As mentioned in an earlier blog, I'm currently trying to get one of my shorts, Pie Money, onto the festival circuit. It was finished back in May, and the story is of a pie factory worker torn between bereavement and his late wife’s lottery win. Since it premiered back in June at Staffordshire University's Degree Show, it's only been shown at two festivals, The Isle of Wight Film Festival and Maidstone Film Festival. I'm not sure of the exact number of rejections it's had, but it's fair to say it hasn't done well so far. 

When looking at why it hasn't taken off, I compare it to my other short, Dawid and Dominik, which has proven to be  popular amongst festivals. The short comedy, which was winner of the Shooting People Film of the Month award back in March of this year, is very much a crowd-pleaser. At a running time of six minutes, it doesn't exactly take up a lot of screen time. And it's very easy to watch, one of my intentions from the start. (Excerpt below)

Pie Money on the other hand, is seventeen minutes long. I wanted to test the patience of the audience. I used the long form style to get across the isolation of the character, and some scenes are very, very, slow. Surveys from a test screening earlier in the year proved that the long form did work, and this gave me confidence to go on and market the film as it was.

But I've come to realise now that if a festival were to accept a seventeen minute film, they'd have to reject two, or maybe three filmmakers. And long form isn't everyone's cup of tea. There's only one option - cut the film down.

So, after months of telling myself that Pie Money will soon take off, it's time to go back into the FCP file and cut it down. So far it's down to fifteen minutes. The aim is twelve. I know in the long run it'll be worth it.

In the next few weeks, I'll be putting behind the scenes videos and excerpts of Pie Money on FilmAnnex, eventually putting the completed film on my WebTv for you all to watch.