At some 1 to 2 years ago my brother sent me a bunch of short stories he had written. They were an eclectic bunch in the vein of Gates of Eden by Ethan Coen. Each one had its own flavour and tickled me in some way.
Last X-mas I was celebrating with my family and was also fortunate enough to have been at the premiere of my first short film The Pessimist in Brisbane. Boxing day I was sitting around with both brothers drinking talking the usual stuff, movies, comics and books. Well this year we covered my movie as well and the prospect of any others I might interested in. I do have about 3 short scripts and another feature length one. However my mind for some reason thought about one of those stories mentioned earlier.
It was about a dude with OCD who has to wash his hands every hour on the hour. That premise alone has potential but the kicker for me was what would happen if he was caught in a bank robbery? Ryan hadn't finished the story and as he is want to do moved on to another more impressive project.
Well with a gut full of white rum I asked Ryan if he minded me taking that premise and turning it into a short film. I am much more visual!!!! He slurred his acceptance and the topic moved on. Four weeks later I had a skeleton of where I thought the story might go and wondered what he thought so far. The returning email was so full of red comments that before we knew it the story now titled 'Soap' is co-written by us (similar to Good Will Hunting sic).
We had the script as tight as we could get it without outside opinions and ventured into the scary world of producers and directors. I sent feeler emails out to about 5 producers and only one offered to even read the script. After reading it she was interested and we had a producer giving points and leading to a point where we could attract funding. Then there was a stalemate and Ryan and I couldn't offer any fresh approach and the producer had moved onto a new venture. And good luck I say.
So one day I'm trolling websites about short films and I stumble onto www.australianshortfilms.com and while looking on the message board I notice a guy David Ockenden has written a thread about being a South Australian and looking for new writers and scripts. I checked him out on www.imdb.com and he checks out. I send him a direct email and he lets me know he'll get back to me. 3 weeks go by and nothing. Then I get an email from his producing partner Matt Pearson expressing interest in Soap with him producing, Ockenden directing and the Lindsay Bros. writing. Well a weeks worth of re-writes and back and forths and I posted the contract to Ryan today with my signature and he'll post it to Matt with his and God willing we might see the production of Soap before the end of 2009.
So yeah sometimes things just happen.
On another but still exciting note The Pessimist won Best Indy Film at the QLD New Filmmakers Awards (BIFF) as well as best sound last Friday. It can be seen screening next in Venice next month.
Until then hail to the trolling.
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