Thursday, January 20, 2011

I Wish

A few years ago I became involved in a feature film project which looked set to shoot before it came toppling down due to circumstances that unfortunately I had little control over. I spent many months working for free, and did that work based on a mutual trust.
When it was pulled, it left my naivety exposed and the result of that was months spent wondering if indeed a pursuit in filmmaking in Ireland was indeed worth it all.

Some people offered advice, those more experienced in the film industry said these things were commonplace, and I shouldn't take it too personally. Unfortunately, I did as over forty people had placed a certain trust in us to deliver for them, the same way they wanted to deliver for us. Despite efforts to resurrect, it it wasn't to be. I made the decision to never again work for others unless some form of contract was in place and work on that naivety
Last year I got back up on the bike and co-produced and directed the Arts Journal which will be finished shortly.

I decided 2011 would be a year I would dedicate to trying to get some JaSE Films work off the ground. I was lucky I had registered the script and it's sole copyright with the WGA.
It's a three-pronged attack this year, each which should advance JaSE Films goal of making films over the coming years.
I came across Amazon Studio's late last year. I did a bit of background on it, and eventually came to a decision to participate over there for a time this year. One segment of the site is dedicated to scripts. I have four here at the moment gathering dust. One of them was the script for the film that broke down.

I Wish is a dark drama which explores the dark side of luck. Set in Ireland during the resession, a family with problems have an unexpected stroke of luck, but with devastating consequences. Be careful what you wish for...

Yesterday I posted it to Amazon Studio's.
OK, the deal is not a writers dream. In return for posting it, it is entered into competition, guaranteed a professional read and it can be reviewed by readers who may offer suggestions for re-writes that may make it a little better.
Amazon now have an option to buy the script over the next 18 months and will pay the writer if they want to extend the option for a further 18 months. With I Wish, I had no problem with that deal. Every time I looked at the script it was a reminder of a failure, and I'm tired of seeing it that way. I'm not saying it's better than anything else out there, but it's relevant to the times and how people change and it was once enough to pull a production together, if not having seen it through.

So although I know this blog won't have many readers in it's infancy, JaSE Films this year will attempt to start seeing things a little further afield than just here in Ireland and try get working with other Indie production companies in other countries who feel like ripping things up a little bit and are pro-active in coming up with ways to achieve that.
Some will like our approach, some will not. But it's ours and we are comfortable with the way we want to do things. We want to form collaborations with people with a professional approach, and are equally consumed in the pursuit of bringing films to completion.

JaSE Films would be grateful if you wish to read the script and leave a review on Amazon for consideration should further re-writes be necessary. You can download the script here and leave a review after. If you like it and think others may read it then we would be equally grateful if you direct them to it so they to can download it. Let's see if it has anything that can be built on instead of consigning it further to that dusty drawer.

I Wish and possibly a second feature script, will be the first prong, the web series and it's eventual goal will be the second prong, and so as not to be putting eggs in one basket, JaSE hopes to be in a position toward the end of this year to produce it's own first micro-budget feature so our growth can be measured in some real terms.

Wish us luck...

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