Life On The Knife
It’s amazing how, in the space of a few days, the fragility of what you do can be exposed to leave you flailing and hollow. A week that started full of promise and challenge was shattered halfway through. A summer that potentially promised four short films, produced and experienced by nearly 200 young people in Luton and Bedfordshire, became possibly one (and a slim possibility at that).
So, what was to be the first blog regarding the recruitment and pre-production phase of our attempt to provide cast and work experience opportunity for 150 young people, has become a blog that knows not the direction it will take, much like the project.
‘The Boreds’ (a modern homage to Alfred Hitchcock’s ‘The Birds’, featuring hooded youth culture) is on hold as the desperate search for required funding takes over. Unfortunately, news of a loss in funding came hours after the new website and application process went public. Isn’t that always the way? Whatever happens, the shoot will be put back. Hopefully it will be a short postponement: maybe the end of August, maybe mid September. The delay also comes just as we were getting excited about the form the script was taking and were on the road finding suitable locations, both for logistics and cinematic impact. Trying to meld the right location for the action, with somewhere that could house and help feed 150+ people, is a challenge for another episode. It was one we were beginning to relish.
Now, we have to try and get people that we have previously been unable to sit down with to meet us and say “Yes” or ”No” in a matter of what seems like hours. I don’t know if it’s harder or easier to keep going given the decency of our partners, their unwavering support and commitment to both us and our idea. The emotional connection we have to this work has been exposed over the last week. Tempers were frayed, emotions were running high and those who have helped us get this far have been amazingly supportive and are carrying us through. This is fantastic, but I fear it is prolonging an almighty personal crash if we are not be able to make up the shortfall in time.
We were getting close to working with so many young people on such an amazing project that to see it within touching distance and not being able to run with it is excruciating. I know we should be used to the disappointment, the readjustment and the struggle, but I for one will never get used to it. I’m a naïve optimist. Maybe that’s my downfall, but I think the way we always work to the assumption that things will happen is how we achieve so much. It won’t be long to wait - it needs to be all in place again by July 9th. So, bear with us as we see whether the summer of activity becomes an autumn of activity, or if this becomes one of the shortest film education blog series’ imaginable.