I never really fully embraced the short film route to success. I wrote a few. Less were made … and that’s about it really. Here are the ones I can remember:
Karma Magnet started life as one of six scripts written for a portmanteau horror anthology feature. It would have been Black and Blue Films‘ first produced feature and Martin Kemp’s directorial debut … but it didn’t quite turn out like that.
Instead, it’s Black and Blue Films’ first produced short and still Martin Kemp’s directorial debut … just a slightly shorter debut than planned.
Starring Gary Kemp and Adele Silva, it tells the tale of the luckiest man in the world who feels he has to kill himself for the good of humanity.
There were a couple of odd decisions made during pre-production (doubling the length of certain scenes when there was nothing else to say. Or adding in a completely new sequence because we had access to a location, even when there was no real need from a story point of view) and I’m still half convinced the ending negates the entire story; but overall it’s a reasonable short and proved Martin could direct well enough to move on to a full length feature.
Basically, it is what it is:
There’s a more in-depth post about writing the short here.
Quid Pro Quo
This was a short film I wrote in response to an ad somewhere for Mick Fowler. He re-wrote quite a lot of it and filmed it – not sure if it ever screened anywhere. The brief was a ten minute piece all set in an interrogation room with a twist at the end. The final film had flashbacks and outdoor bits and other stuff outside the single location.
I wrote this … um … for some reason I can’t remember at a time I can’t quite recall.
Nope, no idea.
I know I did end up giving it to Jake Gould, a student at the New York Film Academy, to direct. He re-wrote quite a lot of it and the end results can be seen on his website here.
Groove Britannia
Ah, this one I do remember. I co-wrote this with Marian Kilpatrick after a previous project fell apart. We had a vague story we felt we owned, but no characters to tell it – so we created Sassy, Dash, Cat and Bongo. Together they are GROOVE BRITANNIA: funk rock band by day; intrepid crime fighters by night. They rock both the music world and the underworld.
Yes, it was very tongue-in-cheek – very much in the style of the 1960’s Batman series.
And it didn’t get made.
A year or so later I sent it to the Mountview Academy of Theatre Arts and they made it, so at least we got paid for it eventually.
I bought a packet of crisps with my share.
The Jobbing Scriptwriter 