A Place In The Sun*

* There's no Shelley Winters in this post.

I'm writing this outside in sunny Scotland, 25C to be exact in an outfit that HAS NO SLEEVES. That's pretty rare in these parts. Something else rather rare - I'm having a few days off with the intention of doing not very much, but the hope that I may get to writing. I think this blog entry may be the only bit of writing that actually gets done as I'm finding it refreshing to not have to string words together creatively. Instead I'm sitting in the sun drawing, thinking, and wondering if it's time to enjoy another long soak in the bath - it's hell I tell you. Thought I'd break out the laptop (not looking at emails though - just this post, then I'm done!), in between baths and admiring my lack of sleevage.

May and June were busy months. That's putting it mildly. The previous post tells the story of the BAFTA Rocliffe Forum adventure which occupied my brain for most of that period, but other things happened too. Interesting things. At least I think so. Just before the Forum, Love Cake, the short film that I wrote as my graduation short had its private cast and crew screening. The film is very close to my heart so it was fantastic to see it on the big screen at The Cameo in Edinburgh, alongwith some familiar faces from the cast and crew who (some) I hadn't seen since last year's shoot. Hopefully it will go out into the world to a wider audience and a few festivals once it has had a few tweaks and finished post-production. Fly my pretty! The film had its beginnings in a brainstorming class at Screen Academy Scotland back in 2008, which then led on to Masterbaker (feature) which I'm now rewriting after the feedback from the previously mentioned Forum.

May also saw the shooting of an experimental short in Edinburgh for another project I'm developing with a producer. It's a black comedy horror feature. I wrote the teaser after we found out the project was heading off to Cannes as part of the Producer's Network, and it was then developed, shot and edited in record time. It's now heading into serious development which I'm looking forward to.

In June I wrote a 2-minute short, originally with the intention of making it quickly for Virgin Media Shorts but time was/is against us, so now we've slowed things down and hope to get it organised over the Summer - good decision I think. It also allows us a little more lee-way regarding the level of humour we can use.

Money is tight as always, and I'm looking for a new job, so these few days off are precious before I enter the sweaty fray of today's job market.

Enjoy the summer while you can - embrace the inevitable sunburn and fat arms and pink sweaty near-nakedness and socks & sandals, and sand in unlikely places, and wasp stings, and the absolutely unadulterated glory of lying on your chosen patch of public or private green and being warm under a blue sky.

For soon it will be time for sleeves.