screenwriters Festival. If you haven’t been or don’t know what it is, it’s basically three days in Regent’s University going to sessions about writing, meeting other writers and pitching to executives. I could probably write a whole separate blog about it on here, but given my track record last year that’s probably not going to happen. I’ll just say it was definitely worth the money and if you’re thinking of going you should do it. I learnt a lot and met some really amazing people. Look, here I am pitching and stuff -

The one thing I will go into detail about is the Pitch Factor. Basically it's this live event on the Saturday night where writers pay a fiver for the chance to pitch to a panel of judges. Everyone gets 60 seconds to pitch. I was in two minds over whether to do it or not. On the one hand I am a firm believer in doing things that scare you and felt that I’d regret it if I didn’t do it. On the other hand I’m not great at speaking in public and added to that the time pressure, the audience and the fact that the judges included Joel Schumacher and David Reynolds (writer of Finding Nemo) I wasn’t quite sure I was going to cope. Luckily I bumped into Simon Messingham (the magician from Jenny Ringo and the Monkey’s Paw and host of MovieBar as seen above) and we convinced each other to go for it.

Here's a picture of the judges, and there were a few hundred or so people sitting in the audience to the right of this photo -

Oh, the part I forgot is that by this time I was starting to lose confidence in my Jenny Ringo pitch. I’d done it for a few different people at the festival mixed responses and although most people loved the idea I wasn’t 100% it was the simplest story to tell in 60 seconds. Earlier that day I’d wandered off to the park for an hour to work on a pitch for another project just in case I needed a back-up. So as I'm standing in the queue it was this new project I was going to pitch. But as I got closer to the front something made me change my mind and at the last minute I decided to go back to the Jenny Ringo pitch.

But when I reached the stage the rules changed. There were too many people in the queue and the event was set to overrun, so in order to fit everyone in they cut the time limit down to 30 seconds. In a way, I think this really helped. It meant I only really had time to do the logline and couldn’t really embellish it all that much.

It went okay, Joel Schumacher said it was a clever idea, I went back to my chair thankful I hadn’t embarrassed myself. Then they announced the joint winners and I was one of them.

I completely failed to follow up on it, of course. Joel Schumacher shook my hand and congratulated me, I was mostly in shock so I took my winnings and headed straight for the bar. It was pretty insane really. I went to the festival as someone who had never really pitched and thought I’d be terrible at it, and then I won a pitching contest.

That’s it, that’s everything that happened writing-wise in 2014. I would be concerned about topping it, but due to real life, non-writing stuff 2015 is already set to be amazing. I don’t have much writing planned other than finishing off the projects I have from last year. I’m also hoping to film a short at the end of the year, something that’s not all that ambitious but that I’m still really excited about. I may post more about that when it happens, but based on last year it’s more likely you won’t hear from me again until 2016.

Oh, and Pete and I have a website!

Happy new year!

Jenny Ringo 1, 2 and 3...

whatwritesatmidnight@gmail.com (Chris Regan) — Tue, 17 Jun 2014 22:44:00 +0100

I know, it's been a while. I am still here. I have been busy writing stuff and teaching my almost-two-year-old to do a convincing zombie walk (succeeded, btw).

I have written a Jenny Ringo feature script, it's 40 pages too long, I know what I need to do to fix it but second drafts are hard! It's getting there.

Anyway, all three Jenny Ringo short films are now online so I thought this might be a good opportunity for a round-up -

Jenny Ringo and the Monkey's Paw -

Jenny Ringo and the Cabaret from Hell -

Jenny Ringo and the Infinite Spellbook -

Enjoy!

Oh, and follow me on twitter @cg_regan

Birdeatsbaby need your help...

whatwritesatmidnight@gmail.com (Chris Regan) — Tue, 19 Nov 2013 00:21:00 GMT

In April 2009, back when I used to actually update this blog more than once every four months, Brother Pete and I went to see Birdeatsbaby at the Latest Music Bar in Brighton. I wrote about it here. It was one of the most amazing gigs I'd ever seen. There was just something incredibly refreshing about the music and the energy in the performance; it was different enough to be exciting but without alienating the audience. I wasn't really able to put it into words back then and I can't really now, but the point is they were really really good, as seen here...

They continued to be really really good. In 2011 they made this awesome video for a single on their second album, which I later screened at MovieBar...

They are still really really good. Now they sound like this...

But they need help to finish their third album. There's a Kickstarter page here. I know everyone is running Kickstarter campaigns these days and it's becoming more and more difficult to stand out, but here's why you should support this one -

- They are really, really good as mentioned above.

- You can pay the price of the album and then when they're done you actually get a copy of the album. So really you're just pre-ordering something you will probably buy one day anyway (because it's going to be awesome).

- They've been really upfront about their costs, and the fact that they are putting in half of what they need themselves shows how serious they are about this.

- They are doing really well and have passed the halfway point, so with a bit of extra help they will definitely make it!

- Did I mention that they are really really good?

So you should seriously consider heading over there and contributing to their Kickstarter, because if artists this good can't crowd-fund their work then there is seriously no hope for the rest of us.

Guest Post - Peter Regan (part two)...

whatwritesatmidnight@gmail.com (Chris Regan) — Thu, 25 Jul 2013 07:49:00 +0100

Day Two- 14th April 2013

Day Two began as any normal day on a Jenny Ringo shoot begins. There were bandages, fake blood and lights in tiny cramped spaces.

We started with a scene that was eventually cut for time. Time in the film, and lack of time to create the effects needed. However all I remember was sitting on the bathroom floor, squashed up against the wall trying my hardest not to break down into laughter. I failed. How unprofessional of me.

Despite my failings, the scene was shot, and after getting the feeling back in my legs we moved on to the monsters outside ready for their close ups.

Once again the sun had got his hat on. However lighting a dark, interior corridor when you're outside is a pain in the back side unless you are the proud owner of some massive bright lights. Unfortunately I am not.

However we managed to get a happy medium and grab the shots we needed. As soon as the monsters had finished it was time to film the babies.

How does one direct babies I hear you ask? Well simply put, you don't. Instead you wave lots of things around, blow bubbles and eventually turn the TV on in a hope to distract them long enough to get the shot we need. It eventually worked and resulted in a 10 minute out-take of pure cute anarchy.

The beach was next. Originally the script called for the beach discussion to be at night. However in case this didn't work, a back-up would be required. Day time beach...no issues here. It was sunny, we got the shots, we moved on. We would be back later for the night time which came with a few surprises.

Now off to space to space for us to crank the F-stop.

Space was located in a barn. The result of a friend’s short who still had a set up for a couple of days.

Here's the original film the spaceship was constructed for...

Robot from zoneonestudios on Vimeo.

Now I'm new to filming things for myself and when told to crank the Fstop to make sure we had a smooth green screen, I couldn't help but stare blankly before nodding in agreement (something I've learnt more about with more night shoots). However we managed to get the space we needed. Everything was in focus that needed to be and we packed up and left.

And then we had to wait....

...finally it was dark. We could now reshoot the earlier beach scene but in darkness.

"But if it's dark, how are you going to film anything?"

We had a plan. A plan involving plastic folders, LED lights and camping lanterns. A plan that gave us the desired effect or a burning magic flame. A plan that came at a deadly cost. The cost of being attacked by millions of bugs.

Evil beach dwelling creatures that crawled up out of the pebbles to attack their prey. Had I not been tired and grumpy, some of those bugs may have survived to tell the tale of how they saw the filming of Jenny Ringo 3. However, at times I am not a patient man. It was survival of the fittest. I won.

Here's Pete not being very patient...

However had I had to face the sea fox alone, I'm sure I'd be telling a different tale. It's never a good sign, when your back is to the sea and everyone start looking over your shoulder at a "dog" coming out of the sea. Not a dog my friend, but a fox. A fox that each night rises from the briny depths to wander Worthing looking for easy prey. A Sea fox...I would guess.

Anyway, we got through the last location shoot. We each went our separate ways, back to the safety of our houses and beds, to dream of the adventures of sea foxes and beach bugs.

We still weren't finished. There was still animation that I had to complete, the construction of a monster and trying twice to get the perfect night time shot of Brighton Pier.

This is another tale for next time...

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Please vote for Jenny Ringo and the Infinite Spellbook by clicking the Tweet button under this video or by tweeting '#VMShortsVote Jenny Ringo and the Infinite Spellbook'

Jenny Ringo and the Funhouse of the Damned...

whatwritesatmidnight@gmail.com (Chris Regan) — Wed, 24 Jul 2013 22:33:00 +0100

If you haven't seen Jenny Ringo and the Monkey's Paw turn away now because there will be spoilers ahead. Or you could just watch the film -

Jenny Ringo and the Monkey's Paw from Chris Regan on Vimeo.

I'll let you in on a secret. I never intended for Jenny Ringo to be a series. When she ends up in Hell in the first film it was meant to be just that...the end.

Then I started making the second film. To justify it the writer Geraint D'Arcy and I decided that Jenny Ringo and the Cabaret from Hell would be a prequel. Haven't seen it yet? Here's the trailer -

Jenny Ringo and the Cabaret from Hell - Trailer from Chris Regan on Vimeo.

You can see the whole film by going to www.jennyringo.com and signing up to the mailing list!

Anyway, when we were shooting it became apparent that the relationship between Jenny and Gavin had evolved from the first film and it certainly felt like it was happening after that one. So I decided to embrace the fact that it was a sequel, which meant somehow I needed to explain how Jenny escaped from Hell.

So I contacted Paul Cousins, an amazing artist I knew from back when I was writing for Night Warrior, and suggested the idea of a 5 page comic to bridge the gap between Monkey's Paw and Cabaret from Hell. This is the result (click the pages to make them go bigly)...

If you enjoyed the comic and would like to see more Jenny Ringo adventures please vote for Jenny Ringo and the Infinite Spellbook by clicking the Tweet button under this video or by tweeting '#VMShortsVote Jenny Ringo and the Infinite Spellbook'

Guest Post - Peter Regan (part one)...

whatwritesatmidnight@gmail.com (Chris Regan) — Tue, 23 Jul 2013 00:12:00 +0100

Peter Regan was one half of the two-man film crew who made Jenny Ringo and the Infinite Spellbook! Here are his memories of the shoot...

On the weekend of 13th/14th of April 2013 I shot Jenny Ringo!

Jenny Ringo and the Infinite Spell book to be more specific.

Over two days we hoped to bring to life the most ambitious Jenny Ringo film yet. A film with dinosaurs, killer clowns, hellish landscapes, 'Tron' style in game escapades and bizarre monsters from other worlds...and so we did.

Director Chris Regan and Producer Andrea Regan had strategically planned everything down to a t so we could fit everything in, so I grabbed my camera, batteries and memory cards and dived into the car to get underway.

Day One - 13th April 2013

First stop, Under-cliff.

There were a number of scenes that took place outside and it looked as though we had been blessed on this bright and sunny Saturday morning in April.

This was the first issue I had. Having an inability to see properly I need the use of spectacles to see properly. Also suffering from migraines in bright sun, I had adapted these spectacles to "react" to the harsh UV rays, creating a darker lens protecting my eyes. Had I known that this combined with reflectivity of the LCD screen on the camera, would result in an inability to see what I was filming properly, along with a lot of guess work relating to the focus, I may have re-thought my previous eyeball solution.

Anyway, we managed to get through the first few scenes well enough. The bright weather was holding up and we were still on track.

We had one final shot to make in Brighton, overlooking Madeira Drive for a giant pizza.

Unfortunately it was decided that the best place for me to film was next to a playground. Now I know I was there to film Jenny Ringo. Chris and the cast knew I was there to film Jenny Ringo. However I couldn't shake the feeling that anyone else passing by may have thought I was there to film children playing.

Luckily we got the shot we needed and moved down to Madeira Drive for close ups, and to prove to all those questioning onlookers that I was in fact making a Jenny Ringo film.

However someone still wasn't happy and the heavens began to open. With the first few drops of rain. Rain that would decide not to stop as originally forecast and later forces the well planned schedule to be reassessed and split into multiple shots.

So back to Worthing we went to continue the adventures of Jenny Ringo and to Lime Café to battle the evil clowns.

It's always a bit of a struggle on films with few crew members when faced with a room full of extras. You're trying to plan a shot but also make sure everyone knows what’s happening and will be ready when the director calls “Action”.

Saying that, on this occasion there wasn't really any major difficulty. Everyone who arrived seemed quite happy chatting until it was time to get transformed into clowny evil-ness.

I don't think I'll be forgetting anytime soon, having to film close up after close up of menacing clowns, especially when it seemed it was me they were after.

Unfortunately that was where day one ended. The rain continued to pour, light was beginning to fade and we still had a couple of exteriors left. These would have to be moved to the next day. A day of monsters, babies and sea foxes...

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You can see Jenny Ringo and the Infinite Spellbook here -

http://www.virginmediashorts.co.uk/film/4903/jenny-ringo-and-the-infinite-spellbook

To vote, click the Tweet button under the video!

Jenny Ringo and the Infinite Spellbook!

whatwritesatmidnight@gmail.com (Chris Regan) — Mon, 22 Jul 2013 06:45:00 +0100

Jenny Ringo and the Infinite Spellbook has been entered into this years Virgin Media Shorts contest and I could really use your votes!

I've tried to cram as much cool stuff into the 2 minute 20 second running time as possible, including dinosaurs, monsters, evil clowns, spaceships, tentacles and more!

You can check out the film here -

www.virginmediashorts.co.uk/film/4903/je...

To vote either click the 'Tweet' button under the film, or Tweet '#VMShortsVote Jenny Ringo and the Infinite Spellbook'

As always I meant to blog a lot more during the production, and then got caught up in the actual production itself. This one was a lot of work, partly because there were so many different elements but mostly because I took on the edit myself. BUT I will be posting behind the scenes stories and some bonus video content over the course of the week so watch this space! AND I'll be unveiling the brand new Jenny Ringo website very soon!

Jenny Ringo and the Cabaret from Hell...

whatwritesatmidnight@gmail.com (Chris Regan) — Tue, 18 Jun 2013 00:30:00 +0100

...will be released online tomorrow for anyone subscribed to the mailing list. You can subscribe at www.jennyringo.com for free. We won't spam you or send anything too annoying, I promise.

I feel like I should write a whole post about what it's been like spending the last year and a half on this film, but it's late and you could just as easily watch the trailer...

...or read one or all of the following reviews....

http://www.mycinemaonline.com/500/

http://blueprintreview.co.uk/2013/06/jenny-ringo-and-the-cabaret-from-hell/

http://joshuamreynolds.wordpress.com/2013/06/07/on-stage-at-the-cabaret-from-hell/

http://horrorjuice.wordpress.com/2013/06/09/jenny-ringo-and-the-cabaret-from-hell/

http://www.horrormoviediary.net/2013/06/jenny-ringo-double-feature-cabaret-from.html?spref=fb

http://www.flickeringmyth.com/2013/06/short-film-review-jenny-ringo-and.html

http://cassieshouseofhorror.blogspot.co.uk/2013/06/jenny-ringo-and-cabaret-from-hell-review.html

http://the-bone-breaker.blogspot.co.uk/2013/06/jenny-ringo-and-cabaret-from-hell-short.html

https://www.facebook.com/groups/filmsploitationpodcast/permalink/552129471495750/

So please go www.jennyringo.com and subscribe to the mailing list so I can send you the link to the film, and then feel free to come back here and leave a comment - I'd love to know what you thought of it.

Thanks!

Looking for reviewers for Jenny Ringo and the Cabaret from Hell...

whatwritesatmidnight@gmail.com (Chris Regan) — Sat, 1 Jun 2013 23:27:00 +0100

Jenny Ringo and the Cabaret from Hell is now finished! Here's the trailer -

The full film will be released on the 18th of June but you will need to subscribe to the mailing list at www.jennyringo.com to see it.

In the meantime I'm looking for people to review the film. If you have a blog or website and you would like to review the film, just let me know and I'll send you a secret link to the full film. You can leave me a comment here or e-mail me at whatwritesatmidnight[at]gmail.com

Here's a brief synopsis -

Jenny Ringo is a witch who lives with her slacker flatmate Gavin. When a spell to help Gavin audition as a singer in a Cabaret club backfires Jenny finds herself trapped in her flatmate's body! But there are far worse surprises waiting for her in the mysterious Cabaret club where the audience feast on the souls of the performers and the MC keeps a terrifying secret in a bucket in her office. Can Jenny reverse the spell, save Gavin and defeat the demon MC before they both become lunch for the thing in the bucket?

If you do decide to review the film here are some stills you can use (photos by Kristina Sälgvik)

Thanks!

Day or Night - The Results...

whatwritesatmidnight@gmail.com (Chris Regan) — Sat, 18 May 2013 22:32:00 +0100

Read the previous post first if you have no idea what I'm talking about.

I would have left this a few more days but I could do with actually getting on with the edit. Also my voting widget went weird and stopped working so I'm counting up the results from the various comments people left for me on here and on forums and Facebook etc.

And the night shot won!

By one vote...

Night - 9
Day - 8

This at least validates my indecisiveness as it seems to have divided everyone else too!

From reading the comments and feedback from everyone I've come to the following conclusion - the night shot is better in theory, it's just that technically the day scene looks better. This is mostly because we were on the beach at 10pm after a busy weekend of filming so we were trying to get it finished as quickly as possible. Plus we were in real danger of being eaten by weird jumping beach bugs.

This outtake just about sums it up -

I think with a little more time and preparation it would have come out better, although we were always going to be filming late at night so there was no way around that. And I'm not sure what we could've done about the beach bugs (shoot the antennae maybe?).

Despite this I am still going to go ahead with the night shoot as decided by the voters! This is partly because I want to see the whole thing in context with the other scenes before making a final FINAL decision. So I may still be editing two versions and could well be asking for your help again in the next few days.

Thanks to everyone who voted and left me comments about the shots! It definitely helped me make a decision and I really appreciate the feedback.

Please sign up to the mailing list at www.jennyringo.com and/or the Facebook page for regular progress reports!

Jenny Ringo 3 - Help needed!

whatwritesatmidnight@gmail.com (Chris Regan) — Wed, 15 May 2013 21:28:00 +0100

I'm currently editing the third film in the Jenny Ringo series (visit www.jennyringo.com to see the first film and sign up to the mailing list for news on future adventures!)

This one is called Jenny Ringo and the Infinite Spellbook, and it's a little different. It's a lot shorter for a start. It also features dinosaurs, clowns and spaceships. And a couple of monsters.

My plan is to enter it into the Virgin Media Shorts competition, but before I can even think about doing that I need to finish editing the thing and for that I need your help!

Because it was so short I was able to experiment a bit more and filmed a few scenes a couple of different ways. One of these scenes is the main dialogue scene between Jenny and Gavin which we filmed on Worthing seafront. It was written to be set at night, but this posed a bit of a problem for a three-person crew with no money. So we improvised.

However, fearing that the night shoot wouldn't work I also filmed a daytime version.

The issue I now have is that I kind of like both of them. So I need you to help me decide which one to use.

Please forgive the sound quality and the shoddy editing - this is a very rough edit just to give an idea of how the scenes will ultimately look.

Here is the daytime version -

Here is the nighttime version -

Here is how you vote -

Which version - Day or Night?

Jenny Ringo and the Funhouse of the Damned...

whatwritesatmidnight@gmail.com (Chris Regan) — Sun, 28 Apr 2013 18:03:00 +0100

Ever wondered how Jenny escaped from Hell at the end of Jenny Ringo and the Monkey's Paw? All will be revealed in the soon to be released webcomic Jenny Ringo and the Funhouse of the Damned!

Oh, and I totally filmed Jenny Ringo 3. More on that to follow...

Writing in space...

whatwritesatmidnight@gmail.com (Chris Regan) — Tue, 9 Apr 2013 23:22:00 +0100

So on Saturday I was in space helping Steve Hayes and his team with their entry for the Sci-Fi London 48 Hour Film Challenge. Steve did the visual effects on Jenny Ringo and the Cabaret from Hell so I was happy to be able to return the favour. Plus I wanted to borrow his spaceship, but that's another story.

We were given a title (Robot), a line of dialogue (You only have to ask you know. Just say the word) and a prop (a mug of steaming liquid). From this we set about putting together a 5 minute sci-fi film in 48 hours.

I say 'we' - I mostly helped with the script and shouted lines of dialogue at the actors for a day.

And went on a mission for lunch, which is actually quite difficult to find when you're in space.

There were three of us working on the script, initially using my car as a writers' room as the script became a series of scribbled notes that no one could read except me.

But ultimately it was a team effort and there were many moments in which we stood around doing this...

Then we filmed for eight hours. It was cold.

Then Steve and sound designer/mixer/composer Chris Upfield spent the Sunday putting it all together with magic and stuff. There had to have been a bit of magic involved anyway - I've no idea how else they could have done it in time. It took me a year to finish the post on Jenny Ringo and the Cabaret from Hell. A year. They did the same with way more effects in just 24 hours. Here's how it turned out...

https://vimeo.com/63551201

Scouting locations for Jenny Ringo 3...

whatwritesatmidnight@gmail.com (Chris Regan) — Sun, 24 Mar 2013 19:41:00 GMT

Spent this afternoon looking at some potential locations for Jenny Ringo 3. I need something a bit prehistoric and something that looks a bit like Hell...

It was very cold and windy...

Have also been buying clown masks. Lots of clown masks.

And bidding on the Holy Grail on ebay.

Jenny Ringo and the Cabaret from Hell poster...

whatwritesatmidnight@gmail.com (Chris Regan) — Tue, 12 Mar 2013 22:55:00 GMT

Here's the new poster for Jenny Ringo and the Cabaret from Hell...

It was put together by Caroline Ryder who also appears in the film with her band Hollywood Assassins (you should check them out, they are awesome) and the photos were taken by Kristina Sälgvik (see more of her work on her website).

Last week I spent an afternoon in a studio in Clapham checking out the sound mix with Adrian Townsend who is doing a fantastic job pulling everything together. It was the first time I'd seen the film with all the sound design, music and dialogue in place and it was fantastic. So many parts that I was worried wouldn't make sense seem so much clearer now. And it means we're very close to finishing the film.

Speaking of which, I am determined to screen a close-to-finished version of the film at the next MovieBar as it will be the last one I host. I'll post more about that in the next couple of weeks, but if you're in Brighton please come along - it will be on Monday 1st of April at the Caroline of Brunswick.

There is more exciting Jenny Ringo news to follow soon and if you want to be kept updated (and why wouldn't you?) I recommend either signing up to the mailing list at www.jennyringo.com or liking the Facebook page.

It was only a pound!

whatwritesatmidnight@gmail.com (Chris Regan) — Wed, 6 Feb 2013 20:13:00 GMT

I recorded a podcast with Brother Pete. We watch films that only cost £1 and then discuss whether they were worth £1 or not. It's only short and we had fun doing it. Hopefully we will do more.

It's not on iTunes yet because we haven't quite figured that out, but you can download or listen to the first episode here -

https://soundcloud.com/sabiathus/it-was-only-a-pound-episode01

We talk about Dark Floors - The Lordi Movie -

Oh, and while I think of it, here's the video for Blood Red Sandman which Pete mentions in the episode...

Watch this space for news of future episodes!

Also, Jenny Ringo and the Cabaret from Hell is very close to being finished now with the grading and sound mix well on the way to being done. So naturally I've started planning Jenny Ringo 3...

As always I'm on a mission to get a few more Facebook likes and mailing list subscriptions so please check out the pages and give us some support if you have time! You'll be the first to hear about cool stuff, I promise!

Jenny Ringo in 2013...

whatwritesatmidnight@gmail.com (Chris Regan) — Mon, 21 Jan 2013 22:59:00 GMT

I know my blog posts have been a bit erratic recently but I have been busy. Mostly completing Dishonored (which was a bit of a disappointment in the end), and occasionally checking in with the post-production crew on Jenny Ringo and the Cabaret from Hell to ensure we're on the right track. And we are very close to being finished! So much so that I'm hoping to be able to release a trailer soon and maybe some extra bits too. If you want to keep up to date with all this I recommend signing up to the mailing list at www.jennyringo.com

Seriously, if you're not signed up yet you should go do it right now. It's free and I promise we barely send an e-mail every month so you will hardly notice us. Plus my wife writes all the updates and she is way better at this stuff than I am. And you will be the first to find out about cool new things!

I also realise I never did an end of year round-up post, but seeing as my son Eric was born last year and he is the most awesome thing ever I couldn't really bring myself to list what films I saw as if that somehow compared.

But in case you were wondering...

Moonrise Kingdom was my favourite film of last year, followed by Cabin in the Woods and Dark Knight Rises.

Gray Matter was the best game. More than that in some ways. It was the best story I experienced, if that makes sense. I was going to do a whole blog post about it but ran out of time. My point would have been that if anyone ever tells you that video games are all about shooting people, shove a copy of Gray Matter in their stupid face and tell them it's a game about how different people deal with loss as part of an exciting and compelling storyline! Without guns!

I almost wrote a post about all the stuff I meant to blog about last year and didn't.

Like how Silent Hill: Revelation was kind of like a Lucio Fulci film, in that it felt like you were experiencing a nightmare and the fact that this dream logic extended to the narrative wasn't necessarily a bad thing. Which isn't to say I liked it, but I think most people missed the point.

Although if I learnt anything from the general reaction to Prometheus (and Dark Knight Rises for that matter), it's that most people aren't even looking for the point, or anything at all for that matter. Just something that fits into the very specific idea of the film they wanted to see.

But enough of that, or I'll end up writing 5,000 words again. I am probably going to be writing fewer blog posts about films this year unless it's something I feel needs some attention. However, if you are interested in what I'm watching I've been using Letterboxd a lot recently so you're welcome to follow me on there.

What I will be doing more of is posting more Jenny Ringo stuff, and hopefully not just here (if I ever get around to developing the website which is one of my other plans for this year). I am intending to reach my earlier goal of getting 1,000+ people signed up to the Jenny Ringo mailing list before the second film is finished. This means if you're my friend on Facebook or if you follow me on Twitter I will probably be quite annoying for the next few months but hopefully it will all be worth it in the end.

Oh, and sorry it's late but happy new year!

American Mary...

whatwritesatmidnight@gmail.com (Chris Regan) — Fri, 18 Jan 2013 23:12:00 GMT

So last night I saw American Mary at the Duke of York's in Brighton and since I'm forever asking people to blog about Jenny Ringo and the Monkey's Paw (which you can see for free at www.jennyringo.com, and sign up to the mailing list for news on the sequel which is very close to being finished!) I decided it's time I wrote about someone else's film for a change.

I've never been great at plot summaries so here's the trailer...

For the first half of American Mary I was convinced I was watching the most original, relevant and genuinely shocking horror film I'd seen in a long time. The film looks amazing, Katharine Isabelle does a fantastic job portraying an incredibly complex character and there is a superb atmosphere of creepiness and dread underlining the whole first Act. What makes it work is that Mary is written and performed with just enough humanity to make her descent into madness believable and genuinely disturbing.

The world of the film almost becomes a representation of the human body, with Mary scraping back the surface of the places and situations we recognise to reveal the blood and guts of a dark, mysterious underworld. Because we care about Mary we go on this journey with her, but the problem is that this empathy is difficult to maintain and as she becomes more and more unbalanced she pushes the audience further away. It's not just about the character not being likable, but it's more an issue over what is at stake (not much) and how she develops (after a certain point she doesn't really). As the film meandered towards an anti-climactic conclusion I couldn't help feeling a little disappointed that what I thought was an early contender for my favourite film of the year hadn't quite lived up to the potential of that amazing first half hour.

But one of the other great things about the film is that it gets under your skin and stays with you, meaning I was still thinking about it long after the credits had rolled. And at some point on the drive home it occurred to me that this isn't a film about body-modification at all. It's a film about exploitation filmmaking.

There may be spoilers ahead. Consider yourselves warned.

This is perhaps one of those situations where I'm applying too much of my own experience to a film but Mary's super-harsh lecturer reminded me of a couple of screenwriting lecturers I've been taught by in the past. So for the sake of my argument imagine that Mary is not a medical student but a film student, and her aim is to be a legitimate, respected filmmaker. Then you get the party scene which represents her chance at networking with big-time film producers. Except they're only interested in screwing her over (which could be the experience of the actual filmmakers bleeding through, or me seeing what I want to see based on my own limited experience). Suddenly she realises the industry she wants to work in is corrupt and the dream she has been working towards all those years is forever tainted.

So she tries something else. She finds a way to do the thing she wanted to do outside the system. She sells something that people want, but that will never be mainstream. She makes art that can be ugly and beautiful at the same time. She makes exploitation films.

I've mentioned a few times in the past that I love arthouse horror films; horror films with all the blood and gore and scares in place but that are ambitious and complex and ambiguous enough to make them stand out from the usual production-line genre trash. American Mary not only fits into that subgenre, I think the film itself is all about the conflict between art and genre cinema.

And when I think about it like that I realise that it may well be an early contender for my favourite film of the year after all...

-----

UPDATE...

Or why Mark Kermode is right and I am wrong.

Just listened to an episode of the Kermode and Mayo podcast from a couple of weeks ago in which he reviewed American Mary, as seen here -

Kermode essentially says that the whole film is about the objectification of the human body which is a point so obvious I can't believe I missed it. And it makes sense of all the parts I wasn't sure about. For example, the club owner in the film has recurring fantasies about Mary stripping for him, which to me seemed out of place in a feminist horror film. Surely this is celebrating the objectification of women rather than condemning it? And then I got confused so I ignored that part. But if the whole film is itself about the objectification of women then these scenes are totally relevant and necessary, because in order to understand Mary's approach to the human body we need to see how other people objectify her, even the people who know she is capable of so much more.

I think my exploitation filmmaker thesis still stands, but I think I was wrong to dismiss the parts of the film I didn't understand so quickly, and it's made me want to see the film again so I'll probably buy the DVD. Which you should do too.

And the reason I'm posting this is to show that no opinion on a film, or any kind of art, should be final.

That is all.

Jenny Ringo in print! Ten Dead Men in France! A video in which I nod a lot!

whatwritesatmidnight@gmail.com (Chris Regan) — Wed, 12 Dec 2012 23:03:00 GMT

Three awesome things happened today -

Jenny Ringo reviewed in SFX magazine!!!

Issue 230 of SFX features an incredibly flattering review of Jenny Ringo and the Monkey's Paw on page 41. Here's what the issue looks like...

The review says things like 'The film moves at a rapid pace with plenty of humour.' and 'It looks and sounds more expensive than it probably was, with the highlight being a song and dance routine in which the Magician explains the origins of the eponymous Monkey's Paw.'

Which is nice.

It's available in most newsagentey-magazine-selling-type places so shouldn't be too hard to find if you'd like to read the whole review. Which you should because it's really good.

And if you haven't seen the film yet it's right here.

Ten Dead Men re-released in France!

Ten Dead Men, the feature film I wrote around five years ago (just prior to starting this blog) has been re-released in a limited edition steelcase! In France!!!

I don't know why but I do know that I definitely want one.

I interview the cast and crew of House Trafalgar!

A few weeks ago I was invited to interview the cast and crew of the most epic short film ever made, House Trafalgar. The first video from that session has just been released online, and here it is...

HOUSE TRAFALGAR - The Q&A Sessions 1 from Future Sun Film on Vimeo.

If you've never been to MovieBar, the short film night I run in Brighton, it's a lot like this... only darker, everyone has usually had a lot more to drink and I would be wearing a hat.

Check out the House Trafalgar website for more information on the film and details of upcoming screenings.

In other news...

Jenny Ringo and the Cabaret from Hell is now even closer to completion after Ross and I put the finishing touches to the edit earlier this week. It now has effects, a couple of extra scenes and is slightly shorter in places! Now there's just the final sound mix and grading left to do...

As always you can keep up to date on the progress of Jenny Ringo by signing up to the mailing list at www.jennyringo.com.

Jenny Ringo update (including where you can see the trailer!)

whatwritesatmidnight@gmail.com (Chris Regan) — Sun, 4 Nov 2012 15:31:00 GMT

Been a bit crap at blogging recently, too much stuff going on. Was going to do a whole post about the ADR session we did a few weeks ago, and while I'm on the subject I should actually finish off the production diary seeing as I only made it as far as the second day. But I've been busy working on finishing the actual film itself, which is very nearly done.

Sort of very nearly anyway. I still need to get the effects shots edited into the film, sort out some of the voice-over sequences now I have the actual dialogue to go with them, co-ordinate the final sound mix and get the whole thing graded, but other than that it's nearly there!

Last week I spent an evening with editor Ross putting together a trailer for the film. It's not quite finished yet so I won't be putting it online anytime soon BUT I will be screening it as part of Halloween MovieBar TOMORROW NIGHT!

Whether you are interested in seeing the Jenny Ringo and the Cabaret from Hell trailer or not, if you are anywhere near Brighton you should definitely come along to MovieBar because it is going to be an amazing night. We'll be screening an eclectic mix of fantastic short horror films from 7.30pm at the Caroline of Brunswick in Brighton.

Full details can be found here - www.moviebar.co.uk

Hope to see you there!

Amber Heard...

whatwritesatmidnight@gmail.com (Chris Regan) — Wed, 3 Oct 2012 21:39:00 +0100

I wrote this ages ago, then had one of those 'aw, why should anyone care what I think' moments and didn't post it. I've now had one of those 'I haven't blogged for ages but I can't be bothered to write anything new' moments so here it is...

Amber Heard represents one of the biggest problems with the way films are being made at the moment. Because she's really good.

It just takes one really good performance in a good film for me to want to see more of that actor. With Amber Heard that film was All the Boys Love Mandy Lane, which is perhaps the only post-Scream slasher film to do anything at all interesting with the genre (that, and Cabin in the Woods obviously). And Amber Heard is really good in it.

I can't really explain why without spoiling the ending, but it's one of those films where the story (and particularly the major plot twist) is entirely dependent on the central performance, which in this case is really strong.

Around the same time I also went to see the teen MMA film Never Back Down at the cinema. I'm not sure why I thought this was a good idea.

Amber Heard plays the main character's girlfriend and doesn't do anything at all interesting. Her lines could easily have been copied and pasted from similar characters a thousand other films. Unfortunately she would go on to play that same character over and over again.

She played Jesse Eisenberg's zombie girlfriend at the beginning of Zombieland.

She was Nicholas Cage's sidekick in Drive Angry (basically the same girlfriend character but seeing her and Nicholas Cage have sex would be weird like it was with him and Jessica Biel in Next so they skip over any relationship stuff and have her following him around for no reason at all other than the film needs a girl in it).

And who could forget her standout performance as Seth Rogen's girlfriend in Pineapple Express. Me, that's who. I forgot, because it's not memorable at all.

But just as I'm about to give up on Amber Heard I see her in The Ward, a film that again hinges on the strength of her performance which is again very strong indeed (The Ward is kind of like Sucker Punch but with a script and acting and other things that proper films have).

From this I learn I should only watch Amber Heard films in which she looks slightly dishevelled in all the promotional stills (with the exception of the remake of And Soon the Darkness in which she spends a lot of time looking slightly dishevelled and doesn't play a girlfriend. It's also not very good and is therefore at odds with my thesis so I'm not going to talk about it here).

So the other night I sat down to watch The Rum Diary, a film I'm very much looking forward to because I like Bruce Robinson, I like Hunter S. Thompson (although from the films based on his work I can't help thinking he would've achieved so much more without all the drugs and alcohol) and I like Johnny Depp when he's not being a pirate or having anything to do with Tim Burton. There are also four of my favourite actors in the supporting cast - Richard Jenkins, Aaron Eckhart, Giovanni Ribisi and ... Amber Heard. I think this is going to be brilliant.

Unfortunately it's not brilliant because Amber Heard plays Aaron Eckhart's girlfriend. A bit later she is Johnny Depp's girlfriend.

At various points in the film she disappears. The script is such that it really wouldn't matter if any of those moments were the last time we saw her on screen. She is completely superfluous to the plot of the film. If you cut out all her scenes it would be the exact same film, no question.

By now I'm so sick of this it completely ruins the film for me. The film itself is actually quite good. At its best moments it recreates the tone of Withnail and I perfectly. And in a way that's the problem. Imagine Withnail and I if one of the characters had a girlfriend. Imagine the same film, same set-up, same tone but someone high up suggests the story needs a woman in it somewhere because us blokes feel a bit weird and insecure if we're just watching other blokes all the time so now Richard E Grant and Paul McGann are competing for the affections of the local barmaid. It wouldn't work. It would be horrible.

I would like to think that's what happened with The Rum Diary; that the girlfriend character wasn't put in there on purpose but instead was inserted at the insistence of a random executive. Either way the result is the same. Here is a fairly decent story which is for the most part quite believable but every now and again we have to put common sense to one side so we accept the awkward romance plot that's been copied and pasted into the script from a thousand similar films, some of them the same films Amber Heard's previous roles were copied from.

Let's compare the above to another actor I really like of a similar age. Let's take Joseph Gordon-Levitt for example. I really liked him in Brick where he plays a high school detective. Then I saw him in The Lookout where he plays a young man living with brain damage who somehow gets involved in a bank heist. In Stop-Loss he played a soldier struggling with the return to civilian life. In Inception he plays Leonardo DiCaprio's right-hand man and gets to wear awesome waistcoats and have a spectacular floating-around-in-a-corridor fight scene. The point is his least interesting role was as the bad guy in GI Joe, and even that was more interesting than any of the supporting characters Amber Heard ever played.

You may ask, what do I know? Maybe Amber Heard was offered all kinds of interesting parts and she just prefers playing girlfriends. Maybe that's okay.

But there is a bigger picture here.

Part of what makes the above examples stand out is that quite often Amber Heard is the only female character in those films. Which means that in the world those films expect us to buy into Amber Heard represents all women. Which means for the most part women aren't very interesting. Not only that but in only having one woman in the whole story the films then fail to represent any kind of reality I'm familiar with.

There is rarely a good reason for not having more than one female character in a script. But if for some reason that has to be the case (the only reason being someone high up thinks the film needs a woman for the blokes in the audience to look at in case they get confused) then there are things that can be done to make it work. They don't have to be written as one-dimensional pin-ups for the male characters to fight over, even if in reality that's exactly why they've been added into the story. There are examples of this being done well, like with Brittany Murphy's character in Drive (not the Ryan Gosling one, the Mark Dacascos one with lots of people kicking each other that features the line 'You cheese-eating dick monkey!'). Or Ally Walker's character in Universal Soldier (which stands out in my mind as being interesting but it's been a while since I've seen it). There are probably loads more too (but I can't think of any which is the other reason I didn't post this right away in case more examples came to me. They didn't.)

But there is another solution. Sometimes its okay not to have roles for women in a film. Sometimes it's better that way, like in Withnail and I or Reservoir Dogs or 12 Angry Men and probably a thousand more examples (and these I could list here but you get the idea). If Amber Heard hadn't been in any of the films I mentioned above except for The Ward and All the Boys Love Mandy Lane I really wouldn't have noticed. In some cases it would've been an improvement. And you never know, maybe, just maybe she could have made something more interesting instead...

From 1st place to 24th!

whatwritesatmidnight@gmail.com (Chris Regan) — Fri, 21 Sep 2012 00:13:00 +0100

It all started so well! Jenny Ringo and the Monkey's Paw was in 1st place in Shooting People's Film of the Month competition for the first few days of the contest. It held onto a spot in the top 5 for the whole of the first week. In the second week there was a battle to stay in fifth place and though the film frequently dropped out of the top 5 we always managed to claw back enough votes to get us up there again.

But by the end of last week it had all started to go a little bit wrong. And now, half an hour before the end of the first round, the leaderboard looks like this:

That's my film, down in 24th place.

It's not a complete loss. Last month the top film in Round 1 won by around 450 stars. I figured this month would be more competitive so I decided we needed at least 500 and there were times when I wasn't sure we'd ever hit more than 250. But we made it past 500 in the end, it's just that everyone else did way better.

The film did get the most views, which means very little in the competition but it makes me smile. As a result of this and me mentioning it at every available opportunity it has also been played over 1,000 times on vimeo which was my other big target for this year (now we just need 1,000 Facebook likes and 1,000 people signed up to the mailing list).

I think the fact that it had more views than plays is the root of the problem. I think people were put off by the running time. The fact is, I know where pretty much every single one of those 505 votes came from. The majority came from people I know or have worked with or have helped out in some way or another. The rest came from people I approached directly. What we missed out on was the casual voter, because I think the casual voter clicked the link, saw that it would take 25 minutes of their time and moved on (I refuse to learn anything from this). Also, surprisingly few of my filmmaker friends are Shooting People members, which didn't help.

But the fact that we made it so far in spite of all this is pretty amazing. I'm really grateful to everyone who checked out the film and voted and to all the people who shared the link and were almost as relentless in promoting it as I was.

The film also received some great comments which you can read in full here, below are some of the best -

"Really liked the ending. Also, the mess in the kitchen reminds me a lot of my time at uni of course. You've nailed the layabout student to a tee with his character."

"Love this, especially the Jeff Awesome character and the musical number. Looking forward to the sequel."

"Talking washing up = awesome."

"I love this piece of work. It's funny and disturbing - but it had the potential to have been so much more intense."

"Terrific film. Great story, love the leads, excellent camera work - and very, very funny (particularly liked the chanting hippies!!)"

"It made me smile, cheered me up, amused me greatly and left me looking for more!"

"One of the best shorts I've seen in ages. Very ambitious and delivers, Jenny Ringo needs her own series!"

Overall it's been an exhausting, time-consuming and occasionally stress-inducing experience but one that was totally worthwhile for all the extra people that got to see the film because of it.

Would I enter again?

Ask me that question when I've finished Jenny Ringo and the Cabaret from Hell. Speaking of which, I have work to do...

Film of the Month Update!

whatwritesatmidnight@gmail.com (Chris Regan) — Sat, 8 Sep 2012 16:03:00 +0100

It's been an exciting, exhausting week. The Shooting People Film of the Month leaderboard now looks like this:

Okay, so it's not as pretty-looking as when Jenny Ringo was in first place like it was at the beginning of the week, but we are still in the top 5 which means we're still in with a chance of getting through to the next round! It just needs to stay in the top 5 for the next 12 days, which is a really long time!

Hope it goes without saying at this point but if you are a Shooting People member, please click the link and give it some stars!

https://shootingpeople.org/watch/111251/jenny-ringo-and-the-monkey-s-paw

Competition has been fierce and at one point the film fell to 9th place and didn't look like it had much chance of getting any higher. I've spent pretty much every non-working, non-nappy-changing minute online pleading with people to vote which is probably a bit annoying now, but like Gabriel Byrne says to Albert Finney in Miller's Crossing - 'I don't ask much and I don't ask often.'

Okay, the second part of that sentence may not be true anymore, but once this competition is out of the way I promise I will get on with the business of actually making stuff again.

It's been really hard work to get this far, but pretty rewarding too. All kinds of people have seen the film now and I've had some fantastic feedback. When we were shooting Jenny Ringo and the Cabaret from Hell I made the assertion that I wouldn't even think about releasing it until the first film had been seen by at least a thousand people. This seemed an over-ambitious target and for a while I thought we would never make it, but as a result of the Shooting People competition the film has now been seen 711 times on vimeo which is fantastic! I've also seen some great films by other people and have lined up a number of them to show at MovieBar in the coming months (speaking of which, MovieBar on Monday was amazing! Standing room only, some of the best films we've screened and a wonderful audience that included my mum and dad).

The support I've had from friends and fans of the film has been incredible and I'm really grateful to everyone who has shared the link or voted for it or left a comment. It makes me wonder what we could achieve if there was a similar competition that didn't require you to be a paid member to vote, so if anyone is aware of anything like that let me know!

But it's not over yet. I still need stars to be in with a chance of winning and I'm starting to run out of contacts! If you're reading this and you're not a Shooting People member you can still help! Just share the link on Facebook and Twitter and ask if any filmmaking types you know are able to vote. The more views we get the better so please do encourage people to watch the film anyway.

I suspect this coming week is going to be even harder than the previous week so wish me luck and I'll check in with you when I can!