IAmConorWilson

Well, I have had a very busy few weeks. I recently attended the National Youth Film Academy’s Breakthrough course in Watford, London. The course put me with 5 crew and 8 actors and gave us one simple instruction: make a 15 minute film in 10 days.

10 days later, we had created We Wayward Few. A dystopian short about life post-disaster, it follows a group of 8 radically different survivors as they attempt to carry on their ways of living.

It was absolutely amazing (if not a bit daunting) being able to work with such talented people from all over the country. I feel very confident in saying that all of these people are headed to bigger and better things. I had a lot of fun working with them all and I hope to work with all these guys again in the future.

All was not sunshine and rainbows, however, as the actual content of the course was very lacking. A lot of the lectures were geared towards directors and actors, which meant that a lot of the other crew members felt left out and that they did not get their monies worth. The organisation was also incredibly poor. We were told that there was a budget of £100 for our film and that we would be reimbursed at the end of the course. This never came, despite repeated attempts to contact them. In talking with some of the course leaders, it was also revealed that they hadn’t been paid either. 

The trailer for @binarystarfilms (myself & Bryony Worth) latest short film, In Memoriam.

In Memoriam will be screened at The Poly in Falmouth on Friday 20th May at 6pm - More information available here

So this is it, my final film for my university course. A film 3 years in the making and, quite probably, the most ambitious (and stressful!) project that I have ever undertaken. In Memoriam follows a man who is kidnapped and forced to relive painful memories from a past life that he never knew existed.

The idea for In Memoriam had been sat in my notepad for quite sometime, and was an amalgamation of a few other ideas. I have always been fascinated by the idea of memory and memory manipulation in science fiction; in particular, Christopher Nolan’s Inception, Paul Verhoeven’s Total Recall and the recurrent theme of memory in Charlie Brooker’s Black Mirror. This film grew from the idea that human memory is not absolute and is indeed quite flawed. I wanted to explore what it would be like to be sucked into a world that you’ve completely forgotten.

To say that this film was challenging would be quite an understatement. There were a few problems securing actors, and a broken camera discovered 25 mins before we were due to shoot. Because of these, significant changes had to be made to the script, cutting it down to the bare bones and replacing the character of a father, with that of a brother due to the age of the actor.

On the other hand, it was great to shoot in a wide variety of locations this time as all of my films prior to this used only one or two locations. I also enjoyed trying my hand at some minor visual effects which I think came out quite well in the end.

This is also the second time that I have collaborated with my partner Bryony Worth, under our joint production company Binary Star. It was great to work with her again after we joined forces on the Beat Primal music video last year. Our minds seem to work in sync and it's amazing being able to bounce ideas off of another person. You can certainly look forward to more films from the two of us.

Overall, I’m not sure if I am as pleased with the finished product as I hoped I would be. I am, however, still in love with the original idea and the uncut script, so this may be something I revisit in the future with a slightly different take.

Some behind-the-scenes pictures from this weeks shoot for our newest film, In Memoriam. 

We have just wrapped on my penultimate film for my last year of university! This is a short non-fiction film focussing on Glendurgan Gardens in Falmouth, Cornwall, made in collaboration with the National Trust. In the film we look at Glendurgan’s 180 year old hedge maze and the team’s efforts to restore it.

Some Behind the Scenes shots from my latest film, “Glendurgan”, made in collaboration with the National Trust, and shot in their beautiful Glendurgan Gardens. 

We’ve just finished production of a new film; a music video for the song Beat Primal by Other Lives as part of their contest on Genero. (You can watch it right now on Vimeo!)

As I'm sure you already know (because I've been posting about it all week) my newest film, “Alone on a Tuesday” is now available to watch on Unnatural Disaster (Click here to go see!).

So this is what my wall looks like currently.

To some it may look like someone vomited Post-its on my wall, and you'd be right. However, this is in fact my process for writing the script for my newest film, currently titled “Alone on a Tuesday”. I had the idea for this film a few months ago and I've been meaning to sit down and write a draft script for a while. But I've had so many thoughts and ideas for this film, it’s been difficult to sort through them all mentally and write something that isn't all over the place.

So I’d been procrastinating for a while, until my girlfriend suggested using Post-it notes to get some visual idea of my thoughts, making it easier to sort through and get rid of the shit ones. So here I am, a few hours later, with a wall that looks like it belongs to a crazed detective hellbent on finding his wife’s murderer.

So, I just finished the first semester of my second year of university. All in all, I'm quite proud of what I've achieved. My 6 minute fiction film is, dare I say, one of the best things I have made. Especially considering the early stages where I was bouncing from one idea to the next like a rabbit on a trampoline, although I did create a few good ideas which I've kept for later projects. I have to thank my good friend Dan, from Shirt and Tie Productions, for starring in the film and my girlfriend Bryony, for doing the sound. 

This is honestly the first film I have made in which I think I genuinely achieved something. All of my films up until now I have found disappointing or not up to my standards, but this film is different. Hopefully this is a sign that all is not lost and that I am definitely on the right track.

Hi there, welcome to my more wordy blog thing. It's looking a little barren right now, but that should change in the coming weeks. On this blog, I’ll be posting blog entries, updates from projects I am working on and general stuff that may or may not interest you. However, if for whatever reason you are incredibly interested, then you can follow me on Twitter or my personal Tumblr.

That's about it for now, please enjoy this picture of a cat.