Phil Peel

So our short Late Request has just had official selection for a festival a bit closer to home .. Chelmsford Film Festival.  

…and over in Canada again our friends the Toronto Reelheart International Film Festival are screening it in July.

I had been warned by my co-producer Melissa that the Cannes Film Festival was mad, but the reality is   …it's mad.

I'm now four days in and I'm just beginning to enjoy it. I've got over the jet lag.  

Jet lag? ..It's only one hour difference, I hear you say. Yes but Cannes happens at night so we've shifted to nocternal animals. Bed at 4 or 5 am and breakfast at 1pm.  (Assuming we haven't any morning meetings.)   Lunch at 6pm

Also  Cannes runs on alcohol, so all in all it's very unhealthy.  Burning sun and baking hot during the day, then chiling wind at night.   …and too much alcohol.  Steven Follows advice to me was to always drink lots of water …BUT the toilets are miles away.   ..and if you've got into a party you shouldn't have …not that we would do such a thing  ..then you have the problem that if you leave then you may not get back in.   but of course that doesn't apply to us. We would never do that as    We get inviations to everything!.   …Oh ..Did I mention that everthing in Cannes is about exaggeration.  

…and  crowds, heaving crowds, standstill gridlocked traffic. Celebrity madness.  Security checks, scores of identical black limousines. party after party.  ..and in almost everyone I'm bumping into the Brits. In the US pavilion, Argentinian, Greece, Russian, Canadian there are Brits.  It has been lovely to meet up with so many friends from the UK. David Wilkinson, Stephen Follows, Danny Stack, Tim Clague, Ben Richards and many others 

So I'm In the Greek pavilion for the Russian party. Melissa has disappeared off somewhere, I strike up a conversation with a friendly looking woman.  "Do you speak English?"  Yes she did   ..rather well …as she came from Dawlish in Devon. 

But it has been surprisingly succesfull.  A chance meeting in a wildly over the top charity fashion show in the  Charlton  Hotel.  In aid of Famine Relief or World Peace  or something like that.  ..go figure?  led to a long late night meeting onto another hour long meeting the following day with in depth discussions on International co-production on my next ..as yet unwritten script..     with five completed feature scripts is the unwritten on that is attracting interstt.  Really does show that in screenwriting, concept is everthing

So they are expecting the finished script in six weeks.  during which I am going to the Edinburgh Film Festival and Toronto. ..so no pressure.    

Gosh  ..I’ve been selected for the awesome London Screenwriters Festival Talent Campus,

“a 12 week programme with three London based sections and two distance ‘mentor’ led writing periods run in partnership with Creative Skillset.”

So I guess my other productions are on hold for the moment, as I’m going to be somewhat writing focussed for the next two months.

It’s going to be tutored by people like John Yorke, Stephen Follows, Philip Shelley, Kate Leys and Pilar Alessandra, so it’s scarily high level.

The other writers selected are amazingly good, so I’m not sure why they chose me.   But it’s going to be brilliant working with them.

I got a nice surprise this week. A lovely inscribed glass award arrived from the Toronto #ReelHeART International Film and Screenplay Festival.  ..and another award for my “Best of Intentions” screenplay.

Phil with ReelHeART Film Award

That’s also the screenplay award hanging off the screen in the background.  The Festival and the awards were just about a month ago, but it’s been such a full on month since with sooo much editing to complete, with tight deadlines, that I haven’t had time for it to really register or sink in.

I’ve spent most of the month in a darkened room slaving over a hot monitor …apart from a brief excursion on a tallship …as one does 🙂  and I did have my birthday,  which seemed to last three days.  ..bit of a blur.  Still it was fun stuff to edit – The Script, Boyzone, Michael McIntyre.

Danny O’Donoghue and The Script

And I did buy myself an awesome Color Calibrated 2560 x 1440 resolution Thunderbolt Monitor  for my birthday.  “the 27-inch ColorPrime is the next-generation Thunderbolt Display Apple never built.”

Anyway I digress..

Another surprise this week was that my short script “Late Request”  (written about my awesome sister Nicky)  has got through to the quarterfinals (update)   semifinals for the follow up to 50Kisses   “Create50  50 Moments Of Courage and Kindness

It’s written about a carcrash  .. that’s not Nicky   …well not most most of the time. 🙂    …and I have the car ready to crash and film    ..Thanks Ian.  So whether I get through to the finals or not I still mean to film it.

Now I have to get back to editing the 20 minute film we shot in Toronto.

Melissa at Toronto restaurant

Here’s what the Mentorship award was for.

ReelHeART Mentorship Award Phil Peel “Liaison”, “Emily’s Dance”, “Best of Intentions”

• • This year, The ReelHeART Mentorship Award goes to a Filmmaker, Screenwriter whom we first met last year. This filmmaker embodies what ReelHeART is all about: Interaction, Inspiration, Creativity, Mentoring and Collaborating with Others. This year we could only give this award to one person who embodies this spirit for his tireless efforts sprinting into action all year long without a break to have his creative voice heard through, films and screenplays after being overwhelmingly inspired by his experience last year at ReelHeART. Ladies and Gentlemen, we present to you, from Southampton, United Kingdom– Mr. Philip Peel –