What’s something you’ve done that you never thought you could?
From Shoestring to the Small Screen
I wrote and directed a short film that I subsequently sold to a national television broadcaster (Channel 4). It was called Listening In, and I made it on a shoestring budget through a production company I had set up, appropriately named Shoestring Productions.
There is something hugely satisfying about having an idea, writing the script, assembling the cast and crew, sourcing the resources to make it happen, directing the production, and then finding that someone in television considers the finished film worth buying.
I had no great financial backing, no established production company behind me, and no guarantee that anyone beyond those involved would ever see it. What I did have was an idea, the determination to see it through, and enough confidence—or perhaps naïvety—to give it a go.
The extraordinary thing wasn’t simply making a film. It was taking something from imagination to a finished production and then discovering that it had a commercial value.
I had become a filmmaker. And someone had paid to broadcast my work.
And after an all-night shoot to make Listenin In, what could make it even more of a challenge? Shoot overnight in a swimming pool, as much underwater as above it – I like a challenge!
Leave a Reply