Checking In

[Above: the photos I've released from my recent photo with I C Things Photography - more to come soon!]

    This isn't a 'proper' blog post - I just wanted to say a quick hello to my regular readers (if I have any!), to reassure you that I am alive and well, and I intend on writing more again soon!

   When I finally left my day job, I vowed to post on my blog once a month - partly for SEO reasons, and partly for the simple love of writing - and yet my last post was four months ago!

   The main reason I've been kept busy is that I've finally directed another short film, after a predominantly pandemic-induced two year dry spell. Much as I'm over-the-moon to have another film under my belt, there was the added pressure and excitement from the fact that this film was funded by the BFI Network, an organisation I've wanted to collaborate with since the moment I knew they existed! 

   It was perhaps the hardest I've prepared for anything in my life, and so you can expect a new blog post with insights into my process soon. The film - working title Room 515, now renamed A Different Place - is still very much hogging my attention (I give it gladly), as the finished piece is due to be delivered early next month!

   On top of that, my work for clients has also continued (expect a blog post about the recent suite I produced for the wonderful White Peak Distillery), and I'm attached to produce some more short narrative work this year, including my first animation, which is at the script stage now.

   Last week, we marked the tenth anniversary of the Stop/Eject shoot (which made me feel very old ), and then the next day I turned 33 (which made me feel even older!). My birthday this year was certainly memorable, as I happened to have a meeting with one of my actual filmmaking idols that morning! Expect more information about that in my 2022 Summer update - which I'll aim to release around June/July this year - but in a nutshell, it was an amazing experience because I got to tell him about my intended film projects, even doing a mini pitch for my long-beloved Night Owls feature film, Night Owls & Early Birds.

   Lepidopterist's festival run is coming to a close now, and we marked that by finally releasing this gorgeous poster by I C Things & Garett Dale Photography. You can expect a blog post about that too; my posts about Night Owls' festival run seemed to be useful to people, but I've learnt a lot from only submitting fantasy and sci-fi films over the past few years, and I'm keen to share an update with those specific learning points.

  I've also just booked to go back to the Cannes Film Festival for the first time since 2013, so if I can (Cannes?), I'll write another blog post about that too, if it's changed a lot since I last went and I feel like I have some useful information to share.

  So those are my big headlines from the past four months, and a quick run-down of my intended upcoming blog posts. Hopefully I won't keep you all waiting too long to read them.

   But for now, I have funding applications to submit and a film to finish. See you all on the other side!

Sophie